Exam 2 Metaphysics Flashcards
What are the 2 Major Divisions of Metaphysics? (!)
- What is the nature of reality?
- What are the basic ways of being?
Materialists (!)
The world, at its base, is only made of physical stuff
Immaterailists (!)
The world is ultimately organized, so the world is ultimately laws (Platos Forms).
Type 1: nothing in the universe is made of matter/molecules. Perceiving doesn’t happen in the eye; it happens in the mind.
Type 2: Only some of the world is not made of physical matter/molecules. (Average educated human mind, type 2)
Monist (!)
That which makes up the universe is reducible to a single item
Pluralist (Dualist) (!)
That which makes up the universe is reducible to many (two) items
Cosmology (!)
The study of the universe and asks questions about how the substance came into being and where substances are located.
Cosmogony (!)
The study of the origins of the universe, greek kosmogonia, from kosmos & gonos offspring.
Does the universe have a beginning?
Virtue (!)
The means by which the good is reached.
What are the 4 Socratic Virtues? How did Plato believe these functioned? What was the goal of philosophy for the individual? (!)
Wisdom, Courage and Temperance, in proper proportion with wisdom in charge, pointed towards the Good, produces justice.
The goal of philosophy for the individual is to figure out what the Good is.
Artistotle divided the virtues into what two categories?
Moral Virtues and Intellectual Virtues
Moral Virtues
Courage, temperance, liberality, magnificence, pride, ambition, good temper, friendliness, truthfulness, ready wit, justice
Intellectual Virtues
Science, art, practical wisdom, intuitive reason, philosophical wisdom, understanding, judgment
Courage
Doing the right thing in spite of your fear
Temperance
Responding properly to the world
Wisdom
Knowledge rightly applied
Justice
Setting the world right
There is _____underlying all individuals selves and things that are beyond our ‘normal’ capacity to grasp – understand. This is evidenced in the ancient Hindu Vedic literature (especially the Upanishads).
Potential
According to Simplicuis, in the textbook, Thales was the first Greek thinker to break with _____ and offer a ______.
Mythology, Scientific explanation
What was Plato’s major (new) contribution to philosophy? (!)
Was foundational in establishing the integrated philosophical enterprise.
Who were the major influences on Plato, and in what way did they influence him? (!)
- Pythagoras - Influenced Plato with the idea that mathematics and numerical harmony underlie the structure of the cosmos.
* Universal Language - Heraclitus - Impacted Plato’s views on change, leading Plato to distinguish between the mutable physical world and the unchanging world of the Forms.
* Matter/Forms <— Logos/Chaos - Socrates - Shaped Plato’s philosophical method and focus on ethics, virtue, and the pursuit of knowledge through dialectical inquiry.
* It must include ethics in philosophy - Parmenides - Influenced Plato’s concept of unchanging, perfect Forms, which he saw as the true reality behind the ever-changing physical world.
* Eternal/Unchanging - Know
Describe Plato’s 5 step process/methodology for education.
- Begins with education through play (social)
- Arithmetic, plane geometry, solid geometry, astronomy, and harmonics (10 years of study, Republic 7)
- Dialectic, after they demonstrate a certain level of maturity
- Practice argument and Dialectic to lead a life of service
- Inquire about the Nature of the Universals - The Good
Describe Plato’s 5 step process of coming to knowledge discussed in class.
- Name
- Description
- Image
- Knowledge of the Object (Concepts)
- The object itself (True reality)
Circle Example
1. The term “circle.”
2. Definitional terms
3. Drawings of a circle, wheel, etc.
4. Correct opinions of a circle (It is a perfect round)
5. Circle
What, according to Plato, are the two metaphysical components? (!)
Simple Answer: Form & Matter
PLATO PROPOSES A TWO-WORLD MODEL
* ONE WORLD: THE WORLD OF FORMS
IS PARMENIDEAN – CHANGELESS ONES, BEING
IS KNOWN THROUGH REASON
* ANOTHER WORLD: THE WORLD OF PHENOMENA
IS HERACLITEAN AND PLURALISTIC – CHANGING MULTIPLICITY, BECOMING
APPEARS THROUGH SENSATION
What are, in correct order, the 4 divisions of the Divided Line (note, each division has two terms, one for activity and the other the object of that activity?
- Understanding - Forms
- Thought - Abstractions
- Belief - Object
- Imagination - Images
————– Knowledge
l
l———- (3/4) Intelligence
l
——l——————- Opinion
l
l———– (3/4) Visible
l
————— Ignorance
What does Plato’s Divided Line & Myth of the Cave (Republic) tell us about the world and our knowledge of it?
It tells us that the world we perceive with our senses is a limited, distorted reflection of a higher reality of true knowledge and Forms.
The Divided Line shows levels of understanding, and the Myth of the Cave symbolizes human ignorance and enlightenment.
People are ‘trapped’ in the cave of illusions, mistaking shadows for reality, until they undergo a transformative journey toward philosophical insight and true understanding of the world.
Aristotle was the first to ______________________ in philosophy. (!)
Distinguish branches of inquiry
What, according to Aristotle, is a ‘substance? And, what are his three descriptions of substance?
Substance: SUBSTANCE IS BOTH FORM & MATTER
(an unchanging form or idea)
1. A SUBSTANCE IS THE THING THAT IS PROPERLY REFERRED TO BY A NOUN.
2. SUBSTANCE IS WHAT UNDERLIES ALL OF THE PROPERTIES AND CHANGES IN SOMETHING. FOR EXAMPLE, YOU LOOK
DIFFERENT THAN YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE FIVE, BUT YOU ARE STILL THE SAME PERSON.
3. SUBSTANCE IS WHAT IS ESSENTIAL.
What are the four Aristotelian Causes? (!)
- MATERIAL CAUSE – THIS IS THE MATTER THAT MAKES UP THE SUBSTANCE.
- EFFICIENT CAUSE – THIS IS THE MOTION OR ACTION THAT BEGINS THE SUBSTANCE.
- FINAL CAUSE – THIS IS THE FUNCTION OR PURPOSE OF THE SUBSTANCE.
- FORMAL CAUSE – THIS IS THE FORM OF THE SUBSTANCE – THE BLUEPRINT IF YOU WILL.
What are the five Aristotelian Powers of the Soul? (!)
- NUTRITIVE – THAT WHICH MAKES BASIC LIFE POSSIBLE (PLANT OR ANIMAL).
- APPETITIVE – THAT WHICH GIVES A SUBSTANCE ITS PASSIONS, WILL, DESIRES, ETC.
- SENSITIVE – THE ABILITY TO RECEIVE AND RESPOND TO SENSE DATA.
- LOCOMOTIVE – THAT WHICH ENABLES A SUBSTANCE TO MOVE BY ITS OWN VOLITION.
- RATIONAL – THAT UNIQUE (?) QUALITY IN HUMANITY TO THINK, IMAGINE, ABSTRACT
What are the seven functions of the mind?
- Memory
- Language
- Imagination
- Will
- Reason
- Percieves
- Emotions
________ and ________ had a famous disagreement concerning the nature of space and time. (!)
Newton and Leibniz
_____________ is a radical determinist, but he assures us that we can, with heroic effort, understand the nature of this
determinism and accept it gracefully. (!)
Benedictus de Spinoza
Leibniz’s _______ can be created or destroyed but not by any “natural” means. (!)
monads
___________________________________ has a further implication: it serves as a principle of divine ethics.
The Principle of Sufficient Reason (GOD)
At the center of Descartes’ metaphysics is Aristotle’s conception of ________________.
substance
Among the most important teachings of ______________ are the Four Noble Truths. (!)
Buddha
Idealism
The metaphysical view that only minds and their ideas exist
Animism (!)
Everything is alive
Substance
It is both form and matter.
Matter
Anything that takes up space and can be weighed.
Secondary substances
THESE ARE WHAT ARISTOTLE CALLED THE “SPECIES” AND “GENUS” TO WHICH A THING BELONGS, AND THESE ARE LESS REAL.
Teleology (!)
Aristotle believed that the universe as a whole and all things in it have a purpose and a goal.
Ontology (!)
The study of being.
What is the Universe made of?
Primary Substance
SUBSTANCE IS THAT WHICH STANDS ALONE. IT IS INDEPENDENT BEING. A HORSE, A TREE, AND A HUMAN ARE ALL SUBSTANCES. THESE ARE PRIMARY SUBSTANCES.
Pantheism (!)
Everything is God
Determinism (!)
The belief that events that transpire are entirely out of one’s own control. Every event in the universe is dependent upon other events, which are it causes.
Form
It is the blueprint of that piece of reality.
Intelligible things
Things you can only think of.
Monads
The simple immaterial substances that are the ultimate constituents of all reality, god, the one uncreated monad, created all of the others as self-enclosed (“Windowless”), predetermined entities
Principle of Sufficient Reason
There must be a reason for everything. Even God must have a reason for creating.
Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles
NO TWO THINGS CAN POSSIBLY HAVE ALL OF THE SAME PROPERTIES OR BE ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL IN ALL RESPECTS
Efficient Cause
THIS IS THE MOTION OR ACTION THAT BEGINS THE SUBSTANCE.
Final Cause
THIS IS THE FUNCTION OR PURPOSE OF THE SUBSTANCE
Formal Cause
THIS IS THE FORM OF THE SUBSTANCE – THE BLUEPRINT, IF YOU WILL.
Material Cause
THIS IS THE MATTER THAT MAKES UP THE SUBSTANCE.
Visible Thing
Things you can taste, touch, smell.
Universal
A quality or characteristic that is shared by multiple things and is considered to exist independently of those things
Unity
Underlying all individual selves and things that are beyond our ‘normal’ capacity to grasp - and understand.
Particular
It is one of the many covered by the universal
Descartes’ universe can be divided by
Minds and Bodies
Descartes divides the world into three shorts of substances
Gods, Minds, and Bodies
Imagination (!)
Giving attention to something that is not there
Abstraction (!)
Something you can’t see
Pluralist/Pluralism (!)
The view that there are many substances in the universe and, perhaps, many different kinds of substances as well.
Materialist/Materialism (!)
The view that only physical matter and its properties exist.
