February Flashcards
The Machine Stops Author and date
E.M. Forster 1928
Derrida main idea
Deconstructivism - the meaning of a text is not fixed by authorial intent. In fact, the meaning of the words can be deconstructed to suggest multiple competing and even contradictory interpretations. The implications for the possibility of knowledge and truth based on media are severe.
The Machine Stops quote: “Man is the measure…”
“Man is the measure. That was my first lesson. Man’s feet are the measure for distance, his hands are the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is lovable and desirable and strong.”
Meaning: Man makes meaning and value in the world.
The Machine Stops quote: “We created…”
“We created the machine to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now.”
Meaning: Dangers of superintelligence.
The Machine Stops quote: “And behind all the uproar…”
“And behind all the uproar was silence - the silence which is the voice of the earth and of the generations who have gone.”
Meaning: Reminiscent of Heidegger Nothingness and Dread.
Nietzsche ‘God is dead’ meaning
God is dead - the fictional mythological basis for our values has been undermined by enlightenment philosophy and scientific progress.
Nietzsche Ubermench meaning
Powerful individuals who are radically free and make their own meaning for themselves above all else will be the ones who create values for humanity.
Memory and torture thought experiment. Philosopher and year
Bernard Williams 1970
Memory and torture thought experiment process
Will be tortured tomorrow. 1) you have no memory of being told 2) you have no memories at all 3) you have someone else's memories Do you feel any less apprehension?
Tomorrow you (body a) and another person (body b) get either a reward or torture. Your thoughts and memories are swapped. Who do you reward? Body A or body B
Deconstructivism philosopher
Derrida
Gaia hypothesis
That the earth is a self-regulating system whose natural chemical processes perform specific functions within the context of the entire system.
Percentage of oxygen in air
21% if much higher, wildfires would ravage forested land and make life on earth impossible.
Nietzsche main ideas
Slave morality Ressentiment Eternal recurrence Will to power God is dead Ubermench Moral perspectivalism
Statue outside Register House on Princes Street
Duke of Wellington. In remembrance of his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo
Amartya Sen main idea
Capabilities approach ethics
Adaptive preferences
Human preferences adapt to situations even an unhealthy person may limit their expectations to such an extent that they do not consider themselves unhealthy.
Idea exploited by Amartya Sen to argue against utilitarianism and any ethics based on subjective states.
Capabilities Approach
Amartya Sen.
1) the freedom to achieve well-being is of primary moral importance
2) freedom to achieve well-being is to be understood in terms of people’s capabilities, that is, their real opportunities to do and be what they have reason to value
Slave morality
“new” morality that focuses on inhibiting the powerful’s ability, especially their ability to harm or oppress, and on promoting the ‘good’ of the powerless, being meek, mild, forgiving etc.
Ressentiment
The resentful hatred felt by a group of the long-standing oppressed that leads to moralistic condemnation.
Eternal recurrence
The question to be asked when deciding whether one is living to the full: would you be happy to know that you will live out this same life infinitely? Nietzsche arguably believed that this will literally happen.
Will to power
All life aims at the enhancement of its power. Quasi-Darwinian idea. More power for the individual is better for that individual.
There is debate over whether this entails might makes right, or whether there is a distinction to be made between the external will to power (tyranny or mastery) and the internal will to power (self-control).
