Lecture 3 Flashcards
Who is the best example of a dual-aspect monist?
Baruch Spinoza! (there is only one substance in the universe, but that substance can have more than one aspect)
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a(n) (empiricist/rationalist)
rationalist!
Spinoza’s book, ______, resembles a math book
Ethica
- starts w definitions, very organized and logical
Spinoza’s theory starts from the idea that God is ______
INFINITE – there is only one substance; nature is divine
Spinoza: If God is infinite, there can’t be a distinction between God and _____.
his creation (the material universe)
What is Pantheism?
the belief that the physical universe is equivalent to God and that there is no division between a Creator and the substance of its creation
Explain how Spinoza is a dual-aspect monist
- God and material universe is one thing that has 2 aspects
- aspects are God/nature (mental/physical)
Which two thinkers discussed in class were Pantheists?
Spinoza and Fechner
According to Spinoza, all things can be described along 2 axes: ______ (_____ and _____) and _______ (_____ and _____).
Attributes (Thought and Extension/matter)
Mode (Finite and Infinite)
How would Spinoza categorize human thoughts in terms of Attributes and Mode?
Attribute: Thought
Mode: Finite
How would Spinoza categorize human bodies in terms of Attributes and Mode?
Attribute: Extension (matter)
Mode: Finite
How would Spinoza categorize God in terms of Attributes and Mode?
Attribute: Thought
Mode: Infinite
How would Spinoza categorize Nature (universe) in terms of Attributes and Mode?
Attribute: Extension (matter)
Mode: Infinite
Why did Dr. Roy show a slide filled with small pictures of his face?
- each picture is finite mode of thoughts; we are all looking at Dr. Roy and thinking ab him
- imagine we are trying to connect all of these individual minds into a larger one
What did Spinoza say about emotions? How is this different from Descartes’ passions?
- emotion is something happening in our body
- there is a mental and physical aspect!!
- feeling of an emotion is the corresponding change in consciousness associated w the bodily change
- different from passions in which mind is passive
What is determinism?
- there is no free will
- if everything is one thing, nothing can cause another thing
According to Spinoza, liberty comes when we gain clarity about the ________ that are determining our _______, and accept the _____ that are _______ us.
Causal forces that are determining our circumstances; causal mechanisms that are influencing us
John Locke (1632-1704) was:
- (career)
- a personal friend of _____
- one of the most influential thinkers of _______
- an English philosopher and physician
- friend of Newton
- influential Enlightenment thinker
What was the Enlightenment?
- range of ideas centered on reason as primary source of authority
- came to advance ideals like liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of church and state
John Locke was a(n) (empiricist/rationalist)
Empiricist!!!
What were John Locke’s 2 main ideas?
- No innate ideas (if knowledge was innate there would be things we all agree on universally; supposedly innate ideas are unknown to children and idiots)
- All ideas originate in the senses (would be an affront to God not to trust our senses)
Locke’s idea that all ideas originate in the senses is similar to which other thinker
Descartes!
According to Locke’s Theory of Ideas, knowledge is ________.
Ideas are ______
Knowledge takes the form of a ____ or ______
the addition or subtraction of ideas
ideas are a mental representation
knowledge takes the form of a judgement or proposition
What is the concept of a tabula rasa? Who came up with it?
- humans are blank slates on which experience leaves its mark
- John Locke!!
According to Locke, experience leads to _______ which lead to ______
simple ideas; complex ideas
Explain simple vs complex ideas (Locke)
simple: sensation or reflection, cannot be broken down
complex: involves thought process, combining of simple ideas
What are the 2 types of simple ideas (Locke)
Sensation: smell, sound, colour, shape, etc
Reflection: thinking, wishing, worrying, etc
In the sentence “I am thinking of a blue square”, what are simple and what are complex ideas?
simple: “thinking” “blue” “square”
complex: “blue square”
What do we mean when we say Locke had an Atomistic view?
complex ideas are made of simpler ideas which can be traced all the way back to experience
Distinguish primary vs secondary qualities within “Simple ideas”. How would you describe the shape, colour, and smell of a rose in these terms? (Locke)
Primary
- matter; size, shape, weight, texture
- can be perceived by MORE than one sense!!
Secondary:
- qualities associated w different sense organs (colour, smell)
- mental representations of physical things
Rose:
- shape: primary quality
- colour: secondary quality
- smell: secondary quality
What is the copy theory of knowledge? (Locke)
our ideas are mental copies of the external world
According to Locke, truth is correspondence between _____ and _____. But we can never be sure of the truth of the correspondence, _____ is/are the best we can have.
correspondence btw the IDEA and the THING
PROBABILITIES is the best we can have
Locke said that “you should proportion your ____ to ______”
(this is very different from which thinker?)
proportion your ascent to the evidence (evidence comes from observations and testimonies)
very diff from Plato
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
- Bishop of Cloyne (country)
- wants to secure the traditional idea of God (____) from _____
- Ireland
- wants to secure idea of God (theism) from mechanistic physics (by following empiricist thought)
What are the thoughts of Descartes, Spinoza, Bacon, Hobbes and Locke on God?
- Descartes is a deist (God is the creator but then leaves)
- Spinoza leans more on material side (vs spiritual)
- Bacon, Hobbes and Locke don’t give a God much credence
In Locke, you get to reality through _____
- causation (ie the external world is causing my ideas - realism)
- mind leads to ideas, but so do material objects that give rise to primary qualities which lead to ideas
What part of Locke’s model of ideas did Berkeley disagree with?
mind –> IDEAS <– primary qualities <– material objects
IDEAS <– primary qualities
- you can’t get to what is outside the mind!
What 3 theories/ideas are related to Berkeley’s idea that you can’t get to what is outside the mind?
- phenomenalism
- anti-realism (matter doesn’t exist, can’t trust senses)
- idealist (only mind and God exist)
How is Berkeley’s thinking similar to Locke?
- insists that only thing we have are out ideas that compose our experience
- empirical evidence is trustworthy if we use it correctly; have to proportion beliefs to evidence (believes the evidence is insufficient!!)
What did Berkeley think about cause and effect?
- ideas are at basis of knowledge and ideas are mental by nature; if cause if like the effect, how can material things cause immaterial ideas?
What did Berkeley think about primary vs secondary qualities?
- can we really separate them in our minds?
- if you picture a colour, it has a shape; if you picture a shape it has a colour
- maybe primary qualities are not so special after all
What is the difference between active and passive ideas (Berkeley)
active: caused by me (ex blue unicorn)
passive: imposed by external senses (similar to Descartes’ passions)
According to Berkeley, sensations are ____
a divine message from God (sensations are God’s language to us by which we grasp the order of things)
According to Berkeley, ____ is the sufficient cause of _____
God; everything and all there is!!
David Hume (1711-1776):
- wanted to focus on the information we get _________
- was a ______; he believed that free will is _______
- focus on info we get directly from our experience
- was a skeptic; free will is an illusion
(Locke/Hume): simple ideas are ________
(Locke/Hume): simple ideas arise from _______
clear and distinct ideas
arise from impressions
Hume: An idea is the ______ that follows an ______ that provides you with a ____ of the _____
COGNITIVE STATE that follows an IMPRESSION that provides you w a COPY of the IMPRESSION (the first impact is physical/emotional, not intellectual)
Hume: perception are not __________, they are just ________ that begin with impressions and include _______
clear and distinct ideas; states of consciousness that begin w impressions and include ideas
Hume’s 3 principles of association that govern the formation of ideas:
- Resemblance
- Contiguity (in space and time)
- Cause and effect (empirically, only thing we can observe is associations, don’t observe causal connection)
What did Hume think about making inferences about cause and effect?
- inference of necessary cause & effect is invalid BUT psychologically we believe there is a cause & effect
- ideas are not beliefs we give our ascent to as a function of the evidence, there is NO evidence
Hume: beliefs are caused by _______
psychological habits (get deeper w repetition like everytime we scratch design into wax tablet)
Hume: the meaning of the words we use do not mean _____ or _____, the Meaning must refer to an _______
not mean Truth or Knowledge; must refer to an original impression
Hume: we should be careful about using a word without _____. What issues does this bring up for talking about Cause & Effect, Space/Time/Matter/etc, and the Mind as Substance?
idea or meaning (do ideas have any basis in experience?)
Cause & Effect: no impression of necessary connection
Space/Time/Matter: all abstract ideas, don’t exist for real
Mind as Substance: even if we feel ourselves thinking, this leaves no impression, therefore not empirical
According to Hume, what is the “self”? This perspective represents _____ism, not ____ism.
- not the body (constantly re-generates), but self is constant
- “I” am just the stream of impressions, sensations and reflections
Phenomenalism, not realism!
How does thought relate to the example of a play (Hume)?
- in a play at the theatre, there is a series of events playing out
- without the acts/scenes, there is no play. the play is the play
- in the same way, thought is just a stream of thoughts
Explain Hume’s “psychological habits”
- the more regularity in conjunction there has been in the past, the stronger the impression of the habit
Hume: Believing something is real vs fiction have different _____. ______ is the guide of life!
different IMPRESSIONS; FEELING is the guide of life
(we each have our own inner compass)
Compatibilism and Incompatibilism are two perspectives that answer what question?
Is freedom of action consistent with causal determinism?
Compatibilism: YES, free will can be consistent w causal det.
Incompatibilism: NO, free will can’t be consistent w c.d.
((In)Compatibilism) can be further divided into what 2 ideas?
Incompatibilism
Libertarianism: we are always free, causal determinism is false
Skepticism: freedom is impossible (equally inconsistent w causal determinism and causal indeterminism)
What is rational compatibilism?
- causal determination by recognition of what I should do
- we’re not 100% free to make decisions but are to a degree in control of the reasoning process
- ex recognition that taking meds is right thing to do –> taking meds
What is animal action?
- not really an act of free will
- starts w passive desire (eg shark is hungry so wants to hunt)
what is human action (Hobbe’s theory)?
- similar to animal desire, starts w passive desire
- decisions to act are NOT voluntary, we can’t decide to decide
- eg wanting to raise hand –> raising hand (don’t plan this 5 mins in advance, it comes from a strong desire outside our control)
Where does Hobbe’s human action theory sit in terms of compatibilism/incompatibilism?
- compatibilism!!
- free will is when there are no obstacles preventing us to act on our prior desires that are causing our actions
- considers laws to be an obstacle
What metaphor was used to explain Hobbe’s human action theory?
- a marionette
- we are the marionette, hand is passive desire to do one thing or another
What did Hume think about the Will?
- guided by passions, not reason
- we make moral decisions based on ethical feelings, not reason
- free will is our interpretation of a spontaneous initiative
What does the trolley problem illustrate in relation to Hume’s theories?
- shows that passions direct will, not reason
- use ethical feelings, not reason
- reason would say to throw one guy off bridge to save 5, but it FEELS wrong so most ppl don’t pick that option
What is metaphysics?
the branch of philosophy that studies the essence of a thing
What was the main message of Kant’s 1783 book “Prolegomena to any future metaphysics”
- metaphysics is impossible, we can’t know the ultimate reality
What interrupted Kant’s “dogmatic slumber” and gave his “investigations in the field of speculative philosophy quite a new direction”?
David Hume’s attack on metaphysics (demonstrating that cause & effect is in the eye of the beholder)
According to Kant, what was Hume’s problem?
- question concerning whether concept of cause could be thought by reason a priori
- NOT question about if the concept of cause is indispensable
What is Kant’s transcendental method?
- method for getting at the inner resources that the human mind brings
- transcendental knowledge is occupied not with objects but with a priori concepts
- What is it that reason brings a priori to the quest for Knowledge? Are there any universal concepts?
How does Kant describe a priori concepts? How is this different from Plato and Descartes?
- more of a framework (mold, lens)
- formal principles that give rational form to things (vs factual concepts that tell you ab things, a priori concepts by themselves tell you nothing)
- not innate idea in sense of Plato (pre-formed idea already in mind that we can recollect)
- not innate idea in sense of Descartes (self-evident)
What would Hume say in terms of causality in a billiards game?
- there is no causality, all we know for sure is that we perceived 2 separate events (hitting white ball into purple, purple ball moving)
Kant responded to Hume by saying that the concept of cause and effect are not _______ derived, but in some sense ______
not empirically derived, in some sense a priori (not from experience, comes from pure understanding)
Why was the metaphor of an ice cube tray used to discuss Kant’s theories?
- like water, we can’t really hold on to raw thought/experience
- so we need a priori concepts as structure that helps us make sense of experience!
What important step did Kant add to the model of perception/ideas shown in class?
- UNDERSTANDING
Kant’s model:
Categories –> Understanding <– Perceptual input
**understanding leads to formulating judgments about perceptual input
Per Kant, the mind is (passive/active) in forming perceptions of the outside world
ACTIVE!
According to Kant, what 2 things can’t we directly perceive in a billiards game (that we need to use a priori concepts for)?
space and time
What does the Phi effect show?
- circle of dots with one coloured dot moving in circle
- movement is not directly in sensory experience, we use a priori forms to see this as movement!
