Meaning of Life Midterm Flashcards
List the 8 modes of meaning that Nozick discusses in his piece on philosophy and the meaning of life.
1) meaning as external causal relationship
- any person’s life means something big and impressive
2) meaning as referential or semantic relationship
- words in ordinary language have meanings and refer to things by use and convention
3) meaning as intention or purpose
- actions do not uniquely fix one’s life plan, the intentions lying behind one’s actions, why they act as they do
4) meaning as a lesson
- transparently exemplifying a particular life plan can provide a positive lesson to others
5) meaning as subjective / importance
- values, desires, wants
6) as objective meaningfulness
7) intrinsic objective meaningfulness
8) total resultant meaning
What worry does Nozick raise with the view that the meaning of life includes all causal relations that a life has to other things
“Everything thus connected in the web of events becomes equally important” (no more or less meaning)
What is a stipulative definition? Does Nozick think it can provide the relevant sense of meaning for the meaning of life?
Stipulative: where we simply stipulate a meaning, we give a word its meaning
Nozick: thinks it’s ridiculous example (some words come to have a use in society or in some generation might start off as stipulation)
Explain Nozick third mode of meaningfulness of a life (intention or purpose). What is it for a life to exemplify as property in Nozick’s sense?
1) if gods purpose in creating us is to semantically refer to himself (creating in the image of god)
2) you’re intending your life to have certain properties (What gives your life purpose)
3) comparison
4) exemplify a life plan (secretly / publicly)
Nozick: if the property is a weighty part of the life plan he is engaged in putting effort in
With the help of examples, explain the distinction between something being intrinsically valuable and something instrumentally valuable. Is it possible to be both?
intrinsic: pleasure, knowledge, virtue, justice
instrumentally: good for achieving a goal (tools)
You can have both (education)
Who are the main characters in Plato’s dialogue “Euthyphro”?
Socrates and Euthyphro
What is the central idea that is being analyzed in the Euthyphro?
acts are pious because the gods love them but that the gods love them because they are pious
- acts are pious because they are pious
When Socrates asks Euthyphro “what is piety” Euthyphro first answers that it is what he is doing, such as prosecuting those who commit crimes or injustices. Why is Socrates dissatisfied with this answer?
They reject is because it’s not the definition of piety just an example of piety, not providing the essential characteristic that makes something pious
Why is Socrates dissatisfied with Euthyphro’s second answer, that the pious acts are those that are loved by gods? What is the third answer that Euthyphro gives to avoid the problem raised with his second answer?
Second (unsatisfied): since some gods may hate some acts that other god’s love, this will make some of the same acts both pious and impious
third: the pious action is what all god’s love; the impious action is what all the gods hate
What is DCT, as we have defined? Is atheism consistent with DCT?
- something is good just because God approves it
- atheism is consistent with DCT
Explain the Euthyphro Dilemma for DCT?
1) actions are judged as good or bad by a standard that God commands
2) determined by something independent you give up DCT
3) anything can be commanded
4) god sets according to DCT
What reply to the Euthyphro dilemma does Nozick discuss as a possible way out for the DCT?
gods’ approval is not arbitrary; having C, and itself, are good in virtue of that approval
- insisting there’s an explanation
One objection raised with DCT is that it trivializes Gods goodness
DCT places value on our world, based upon gods’ approval, leaves god in a situation unable to view even himself as having value
- unable to see his own approving’s as independent valuable
Can someone who is theist and who believes that we ought to follow gods’ commands consistently reject DCT?
Yes, but is parallel with atheism
What is the difference between the concepts of moral value, aesthetic value, and personal value?
moral: values that pertain only to a person’s acts or character (right vs wrong)
aesthetic: value that an object possesses in virtue of its capacity to pleasure (expensive items) (beauty vs ugly)
personal: a set of beliefs that differentiate between good and bad in your culture (good vs bad for ones being)
What is cultural relativism about value? what is the problem often raised against this view
What is it for something to be intrinsically good for some person is that its culture approved of it. ( don’t rush to judge another culture)
What is subjective relativism about value? problem raised against this view.
what is intrinsically good for someone just because they approve it for its own sake (incapable of being in error)
What is hedonism about value?
theory of value according to which pleasure and only pleasure is intrinsically good or bad for its own sake, pain is intrinsically bad.
- Anything good other than pleasure is instrumentality good
- good means to pleasure or avoidance of pain
what kind of hedonism does philosopher Jermery Bentham accept? what is the pleasure machine thought experiment and why is it a problem for Betham’s hedonism?
pleasure is a kind of sensation, and all pleasures and pains vary in intensity and duration
- you experience pleasure all the time and doesn’t give you complex experiences
Describe Nozicks experience machine. What does Nozick use this thought experiment to show? What reasons does Nozick give for not plugging into the experience machine?
challenges all forms of hedonism and indeed all experiential theories of value
1) want certain things and not just the experience doing them
2) want to be a certain kind of person (suicide going in)
3) want to be connected to something authentic, seems you would have real relationships, but you wont
Why is the desire satisfaction theory or subjective relativism seem to make better sense of our reactions to the experience machine than hedonism?
desire satisfaction: getting what you want not always to pleasure
subjective: there’s value only if you want there to be value
what problem does philosopher john Rawls raise with the desire satisfaction theory?
such views are becoming too subjective (grass counter)
what is the social theory of value preferred by the African philosophy of Ubuntu? Is the social theory of value the same as culture relativism?
all value depends essentially on one’s connection to other people (what’s missing in the experience machine)
What is the problem that Chalmers raises with the social theory of value?
offers plausible diagnosis of what many people find missing in the experience machine
what is the objective list theory of value
1) pleasure
2) knowledge
3) friendship
4) free will
5) achievement
6) desire satisfaction
What is the cultural differences argument against objectivism about value? What are the two main ways to critique or object to the cultural difference’s argument?
1) different cultures accept different views about what has intrinsic value
2) there is no objective truth about what is intrinsically valuable and what isn’t
1) does 2 follows from 1
2) it is important to distinguish the claims about what has intrinsic value from claims about whether we know what has intrinsic value
Is it possible to object to a particular argument for a position, and yet still defend the position?
yes
Is it possible for different theories of the nature of value to agree on what is in fact has value in this world? Is it possible for DCT and cultural relativists to agree on what has value in this world?
they can agree based on certain cultural and societal norms 1
What are the 3 differences between the experience machine and the reality machine? Why does Chalmers not think these are good reasons to reject the reality machine?
1) don’t know you’re in the experience machine, you know you’re in reality
2) experience pre programs, reality does not
3) don’t share interacts in experience, reality you do
reality machine you know its VR based on reality, illusion is still present
What are ways that present day and near-term VR are limited in comparison to the reality machine?
- limited connections
- authenticity
What does Chalmers think are the ultimate sources of value?
- inclined to think all value arises, one way or another from consciousness
- consciousness has value and relations to consciousness add value
which of the following is not true
according to DCT, God commands or approves of good things because they are good
the experience machine thought experiment is used by Robert Nozick to
object to experientialism in all its forms
