Metaphysics Full Review

Question 1

What is metaphysics?

Answer 1

Beliefs about reality and who we are as human beings.

Question 2

Democritus

Answer 2

Everything is created from matter and empty space

Question 3

17th century revolution

Answer 3

Brought in new materialism and changed the traditional view of materialism.

Question 4

Who is Hobbes and Julien Offray?

Answer 4

Hobbes: We know noting about the world except for it’s material appearance
Offray: We rely on experience and observation.

Question 5

What are some objections to materialism?

Answer 5

If everything is material, where can we locate the consciousness? We cannot locate what people are thinking about.

Question 6

Beyond Traditional Materialism (After 17th century revolution)

Answer 6

Heisenberg uncertainty principle: things only exist at a given moment of time there are seen. Electrons are in constant motion and they only exist once we look at them in a given moment in time.

Question 7

Reductionism

Answer 7

An object or thing can have more than one meaning to it.

Question 8

Phycological Egoism

Answer 8

Freud states that humans are selfish and aggressive (Ego, Superego, ID)
Mercer says that humans only do things to boost their ego.

Question 9

What is idealism?

Answer 9

Reality is created from the mind, not matter

Question 10

Who was George Berkley?

Answer 10

Founder of modern idealism. Nothing exists other than spirits and ideas (Both subjective and objective)

Question 11

Subjective idealism: with an example

Answer 11

We perceive the world through our own senses. For example, some ideas are in our control like imagination and others are without of control; like a garden we see with our own eyes.

Question 12

Objective Idealism: with an example

Answer 12

Ideas that come from the external environment. For example, these external senses come from God that make the world around us.

Question 13

What are some objections to idealism?

Answer 13

Subjective: How do we know what else is out there if everything we see is based on what we see in reality? How can we make objections if knowledge is subjective?

Objective: If reality is based on others and God for instance, how does that differ with human consciousness?

Question 14

What are the three things that make the soul and human nature according to Plato?

Answer 14

Apetite= deire 
Aggression= spirit 
Reason= ability to think

Question 15

What idea does Aristotle say is the most important?

Answer 15

Reason. All humans have the same purpose and the same human nature and discovered without forms.

Question 16

Judeo Christian view

Answer 16

Humans are made in the image of God

Question 17

What does Augustine and Aquinas say about the Christian View of human nature?

Answer 17

Augustine: the souls that believe in God will rise to heaven. All humans have lust and pride that strains them away from evil.

Aquinas: purpose is to achieve happiness and use their reasoning to know God.

Question 18

What are Darwin’s three ideas that oppose the traditional view of human nature?

Answer 18

1. Variation
2. Struggle for existence
3. Natural Selection

Question 19

Descartes

Answer 19

Created the dualist view of human nature. Humans have immaterial minds that live in a material body.
“I think, therefore I am”

Question 20

Describe the difference between the mind and body.

Answer 20

Body: Observable physical characteristics that can be described.
Mind: No observable characteristics; bias upon every individual. Expresses emotions and perceptions.
How can a immaterial mind control a material body?

Question 21

What is a Behaviourist and Functionalist?

Answer 21

Behaviourism: mental states come from bodily behaviours.
Functionalism: (Input-output). Mental states creates sensory outputs and inputs to create casual relations.

Question 22

What is Pragmatism?

Answer 22

Beliefs about reality are meaningful only if they have practical consequences. Turns away from traditional philosophy and moves to philosophy that betters humanity.
Involves trying to find our ideal world that will better ourselves and humanity.

Question 23

Who was John Dewey and William James?

Answer 23

Dewey: Traditional philosophy comes from the struggle of people trying to figure out who they are and create unjust human wishes.
James: we must use philosophy to better our lives. Different sub-universes gives us the most meaning if they have practical consequences.

Question 24

What are some objections to pragmatism?

Answer 24

Sounds like idealism when we choose our own ideal sub universe (James)
How is there a reality apart from the mind? Can anything be real apart from our own desires?
Does pragmatism have the resources to better science?

Question 25

What is logical positivism?

Answer 25

Rejects all traditional philosophy. Focuses on language and meaning. While pragmatism focuses on how philosophy can being up good facts and consequences.

Question 26

What are the philosophical statements that must only be meaningful according to logical positivists?

Answer 26

1. True by definition 2. True by fact Traditional philosophy is just theories, hence it is meaningless.

Question 27

Carnap

Answer 27

Religious, metaphysical and ethical statements are only meaningful to a non literal sense as they only express emotion.

Question 28

What are some objections to logical positivism?

Answer 28

Just because positivists reject to answer these questions, they are still important to the vast majority of people. When they create meaning for themselves, it does not follow their two statements as they are expressing emotion as well.

Question 29

What is the difference between realism and antirealism?

Answer 29

Realism: world is universal; everything has a universal message. Reality exists independent of our minds. Antirealism: Based on language.

Question 30

What are the objections to antirealism?

Answer 30

If everyone lives in their own realities, how do we share a common language? Are all reasons equal and valid?

Question 31

What is postmodernism?

Answer 31

Rejects the view that there is only one reality.

Question 32

What are the deductive arguments for determinism?

Answer 32

All of our actions come from previous events through laws of nature, which does not make us act freely and morally. Hence, people are not free and not at fault with their actions.

Question 33

What does Kierkegaard say about Libertarianism?

Answer 33

People are fully responsible for their actions. We live in a infinite world where we could potentially do anything we wan but we are born into a finite environment.

Question 34

Who was Jean-Paul Satre?

Answer 34

When we act we tend to do it for benefit of ourselves.

Question 35

What are the deductive arguments for compatibilism?

Answer 35

A person is free is they are not forced or confined. 1. People who act freely are morally responsible for their actions. 2. If people acted freely all their previous actions are determined from laws of nature.

Question 36

What does Anslem say about the ontological argument?

Answer 36

God is an ultimate being in which nothing greater can be conceived. It must be present at all times. God exists in reality and not just in our minds. If got only existed in our imaginations, it would not be the greatest thing. It must exist in reality to be the greatest thing. Therefore, God exists.

Question 37

What are two objections to the ontological argument?

Answer 37

Immanuel Kant: Anselm confuses between a concept and existence. Existence does not come in degrees. Guanilo: If Anselm was right, we could just say that anything is the greatest thing that can be achieved in our consciousness.

Question 38

What is the cosmological argument?

Answer 38

Aquinas: God is the first mover to chart the chain of how things move.

Question 39

What are the two objections to the cosmological argument?

Answer 39

Issac Newton: God is not needed to explain how things move because physics and the laws of motion and gravity exist. David Hume: There could not be a beginning, the universe may have existed forever.

Question 40

What is the Design argument?

Answer 40

William Paley: We need more of a personal God. It is an inductive argument that states anything intended to us personally like an artifact has a purpose and was created from an intellectual being such as God.

Question 41

What is the fine-tuning argument?

Answer 41

Everything happens for a reason. Humans are here based on divine timing.

Question 42

What are some objections to the design argument?

Answer 42

Hume's objection: we have never seen how artifacts are made, so how do we know they were created from God? Darwin: there is evolution and natural selection.

Question 43

Human speculation

Answer 43

Logical problem with evil is a deductive argument | Evidential problem with evil is a problematic argument