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Philosophy > Mid-Term Exam (Lectures) > Flashcards

Mid-Term Exam (Lectures) Flashcards

1
Q

List the Four Fundamental Questions of Philosophy and what Each Entails.

A

1) What is Real? - What is the most important thing? Do beings exist? What is an is not a part of reality?
2) Who is really well off?/What is the good life?
3) Who is an excellent person?
4) How do we become an excellent person?

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2
Q

What are the five definitions of philosophy?

A

1) Roberts Definition - The quest for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, about the most foundational questions, assumptions, and basic concepts using logic.
2) Linguistic Definition - Philosophia - Greek term which means the love of wisdom.
3) Historical Definition - The essential “stuff” of the universe.
4) 2nd Order (Meta) Definition - Habit of asking about other disciplines.
5) The Examined Life - Socratic Definition

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3
Q

Define knowledge.

A

Being Rightly related to reality.

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4
Q

Define understanding.

A

Able to travel and converse in the marketplace of ideas.

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5
Q

Define wisdom.

A

Practical knowledge demonstrated via behavior and life.

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6
Q

What is a Second Order/Meta Discipline?

A

A discipline that Questions the main assumptions of other disciplines.

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7
Q

What are the four branches of philosophy and what does each branch deal with?

A

1) Metaphysics - The Study of Reality
2) Epistemology - The Study of Knowledge
3) Philosophy of Religion - Deals with questions of religious concerns.
4) Ethics/Value Theory - The study of right and wrong. Is it objective?

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8
Q

What are the two/three main puzzles that the Pre-Socratics dealt with?

A

1) The One and the Many
2) Change and the Permanent
3) Relativism and Ethics (Minor Focus of the Pre-Socratics

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9
Q

Define the puzzle of the one and the many.

A

How do you make sense of the diversity in the world in light of the unifying concepts that exist within that diversity?

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10
Q

Define the puzzle of the change and permanent.

A

How do you make sense of the constant change in the world in light of the permanence of certain laws, etc.?

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11
Q

Name the six main Ioanian philosophers and identify when they lived and their main contributions to philosophy.

A

1) Thales (624 - 545 BC) - Looks for the unifying stuff in all things and believes that the “stuff” is water.
2) Anaximander (610 - 545 BC) - Postulates the existence of “the boundless” which is a physical stuff that isn’t an element but is fulfills the same role as Thales “stuff”. The boundless has no limits but is physical.
3) Anaximenes (546 - 528 BC) - Thinks the unifying substance is air.
4) Xenophanes (570 - 478 BC) - He’s the first pluralist in the sense that he believes there is multiple types of the fundamental “stuff” and that the two are earth and water. He’s also skeptical about the Pantheon and is semi-monotheistic. He believes God is not like “us” aka anthropomorphic.
5) Pythagoras (570 - 490 BC) - Thinks that numbers are the fundamental building block of reality and that all explanations must be mathematical. Focuses on harmonic increments and music.
6) Heraclitus (540-480 BC) - Trying to deal with change/permanence question more than the problem of the one/many. Argues that permanence does not exist In other words, change is constant.

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12
Q

Define monist.

A

A philosopher that believes reality is composed of one thing.

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13
Q

Define pluralist.

A

A philosopher that believes reality is composed of multiple substances.

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14
Q

Name the five Elactic philosophers, identify when they lived, and state their main philosophical contributions/beliefs.

A

1) Paramedies (515-450 BC) - Goes the opposite direction of Heraclitus. Change does not exist. Nothing changes, there is only permanence.
2) Zeno (490-350 BC) - Motion is illusory because finite beings cannot travel an infinite distance. (Zeno’s paradox.)
3) Empedocles (495-435 BC) - The first of the pluralists: he believes that reality is composed of an irreducible plurality of elements that is made up of four roots, earth, air, water, and fire. Motion is real and produced by two forces: the positive force, love, and the negative force, Strife.
4) Anaxagoras (500-428 BC) - A pluralist that has infinite seeds replace Empedocles idea of the four roots. Motion and change are real and are caused by the Nous (the Mind/Reason).
5) Democritus (5th Century BC) - Pluralist and materialist. The first atomist: believed the world is composed of “atoms” or invisible and indivisible particles of matter in constant motion. They travel in pre-determined paths according to rigid natural laws.

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15
Q

What is the setting of the Euthyphro Dialogue?

A

Characters: Euthyphro and Socrates
Context: Euthyphro is prosecuting his father for mistreating his slaves.

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16
Q

What is the central question of the Euthyphro Dialogue? What category of philosophy does the question fall into?

A

What is piety? - It is a question of meta ethics about the objectivity of value.

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17
Q

What are the three answers Euthyphro gives Socrates to the main question?

A

1) Piety is “What I’m Doing”
2) Piety is “What is beloved by the gods.”
3) Piety is “What is beloved by all the gods.”`

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18
Q

What is the extension of a term?

A

All the objects that correspond to the term.

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19
Q

What is the intension of a term?

A

The necessary conditions for what any extension of the term must have to be that thing.

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20
Q

What is a sufficient condition?

A

If an object has that thing/trait, then it is in the category.

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21
Q

What is the dilemma Socrates poses in the Euthyphro Dialogue?

A

Do the gods love piety because it is pious or is piety pious because the gods love it?

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22
Q

What kind of philosophical question is the Euthyphro Dilemma?

A

An Ontological Question: it asks which comes first/is more fundamental. A list of Pious things or the gods love for it.

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23
Q

Which side of the dilemma do Socrates and Euthyphro choose?

A

The gods love piety because it is pious. (there is a list of pious things that exist external to the gods.)

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24
Q

What are the two ways Christians answer the Euthyphro Dilemma and what does each entail?

A

1) Volunteerism - God’s command is ontologically more import. Things are good because God commands it.
2) Divine Command Theory - God commands certain things because they are good. This has a potential object that it could limit God’s power.

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25
Q

What are the two branches of philosophy dealt with in Plato’s Phaedo and Meno dialogues?

A

Metaphysics and Epistemology.

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26
Q

What are the major philosophical points in the Phaedo dialogue?

A

Dualism - We have minds and bodies
Attempts to answer the question: What are human people composed of?
Argues for the existence of the soul.

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27
Q

How does Plato prove the existence of a soul?

A

1) We pre-exist our bodies - Souls are immortal

2) Knowledge has to be had before we have it. (Meno’s Paradox.)

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28
Q

What is Meno’s Paradox?

A

1) If you know what you’re looking for, you have no need to look for it. If you know, there is no need to inquire.
2) If you don’t know, how will you know you’ve found it? We have to have some means to identify the thing we are searching for.

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29
Q

What are the two major parts of Plato’s view of rationalism?

A

1) Knowledge comes by reason as opposed to observation.

2) All Knowledge is Innate. The soul exists to “Recognize” the perfect forms.

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30
Q

Define a priori knowledge.

A

A form of knowledge that does not rely on observation.

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31
Q

What are the two proofs Plato offers to prove the existence of innate knowledge?

A

1) Leading the Witness Proofs - Plato teaches a slave to do a geometric proof on the spot. We don’t need to learn things, just need to be asked the right questions to spur our recollection of our innate knowledge.
2) Equality - There is no such thing as an absolute likeness that we can observe, yet we have the idea of equality. We can’t see it, but yet we know it exists. How? Innate knowledge.

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32
Q

What is the background/setting for Plato’s Republic?

A

Key Question: What is Justice? What is a Just State?

Areas of Philosophy: Epistemology and Metaphysics

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33
Q

What are the Three Classes in Plato’s ideal/just state?

A

1) Philosopher Kings
2) Military Class
3) Mercantile Class

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34
Q

What are the Three Parts of a Just Individual According to Plato?

A

1) Rational Mind - Reason
2) Appetitive Part - Appetites/Desires
3) Spirited Part - Emotion/Courage/etc.

35
Q

What is the Good according to Plato and Socrates?

A

The Ultimate Wisdom we can have is to know the Good. Socrates cannot define it at first, it is the hardest thing to know.

36
Q

What is Plato’s Sun Analogy?

A

It’s an analogy for the Good and what it allows us to do. the Sun gives heat, life, and light to the world around us. Just as the Sun allows us to view physical objects, the Good allows us to view intelligible things and the forms. The Good brings rational enlightenment.

37
Q

What is the Line Diagram? Explain the four Metaphysical and Epistemological Categories Plato delineates.

A

The Line Diagram seeks to show the reality of different things and classify the type of knowledge that exist.
Metaphysics (Left side of the Diagram)
1) Forms - The Most Real Thing that Exists
2) Mathematical Objects - 1&2 are part of the intelligible world.
3) Visible Things
4) Reflections of Visible Things - 3&4 are part of the visible world.
Epistemology (Right Side of the Diagram)
1) Knowledge of the forms
2) Discursive thinking - similar to the type of thought that goes into making geometric proofs
3) Belief/Trust/Faith
4) Imagination

38
Q

Explain Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

A

Imagine a set of prisoners tied to posts in a cave. They can only watch shadows of people and things on the wall of the cave. They have lived their whole lives not knowing that anything else could possible exist. As they get out of the cave, they experience things. loser to reality and ends with forms as objects outside of the cave that are all illuminated by the sun (the Good). The People stuck in the cave are not receptive to a change of mind because the Good is bright and requires work and time to adjust to.

39
Q

Compare and Contrast the Bible to Plato’s thought.

A

Comparisons:
1) Faith is Contrasted w/ Sight but not Reason - Our perceptions of reality go beyond mere sense impressions according to Plato and Scripture.
2) What We Think About Matters - Thought leads us to Universal Truth
3) Temptations of the Flesh are a result of Living bu Sight
4) Wisdom is Hidden - It is not “Obvious)
5) We are Obligated to go back and free the enslaved.
Contrasts:
1) Abstract v. Personal “Good” - To Plato the Good is an abstract and removed concept, but for Christians, God is good and personally involved with each Christian/human being.
2) Slavery - In Plato’s mind, slavery can be broken simply through the pursuit of knowledge. As Christians, however, we are in bondage to sin and will not be able to know God as He truly is until we enter into Heaven. We are unable to break the bondage to sin on our own.

40
Q

Describe Aristotle’s Epistemology in Metaphysics.

A

Empiricism - Aristotle believes we need to stay close to the physical world since it is the only thing that is real. Knowledge beings with observation and is based on sense impressions. (The first scientist in this regard)
Telos - Aristotle believes we can reason to the Telos of a Thing.
Wisdom - The Highest and Deepest Truths/He Believes that there is such a thing as an intrinsic good.
Innatism - We are born knowing certain things. We are intrinsically curious and some knowledge to him is more worth having than other knowledge.
Induction - Going from individual to general is the way Aristotle gets at truth.

41
Q

What is Aristotle’s perspective on Plato’s forms?

A
  • Physical objects are located in one place but grouped. The form is in the object itself and not in a different realm. The “in” here is a transcendent in. Aristotle’s forms are not infinite. He separates ideas of forms from forms themselves.
  • He believes instead in substances that are categories that organize the world. Form has a causal relationship in growth.
  • Forms are the qualities an object has where as the physical thing itself is a substance.
  • There is no such thing as a stratified existence hierarchy.
  • Forms will not tell us the logistics of the substance (aka the rules that govern its being.)
  • Forms do not exist for Aristotle once the object it exists in is destroyed. Idea of a thing is different from the form of the thing.
  • Believes that Plato’s Ontology is bloated. There are way too many forms (like negative forms e.g. non-x). He relies a bit on Ockham’s Razor here.
42
Q

What is Aristotle’s View of the Forms?

A
  • Everything in the physical world has two categories.
    1) Objects that have a nature/form/essence - Living things for example. These have laws that describe their properties and actions.
    2) Objects that do not have a nature/form/essence - Liking man made things. We can describe these things purpose but they do not exist as a form.
  • The Form is in the object and informs it. The form does not exist in Heaven somewhere.
43
Q

List and describe each of Aristotle’s Four Causes.

A

1) Material Cause - The Matter the thing is made of.
2) Efficient Cause - By which the thing was made.
3) Formal Cause - What the Thing IS.
4) Final Cause - The Purpose/Telos of the Thing.

44
Q

What are the Three ways we can conceive of substances according to Aristotle?

A

1) Substances are a particular type of matter. (Like tin, copper, etc.)
2) Substances are a particular form we can isolate from a particular object.
3) Hylomorphic Compound of Both - Always form and matter exist together.

45
Q

Define primary substance.

A

The center of being that owns its parts.

46
Q

Explain Aristotle’s though on the Soul and its relation to living organisms.

A
  • All living organisms are primary substances according to Aristotle.
  • There is a hierarchy of souls. Existence of a form separates living from non-living. The different levels of faculties help to organize these categories. Ration faculty can exist external from the body and is in tandem with intentionality.
  • Thought is representational and can bring abstract things to the mind.
  • Matter cannot be the Prime mover or be given infinite status.
  • Minds take on the shape of the things they think about.
47
Q

Explain Aristotle’s Prime Mover.

A
  • All about the relation of motion, time, and change and how those relate to the notion of movement. Believes there is some prime mover/first mover responsible for all movement in the world.
  • The Source of Motion - The Prime Mover who is not moved by anything else and that will and has always moved.
  • The stars are the next things to move after the prime mover and are rational beings according to Aristotle. They think forever about the prime mover and their motion is eternal. The rest of physical motion stems from the motion of the stars.
48
Q

Define actuality and potentiality.

A

Actuality - Motion that is an actuality/actually happening.

Potentiality - Motion is something potentially at rest.

49
Q

Define Aristotle’s Value Theory.

A
  • Aristotle assumes inherent moral value exists and that the Good Life is valuable for human well being.
  • Virtue to Aristotle is arete/human excellence. But on a deeper level, it is the disposition to act/think/feel the right way. It may not be on display at all times.
  • Fear is an element of bravery according to Aristotle. In Aristotle’s view of virtue, virtue is a brave thing to have. However, he believes that perfect understanding eliminates temptation.
  • Character, according to Aristotle, is the sum theory of the virtues and vices of a person.
50
Q

Define virtue and vice.

A

Virtue - Disposition a person has to do good things and feel in the right way.
Vice - Disposition to think/feel/act in the wrong way.

51
Q

What is Aristotle’s view of the Good?

A
  • Each type of creature has a telos that is common to all the individual human beings. For all of humanity, that is happiness to Aristotle.
  • Happiness, for Aristotle, does not mean pleasure or a Political Life/Honor. But it means the contemplative life in which we think about the best things, not mere potentiality.
52
Q

Define the terms intrinsic good and instrumental good.

A

Intrinsic Good - Pursued for no other reason than itself.

Instrumental Good - Pursued for another reason: to get to something as well.

53
Q

What is the name for the sum of Epicurus’s philosophy?

A

Hedonism/Epicureanism

54
Q

Explain the philosophy of Epicurus.

A
  • He’s a materialist but believes in “other worldly gods” that are aloof to us. They exist only as moral exemplars.
  • Human beings, however, are nothing more than matter. Our thought and decisions are material processes and are thus subject to material laws. He’s a determinist and is against free will. But Epicurus still wants morality. So he says that matter is not deterministic in every case.
  • Death should not be feared. There is no “you” to suffer after death. In fact, life’s not intrinsically good. Only Happiness is. But that does not mean that there is such a thing infinite pleasure. Eventually pleasure can produce suffering.
  • Suicide is justified when happiness is unachievable.
55
Q

Name and Define the two views of free will.

A

1) Compatiblist - Free Will and determinism are logically compatible and that freedom can be present or absent for reasons that have nothing to do with metaphysics.
2) Libertarianism - Free will and determinism are logically incompatible and that people have free will. Thus determinism is false.

56
Q

Name the philosophy of Epictetus.

A

Stoicism

57
Q

Explain Stoicism.

A
  • There exists the quasi-material Logos that acts as a “super law” that governs reality in a deterministic way. (Like the Force) The will of the Logos is always good and sets fate.
  • Man’s duty is to accept the fate the logos wills. Their desire is entirely directed by reason and follows what reason does. One should change their thoughts to change desires.
  • The Good Life is to conform one’s minds to the will of nature. Always embrace your fate.
  • The Future already exists because we can make true/false statements about it.
58
Q

Define Augustine’s views of Evil and Free Will.

A

Evil - It is a parasite and relies on something else for its existence. Good is more real than evil and evil is the lack of good.
Will - Desire is prior to the corruption of said desire. Is not an intellectualist like Plato and Aristotle. Holds that there’s room for the will between desire and reason in human decision making. He’s not a determinist.
The Origin of Evil - Comes from the perverted use of the will. Bad choices reinforce bad desires and create a cycle of fallenness.

59
Q

Explain Manacheeism.

A
  • A Gnostic Philosophy that is ontologically dualistic. Good and Evil, two opposite forces, compose reality. Neither is stronger than the other.
  • Good is associated with the non-physical things/light
  • Evil is associated with matter/corruption
60
Q

What is Augustine’s philosophical position in a single term?

A

Neo-Platonist

61
Q

What is Augustine’s position on Divine Foreknowledge and Time?

A

1) God is an atemporal being. His foreknowledge is not “in time”.
2) You have to one the cause of your own actions/There have to exist genuine live options for you to have a choice.

62
Q

What is Augustine’s view on the nature of time.

A
  • Takes the Subjective Perspective on Time. Feels slow and fast at given points.
  • Presentism - The only thing that seems to exist is this present moment.
63
Q

How does Anselm define God?

A

The Being of which none greater can be conceived.

64
Q

What kind of argument does Anselm make for the existence of God?

A

An Ontological one.

65
Q

What are the four ontological distinctions Anselm makes?

A

1) Things that are Conceivable but not Actual - This has two subdivisions. Things that are possible and objects that are impossible (a Square Circle.)
2) Actual Things - Things that exist. Big oof.
3) Contingent Things - Things that depend on something else for its existence.
4) Necessary Things - Divided into two types. De re and De Dicto.

66
Q

Describe the premises and conclusions for Anselm’s ontological argument for God.

A

1) God, the greatest conceivable being, exists in the understanding.
2) God might have existed in reality.
3) If something exists only in the understanding but not in reality that it might be greater than it is.
Conclusion: God exists.

67
Q

Name and describe the two objections to Anselm’s ontological argument.

A

1) Gaunillo’s Island - If I can create the greatest conceivable island, then that too must also exist.
2) Equivocation of the terms ideas and persons - There are changing extensions of the terms that muddle the theory.

68
Q

How would Anselm respond to the Gaunillo’s island response?

A

1) Applies only to God but nothing else.

2) Things are less real than beings. So it applies to a different level of reality.

69
Q

Define the term self-evident.

A

The idea that certain truths are knowable just by understanding the words used. It cannot be meaningfully denied without contradiction.

70
Q

What are the two ways that, according to Aquinas, a proposition can be self-evident?

A

1) A proposition can be self-evident in itself but not to us. (Aka its metaphysically true but we just don’t realize it.)
2) A Proposition is self-evident in itself and is to us. We can see this statement HAS to be true.

71
Q

How does Aquinas view God’s existence?

A

Existence is a part of His essence but epistemologically it exists prior but ontologically its the converse.

72
Q

How does Aquinas believe God’s existence can be proven and can’t be proven.

A
  • It cannot be proved a-priori

- Only can be proven post-a-ori

73
Q

What are the five proofs Aquinas gives for the existence of God? Describe Each.

A

1) Argument from Motion - What is the Origin of Motion? We cannot go infinitely back. We need a first mover.
2) Argument for Efficient Causation - One event causes another everywhere.
3) Argument for Contingency - There are things that seem to be dependent on other things for their existence. What’s the reason for the universe’s existence? It must have one and it’s God.
4) Argument from Perfection - Everything is based on a perfect version of the thing. God is the superlative of all superlatives. This explains the nature of perfection, since it cannot come from imperfect things.
5) Argument from Teleology - We observe complexity. We apply our intelligence to non-intelligent things. We explain the telos via God and He imposes Telos on us.

74
Q

What are the three types of knowledge of God according to Aquinas?

A

1) Notilia - Demons Have This Kind of Knowledge of God’s existence.
2) Aisensus - Affirming the concept
3) Fiducia - Trust in the concept.

75
Q

What is William of Ockham’s philosophical background?

A
  • An Anti-Scholastic philosopher that questions Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophy.
  • Empirical research is the way to find truth.
76
Q

Explain Ockham’s Razor.

A
  • There should be no extra and useless add-on that do not aid in explanation. When two theories equally explain something, the simpler should be preferred.
77
Q

What is a universal?

A

Things that can be shared among many different things. (The “oneness” of nature and the world.)

78
Q

What is a particularly?

A

A trait that is non-exemplifiable by another subject. The thing that has the universal.

79
Q

What is nominalism?

A

Only particulars exist. Universals exist in name only and language is not in reality accurate.

80
Q

What is realism?

A

Universals exist and the evidence is in thought and language. All of communication is predicated on the existence of universals.

81
Q

Why does the debate between nominalism and realism matter?

A

1) It Bears on the concept of Human Nature/Telos - Is the Imago Dei a universal? If so, how does it affect our conception of rights?
2) Bears on Questions of Epistemology - Can we ever describe the world accurately by using universals. Can we actually make general knowledge claims and have knowledge?
3) The Language Problem - Is it a reliable way to communicate truth.

82
Q

What is the alternative that Ockham holds between nominalism and realism?

A

Conceptualism.

83
Q

Define conceptualism.

A

There are universals in the mind only but not in reality. Universals exist only in so far as one is actively thinking about it. it’s a form of nominalism that accepts language, How nice.

Philosophy (2 decks)

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