Midterm Flashcards
pugnacious proposition
where and how do we start looking for truth
Kierkegaard
foundationalism
unless you can form solid foundation of knowledge and certainty you can’t learn
you can always go back to your foundation and start new
Geworfinheit
throwness/state of being thrown into existence into certain world
embrace it or change it
Kierkegaard
presuppositions
come from context of world we were thrown into
you can never wash these away
Hermeneutics
applying what you read from long ago to present day
3 aspects of interpretation
explain
translate (interlingual or intralingual)
proclaim
3 words for love
philia
agape (unconditional love–used in scripture)
eros (sexual–lower form of love)
Socrates love story
told by diotima
poros=god penia=goddess
poros got drunk at party at mt. olympus and passes out. penia sees him unconcious and rapes him and becomes pregnant and has a son. son is combo of them (poros=god of plenty/fullness penia=goddess of poverty/emptiness) love=fullness that is empty
erotic drive
desire for what you do not have
socratic method
method of dialogue to learn
questioning to gain wisdom
question of suicide
if yes–life has no meaning, no reason to study philosophy
if no–life has meaning
Hermeneutics of finitude
finite–has beginning and end
principle of fallibility
open to failure
- at best our interpretations are correct but incomplete
- our interpretations are wrong
Hermeneutics of suspicion
comes from deception and sin
opinion based on ulterior motives
ontology
study of being
“i think ____ is real and i think ____ is not real.”
Great Chain of Being
distinction between kinds of being
Polarities
- tension between One and Many
2. tension between appearance and reality
Many
leaves open possibility for chaos
plurality raises issue of difference which causes uncomfort and uncertainty
uncomfort can lead to violence (Nazis)
Parmenides on One/Many
disregards many
if you accept there is plurality then you have to accept concept of non/being or nothing (concept of nothing must be wrong bc you’re always thinking about something)
synthesis
becoming
acorn is not an oak tree but it can become one but then it won’t be an acorn
Hereclitus on appearance/reality
can’t just dismiss senses
unless you have many you don’t have one
difference and change in many is what unifies it (take out many you find chaos)
tension/conflict=idea of being bc you want things in tension (universe=tension produced by interactions of many)
plato’s ontology
driven by epistemology (study of knowledge)
idea of truth, justice, good, and virtue all have 1 meaning (objectivity)
2 aspects to reality
- idea (reality of ideas
2. matter (reality of matter in which ideas are expressed)
standard of good
criteria that applies to everyone
ideas (forms)
one
soul/mind
lower forms and higher forms (highest=sun)
eternal/immortal
shadows (types)
many
body (matter)
temporal/mortal (beginning and end)
apriori knowldedge
knowledge prior to experience
anamnesis
to remember
remembering forms we have forgotten at birth
death
return of soul to the forms and body to matter
return to knowing all forms at death
4 theories of knowledge
rationalism
empiricism
transcendental philosophy
intuition
rationalism
Descartes
way to knowledge is through reason/logic
cartesian philosophy leads to certainty
empiricism
Locke and Hume
knowledge comes through sensation(experience)
experimental method in science
transcendental philosophy
Kant (awakened by Hume’s ideas)
explains why something is the way it is
intuition
traditionally suspect about this theory
immediacy (what you feel immediately in the moment)
based on emotion and feeling
Descartes on rationalism
looking for certainty (did not know with certainty that any of his knowledge was true)
knew he wouldn’t find it through his senses
driven by doubt
Descartes reasons to not trust senses
- senses deceive you
- senses also involved in dream state (not reality)
- there may actually be some evil being playing a practical joke on us
necessary truths of logic
- mind exists–doubting=thinking and if there is thinking there is a thinker
- God exists–like comes from like so perfection comes from perfect mind but he does not have perfect mind because he doubts therefore there is second mind that is perfect (God)
probability of senses
- knowledge of the world–morally perfect God wouldn’t deceive us so the world won’t deceive us (has capability to but we have mechanisms to avoid)
Locke on empiricism
before we know anything we have a tabula rasa (blank slate)
with first sensation comes first idea
all ideas come from sensual experience which produces a mental image
sources of ideas
sensation
reflection (able to create new ideas from ideas of sensation)
types of ideas
simple (solidity)
complex– based on # of different ideas (beauty)
types of qualities
primary (qualities of object–solidity)
secondary (qualities somehow affected by our senses–temp.)
Hume on empiricism
skepticism (you can never be sure–play odds of what’s right)
assume event A causes event B–not denying causality just skeptical about it
Kant on transcendental philosophy
why can we reach consensus/agreement?
concepts functionally meaningless without experience (concepts without sensation are empty and sensations without concepts are blind)
causal relationship between our thoughts
explanations of intuition
supernatural– knowledge that has come as a gift (from God)
natural– can be traced back to rational reasoning
4 theories of truth
- correspondence (adequation): common sense (empiricism and 2 world view)
- coherence (consistency): rationalism
- pragmatic: whatever works (idea=true if it gives result that works)–who decides what it means to work?
- revelatory: allows us to talk about truth in context of esthetics, ethics, and theology
