Phil Exam Review

Question 1

Plato (context: Classical Greek City-States experimenting with political systems)

Answer 1

The main point—one should have a balanced character (and avoid the pitfalls of the four unbalanced ones he describes); it will make you more likely to do the right thing

• Balanced character is “philosopher king,” ruled by reason
• Unbalanced ones are oligarchic (rule by appetites); timarchic (rule by spirit); tyrannical (rule by a “master” passion); and democratic (rule by nothing,
  i.e. without coherence)

Question 2

Bentham (context: The Enlightenment)

Answer 2

Main point—develops Utilitarianism—goal: “greatest happiness for the greatest number”

• he believes human nature is to be selfish, so we must set up the laws (sanctions) so that selfish pursuit leads to utilitarian goals; in other words, harness the power of self-interest for the good of society
• connection with modern conservative political thought

Question 3

Nietzche (context: the late 19th-century dominance of science, still increasing today

Answer 3

Main point—we need to embrace our “will to power,” which should involve discarding unselfishness and humility, often based on religion (which will become less and less important anyway—as he dramatically put it, “God is dead”)

• distinguishes between 3 types of societies: herd ones (mindlessly follow tradition or fashion), slave ones (are jealous and embittered), and master societies (chart their own course, and are not afraid to be powerful)
• concept of the Superman as an ideal for humanity
• notion of transforming your life into a work of art

Question 4

Mill (context: early Industrial Revolution poverty)

Answer 4

Main point—modifies Utilitarianism believing that human nature can become altruistic through character education, etc. so that utilitarian goals are the focus of effort, not a by-product of selfish effort

• also distinguishes between higher and lower pleasures
• connection with modern progressive & liberal political thought

Question 5

Rand (context: the mid-20th century contest between individualism and collectivism (e.g. the Cold War))

Answer 5

Main point—altruism is actually inhumane, in several ways, and is often not rational at all, but rather based in…

• “neo-mysticism”—the treatment of at least partly non-rational non-religious ideas the same way that religious ones used to be treated by believers: accepting them on faith and refusing, sometimes angrily, to allow them to be subjected to serious critical review
• altruism and neo-mysticism often transform people into victims and parasites, or at least ask people to sacrifice in the name of “the good,” which is often defined by those who don’t sacrifice in the same way

Question 6

Noddings (context: late-20th century feminism)

Answer 6

Main point—principles are inappropriate much of the time; an “ethics of care” should take precedence

• distinguishes between two ethical approaches that were traditionally/classically (and incorrectly) called “masculine” and “feminine”
• principles are illusory, since in practice they have so many exceptions; they can also drive us away from others
• concretization of ethical situations is key
• “the relation of natural caring” is at the core of her ethic

Question 7

4 Things Associated with Metaphysics & Epistemology

People, Philosophies and Places

Answer 7

• Plato’s Metaphysical Epistemology
• Descartes/Cartesian rationalism
• The British Empiricists (more briefly)
• The Kantian Synthesis and Beyond.

Question 8

Plato’s “Background”

Answer 8

• Plato’s Theory of Forms can be understood as a synthesis of the views of Heraclitus and Parmenides. He explains that the physical world is inconstant and always changing, as Heraclitus supposed, but that above the physical world is a world of Forms that is constant and unchanging, as Parmenides supposed.

Question 9

Parmenides

Answer 9

• held that the multiplicity of existing things, their changing forms and motion, are but an appearance of a single eternal reality (“Being”), thus giving rise to the Parmenidean principle that “all is one.” From this concept of Being, he went on to say that all claims of change or of non-Being are illogical.
• change is an illusion - appearances change but not essense - which is later reflected in Plato’s Theory of Forms

Question 10

Heraclitus

Answer 10

• Heraclitus argued for the idea that reality is impermanent, while Parmenides argued that reality is static. Parmenides also focused on using rationality to discern the nature of reality, as opposed to Heraclitus’ use of sensory experiences
• The central ideas of Heraclitus’ philosophy are the unity of opposites and the concept of change. He also saw harmony and justice in strife. He viewed the world as constantly in flux, always “becoming” but never “being”.

Question 11

Plato’s Divided Line Theory

Answer 11

• an analogy that establishes and orders two realms of being that a person can think about. The intelligible realm is the realm of thought, and it ‘revolves’ around the form of the good.
• This is an analogy that Plato uses to distinguish among different forms of knowledge and truth. Plato’s basic division is between what is visible and what is intelligible (i.e., knowable, but not seen), with the visible portion smaller than the intelligible portion.

Question 12

Plato’s Allegory of Caves

Answer 12

• The allegory delves into the philosophical thought of truth, and how those with different experiences or backgrounds may perceive it. The shadows on the wall of the cave are constantly changing, so there is no stability or consistency offered for those who bear witness to them—only a false reality

Question 13

Plato’s Theory of Forms

Answer 13

• asserts that the physical realm is only a shadow, or image, of the true reality of the Realm of Forms. So what are these Forms, according to Plato? The Forms are abstract, perfect, unchanging concepts or ideals that transcend time and space; they exist in the Realm of Forms.

Question 14

Descartes’ Work Historical Context

Answer 14

• La géométrie, includes his application of algebra to geometry from which we now have Cartesian geometry. His work had a great influence on both mathematicians and philosophers.
• The World and Discourse on Method

Question 15

Descartes’ Systematic Doubt

Answer 15

• the tools he borrowed from math for this and what he went through in the process itself–how and why he “tore things down” and began to “build them up again
• Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one’s beliefs, which has become a characteristic method in philosophy. Additionally, Descartes’ method has been seen by many as the root of the modern scientific method
• Cartesian skepticism, methodic doubt, methodological skepticism, universal doubt, systematic doubt, or hyperbolic doubt

Question 16

The Cogito

Descartes

Answer 16

• ‘Cogito’ i.e. the philosophical saying ‘I think, therefore I am’. Even though Descartes has previously argued that the existence of his physical body can be doubted, the existence of his thinking cannot

Question 17

The British Empiricists Basic Criticisms

Answer 17

• their basic criticism that “rationalists” (in the narrower sense of the word, e.g. when applied to Descartes–i.e. Cartesian rationalists) had been too quick to dismiss sense data
• It cannot see how the objective enriches the subjective (Passmore, 1932). It ignores the dialectical character of subject-object relationship. Empiricism would deprive philosophy of any kind of pursuit for knowing the “reality”. It would only analyze objects and leave the study of the reality

Question 18

Locke’s Distinction

Answer 18

• Between primary and secondary qualities of objects, as an example of how the Empiricists thought the problem of sense data could be approached
• Locke does not think that other minds affect us directly through our senses. (Our own mind produces ideas in us through what Locke calls reflection, a kind of inner sense directed at our own mind

Question 19

The Kantian Synthesis and Beyond

Locke vs Kant

Answer 19

• Kant’s view that the mind is a more active participant in shaping sense data than (for example) Locke would say; e.g. Locke’s “pre-reflective” theory vs. Kant’s “interactive” one regarding sense data
• “the act of putting different representations [elements of cognition] together, and grasping what is manifold in them in one cognition”

Question 20

Locke’s Pre Reflective Theory

Answer 20

• Kant explored the a priori nature of interpreting the external world as more or less limited to the human understanding internally
• Locke didn’t dispute that “things-in-themselves” exist in an established medium, IN SPACE and externally - regardless of whether a human being is conscious of them or not.

Question 21

Kant’s Interactive Theory

Answer 21

Kant’s moral philosophy focuses on fairness and the value of the individual. His method rests on our ability to reason, our autonomy (i.e. our ability to give ourselves moral law and govern our own lives), and logical consistency.

Question 22

Kant Analogy

Answer 22

• Kant’s analogy that the mind provides the forms into which sense data is poured
  (note that this is quite a different use of the word “form” than Plato uses)

Question 23

Noumena vs Phenomena

Kant

Answer 23

• Phenomena are the appearances, which constitute the our experience
• Noumena are the (presumed) things themselves, which constitute reality.
• All of our synthetic a priori judgments apply only to the phenomenal realm, not the noumenal.

Question 24

Kant Post Modernism

Answer 24

• His transcendental idealism implies the fact that we are unable to comprehend the world itself (the noumenal world) and are doomed into subjectivity and objectivity becomes impossible
• objectivity vs subjectivity is very complicated issue that can’t be simply divided into these two groups

Question 25

Hegel

Answer 25

• evolution of knowledge dialect
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and one of the most influential figures of German idealism and 19th-century philosophy.
• the relationship between self and otherness is the fundamental defining characteristic of human awareness and activity, being rooted as it is in the emotion of desire for objects as well as in the estrangement from those objects, which is part of the primordial human experience of the world.

Question 26

Kierkegaard

and his urge to again consider non-rational pathways to knowing)

Answer 26

• Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.
• Kierkegaard is best known as a trenchant critic of Hegel and Hegelianism and for his invention or elaboration of a host of philosophical, psychological, literary and theological categories, including: anxiety, despair, melancholy, repetition, inwardness, irony

Question 27

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

The primacy of will and emotion)

Answer 27

• While Schopenhauer sees the will as the basic desire of human beings to live,
• Nietzsche conceives of will as the desire of man to control himself and others.
• Nietzsche abandoned his former enthusiasm for Schopenhauer’s philosophy because he came to conceive of Schopenhauer’s advocacy of quietism as symptomatic of decadence, of a descending order of life that is tired and impaired and unable to enjoy and relish life in the way that alone the most physiologically

Question 28

Heidigger

(Deep feeling, culture)

Answer 28

• Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is often considered to be among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th century
• The human being’s existence in their world as an individual and within their social context.
• Heidegger thinks of Nietzsche as anticipating in incomplete form his own thought as he later came to understand it.

Question 29

Post Modernism (General)

Answer 29

• As a philosophy, postmodernism rejects concepts of rationality, objectivity, and universal truth. Instead, it emphasizes the diversity of human experience and multiplicity of perspectives.

Question 30

Foucalt

Answer 30

• with his epistemological notion of “power-
  knowledge,” for example) being the most well-known example
• Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault’s theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions
• Foucault challenges the idea that power is wielded by people or groups by way of ‘episodic’ or ‘sovereign’ acts of domination or coercion, seeing it instead as dispersed and pervasive. ‘Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from everywhere’ so in this sense is neither an agency nor a structure

Question 31

Sense Data

Answer 31

Sense data constitute what we, as perceiving subjects, are directly aware of in perceptual experience, prior to cognitive acts such as inferring, judging, or affirming that such-and-such objects or properties are present. In vision, sense data are typically described as patches exhibiting colors and shapes