Philosophy Exam Flashcards
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was
A jurist, courtier, parliamentarian, philosopher and writer
Interested in science, observation and induction
The Idols of the Mind
There are many ways that our minds can be distorted – even though we strive for objectivity and truth.
Bacon warns of four specific types of distortions – that he calls IDOLS (revered false appearances)
Idols of the Tribe
Biases inherent to our species – the flaws of our senses.
E.g. On the right is how bees see a flower. They have receptor cells within their eyes that see UV rays bouncing off of the pollen and nectar in flowers - like a food ‘bullseye’.
Most insects can see UV light, and it is estimated that there are 1.5 billion insects to every 1 person on the planet.
So what does a flower REALLY look like?
Idols of the Cave
Everyone has their own ‘cave’ in which they surround themselves with things and thoughts and concepts etc…
This is your individual habits of thought – the education you have, the people you admire, the knowledge you have been exposed to.
Idols of the Marketplace
Our everyday conversations with each other tend to be sloppy and thoughtless
Using words poorly obstructs knowledge and understanding
Idols of the Theatre
These are the blindly accepted systems within which we live
Political, scientific, or theological
Sources of Knowledge
Where do we get our information, our knowledge from? Are there some sources that are better than others? What are the weaknesses of these sources?
Dominant Ideas in Our Society
“Dominant ideas” would describe the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society. Often we do not notice them, because we were raised in the society that holds these beliefs, and we have come to see them as “normal”. They also don’t have to be bad. Although many may look for problems, there CAN be beneficial dominant ideas.
Metaphysics is the study of the basic structure of reality:
Being and Nothingness
Time
Freedom and Determinism
Mind and Body
Personhood
Nature and Supreme Beings
What is reality?
What are the building blocks of reality?
Are they mental, or physical?
What is a mind? What is matter?
Why is there something and not nothing?
What is a person?
Do I have free choices?
What is the meaning of life?
Does a supreme being exist? Do I have meaning if a supreme being DOESN’T exist?
Science Versus Philosophy
Metaphysicians try to find general answers
Using logic and rational thought - not scientific evidence.
Durable general answers
The Common Sense Realist
People find metaphysics “silly” - We know reality because we perceive it every day.
“Reality”, they say, is only what we know with our senses.
Philosophers say this idea is driven by ignorance/laziness
Why does metaphysics matter?
People ask themselves metaphysical questions all the time.
Does a Supreme Being Exist?
This question matters to literally billions of people.
Gives them a sense of purpose, a set of values, and an answer to questions about death.
No “God” = some people would say that everything is morally permissible. Others would find it liberating.
What is a Person?
Silly question?
250 years ago, half of that population were not considered persons (women) and another large group had no rights (non-whites).
Today it enters into the legal debates regarding both abortion and euthanasia. When does something become person? When does it stop being a person?
Should/Can animals be considered persons?
Do You Have Free Will?
Do You Have Free Will?
Free will is the ability to make choices independently.
We all like to think we have free will, but do we?
The entire court system is built around this idea.
Are your choices, really your own?
Today….. - Metaphysics
Metaphysics is working on issues in the scientific realm as well as the traditional questions.
The origins of the universe, the nature of time, superstrings, chaos theory etc…
Socrates - Philosophical Mission
Chaerephon - went to the Delphic oracle asking if there was anyone who was wiser than Socrates, “there was not.”
Not feeling wise, Socrates cross-examined the ‘wise’ men of society. (statesmen, poets, artisans, and others.) He did NOT find them wise.
The pursuit of wisdom became Socrates’ full-time job
Socratic Method
His method consisted of asking questions to his fellow Athenians, particularly in regard to moral questions.
Argued that knowledge was virtue and believed that people were largely ignorant (not meant in a rude way)
Question and answer system is still called “The Socratic Method”
Socratic Method II
The goal of Socratic Method is to expose the weakness of someone else’s argument, by asking further questions, that eventually cannot be answered without exposing a contradiction.
Socrates felt the mass schooling was impossible, and small group Socratic seminars were the only method that actually taught students anything of value in philosophy.
The Peloponnesian War
Athens Vs Sparta (Athens doesn’t do well…at all)
Socrates fought in this war and it defined him intellectually.
He was critical of Athenian Democracy and Spartan Oligarchy.
Three of his former students were leaders associated with the downfall of Athens.
The Trial of Socrates
An Athenian Democrat, Anytus, who suffered under Spartan control of Athens (when a puppet government of ‘30 tyrants’ led by a former student of Socrates was in charge) brought charges against Socrates….
“Socrates is guilty of not believing in the gods in which the state believes, but brings in other new divinities; he also wrongs by corrupting the youth .”
Death of Socrates
In his defense Socrates gave a spontaneous speech relying on reason, refuting all the charges one by one .
There were 501 men on the jury, and he was condemned by 60 votes.
The prosecutors proposed the death penalty, and Socrates had the opportunity to offer an alternative but antagonized the jury.
With his death from hemlock poison Socrates became the most famous of all philosophers
Who is Plato?
One of the earliest ancient Greek philosophers
Born in Athens, Greece in 427 BC
He was a student of Socrates
He served in the Peloponnesian War
Formed what is the first known university, called “The Academy”
Died in 347 BC
Symbolism Within the Story
Inside the cave – the world in which we live
Objects casting shadows = Real things
Shadows on the wall = Images mistakenly thought of as real
Outside the cave = the ‘intelligible’ world – found through the use of reason
Objects out of the cave = the forms (‘real’ things)
The sun = The form of good (knowledge)
What do the symbols mean? (Plato)
Inside the cave, the prisoners mistake appearance for reality. They believe that the images they are seeing on the wall are actually real, they do not know that there are objects making these images.
The prisoner thinks he is talking about a “book,” when really he is talking of a shadow.
Descartes’ Evil Genius
Rene Descartes also had the same issues surrounding our world.
In the seventeenth century, he wondered if it would be possible to know if his life was actually a dream-state created by an Evil Genius.
Seeing as ALL of our perceptions are simply electrical impulses inside of our brains, “reality” may not exist at all.
He could simply be a brain in a vat, with no physical body at all.
Plato’s assertion is that perspective and reality are not aligned.
Thus the things we perceive, in some way, are not truly reflective of reality.
This affects the way we view the world, and our decisions.
How might the following affect your perception of reality?: music industry, ads, tv news, tv shows, movies, school, gender, social networking
Freed Vs Shackled
Freed prisoners will never be understood by the shackled. Plato suggests that freed prisoners would be hated by those in the cave.
Freeing oneself would be a difficult and painful process of unlearning = questioning everything that you thought was true and meaningful.
PERSON VERSUS HUMAN
Human is a biological term.
It means a member of the genus Homo, and specifically Homo sapiens sapiens.
PERSON?
Person is a philosophical term.
It is not a question of biology.
Some things needed to be considered a person
Rationality
Thought
Consciousness
Self-Consciousness
Self Identity
Verbal communication
Consciousness of objects
Ability to feel pain
Self-motivated activity
IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DEBATE (person vs human)
Many humans have not always been considered persons under the law – ie. People of different races, ethnicities, women, the poor, slaves, children etc…
The implications involve human rights, who we see as equals in society, and who/what we allow self-determination.
ANIMAL RIGHTS
Animal rights groups have proposed that many if not all animals would fall under some of our definitions of persons.
Should animals have an inherent right to not be killed, tortured or eaten?
ELEPHANTS
- empathy
- recognized in mirror
DOLPHINS
These mammals have shown that they recognize themselves in a mirror.
This is a behaviour that even human infants do not possess.
CHIMPS
empathy
altruism and self-awareness
chimps performed better than humans on a number memory test.
CROWS
the ability to use tools
OCTOPUS
curiosity
a disdain for boredom,
an ability to learn
the capacity to use tools.
ARTIFICIAL ORGANS
Cutting edge medical technology will make artificial organs commonplace in the next generation.
How much of you can be replaced before you are no longer you?
CORPORATIONS
Under all international laws, a corporation is a legal entity with the same rights as human being.
Do any problems exist with that?
The Turing Test/The Imitation Game/Prediction
“Could a machine fool the interrogator into thinking it was a person?”
In 1950, Turing predicted that by 2000, a computer would have a 70% chance of fooling a human.
He was right.
John Searle’s Response
The Chinese Room Analogy – an American in a room is given a series of Chinese symbols and chart that shows how to match them to appropriate responses.
He doesn’t understand the Chinese, but if he follows the chart, his responses will make sense, even if he doesn’t understand it at all.
The Analogy - Chinese room
Computers are like the man in the Chinese room.
They may perform tasks, but they will never UNDERSTAND what they are doing.
They lack consciousness, and intentionality.
They do not have a MIND, like we do.
St Thomas Aquinas - Animals
Animals are not ‘rational’ and have been given to humans, by God.
They are instruments, and do not exist for their own sake, unlike humans
Immanuel Kant - Animals
Only human beings can stand back and WILL to do something, and not something else.
This means animals were not given free will, and they are not deserving of rights.
They are not autonomous.
Rene Descartes - Animals
Rene Descartes argued that animals do not have a mind, and that they are biological machines, without thoughts or feelings.
To him, a cry of pain was a mechanical response, like a steam whistle.
Animals are like Machines
According to Descartes, neither will ever be close to a person.
They are not able to solve complex problems, think or speak like humans do.
They simply respond to their environment.
They have no MIND.
So, according to many philosophers from past days, animals are not like us, because:
- They do not possess a soul given to them by God – which many don’t believe in anymore.
- They do not have free will – which many believe CAN’T exist in a world that follows natural laws.
- They do not have a ‘mind’ - which has yet to be fully described or understood by scientists, or philosophers. Additionally, even those philosophers that say there IS a mind, cannot logically prove that anyone ELSE has one
- They exhibit all the same reactions to pain, suffering etc. , as people do, but they are somehow just robotic actions in them, and genuine expressions in us – but we don’t know why.
The Mind/Brain (aka Mind/Body) Problem
The Problem
You have a 1.4 kg hunk of ‘meat’ inside your skull. We call it your brain. It is pretty big, containing millions or billions of neurons and glial cells. These neurons exist as either ‘on’ or ‘off’ - firing electrical signals, or not.
Unlike your other pieces, your brain is aware of itself. It is sentient - that is, it is aware that it exists.
Inside this piece of skull meat, lies every thought you’ve ever had, every emotion you’ve ever experienced and every memory of your past.
How does your brain create non-physical events like emotions and feelings?
1 Monism
There are no divisions in reality. All reality is one thing.
Both your mind and your brain are just expressions of that one thing.
Physical monism - all things are physical. Thoughts can be explained through what is happening in your head.
Idealism - all things are mental and ONLY exist inside your head.
Solipsism - only my thoughts exist. You don’t even exist outside of my head.
2 - Materialism - a kind of monism
Nothing exists but matter and things that are made of matter.
Thomas Hobbes - Your thoughts are just matter moving around inside your brain. Perception comes from matter in the world causing activity and motion inside your head.
If your physical brain is destroyed, your mind is also destroyed and you cease to exist in any way that we would understand as ‘existence’.
3 - Identity Theory
Developed in the 1950s. When we experience something, it has a corresponding neurological state in your brain. Emotions and feeling have simply been poetically mislabelled throughout human history.
What we call love is simply brain activity at a certain point in the brain. Example - the feeling of ‘love’ would be better described as increased activity in the C-fibre neurons.
Some have said that this does not explain HOW feelings actually feel to us. Others say that feelings are impossible to describe.
4 - Eliminative Materialism
Daniel Dennett, John Searle, Paul and Patricia Churchland
Once we fully understand how our brains work, we will stop using all this imprecise language.
In fact, terms like ‘love’, ‘belief’, ‘faith’, etc…are completely meaningless. Eventually we will learn enough to stop using these terms, just like we stopped believing in faith healing and demons.
Others say that if you’re going to say nothing exists but matter, you need a much more clear definition of what matter is.
5 Functionalism
This is currently the most popular theory of the mind.
Your brain is like a computer and the mind is like software inside that computer. All animals have the hardware, but the software may be different. Humans for example, would have the app “Consciousness 2.0” - but not all animals would.
Programs cannot function without the computer, but the program is NOT the computer.
Sensations are like the computer’s input.
Thinking does not have to be conscious,
6 - Dualism
Consciousness cannot be reduced to simple physical actions.
Rene Descartes is the most well-known dualist. He didn’t know what the mind and brain were - but he said that they were distinctly different. He did think that they were connected somehow at the pineal gland.
Nagel argued that consciousness is too subjective a thing to talk about they any real meaning.
7 - The New Mysterians
Colin McGinn - the human mind was not built to solve all problems that exist. There will always be things that we cannot understand. Your brain is big and smart and complicated, but it cannot understand everything.
We know that sugar is sweet - but that doesn’t tell me how it tastes to you.
Human being evolve traits that help us survive. If understand consciousness doesn’t help us survive, we wouldn’t need it.
Lost in the Finite/Lost in the Infinite
At any given time 90% of people are lost.
They are either lost in the finite - creating themselves by using what other people say is valuable. I need to look cool to random strangers, so I post junk on social media.
Or they are lost in the infinite - stuck in a state of paralysis and never choosing anything at all. I cannot know what to do, so I do nothing.
Dizziness
“Dizziness” comes from the state of realizing that you have an infinite number of possible choices….but knowing that you must choose one eventually and live with it.
What if I choose wrong? What if I make a mistake? How can live with this choice and its possible consequences?
Despair
This dizziness of freedom causes DESPAIR. It is an attempt to rid yourself OF yourself. This is knowing that all choices are your own, but not wanting to make them.
You may decide - “I’m going to be a firefighter. I will save lives and make my life meaningful by helping others!” Your despair subsides.
Great. But then in a horrible accident you are injured. You can no longer work or save people. The despair is back.
Most modern versions of metaphysics…
…are actually much closer to theoretical physics - which makes it very difficult to understand. But we’ll try.
The study of reality is called:
a. Metaphysics
b. Epistemology
c. Logic
d. Ethics
Answer: Metaphysics
He felt that all animals were given to humans by God:
a. St Stephen of Paris
b. St. Thomas Aquinas
c. St Andrew of Warsaw
d. St. Francis
Answer: St. Thomas Aquinas
Dominant Ideas in a society:
a. Are not influential
b. Are very hard to perceive
c. Are consistent over centuries
Answer: Are very hard to perceive
This poison killed Socrates:
a. Rat poison
b. Arsenic
c. Hemlock
d. Cyanide
Answer: Hemlock
Socrates lived in:
a. Rome
b. Athens
c. Sparta
d. Alexandria
Answer: Athens
Person is a ______ concept, while human is a _______ concept.
a. Mind/Brain
b. Philosophical/biological
c. Philosophical/Astronomical
d. Physiological/psychological
Answer: Philosophical/biological
Descartes is a:
a. functionalist
b. dualist
c. monist
d. materialist
Answer: dualist
The study of the principles of correct reasoning, is a definition for:
a. Epistemology
b. Metaphysics
c. Ethics
d. Logic
Answer: Logic
He said that animals are just like biological machines.
a. Descartes
b. Kant
c. Plato
d. Nietzsche
Answer: Descartes
This animal performed the number test better than humans
a. Dolphins
b. Chimps
c. Orangutans
d. Gorillas
Answer: Chimps
The Chinese Room, was devised by:
a. Turing
b. Searle
c. Descartes
d. Hume
Answer: Searle
This is the name of the robot built by Honda.
a. Asimo
b. Amigo
c. Amiens
d. Ami
Answer: Asimo
Socrates would go to the ________everyday and talk to people.
a. The Arena
b. The Apannian Way
c. The Agora
d. The Astrolabe
Answer: The Agora
Seeing human qualities in an animal is called:
a. personification
b. anthropomorphism
c. anthropology
d. specification
Answer: anthropomorphism
A functionalist believes that your mind is like:
a. An animals
b. A computer
c. A filing system
d. Completely subjective
Answer: A computer
This group believes that consciousness can never be understood.
a. Dualists
b. Monists
c. Functionalists
d. New Mysterians
Answer: New Mysterians
Epistemology is the study of:
a. Knowledge
b. Reason
c. Reality
d. Right and Wrong
Answer: Knowledge
The correct order is:
a. Socrates - Plato - Aristotle - Alex the Great
b. Socrates - Alex - Plato - Aristotle
c. Turpin - Alex the Great - Socrates - Plato
d. Plato - Socrates - Alex - Aristotle
Answer: Socrates - Plato - Aristotle - Alex the Great
Ontology is the study of:
a. Reason
b. Being
c. Truth
d. Knowledge
Answer: Being
Idols of the Marketplace specifically refers to:
a. our species
b. our communication
c. our beliefs
d. our knowledge
Answer: our communication
The Idols were devised by:
a. Descartes
b. Bacon
c. Searle
d. Ham
Answer: Bacon
The ability to do one thing and not another is called:
a. Choices
b. Determinism
c. Free will
d. Impossible
Answer: Free will
A monist could also be a:
a. materialist
b. dualist
c. new mysterian
d. tiger
Answer: materialist
Metaphysics got its name from:
a. Descartes
b. A Latin word
c. A mistake
d. A king
Answer: A mistake
Sophie means:
a. learning
b. knowledge
c. facts
d. wisdom
Answer: wisdom
The Imitation Game, is a modern movie based on:
a. Searle
b. Turing
c. Descartes
d. Hume
Answer: Turing
Dolphins demonstrate ______________ before children do.
a. Consciousness
b. Self-awareness
c. Communication
d. Responsiblity
Answer: Self-awareness
When we understand neurology, we will understand emotions, said the _________________
a. Eliminative Materialist
b. Dualist
c. Monist
d. Idealist
Answer: Eliminative Materialist
The Chinese Room is meant to demonstrate that AI would always lack______________.
a. Friends
b. Consciousness
c. Intentionality
d. Compassion
Answer: Intentionality
- The famous Allegory of the Cave was written by
a) Pascal
b) Plato
c) Aquinas
d) Aristotle
Answer: B
- Francis Bacon developed the idea of the:_______
a) Turing Test
b) Idols
c) Chinese Room
d) World of Forms
Answer: B
- “Everything is physical”, sounds like an argument from a ______________.
a) monist
b) materialist
c) idealist
d) determinist
Answer: A
- _________________________ is a philosophical concept, while____________________ is a biological one.
a) person, human
b) human, adult
c) brain, mind
d) matter, mind
Answer: A
- The Chinese Room, was a counter argument developed by:
a) Searle
b) Turing
c) Dennet
d) Turpin
Answer: A
- A dualist:
a) believes that brain states don’t exist
b) believes your mind is like a computer
c) believes that only your thoughts exist
d) believes that there are two substances - matter and mind.
Answer: D
- The ability to choose to do what you want is called:
a) freedom
b) determinism
c) fatalism
d) free will
Answer: D
- Metaphysical issues at this point, are mostly dealt in the field of:
a) chemistry
b) psychology
c) physics
d) theology
Answer: C
- Which of the following DOESN’T cause a problem for the concept of free will
a) God
b) Physics
c) Socrates
d) the Idols
Answer: C
- The test developed to discover whether a computer can fool a human is called the:
a) Turner test
b) Turpin test
c) Turing test
d) the Chinese Room
Answer: C
Rationalism:
Rationalists claim sensory knowledge is not a reliable source.
They claim that your senses may be wrong.
Reason, or rational thought, is a more reliable source.
Plato: (Epistemology)
Believed in the two worlds: the World of Forms and the World of Materials
The visible material world changes constantly, poor source of information.
The world of forms or ideas is the truest reality, it never changes.
Every human mind has the ability (with degrees) to access the world of forms.
a perfect, invisible universe known only to the mind.
The Evil Genius
Descartes was troubled by the Evil Genius scenario.
How do I know that right now, I am not simply under the control of an evil genius, that is making me THINK that this life is real?