Unit 1: Pagan Philosophy and Christ's Influence

Question 1

Branches of Philosophy

Answer 1

• Metaphysics
• Ethics
• Politics
• Esthetics
• Epistemology

Question 2

What are Ethics made of?

Answer 2

1. The Good Life: the ideal
2. Right: The opposite of wrong, defined by laws
3. Ought: Personal obligation, duty, and responsibility

Question 3

Allegory of the Cave

Answer 3

• Prisoners are chained up in a cave facing a wall
• They can only see the shadows on the wall, so they think that the shadows are real things
• One prisoner is released and leaves the cave
• His eyes hurt from the sun (represents truth), but he eventually figures out the world around him
• He goes back to the cave and tells the prisoners about the outside world
• The prisoners don’t believe him, so they kill him

Question 4

Theology & Philosophy

Answer 4

• Philosophy aids theology

- Philosophy answers questions about life

Question 5

Aristotle

Answer 5

• Very systematic teacher
• Student of Socrates
• Wrote Nichomacean Ethics, Poetics, Metaphysics, Rhetoric, and Politics

Question 6

Aristotle on Human Nature

Answer 6

• Teleology: The study of the purpose of all things

- The telos of the human person answers the question of relativism

Question 7

Telos

Answer 7

• Observed by Aristotle
• Everything in nature seemed to have a purpose for which it as made
• A goal towards which it strove
• “Final Cause”

Question 8

Telos of a Human

Answer 8

• Happiness

- The ultimate reason why people do what they do

Question 9

What is the consensus on how to achieve happiness?

Answer 9

• We lead a happy life by the way of virtue

- Necessary condition for happiness

Question 10

Eternal Beatitude

Answer 10

• Happiness forever in Heaven

- Telos of a Christian person

Question 11

Character

Answer 11

• Fairly stable sets of attitudes, opinion, and dispositions
• Result in fairly stable ways of acting and reacting
• Greek word is “Ethos” (where ethics comes from)

Question 12

Parts of the Human Being (Christian Anthropology)

Answer 12

• Body and Soul
• Intellect and Will (Two parts of the soul)
• Original sin (Led to tension between body and soul, intellect and will, humans and animals, and people against eachother)

Question 13

Intellect

Answer 13

-To see and understand the order of things

Question 14

Will

Answer 14

-To choose the good that our reason understands

Question 15

Why are virtuous people the happiest?

Answer 15

• They live a life of harmony between the intellect and will

- Experiencing it is the best proof

Question 16

Aristotle’s Anthropology

Answer 16

-Human –> Body, SOUL–> Rational, NONRATIONAL–> Appetitive, Vegatative

Question 17

Appetititive

Answer 17

• Feelings/Passions
• Ex: Anger, Fear, Happiness, Sadness
• Important to Ethics

Question 18

Vegatative

Answer 18

• Involuntary Acts
• Breathing, heartbeat, blinking
• NOT IMPORTANT TO ETHICS*

Question 19

Rational

Answer 19

• Reason to think/ Intellect

- Important to ethics

Question 20

Nonrational

Answer 20

• A person’s will

- Not important to ethics

Question 21

Aristotle’s Definition of Virtue

Answer 21

-Virtue is when rational influences appetitive (2nd nature)

Question 22

Definition of Virtue (Christian)

Answer 22

• A firm attitude, stable disposition, habitual perfection of intellect and will
• Govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct
• 2nd nature

Question 23

The Golden Mean

Answer 23

• Virtue
• Has “vices” that flank the virtues
• moderation
• Subjective to each person (different for everyone)
• Exceptions (murder, adultery)
• Practical advice
• Ex: Courage is golden mean of cowardice and rashness, modesty is the golden mean of shamelessness and bashfulness

Question 24

Levels of Existence

Answer 24

• Rock (exists)
• Plants (have life)
• Animals (can will)
• Humans (can choose)

Question 25

Practical Advice about Virtue

Answer 25

• The virtuous person is the measure
• Know yourself
• Be careful of pleasure (you will be unhappy)
  
  • Try to achieve happiness through virtue

Question 26

Acts of the Apostles

Answer 26

• 17: 16-34
• Paul entered Athens (Where Aristotle is from)
• Paul says they are religious, will tell them about God

Question 27

Who is Christ?

Answer 27

• Liar (not true that he is God)
• Lunatic (crazy because he is not God)
• Lord (what he says is true, he is God)

Question 28

Adam and Eve

Answer 28

• Covenant
• First falling out
• Creates original sin

Question 29

Noah’s Arc

Answer 29

• Covenant
• God says there will be another flood
• Noah and his family will be spared (will repopulate the earth)
• 2 of each type of animal
• Broken

Question 30

Abraham and Issac

Answer 30

• Abraham only has one son
• God asked him to sacrifice his son
• Issac carries up the wood for the sacrifice
• They were going to sacrifice a ram in a thicket
• An angel tells him not to kill his son

Question 31

Moses

Answer 31

• Mount Sinai (Gets the 10 commandments)

- Broken w/ the golden calf

Question 32

David

Answer 32

• Builds a temple
• Met Bathsheba, who becomes pregnant
• Kills Bathsheba’s husband

Question 33

Prophets

Answer 33

• Covenant

- Prophets tell people to repent, and they don’t

Question 34

Christ

Answer 34

• Covenant
• So far has not been broken
• Creates a bond between man and God (Christ & Hypostatic union)
• John 3:16
• All because Mary said yes
• When we sin, we choose a falling out in the covenant

Question 35

Christ as Happiness

Answer 35

• Model of a life well lived

- Pinnacle of man

Question 36

What difference does God make to the Good?

Answer 36

• Obvious that non-Christians are very often good people (natural laws)
• Eternal beatitude
• Move from the natural to the theological (unifies physical & spiritual)
• The theological virtues (faith, hope, charity)
  
  • Gifts that we need to condition

Question 37

Original Holiness

Answer 37

• The original state of human beings in their relationship with God
• sharing in the divine life in full communion w/ him

Question 38

Concupiscence

Answer 38

• The tendency of all human beings towards sin

- a result of original sin