Unit 1: Pagan Philosophy and Christ's Influence Flashcards
Branches of Philosophy
- Metaphysics
- Ethics
- Politics
- Esthetics
- Epistemology
What are Ethics made of?
- The Good Life: the ideal
- Right: The opposite of wrong, defined by laws
- Ought: Personal obligation, duty, and responsibility
Allegory of the Cave
- 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
Theology & Philosophy
- Philosophy aids theology
- Philosophy answers questions about life
Aristotle
- Very systematic teacher
- Student of Socrates
- Wrote Nichomacean Ethics, Poetics, Metaphysics, Rhetoric, and Politics
Aristotle on Human Nature
- Teleology: The study of the purpose of all things
- The telos of the human person answers the question of relativism
Telos
- Observed by Aristotle
- Everything in nature seemed to have a purpose for which it as made
- A goal towards which it strove
- “Final Cause”
Telos of a Human
- Happiness
- The ultimate reason why people do what they do
What is the consensus on how to achieve happiness?
- We lead a happy life by the way of virtue
- Necessary condition for happiness
Eternal Beatitude
- Happiness forever in Heaven
- Telos of a Christian person
Character
- 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)
Parts of the Human Being (Christian Anthropology)
- 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)
Intellect
-To see and understand the order of things
Will
-To choose the good that our reason understands
Why are virtuous people the happiest?
- They live a life of harmony between the intellect and will
- Experiencing it is the best proof
Aristotle’s Anthropology
-Human –> Body, SOUL–> Rational, NONRATIONAL–> Appetitive, Vegatative
Appetititive
- Feelings/Passions
- Ex: Anger, Fear, Happiness, Sadness
- Important to Ethics
Vegatative
- Involuntary Acts
- Breathing, heartbeat, blinking
- NOT IMPORTANT TO ETHICS*
Rational
- Reason to think/ Intellect
- Important to ethics
Nonrational
- A person’s will
- Not important to ethics
Aristotle’s Definition of Virtue
-Virtue is when rational influences appetitive (2nd nature)
Definition of Virtue (Christian)
- A firm attitude, stable disposition, habitual perfection of intellect and will
- Govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct
- 2nd nature
The Golden Mean
- 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
Levels of Existence
- Rock (exists)
- Plants (have life)
- Animals (can will)
- Humans (can choose)
Practical Advice about Virtue
- The virtuous person is the measure
- Know yourself
- Be careful of pleasure (you will be unhappy)
- Try to achieve happiness through virtue
Acts of the Apostles
- 17: 16-34
- Paul entered Athens (Where Aristotle is from)
- Paul says they are religious, will tell them about God
Who is Christ?
- Liar (not true that he is God)
- Lunatic (crazy because he is not God)
- Lord (what he says is true, he is God)
Adam and Eve
- Covenant
- First falling out
- Creates original sin
Noah’s Arc
- 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
Abraham and Issac
- 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
Moses
- Mount Sinai (Gets the 10 commandments)
- Broken w/ the golden calf
David
- Builds a temple
- Met Bathsheba, who becomes pregnant
- Kills Bathsheba’s husband
Prophets
- Covenant
- Prophets tell people to repent, and they don’t
Christ
- 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
Christ as Happiness
- Model of a life well lived
- Pinnacle of man
What difference does God make to the Good?
- 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
Original Holiness
- The original state of human beings in their relationship with God
- sharing in the divine life in full communion w/ him
Concupiscence
- The tendency of all human beings towards sin
- a result of original sin
