Exam Oct 31 Philosophy

According to Plato's creation myth, there are four ultimate causes of the visible universe. What are these four causes?

1) Devine craftsman (designing) Efficient cause2) Matter/space/the receptacle (indetermination) Material Cause3) forms/laws of nature Formal cause4) the form of forms/motivation Final cause (the Good)

St. Augustine offers an account of the meaning and purpose of marriage (book two, ch. ii, sec. 3). What does he say here is the primary purpose of marriage?

1. St. Augustine says that the primary purpose of marriage is to procreate and have children according to God's Law.

What are Aristotle's dates

384-322 B.C

How does the geographical center of Western philosophy change within the Hellenistic and Roman period of philosophy?

A movement from Athens to Rome

Define accidental form (or an accident) by making reference to change.

Accident is, according to Aris- totle, the material coincidence of two or more independently necessitated effects.

The common view is that there are two kinds of change. List and explain these two kinds of change.

Accidental/qualified change- occurs when the subject of the change is a particular substance and that same substance undergoes a change; Substantial/unqualified change- occurs when the subject of the change is not a particular substance and a new particular substance comes into being as a result.

How does Epicurus think about the good life for human beings (in your answer to this question, mention happiness, pleasure, pain, virtue, friends, and celibacy)?

Achieveing the i

According to Aristotle, 'substance' itself is a controlled equivocal term. Explain what that means

Actual being and Potential being

Things change, e.g., something becomes hot that was not hot before. Something can't be _______ hot and _______ hot at the same time in the same respect. Therefore, if something changes, it is changed by another. But the series of explanations for why a thing changes can't go on to infinity. Therefore, there is a _______ mover or changer, itself unmoved and unchanged, which ________ unmoved mover of changer is the ultimate—if not only—cause or explanation for why things change. The ________ unmoved mover or changer of things that change is what we call 'God.' Therefore, God exists.

Actually, temporarily, caused, un, eternal

What is the "law" of change that applies to all changes according to Aristotle?

All change involves some subject that persists through change, were subject undergoes change by losing one pair of contrary properties gaining the other.

In general, Aristotle solves the original problem of change by making a distinction. What distinction?

Aristotle - wisdom is built on sense perception.

What expressions does Parmenides use to describe being?

Believes in only one being because there is nothing outside of being but non-being

What is the third emanation from the One?

Body for Plotinus means bare physical matter, not organic body or livingmatter since it is organic or living only by virtue of the Soul.

What is the name for the third emanation from the One?

Body: bare physical matter; immanent aspect of Soul

How did we describe substance in the primary sense according to Aristotle?

Concrete individual being that is a center action or activity (eg: organism)

According to Augustine, whose words is he using here at the beginning of the Confessions?

Confessing the Faith (Matthew 10)Confessing Sin (1 John)Confessing Praise (of God)

What are the two divisions of practical philosophy and what subject does each of these disciplines treat?

Domain of ethics and politics Domain of arts

Who founded the Epicurean school of philosophy?

Epicurus

What does the work of these philosophers emphasize?

Ethics, living an untroubled life, the good is ataraxia, absence of pain rather than presence of pleasure

How did the ancient skeptic Pyrrho of Elis think about happiness?

Eudaimonia, Pyrrho encourages the sage to suppress the belief that going north is better than going south, because the preference (and following that the reasons the preference is based on) to go north is based on the illusion that going north is better than going south. Once one comes to understand the absurdity of preference, one will make no preference at all and reach a state of ataraxia. Pyrrho argues that in order to be happy one should go neither north nor south, but rather abstain from the choice. argue on both sides

St. Augustine thinks he had a pretty tough childhood. Given what St. Augustine says about the nature of God and creatures, why does it nonetheless make sense for St. Augustine to say the following: "Yet, Lord, I should have owed thanks to You, my God and the most excellent Creator and Ruler of the universe, even if it had been Your will that I should not live beyond boyhood" (book one, ch. xx, sec. 31)?

Existence is a gift from God and to exist is better than to not exist.

What are the three kinds of goods?

External Goods - wealth Goods of the body - health Goods of the soul - virtue

What is the problem with that way of thinking according to Aristotle?

For this reason one must guard against thinking of matter, as Aristotle conceivesit, as extended corporeal substance. Aristotle thinks that matter is sometimes butnot necessarily corporeal. Some of the examples he gives of the material factor? are the bronze of a statue, the silver of a bowl, the genus of which bronze and silver are species, the premises of a syllogism, and the letters of a syllable. While the first two examples are clearly corporeal and extended, the next two are certainly not and the last one is only dubiously so.

"You, O Lord, are ever living and in you nothing dies" (book one, ch. vi, sec. 9). What is St. Augustine saying here about the nature of God (see also, ch. vi, sec. 10)?

God is eternal and infinite

What kind of good is happiness according to Aristotle?

Happiness is all the goods

What is Aristotle's Organon?

His logical and methodology treatises grouped together

Which book of philosophy had a profound effect on St. Augustine in his early years (book three, chapter iv)?

Hortensius

What arguments do the Epicureans offer in an attempt to eliminate these fears?

If a person dies, he ceases to exist. Therefore he doesnt suffer. The fear of divine intervention is removed by understanding the nature of the gods in terms of the Epicurean ideal. Free will

In Aristotle's view, what are the clearest examples of substances in the primary sense?

Individual existing objects, things that you see, e.g car, tree, horse, human

List and explain the two kinds of virtues that Aristotle identifies.

Intellectual- we learn intellectual virtues by instruction Moral- all born with the potential to be morally virtuous

What is theoretical philosophy according to Aristotle?

It is concerned with the knowledge of what already is and must be; concerning reality as a fixed and unchangeable thing by humans

What was the potential problem for the skeptical school of thought the professor mentioned?

It leads to inaction and non commitment

What are the major divisions of Aristotle's philosophy?

Logic and Methodology, theoretical philosophy and a return down the ladder from principles to certain things

List and explain Aristotle's four causes

Material Cause: material of which a thing is composedFormal Cause: the structure of the materialEfficient Cause: the force that imposes the form upon a matterFinal Cause: purpose of factor that directs the efficient cause in a specific way

What is St. Augustine doing in book one, chapters ii-vi?

Meditating upon God: how is god everywhere, praise of god, prayer for forgiveness and light, and the providence of God. Announcing themes (putting God first)

Given the soundness of an Aristotelian proof for the existence of God, what sorts of attributes does God have according to Aristotle?

Not living, eternal, self-thinking, most true, most perfect, timeless

Which classical writer is associated with each of these theories?

Origenism: Origen of Alexandria (184-253 AD) - GreekTraducianism: Tertullian of Carthage (155-240 AD) - LatinCreationism: St. Jerome (347-420 AD)

What are the three Christian theories of the origin and nature of the soul being spoken about in St. Augustine's time?

Origenism; Traducianism; Creationism

What are the three divisions of theoretical philosophy and what subjects do each of these division treat

Philosophy of Nature: nature is a domain of changeNature of God: the ultimate cause of changeNature of Man: a part of change

Who founded the Academy of Athens?

Plato

With whom did Aristotle study for twenty years?

Plato

One way to think about Aristotle's views on substance is that they are the reverse of Plato's. Explain.

Plato points up to form to know abstract while Aristotle points to now, the concrete individual: form and matter

"I propose now to set down my past wickedness and the carnal corruptions of my soul. . . . and I collect myself out of that broken state in which my very being was torn asunder because I was turned away from Thee, the One, and wasted myself upon the many" (book two, chapter i, section 1). The professor suggested that St. Augustine's text here ought to bring a text we studied earlier in the course to mind. Which one?

Plato's the one and the many • application to politics (the many/the beautifuls sensible/never satisfy us) - remind us of what is perfect (i.e. the one - the source of all things)• uses the language of lover and philosophy (the head and the heart)

How did we describe the attitudes and approaches of the Pluralists and Plato to Parmenides and his arguments?

Pluralists compromised with Parmenides saying what we see and hear is an illusion. They think he's right, but they won't admit the senses deceive us like so. While Plato says there are two worlds, the Forms and the Sensible world, meaning being is something that can't be understood

What is the name for the first emanation from the One?

Reason (nous): the statement or expression of the one

How does Plotinus think about the nature of the One?

Reason is thus Plato's realm of Forms taken together with the thoughts of them, the realm of Ideasi n thedual sense of "idea (thought and object of thought), except that Reason also apparently includes, unlike Plato's realm ofForms, the ideas ofindividuals as well as of uni- versals. Reason is also like Aristotle's God or Unmoved Mover in being self-thinking thought. Whereasprimal reality, the One, transcends thedistinctions that are necessary to thought (funda- mentally the subject-object distinction), its first expression is to think itself in all its infinite richness.

What does Augustine begin to do in book one, chapter vi?

Recounting his relationship with God, starting at birth (wonders when the beginning was)

What is the second emanation from the One?

Soul (psyche) is the second emanation from the One and thus the logos, the statement, of Reason.

How does St. Augustine begin the Confessions?

St. Augustine begins the Confessions with a prayer of praise (worship of the divine being, citing God's words, first instance of an autobiography, writes from a perspective of a believer.

What passages from the New Testament does St. Augustine cite here in defense of his views?

St. Augustine cites 1 Corinthian's 7:33, "He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God: but he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife." (Augustine). He also quotes 1 Corinthians 7:1. "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." And 1 Corinthians 7:28, "Nevertheless such [as marry] shall have tribulation of the flesh; but I spare you" (Augustine).

Why does St. Augustine find his act of stealing the pears so perplexing?

St. Augustine finds his act of stealing the pears so perplexing because he had plenty of better pears of his own, and found no pleasure in the pears themselves.

Which of these three theories, if any, does St. Augustine come to accept?

St. Augustine never picks which he believes.

In the end, why does St. Augustine think he stole the pears?

St. Augustine thinks he stole the pears because of the pleasure in the crime itself, which came from the companionship of others sinning with him.

Explain the philosophical emphasis in the Early or Old Academy of Athens, in the Middle Academy of Athens, and in the Late or New Academy of Athens.

The Early Academy was focused on mathematics and pythagorean, The middle Academy was concerned with probability and theory of probability, the Late Academy was focused on Stoicism

Which philosophers make up the second stage of the period of Hellenistic and Roman philosophy according to Parker?

The Epicureans

Which philosophical school constitutes the third stage of this period?

The Stoics

In the context of talking about marriage here, St. Augustine also notes that the New Testament, without condemning marriage, nonetheless suggests there is a higher vocation than the married life. What is it?

The higher vocation than married life is being attentive to the things that belong to God or how one may please God.

does the human soul come into existence with the body in this life, or does it pre-exist the body?

The human soul starts at conception

What are the problems with those ways of thinking according to Aristotle?

The problem of change fails to distinguish two senses of same What is the subject of those changes where a new substance comes into being as a result of change

Parker reads Greek philosophy such that it consists of three stages. In stage one, the pre-Socratic cosmologists seek a knowledge of the whole of reality. In stage two, the anthropological philosophers, such as Socrates and the Sophists, focus on one part of reality, namely, human beings, without any concern to relate it to the whole of reality. Finally, in stage three the systematic philosophers Plato and Aristotle examine not only various parts of reality, including human beings, but relate these various parts to the whole of reality. In Parker's reading of the period of Hellenistic and Roman philosophy, which philosophers constitute a first stage of this period?

The skeptics

How does Parmenides argue for that conclusion?

The waves lash out but the water remains the same. Nothing Can Come from Nothing

How do the Greek atomists respond to the special problem of change?

They accept change is real but believe all changes are accidental changes in atoms

In what two ways can Heraclitus and Plato respond to the problem of change and the special problem of change?

They accept change is real but that all changes are substantial changes which means no biology

What does such a description imply about the status of the science of physics?

This description refutes physics

What does it mean for two things to be named univocally?

Two things given the same name and have the same meaning

What does it mean for two things to be named equivocally?

Two things given the same name but having different meaningsEG) Bank: money Bank: river

List and explain the two kinds of equivocal naming we mentioned in class.

Uncontrolled equivocation or complete equivocation: completely different meaningsControlled equivocation or analogous equivocation: different meanings but closely related

What is the special problem of change that we spoke about in class?

What is the matter of those changes when a new substance comes into being? Also known as the matter of substantial change.

"For Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." This is perhaps the most famous passage from the Confessions. In fact, arguably, St. Augustine is here announcing the major theme of the work. Explain the meaning of this passage in light of Hellenistic and Roman philosophy.

What makes a human happy? (pleasures v work on ones self)we want a perfect goodness and for anything that is material we can always think of something better than what we have right nowwe have been created in the image of perfect goodness and only perfect goodness and only perfect goodness can satisfy your wants (God)

'Sameness' and 'identity' are also said in many ways. What three ways?

X and y are absolutely the same if they do not differ in any respect, e.g., the referents of the Morning Star and the Evening Star. •X and y are specifically the same if they do not differ in species or kind, e.g., Dr. Brown and Dr. Coffey. •X and y are numerically the same if they do not differ in number, i.e., they are the same primary substance, e.g., Dr. Brown on Monday and Dr. Brown on Wednesday.

According to Pyrrho, how do achieve happiness?

You argue for both sides,

The Epicureans practice metaphysics in order to facilitate the experience of ataraxia. What is ataraxia?

calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet The highest goal of an Epicurean disciple was ataraxia—tranquility of mind.—

What is it that St. Augustine wants to know in ch. vi, sec. 9?

contemplates his infancy.. when was the beginning?

What kind of equivocation is at issue when we rightly use the word 'being' according to Aristotle?

controlled equivocation

In the view of the Epicurean school of philosophy, what three things are the chief roadblocks to enjoying ataraxia?

death, divine intervention, fate

St. Augustine comes to believe as a Catholic Christian that God creates all things other than Himself ex nihilo (from nothing). As the professor presented the doctrine of creation ex nihilo in class, that doctrine involves (i) two denials and (ii) three affirmations. Explain.

denials: 1) there is only one cause of the visible world.(God) and so God does not treated our of preexisting matter as plato thought2) god doesn't create the visible world from his own bodyAffirmations:1) God can bring something into nothing by simply thinking/willing it to happen2) god is not just the cause of the beginning of the universe, he is the constant creating cause

What is practical philosophy?

has doing and making rather than knowing as its goal; concerning reality as fluid and changeable by humans

How does Aristotle therefore answer the argument of Parmenides that tries to show that being cannot change?

he uses the philosophy of language saying that there are two ways of being: Actual and Potential

What is the original problem of change?

how could something change, yet stay the same?

In class we spoke of Plato's view of the human soul. What is it?

the immaterial soul hs always existed and will always exist

How does St. Augustine describe human beings at the beginning of the Confessions (book one, chapter i)?

tiny part of all the Lord has created: sinful, proud, desiring to praise the Lord

Is God the only efficient cause of the human soul?

yes