PHIL 300 Quiz 1-7
As Descartes sees it, the possibility he might now be dreaming calls the reliability of his senses further into doubt than does the possibility of divine deception (or the possibility that he came to exist as a result of chance causation).
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As Descartes ultimately sees it in Meditation One, the possibility that he is insane gives him a reason for doubting that the senses are reliable even when external conditions are ideal (i.e. things aren't too small or too far away, etc.).
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As Mill sees it, anyone equally capable of appreciating two pleasures is a competent judge of the relative qualitative superiority of those pleasures.
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Because this is a philosophy class, not an English class, it doesn't matter whether your essays for this course are written in grammatically correct, properly punctuated, or properly spelled English.
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Being a polygon is a sufficient condition for the proper application of the concept of being a triangle.
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Being male is a sufficient condition for the proper application of the concept of being a bachelor because you have to be male to be a bachelor.
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Berkeley is a metaphysical dualist; he believes there are two kinds of substance: material substance and immaterial substance.
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Berkeley thinks physical things don't exist.
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Berkeley thinks that whenever you have an idea of something (e.g. a unicorn) this guarantees that the object of your idea (e.g. the unicorn) really exists.
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Descartes claims that God guarantees that we will never be deceived by anything we believe.
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Descartes claims that God, who is good, tests our faith by occasionally deceiving us regarding what we clearly and distinctly perceive.
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Descartes contends that ordinary perceptual error gives him a reason for doubting everything he's come to believe on the basis of the senses.
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Descartes sets the height of the justificatory standard for determining what we know and what we don't know low because he thinks it's important to maximize our knowledge.
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Descartes thinks bodies and minds are made of material substance (which occupies space), while he thinks souls and smoke are made of immaterial substance (which does not occupy space).
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Descartes thinks that the possibility that he might now be dreaming gives him reason to doubt that the external world of time, space, figures, extension and bodies even exists.
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Descartes' strategy in Meditation One for examining his belief set involves relying primarily upon the first condition of the Tripartite.
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Different competent speakers of English (who are competent speakers of only English) could have different concepts of being a bachelor.
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Epistemology is the subfield of (traditional area in) philosophy concerned with the fundamental nature of reality.
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Good philosophy essays make every effort to sound good regardless of the effect this has on their clarity.
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In Chapter 2 of Utilitarianism, Mill raises objections to utilitarianism in order to prove that moral theory to be incorrect.
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In doing philosophy, philosophers rely primarily upon the scientific method.
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Individual Subjectivism (in Ethics) is the view that different people have different views about which acts are morally right or morally wrong.
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It is possible to deceive someone that does not exist.
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Kant maintains that all knowledge is a priori knowledge.
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Kant maintains that the structure of our minds determines what the phenomenal world is like in every regard.
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Kant maintains that we can never know whether there really is a noumenal world
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Kant maintains that we can never know whether there really is a phenomenal world.
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Kant thinks that time and space are knowable only a posteriori as they are part of the contribution the noumenal world makes to experience.
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Metaphysics is the ssubfield of (traditional area in) philosophy concerned with the ethics of physics.
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Mill contends that happiness consists in living well and doing well.
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Mill contends that the morally right thing for you do to is whatever makes you happiest.
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Mill recognizes qualitative as well as a quantitative distinctions among pains.
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Mill thinks that the morally right thing to do is whatever produces the most immediate happiness, whatever the longterm consequences might be.
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Mill thinks the circumstantial advantages of mental pleasures (their greater permanency, safety, uncostliness, etc.) establish their qualitative superiority over bodily pleasures.
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Most people set the standard by which they determine whether they'll believe some particular thing by reference to the importance of not being wrong about that matter.
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People who have a strong sense of self-worth and competence are more likely to engage in denial than people who are beset by self-doubt.
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Philosophy is strictly and solely concerned with answering fundamental questions (not sufficiently addressed by science or religion) through the use of reason.
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Something is essential to a thing if the thing could exist without it, but wouldn't be as happy.
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Subjectivists have a viable answer to The Why Question.
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The concept of being water is the property of being H20.
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The primary purpose of asking you to attempt to generate counter-examples to each of the three conditions of the Tripartite was to prove the Tripartite to be false so that you wouldn't accept it as a correct account of knowledge.
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The traditional response to The Pig Objection distinguishes between two different types of pleasures, intellectual pleasures and emotional pleasures, and maintains that activities that give rise to the first of these produce more pleasure than activities that give rise to the second.
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There are obvious counter-examples to each of the conditions the Tripartite contends are necessary for knowledge.
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Descartes begins Meditations by noting that there are things he believed to be true in the past that he now recognizes to be false; things he thought he knew that he now realizes he didn't actually know.
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Descartes claims that God guarantees everything we clearly and distinctly perceive is true, certain and rationally indubitable.
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Descartes claims that every time we are deceived it is because we have deceived ourselves.
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Descartes contends that if you have reason for doubting that p, then you cannot know that p.
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Descartes contends that ordinary perceptual error (the kind that arises when things are small or far away) gives him a reason for doubting that the sense are always reliable.
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Descartes contends that ordinary perceptual error gives him a reason for doubting everything he's come to believe on the basis of the senses.
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Descartes is a metaphysical dualist; he believes there are two kinds of substance.
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Descartes is a metaphysical dualist; he believes there are two kinds of substance: material substance and immaterial substance.
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Descartes is approaching the Rational Indubitability Standard from two different standpoints in Meditations; metaphorically, he goes from being the defense attorney with the easy job of establishing doubt in Meditation One, to being the prosecution with the harder job of establishing his case beyond a reasonable doubt in Meditation Two.
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Descartes maintains that the possibility of divine deception (or of chance causation) calls into doubt what we've come to believe based on sense experience we've had even when external and internal conditions are ideal.
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Descartes sets his standard of proof for justified belief rationally (i.e. in proportion to what he sees as the importance that he not be wrong about the relevant matter) but he fails in applying his standard properly to his belief in the existence of God.
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Descartes subscribes to a version of the Tripartite Theory of Knowledge (i.e. accepts it as a correct account of what it is to know).
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Descartes thinks it's very important that we not be wrong in thinking we know something when we really don't.
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Descartes thinks that he is essentially a mind that accidentally (or inessentially) has a body.
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Descartes thinks that the possibility of divine deception (or the possibility that he came to exist as a result of chance causation) gives him reason to doubt that the external world of time, space, figures, extension and bodies even exists.
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Descartes' argument that he exists (and that his existence is both certain and rationally indubitable) can be reconstructed as an Argument by Cases, with the twist that one of the cases turns out to be impossible.
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Descartes' overarching project in Meditations consists in figuring out what he knows and what he doesn't (i.e. determining which of his beliefs are constitutive of knowledge and which are not).
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Descartes' strategy in Meditation One for examining his belief set involves examining his foundational beliefs first and looking for reasons for doubt.
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For Subjectivism to be a viable moral theory, it must provide a viable answer to the Why Question.
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From the rational perspective, the height of the justificatory standard appropriate to a matter ought to be proportional to the importance of not being wrong about that matter.
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If two people are competent speakers of English and they disagree about the proper analysis of a concept of English at least one of them is wrong.
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Implicit in the differential justificatory standard of the U.S. criminal and civil justice systems is the view that freedom is more important than money.
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In your 5-page essay assignment, you are to defend your analysis by considering (i.e. presenting and responding to) two carefully chosen putative counterexamples; one which suggests your analysis is too broad and one which suggests that your analysis is too narrow.
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Individual conditions are rarely sufficient for the proper application of concepts of general philosophical significance; instead a set of conditions are jointly sufficient for that proper application.
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It's impossible for an individual competent speaker of English (and only English) to have a unique concept not shared by other competent speakers of English.
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It's possible for the very same set of conditions to be individually necessary and, taken together, jointly sufficient for the proper application of a concept.
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Just as we can misapply paint, we can misapply concepts.
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Kant argued that we are "hard-wired" (determined by the very structure of the mind) to perceive physical things as located in space and time; that we impose time and space onto the world, they aren't a feature of the noumenal world independent of that imposition.
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Kant argues that what we can know a priori is what we ourselves contribute to experience.
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Kant distinguishes between the noumenal world (the world as it is independent of us) and the phenomenal world (the world of experience/the world as we experience it).
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Meditation One is Descartes' epistemological tear-down project, while in Meditation Two he begins to rebuild.
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Mill accepts the traditional response to The Pig Objection, but maintains that there's an even better response available to the utilitarian.
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Mill contends that mental pleasures are both quantitatively and qualitatively superior to bodily pleasures.
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Mill contends that to be a morally good person is to maximize happiness.
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Mill is a hedonist; he contends that only pleasure has intrinsic value.
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Mill subscribes to utilitarianism, the view that what makes an action morally right or wrong is that it maximizes utility.
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Most people set the standard by which they determine whether they'll believe some particular thing by reference to how much they want to believe that thing.
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Objectivism (in Ethics) is the view that perception-independent reality contributes to the rightness or wrongness of actions.
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One word can pick out multiple concepts and multiple words can pick out the same concept.
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Philosophy can be distinguished from science and religion on the basis of methodology and content (areas of overlap aside).
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Philosophy is the progenitor ("source") of science.
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Rational doubt is doubt for a reason--any reason.
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Reasonable doubt is doubt sufficient to lead a reasonable man to change their course of action regarding a matter of significance.
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Religion ultimately relies upon faith (i.e. belief, in the absence of sufficient reason) in providing the answers that it does.
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Since a counterexample to an analysis is an example that shows the analysis to be incorrect, there are no counterexamples to a correct analysis (although there may be putative or alleged counterexamples to one).
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Since this course is a three unit college-transfer level course, you are expected to "study" for this course outside of class (do assigned reading, review notes, commit material to memory, etc.) for no less than six hours a week on average.
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Subjectivism (in Ethics) is the view that what makes an action morally right or morally wrong is the attitude of some subject(s) towards it.
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The Pig Objection is the objection to utilitarianism which rests on the contention that if that moral theory were correct, the morally right thing to do would be to act like a pig.
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The Tripartite Theory of Knowledge is an analysis of the concept of knowledge.
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The Tripartite Theory of Knowledge is an example of a conceptual analysis.
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The content of concepts as well as their proper analysis is a matter of objective linguistic fact, not a matter of individual opinion.
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The more important the aspect of your self-image that's challenged by reality, the more likely you are to go into denial.
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The noumenal world is the world as it is independent of our experience, the world of things-in-themselves.
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There are no counterexamples to a correct analysis.
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There are three levels of lenses through which we experience the world (i.e. three contributors to our experience—beyond the external world itself): the structure of the human mind (Kantian concepts), culture (including language, which in turn includes concepts in the contemporary analytic philosopher's sense), and individual life experience.
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Under the U.S. justice system, it's possible to be found civilly liable but not criminally guilty for what is effectively the same charge based on the same evidence.
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According to the Tripartite Theory of Propositional Knowledge, an epistemic subject cannot believe a proposition, p, if that proposition, p, is false.
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Denial is a psychological coping mechanism that leads people to irrationally refuse to accept truths they have adequate reason to believe.
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A condition is a necessary condition for the proper application of a concept to a thing if and only if, were that condition satisfied by that thing, no further condition would need to be satisfied for the concept to properly apply to it.
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A condition is a sufficient condition for the proper application of a concept to a thing if and only If that condition must be satisfied by that thing for the concept to properly apply to it.
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All knowledge is propositional knowledge.
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An Argument by Cases has the form: P or Q. If P, then Q. If Q, then P. Therefore, R.
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An analysis is too broad if what it maintains to be necessary conditions for the proper application of a concept are in fact not necessary for the proper application of that concept.
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An analysis of a concept is a specification of the conditions under which competent speakers of a language usually apply that concept.
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Any question science or religion address is not of philosophical interest.
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Aristotle contends that happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain.
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As Descartes sees it, an epistemic subject is justified in believing a proposition if and only if they are certain that proposition is true.
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A concept (in the contemporary analytic philosopher's sense) is a property as thought about by competent speakers of a language.
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A correct analysis is neither too narrow nor too broad.
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A counter-example to a claim is an example that proves the claim is false.
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A counterexample to an analysis is an example that shows the analysis to be incorrect.
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A good philosophy essay must contain a conclusion that makes clear what the essay has accomplished, acknowledges what the essay has not accomplish (e.g. questions raised or suggested, but not answered, by the essay), and points to opportunities for further philosophical investigation.
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A good philosophy essay must contain an introduction that makes clear the specific concern of the essay, presents an overview that makes clear what the subsequent parts of the essay will be, and makes clear the author's position regarding the specific concern of the essay.
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A posteriori knowledge is knowledge gotten through experience.
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A property (in the analytic philosopher's sense) is a way a thing can be; a feature or characteristic of a thing.
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A standard of proof (also known as a standard of justification or justificatory standard) refers to the level of certainty or the degree of evidence necessary to establish a conclusion.
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According to Descartes, his belief in the reliability of the senses is foundational to his belief set as a whole.
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According to the Tripartite Theory of Propositional Knowledge, an epistemic subject knows some proposition to be true only if that subject is justified in believing it's true.
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According to the Tripartite Theory of Propositional Knowledge, if an epistemic subject, s, doesn't believe some proposition, p, s cannot know that p.
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According to the Tripartite Theory of Propositional Knowledge, only true propositions can be the objects of propositional knowledge; you can't know something that isn't true.
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An analysis is too broad if what it maintains to be sufficent conditions for the proper application of a concept are in fact not sufficient for the proper application of that concept.
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An analysis of a concept is a specification of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the proper application of that concept to a thing.
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As Descartes sees it, an unjustified belief is no more a candidate for knowledge (i.e. no more something someone could know) than a false belief.
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As Descartes ultimately sees it in Meditation One, the possibility that he is dreaming gives him a reason for doubting that the senses are reliable even when external conditions are ideal (i.e. things aren't too small or too far away, etc.).
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As it is UC and CSU transferrable, this course will uphold UC and CSU standards for academic rigor.
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At the start of Meditation Two, Descartes is looking for an epistemological Archimedean point; a point of certainty from which to leverage his way to a better epistemological position.
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Being three-sided is a necessary condition for the proper application of the concept of being a triangle.
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Berkeley contends that physical things are just a variety of idea and, like all ideas, they have no mind-independent existence.
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Concepts are by definition shared by all competent speakers of a language.
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Concepts are properties as thought about by competent speakers of a language.
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Concepts are shared general ideas that all competent speakers of a particular language have in common in virtue of being competent speakers of that language.
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Concepts matter in part because they can affect the trajectory of our lives.
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Conceptually necessary (or sufficient) conditions are different from causually necessary (or sufficient) conditions; conceptually necessary (or sufficient conditions) are conditions for the proper application of a concept, while causually necessary (or sufficient conditions) are conditions for the occurence of an event.
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