Philosophy Ch. 1-4

Argumentum ad hominem

("argument to the person"): the attempt to discredit a view by discrediting the person holding the view.

the three souls

(Aristotle)The ideal Soul also contains three distinct components: 1.Rational Located in the head; it finds itself constantly opposed to the appetitive component. Its virtue is wisdom. 2.Spirited Located in the heart; it is the source of action; it is continuously coveted by the rational and appetitive components of the soul. Its virtue is courage. 3.Appetitive Located in the lower part of the body; it contains all the primitive lusts and irrational desires. Its virtue is moderation.

Leucippus and Democritus

(Atomists)All things are composed of minute, imperceptible, indestructible, indivisible, eternal, and uncreated particles, differing in size, shape, and perhaps weight. Atoms are infinite in number and eternally in motion.

Thales

(Milesian) This man conceived and looked for (and is said to be the first to do so) a basic stuff out of which all is constituted. He pronounced it to be water. His view contributed to the idea that nature runs itself according to fixed processes that govern underlying substances.

Anaximander

(Milesian) This man thought the basic substance must be more elementary than water and must be ageless, boundless, and indeterminate. He pronounced the basic substance to be air.

Begging the question

(also called circular reasoning): more or less assuming the very thing that the argument is intended to prove.

Black-or-white fallacy

(false dilemma): an argument that assumes there are only two options when in fact other options exist.

Metaphysics

(ontology) questions related to existence, deal with subjects more abstract and difficult to understand than those examined in the Physics

soul

(psyche, mind, logos, nous, reason)

Atomists

*(determinists) distinguished inherent(primary) and non-inherent(secondary) qualities of everyday objects: color and taste are not really "in" objects (they are secondary qualities), but other qualities, such as weight and hardness, are (they are primary qualities). The ___ held that because things move, empty space must be real.

Empedocles

*This man, reconciling the views of Heraclitus and Parmenides, recognized change in objects but said they were composed of changeless basic material particles: earth, air, fire, water. The apparent changes in the objects of experience were in reality changes in the positions of the basic particles. He also recognized basic forces of change, love, and strife.

The Dialectic Method

1st Step(propose an argument): Socrates, who claims to know nothing of the "big" philosophical questions, meets somebody (usually a young man) who claims to know something about these questions. 2nd Step(recognition of ignorance): Pretending to learn from the young man, Socrates begins to ask questions about this philosophical question and at the end leads the young man into admitting his ignorance. 3rd Step(search for the truth): At this point, Socrates says to his companion: "Look, here we are, two ignorant men, yet two men who desire to know. I am willing to pursue the question seriously if your are willing." The real philosophizing begins at this point.

common thread of the pre-Socratics

All believed that the world we experience is merely a manifestation of a more fundamental, underlying reality.

first philosophy

Aristotle called metaphysics "___ ___"

third man argument

Aristotle used the ___ ___ ___ to take issue against Plato's Theory of Forms.

Aristotle's theory of knowledge

Aristotle's __ of __ That which is absolutely simple and first, God, can only be understood through intuition. The most fundamental principles of knowing, including the principle of contradiction(a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect), must also be known intuitively.

sound reasoning

Aristotle's contribution to the study of ___ ___ is fundamentally important, and he is known as the father of logic.

universals

Aristotle's own view is that the forms are ___(something that more than one individual can be) but that such ___ do not exist apart from particulars.

God

Because actuality is the source of change, pure actuality(that is, the unchanged changer) is the ultimate source of change. ___ is the source of all change

Axiology

Ethics, moral philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, aesthetics

Syllogism

Example of ___(logic): P1: All crimes are violations of the law. P2: Theft is a crime. C: Therefore, theft is a violation of the law. Aristotle's logic is linked to his metaphysics because he believed that the forms of thought in which we think about reality represent the way reality actually is.

true knowledge

For Plato, the objects of __ ____ are the Forms, which are apprehended by reason. (Perfect beauty or absolute goodness cannot be perceived by the senses.)

Pythagoras

For him, there is an intimacy between things and numbers. Things participate in the universe of order and harmony. This led to the concept that fundamental reality is eternal, unchanging, and accessible only to reason. This man is said to have maintained that things are numbers, but, more accurately (according to his wife Theano), ___ meant that things are things because they can be enumerated. If something can be counted, it is a thing (whether physical or not). (c. 572 -500 B.C.) Greek mathematician Everything is number Discoverer of Irrational Numbers

particular thing

For him, to be is to be a ___ ___, and each thing is composed of matter in a particular form; with the exception of God, neither form nor matter is ever found in isolation from the other. **There is no separate and superior realm of Forms

Heraclitus

For this man, the essential feature of reality is fire, whose nature is ceaseless change determined by a cosmic order he called the logos, through which there is a harmonious union of opposites. "a person cannot step into the same river twice"

pure actuality

God is ___ ___

Eudaemonia

Happiness is a way of measuring to what degree a human being is fulfilling his or her potential.

Rational

Located in the head; it finds itself constantly opposed to the appetitive component. Its virtue is wisdom.

Spirited

Located in the heart; it is the source of action; it is continuously coveted by the rational and appetitive components of the soul. Its virtue is courage.

Appetitive

Located in the lower part of the body; it contains all the primitive lusts and irrational desires. Its virtue is moderation.

divisions of philosophy

Metaphysics(ontology) - questions related to existence, deal with subjects more abstract and difficult to understand than those examined in the Physics - Epistemology(questions related to knowledge) - the branch of philosophy concerned primarily with the nature, sources, limits, and criteria of knowledge. - Axiology - Ethics, moral philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, aesthetics - Logic - the theory of correct reasoning

philosophical questions

Philosophy is interested in questions of general character, such as, time, space, existence, sociality, beauty, love, and death.

sense perception.

Plato also argued against the popular notion that knowledge can be equated with _ _. _ _ cannot be knowledge

Platonic dualism

Plato introduced into Western thought a two-realms concept of a "sensible," changing world (a source of error, illusion, and ignorance) and a world of Forms that is unchanging (the source of all reality and all true knowledge). **Anaxagoras introduced dualism first

Theory of Love and Becoming.

Plato's ___ of ___ and ___ Each individual has in his or her immortal soul a perfect set of Forms which can be remembered (anamnesis), and only this constitutes true knowledge. In The Symposium, Plato postulated the notion of loveas the way for a person to go from the state of imperfection and ignorance to the state of perfection and true knowledge.

theory of knowledge

Plato's ___ of ____ = epistemology Plato developed the first comprehensive __ of __ in philosophy, though many of his predecessors had implicit epistemological theories, some of them based in skepticism. All knowledge is recollection of what the soul already knows.

The Socratic Method

The Dialectic Method

physical world

The ___ ___ can be divided into the essences, or species, of mineral, vegetable, and animal.

intelligent or spiritual

The ___ soul (nous) is pure and immortal and is the source of conceptual thought and the understanding of being.

animal

The ___ soul is the basis of sensation and movement.

vegetative

The ___ soul is the source of nourishment.

pre-Socratics

The first Western philosophers, a loose chronological term applying to those Greek philosophers who lived before Socrates (c. 470-399 B.C.).

philosophy

The word comes from two Greek words, philein (which means "to love") and sophia (which means "knowledge" or "wisdom") ; the love for knowledge/wisdom

potentialities

Things move and are moved as a process of actualizing some of their ___. It is things' love and longing of perfection (or God) that moves the universe.

Cratylus

This man argued that a person cannot step even once into the same river because the person and the river are continually changing. True communication is impossible since words change their meaning even as they are spoken. It seems to follow that knowledge would also be impossible.

Heraclitus

This man believed that just as one cannot step into the same river twice, everything is in flux; though he himself did not deduce skeptical conclusions from his metaphysical theory, it does suggest that it is impossible to discover any fixed truth beyond what the theory itself expresses.

Plato

This man believed what is truly real is not the objects of sensory experience but the Forms or Ideas. These are not just in the head but are in a separate realm and are ageless, eternal, unchanging, unmoving, and indivisible. Circularity and beauty are examples of Forms.

Xenophanes

This man declared that even if truth were stated it would not be known.

Parmenides

This man deduced from a priori principles that being is a changeless, single, permanent, indivisible, and undifferentiated whole.

Anaxagoras

This man introduced philosophy to Athens and introduced into metaphysics the distinction between matter and mind. He held that the formation of the world resulted from rotary motion induced in mass by mind = reason = nous. Mind did not create matter, but only acted on it, and did not act out of purpose or objective. *Unlike Empedocles, ___ believed matter was composed of particles that were infinitely divisible.

Socrates

This man was not interested in arguing with his fellow Athenians merely for the sake of argument--as the Sophists were--but rather he wanted to discover the essential nature of knowledge, justice, beauty, goodness, and the virtues(such as courage).

Theory of Forms

What is truly real is not the objects of sensory experience but the Forms or Ideas. These are not just in the head but are in a separate realm and are ageless, eternal, unchanging, unmoving, and indivisible. Circularity and beauty are examples of Forms.

argument

When someone supports a belief by giving a reason for accepting the belieft.

truth, beauty, and goodness

_ _ and _are of a higher order than others.

platonic love

_ _ is intellectual or spiritual, though it does not exclude the love of physical beauty.

forms

_ are objects of true knowledge, which are apprehended by reason

actuality

_ is the source of change

Discursive reasoning

___ ___ defines things by way of their limitations, sameness, and differences; it is the basis of science and provides an understanding of everyday human life. (discussion)

the soul

___ ___ is the principle of independent movement within each human being, providing the purposes and ultimate end which human beings pursue.

Change

___ can be viewed as movement from potentiality to actuality.

intuition

___ is an immediate, direct seeing of a certain truth. (gut feeling)

essense

___ refers to the definition, what a thing is in common with other things person's ___: rational animal.

Substance

___ refers to the individual, particular thing

Red herring

a general term for those arguments that address a point other than the one that is at issue. Ad hominem, appeals to emotion, and straw man can all be seen as specific types of ___

love

according to Plato, _ is the way for a person to go from the state of imperfection and ignorance to the state of perfection and true knowledge.

atoms

are infinite in number and eternally in motion

Appeals to emotion

arguments that try to establish conclusions solely by attempting to arouse or play on the emotions of a listener or reader.

final cause

cause - its purpose or end

formal cause

cause - the form of the thing

material cause

cause - what it is made of

efficient cause

cause - what made it

pure possibility

matter is ___ ___

nous

mind = reason = _

fallacy

mistake in reasoning

logos

nature is ceaseless change determined by a cosmic order Heraclitus called

Philosophy of discipline areas

philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and philosophy of religion.

inherent

primary; weight and hardness

non-inherent

secondary; color and taste

ten basic categories

the ___ ___ ___(qualities) of being: substance, quantity, quality, relationships, place, time, posture, constitution, passivity, and activity.

Straw man

the alleged refutation of a view by the refutation of a misrepresentation of that view.

Protagoras

the best-known Sophist philosopher, maintained that "man is the measure of all things."

Epistemology

the branch of philosophy concerned primarily with the nature, sources, limits, and criteria of knowledge.

the four basic questions

the four ___ ___ that explain the existence of anything: The formal cause The material cause The efficient cause The final cause

conclusion

the point the person is trying to establish

Logic

the theory of correct reasoning

First Principles

water, earth, air, fire