Philosophy Chapter 2

Darwin

- Argued that all living organisms evolved from earlier species through variations, and struggle for existance, and natural selection. - Humans have no purpose and are not unique.

Traditional Western View

- Claims humans are rational selves, who are immaterial, have a purpose, endure through time, and exist independently of others. - Reason should rule over passions and desires.

Existentialist View

- Deny that there is a fixed human nature. - Claims that each human creates his or her own nature, so human nature precedes essence. - Asserts people are free and thus responsible for what they are: the sum of their total actions.

"I think therefore I am"

- Descartes

____ believes "The enduring self is the soul":

- Descartes

Duelist View

- Descartes: thinking is necessary for the self; essence. - Mind and body are seperate.

Judeo-Christian View

- Humans are made in the image of God. - Ability to reason and love. - Self is immaterial and its purpose is to love and know God.

Gnostics

- Physical is bad. - Soul is good.

Forms

- Plato - Eternal and perfect ideals that exist in an unchanging perfect heaven.

Appetite

- Plato - Thirst, hunger, sexual, and other physical desires.

Reason

- Plato - Uniquely human capacity of thinking reflectively and drawing conclusions. - The ability to relationships from one though to another in an orderly and rational way.

Human Nature

- Vocabulary Term - Refers to what a human is. - Concerns whether humans are aggressive, material, and self-interested.

Self

- Vocabulary Term. - The ego or "I" that exists in a physical body and that is conscious and rational.

Beliefs about our natue influence...

-Our relationships - Our view of our place in the universe. - Our view of how society should be arranged.

Plato's 3 Parts of Human Nature:

1. Basic appetites and desires. 2. Animal aggression. 3. Human reason.

_____ conflicts with reason according to Plato.

Aggressiveness.

Feminists

Argue that the Traditional Western view of human nature is biased against women.

______ says that reason is our highest power and is what distinguishes human nature.

Aristotle

New Dualism View

Brain and body are different but connected.

____ believes "There is no enduring self":

Buddhism and Hume

Moral(ity)

Choice between good and evil.

Materialist View

Hobbes: Only the material body.

Plato thinks the soul is ____ and ____.

Immortal and immaterial.

____ believes "Memory is the basis of the enduring self":

Locke

Introspection

Look at our own self actions.

_____ ______ claims that when people act intentionally they always expect a self-regarding benefit or reward.

Mark Mercer.

Behaviorist View

Mental activities seen in behaviors.

Functionalist View

Mind is a result of imputes from the body, body provides output from the brain.

All humans have a _____ according to Aristotle.

Purpose.

Human beings are made so that they can only act out of ____.

Self-interest.

Purpose of human beings:

Self-mastery through reason.

Self-regarding end

Something that rewards or benefits one own self.

According to Aristotle the purpose of humans is:

To use their reason to think and to control their desires and aggressions.

_____ view of human nature and our ordinary thinking assume that humans have a self that endures through time.

Traditional View

Plato believes that there are _______ of a person.

Two disticnt parts.

Psychological Egoism

Vocabulary Term. Human beings only act out of self-interest.

Human nature may be considered ____ and ____.

selfish; material.