Philosophy

Categorical Imperative

"Do [y.]" (See hypothetical imperative). According to Kant, "don't lie" is a categorical imperative, and even lying to an axe murderer is absolutely wrong. Treat people as ends, not means. - Context and Relevance: Kant's belief that categorical imperatives are universally valid: "Don't kill."

Cogito Ergo Sum

"I think therefore I am." Every-time we think, we prove our existence. - Context and Relevance: Descartes' proof of his existence because even if he is being fooled and nothing around him exists, for him to be fooled he must be in existence.

Modus Ponens

"If x then y; x, then y." - Context and Relevance: If today is Monday then John will go to work. Today is Monday, therefore John will go to work.

Hypothetical Imperative

"If you want [x], then do [y.]" - Context and Relevance: Kant's distinction between categorical imperatives and hypothetical imperatives is that categorical ones do not rely on anything. They are always objectively and universally true/valid. "I must study in order to get an A."

love of wisdom

"Philos" means "love" and "Sofia" means "Wisdom." So philosophy means love of wisdom. - Context and Relevance: Socrates came up with this word.

Moral Relativism

"Right," and "wrong," are relative to the society in which you live. There are no objective standards of right and wrong. - Context and Relevance: It is wrong of us to judge/impose our values on another society. Example: Iranians think killing people is okay if it means supporting their Kuran and virgins, we as Americans and Jews think that's messed up.

The Unexamined Life

"The Unexamined Life is not worth living." This quote means that there is no point to life if you are not going to question it and everything that you do. - Context and Relevance: It comes from Plato's "Apology" about the trial and death of Socrates.

Greatest Conceivable Being

- Context and Relevance: Descartes says that God is the greatest conceivable being in his fifth Meditation. He says this through the proof of God's existence, and the proof is that "God is the greatest conceivable being. The greatest conceivable being must possess all perfections. Existence is a perfection. Therefore God must exist."

Ontology

A branch of metaphysics that is the philosophical study of existence and being. - Context and Relevance: A branch of philosophy.

Final End

A goal, a telos, the goal at which we aim. Aristotle says that it is based on the account of final end for humanity acting rationally with virtue to achieve Eudaimonaia.

Deceiving Demon

A hypothetical being that could fool us "every time we count the sides of a triangle," or try "to add two and two together." The next level of skepticism and has the most room for doubting beliefs. - Context and Relevance: Comes from Descartes' mediations and is a way for him to question everything around him up until he proves the existence of God.

Matters of Fact

A posteriori, justified through experience. Chalkboard is green, sky is blue, the sun will come out tomorrow. Context: Hume

Epicureans

A school of thought by philosopher Epicureas, who said that the neutrality of the Gods do not interfere with human lives. Everything is made up of atoms. The greatest good is free from pain. - Context and Relevance: Epicureas. The difference between epicureans and utilitarians is that epicureans just want to avoid pain while utilitarians want to also maximize pleasure.

Soundness

A sound argument is one in which all premises are true, and it is also a valid argument. Validity and Soundness examples: Assuming that all accountants make a lot of money, saying that Jimmy is an accountant therefore he makes a lot of money is a valid. If the premise that all accountants make a lot of money is true, then it is also a sound argument. If it is not true and there are poor accountants, then the argument is not sound. An invalid argument would be "some accountants make a lot of money, Jimmy is an accountant and therefore makes a lot of money."

Moral Absolutism

A subsection of moral objectivism which states that there are moral rules that may never be violated. "Don't lie." "Don't cheat." "Don't steal." - Context and Relevance: See Emmanuel Kant. (Prema Facia is choosing the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils under the assumption that each decision has different "weight" to it.)

Clear and Distinct Ideas

According to Descartes, everything he perceives clearly and distinctly must be true if God exists and there is no deceiving demon. This is part of his Cartesian Circle because he uses the clear and distinct argument to say that because he clearly and distinctly perceives the idea of God, and everything he clearly and distinctly perceives is true, therefore God exists.

Locke's Ideas

All ideas and knowledge are from experience.

Idealism

All that exists are ideas and the minds that hold them. To be is to be perceived.

Formal Reality

All things in existence have a formal reality, and this comes in 3 degrees: Modes have the least amount of formal reality, finite substances have more than modes, and infinite substances have more formal reality than finite substances. - Context and Relevance: Comes from Descartes' Meditations. The importance of it stems from the connection to Objective reality, and how this all relates back to the existence of a God.

validity

Arguments, not sentences, are valid. If the premise of an argument is true, and the conclusion must also be true, then that argument is valid. An invalid argument is one with a true premise, but with a conclusion that may either be true or false. (the truth of the premise guarantees nothing about the truth of the conclusion.)

Virtue

Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics describes virtue as a balance between two extremes. For example, a person should not be frugal or wasteful with his or her money. A balance must be found.

Begging the Question

Assuming your claim is true while you're trying to prove it. - Context and Relevance: Descartes begs the question of Gods existence throughout his Meditations. Example: God exists, because the Bible says so. Everything in the bible is written by God and everything written by God is reliable. Therefore God exists.

Tabula Rasa

Being born with a blank slate. Learning knowledge through experience. - Context and Relevance: Locke.

berkeley's Sensible things

Berkeley makes the argument that houses, mountains, and rivers, are sensible objects, which are perceived by sense. Those that are perceived by sense are ideas, therefore sensible objects are ideas. Houses, mountains, rivers, are ideas, and ideas cannot exist except in the mind. Therefore houses, mountains, and rivers cannot exist except in the mind.

Falsifiable

Capable of being tested or proven. Also accredited to Popper and modus tollens is a logical form that defines falsifiability. For a scientific theory to be, it must be scientific, attempt to falsify the theory, makes risky predictions. It could be proven wrong if it is wrong.

Constant Conjuction

Causal relationship is constant conjuction, A -> B, o Come to know these things as cause and effect because of the idea of custom and habit, we become accustomed to A-> B o Cause and effect is not deductively true, because in cause and effect the premises do not neccesarily guarantee the conclusion

Secondary Qualities

Color, sounds, heat. Ideas that are not like anything in the thing itself. Secondary qualities are configurations of primary qualities. Context & relevance: Locke. The universe has none of these qualities, it only has the qualities that produce the ideas of color, sound, and heat.

Conventionalism

Conventionalism and Subjectivism are both subsections of Moral Relativism. Conventionalism states that society decides what is moral, sane, etc... where-as subjectivism states that morality and ethics are relative to the individual's mind. - Context and Relevance: Ruth Benedict was a conventionalist. Example: The Unibomber was wrong do what he did because society agrees that it was wrong.

Subjectivism

Conventionalism and Subjectivism are both subsections of Moral Relativism. Conventionalism states that society decides what is moral, sane, etc... where-as subjectivism states that morality and ethics are relative to the individual's mind. - Context and Relevance: The Unibomber was right to do what he did because in his head he was doing it for the right reasons.

Deductive Argument

Deductive arguments that establish the truth of the conclusion that are 100%.

Thinking Things

Descartes says that he is a thinking thing. The point is that a thinking thing; Descartes proves with the cogito that I think therefore I am is true every time he thinks of it. He tries to prove anything else without the existence of God, can't, but can prove that his thoughts are real though and every time he has them, he is. The one thing he cannot doubt is that he is a thinking thing. You can doubt everything else though. - Context and Relevance: Dualism and the mind/body problem. - The essence of a thinking thing is having an idea.

Extended Things

Descartes says that he is not an extended thing/body, but a thinking thing; a mind. He can think without a body. - Context and Relevance: He thinks that he has proven that he can think without having a body. Because of dualism he is not his body. So though his body is an extended thing, he himself is not an extended. - The essence of being an extended being is to have extension. This could be evidenced in the wax argument. - Wax Argument: The wax has a lot of sensory properties. He melts it. It is still wax, but all of the sensory properties have changed. So the sensory properties have nothing to do with the wax itself. However, the one thing that still remains is its extension, therefore all extended things have to have the essence of extension.

Eudaimonia

Doing and Living well; the choice-worthy life, completely rational, and fully informed; being an excellent human being. What separates humans from other species is reason, therefore the choice-worthy life must be one of reason. There must be something to make us "excellent" human beings, and this must be strived for. Strength, intelligence, bravery, honor, and virtue. Something that you do for yourself, not for others. - Context and Relevance: Artistotle's view of happiness, as described in Nicomachean Ethics.

Empiricism

Empiricists believe that all ideas come from experience. - Context and Relevance: Locke and Berkeley. Hume is an empiricist, but believes in a few exceptions, such as seeing a spectrum of the color blue with one shade missing (you know it's a little darker than the previous shade, and a little lighter than the following, and can deduce the missing shade).

Queernes of Morality

George Mavrodes says that Morality is dependent on religion. If there isn't a God, then there isn't a reason to act morally. If you don't have anything to achieve, the right thing is not always the best thing for you. The theist makes sense of reality, whereas the atheist cannot. Argues against the Russellian world because he says that if the world was Russellian, then it wouldn't make sense. Because he believes in the afterlife, the focus of his argument that if the Russellian world, ethics would be silly. - Context and Relevance: Mavrodes claims that the good life and the moral life are separate from each other; Morality would be queer in a Russellian world which is just focused on pleasure, success, etc... If religion does not exist in that world, morality would be queer.

Problem of Induction

Hume: Induction fallacy that we can't assume the past is the same as the future.

Innate Ideas

Ideas that you are born with. Locke believes that everything you know you learn from experience. There is no good argument establishing the idea of innate ideas. - Context and Relevance: John Locke. An argument about innate ideas is that if you talk to infants and idiots, they will not share the same "innate" ideas that philosophers have. Another argument against ideas is that you have to "search" for them. Finally, you can explain the fact that many people share the same ideas for reasons other than being innate.

Principle of Utility

If an act or rule is right, it will produce the greatest happiness or the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. - Context and Relevance: Assuming that Mills said this too.

Inductive Argument

Inductive Arguments establish the truth of the conclusion that are probably true but not 100%

Know thyself

Inscribed above the entrance to the oracle of Delphi. - Context and Relevance: The oracle from Delphi. The same oracle that said Socrates was the wisest man from Athens.

Intrinsic goods

Intrinsic goods are pursued for their own sake. Happiness (in Artistotle's definition of it, related to Eudaimonia, not the feeling) is arguably the only intrinsic good. "Eudaimonia is an intrinsic good according to Aristotle's definition of it. Pleasure is an intrinsic good according to Mill. And good will is an intrinsic good according to Kant." - Context and Relevance: Nicomachean Ethics.

Insensible Material Substance

Knowledge that cannot be attained through the senses.

Russelian Benefit

Meaningful relationships, pleasure, success, and non-russellian benefits are going to heaven. The pleasure of anything that can exist without God - a massage, foot tickled, etc... - Context and Relevance: Russellian is a materialist, he doesn't believe in God, soul, or afterlife. He is an agnostic.

"god is not a deceiver"

One of the arguments in Descartes' proof that there is not a deceiving demon, therefore you can no longer doubt all sensory perceptions. - Context and Relevance:

Objective Reality

Only applies to ideas. The amount of objective reality an idea has is equal to the amount of formal reality it would have if it existed. - Context and Relevance: Used by Descartes in proving the existence of God. "There must be at least as much formal reality in the cause of an idea as there is objective reality in the idea itself." Because the objective reality of the idea of God is highest and infinite, the formal reality of God must be infinite, therefore he exists.

The gadfly of Athens

Plato says that Socrates characterizes Athens as a large and sluggish horse and Socrates is the fly that bites and rouses it; questioning and nagging everyone like a fly that you're unable to escape. He says that virtue doesn't come from money, and wants people to think. He nags to make people become virtuous. Context and Relevance: Socrates refers to himself as the Gadfly of Athens in "The Apology."

Hedonism

Pleasure is good, but not in excess. We should maximize pleasure and minimize pain. We should be smart about it, and acknowledge consequences. A "hedon" is a unit of pleasure and a "dolar" a unit of pain. - Context and Relevance: A branch off of utilitarianism.

rationalism

Rationalists believe that knowledge comes from reason. - Context and Relevance: Descartes. He says that there are innate ideas.

Primary Qualities

Shape, number, motion, bulk (how big and heavy). Primary quality ideas are like the qualities in the object themselves. - Context and Relevance: Locke. These are the only true qualities that substances in the universe can have.

Instrumental Good

Something that you do to get something else. You do not pursue for its own sake. - Context and Relevance: Aristotle.

The Golden Mean

The Golden mean according to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics is the desirable middle between the two extremes. - Context and Relevance: To act according to the Golden Mean is to be virtuous.

Modus Tollens

The argument has two premises, "x and then y." If the "y" is not true, then the "x" cannot be true. - Context and Relevance: If today is Monday, then John will go to work. John will not go to work, therefore today is not Monday.

Doctrine of Swine objection

The argument that utilitarianism is a doctrine that is suitable for beasts but not for men. Says "Mills, you're saying that pleasure is the greatest happiness, and pigs can attain these pleasure through eating." - Context and Relevance: Those who think that the doctrine of swine is valid don't think highly of humans - we can enjoy the pleasures of Back, Tchaikovsky, astronomy, math, etc... but swine cannot. It is better to be an unpleased human than a fool/swine satisfied. In the Apology Socrates said at his trial that it is better an unsatisfied Socrates than a satisfied unknowledgeable person.

Socratic Humility

The attitude of knowing that the one thing a person can know is that the person knows nothing. A person who has Socratic humility also knows that anything can be questioned, hence Socratic method of teaching is learning through questioning. Plato highlights Socrates' humility in the Apology by showing that Socrates is the wisest by knowing the limits of his knowledge.

Good Will

The belief that the only thing that is good in and of itself is good will. Morally good acts are acts that are done from a sense of duty. Kant doesn't depend on pleasure, but on reason: the "why" matters more than the consequence. If you have good will to act morally, you will have good character. - Context and Relevance: Kant's belief of what is right and wrong. "It's the thought that counts."

Moral Objectivism

The belief that there are moral facts. What is moral and is not up to the people's beliefs.

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy that concerns itself with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. It focuses on justified true belief. It 1.) defines what is knowledge and 2.) questions how we come to know knowledge - Context and Relevance: Descartes and other philosophers also concerned themselves with what they know. Is there anything they know with Cartesian (absolute) certainty? "Cogito Ergo Sum."

ethics

The branch of philosophy that concerns itself with what is right and wrong. - Context and Relevance: Aristotle, Kant, and Mill's all presented arguments for ethics and morality.

Kawkiutl

The daughter's leader was killed and they wanted to transfer the grief of the leader onto others. A people along the coast of British Columbia and northern Vancouver island that Ruth Benedict talks about. They wanted to kill the innocent people. - Context and Relevance: Ruth Benedict. Tries to show what moral relativism is/tries to prove conventionalism through these cultures.

May 28, 585 BCE

The first great pre-socratic philosopher Thales (known as the first great philosopher) predicted a solar eclipse (supposedly). Predicted without divine intervention, and this was new. He said that the eclipse was not a causation of divine intervention. - Context and Relevance: Greeks were fumbling their way towards science. It's the supposed birth of philosophy.

Egoism

The opposite of altruism. You only have your own interests in mind and are not virtuous. Moral theory because you think it's right, but you have your own self interest.

Dobuan

The people off the island in New Guinea that Ruth Benedict also talks about. They said they were constantly afraid of drinking a poisonous drink. Always accepted gifts by saying "and if this kills me, how shall I repay you." - Context and Relevance: Benedict thing. Again, shows what moral relativism is/tries to prove conventionalism through these cultures.

Metaphysics

The study of the fundamental nature of reality and what exists. An example would be if time travel is possible. - Context and Relevance: Wheeler & Descartes. One of the different fields of philosophy.

Greatest Happiness Principle

The utilitarian view that you should always maximize pleasure and minimize pain for everyone. - Context and Relevance: Mill is a utilitarianism

Custom of Habit

Unjustifiable beliefs can be considered true through custom or habit

utilitarianism

We want to know what the good is. And the good is the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. - Context and Relevance: Mill

relation of ideas

You have ideas and see how they fit together. If you can know something "a priori," it is justified apart from experience. You don't have to appeal to experience to know that 2 + 2 = 4. "All bachelors are unmarried." "All sisters are female." Context: Hume