Philosophy Exam 1 Book Notes

What is Wilfrid Sellar's definition of philosophy?

An attempt to see how things, in the broadest possible sense of the term, hang together, in the broadest possible sense of the term

What is continental philosophy?

Are not shy of addressing topics such as life, death, love....etc In their manner of addressing big topic, they are more like poets and artists than like scientists Some schools of continental philosophy has infiltrated film, fiction and politics - These schools are phenomenology, existentialism, and deconstruction

Who founded logic ?

Aristotle All men are mortal Socrates is a man Therefore socrates is mortal The first two statements logically entail the third statement Dominated by aristotelian methods during the middle ages and the renaissance

What is political and social philosophy?

Ask questions about the state' legitimate authority over its members and about social values such as justice

What are some fallacies?

Asserting the consequence Negating the antecedent Post hoc ergo propter hoc Petitio principii Tautological reasoning

Why do the socratic dialogue's audiences end inconclusively?

Because they would be misleading if there was an answer Socrates died not figuring out anything in philosophy

What is Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy?

Claiming that X causes Y just because Y comes after X

What are the comtemporary styles of philosophy?

Continental philosophy Analytic philosophy

Mythos vs Logos?

Debatable C.G. Jung and Claude Levi-Strauss both argues that so-called logos is simply out modern, western way of myth making and is in some respects inferior to other forms of mythos Theoretical entities Ethnocentrism

What is Modus tollendo ponens?

Disjunctive syllogism Either A or B; not A; therefore B Either george failed the test or he passed; George did not fail the test; therefore george passed the test

What are the branches of philosophy?

Epistemology Ontology Ethics Political and Social Aesthetics Logic

What is aesthetics?

Explores the nature of aesthetic objects and of aesthetic judgments The main component of the concept of aesthetics has been judgement about beauty Other objects are the sublime, the ugly, and the comic. Many objects associated with art and nature Analytic philosophers: who are aestheticians attempt to clarify the key concepts related to discourse about art

What is ontology?

Is theory of being Also called metaphysics What is it for something to be real? Are not experimental

What is Epistemology?

Is theory of knowledge What is knowledge? Are conceptual rather than experimental

What are the origins of philosophy?

Philosophy is from the Greek philosophia, meaning "the love of wisdom" Plato spent a lot of thing with this He tried to determine the meaning of love in order to demonstrate that true lowers always love wisdom The FIRST recorded philosopher was THALES of Miletos

Who is gottfried leibniz?

The first major advance not done by aristotle was by gottfried leibniz

What are Aristotle's three fundamental principles?

The principle of identity - Everything is the same thing as itself The principle of noncontradiction - Nothing can be both A and not-A "~ (A and ~A)" - This mean that all cases of contradiction are automatically false The principle of the excluded middle - Either A or not-A

Philosophy poses _________?

a serious question and then tries to answer it

What is the Petitio principii fallacy?

To beg the question Assumes in the premises of an argument is suppose to prove

What is analytic philosophy?

designates roughly the kind of philosophy practices and taught by more professional philosophers in the north american and british systems Called analytic because it has viewed the main function of philosophy as being that of analysis Also has the goal of solving foundational problems presented to us by the thoughts we think and the languages we use

Who is socrates?

earliest and most famous philosopher 469 - 399 B.C.E. He was opposed to writing philosophy in any form because the that letter kills the spirit Philosophy for him was a kind of social activity Xanthippe was his wife

What are myths?

explain why things are the way they are by tracing these things to their origins traces the origins of things to supermaitral time, sometimes called "strong time" Strong time is the period of the early beginnings before normal time existed In the greek world, the two main transmitters of mythos were the poets Homer and Hesiod Many of the theatrical dramas of Greece were based on ancient myths

What did socrates do to the powerful men?

made them made They had him tried for impiety, for teaching false doctrines, and for corrupting the youth He said because he knows nothing he teachers nothing He also says the people can't judge him because they were ignorant people

Who is george Boole?

Wrote mathematical analysis of logic Treatment of logic from the standpoint of algebra

Who is Plato? What did he do?

one of socrates disciple, wrote down everything socrates said Without these writings, we would know very little about socrates Controversy on if the writings of plato were actual socrates thoughts and not just his Each of the main platonic dialogues emphasizes one philosophical them Scholars says that the dialogues can be divided into 3 segments

Philosophy is an ______

open concept, which is why there are so many definitions of it Love and art are also open concepts

what did bertrand russell say about philosophy?

out ability to pose these questions is more important to arrive at completely satisfactory answers

Sometimes a most insignificant occurrence can

plunge us into a philosophical meditation

Philosophers ask _____

second order questions

Philosophy gives us what?

some tools for creative interpretation

Plato claimed what?

that philosophy begins in wonder

Thales' philosophical theory traces _________

things to their origins (their ontological origin-- their origin in being)

Who is Gottlob Frege?

He wrote Begriffsschrift (essay on concepts) Established modern symbolic logic

What is Modus ponendo ponens?

If A then B; A; therefore B If george failed yesterday's test then george will fail the class; George failed yesterday's test; therefore george failed the class

What is Modus tollendo tollens?

If A then B; not B; therefore not A If george failed yesterday's test then george has failed the class; george has not failed the test; therefore george did not fail the test

What is negating the antecedent fallacy?

If A then B; therefore if not A, not B

What is Stuart Hampshire's definition of philosophy?

Is a free inquiry into the limits of human knowledge and into the most general categories applicable to experience and reality Calls into attention philosophies interests in their general character - EX: what time is it = not philosophical question - What is time = philosophical question

What is ethics?

Is moral philosophy and as such interested in moral values It deals with concepts like goodness, duty, and right and wrong What is the good life?

What are the rules of inference?

Modus ponendo ponens Modus tollendo tollens Modus tollendo ponens

What is the socratic dialogue's 2nd audience?

More sophisticated Represented either by characters who appear in the dialogue in some peripheral way or by the readers of the dialogue "He is not ignorant"

What is the socratic dialogue's 1st audience?

Most naive Represented by the young man with whom socrates discourse "He is ignorant"

What is the socratic dialogue's 3rd audience?

Most sophisticated "He is ignorant" When one knows anything, one knows everything - When one achieves this knowledge, one achieves human excellence. And become an excellent human

What is logic?

Most specialized branch of philosophy The science of valid inference

What is Craig Channell's definition of philosophy?

Ongoing critical activity of developing theories to describe, explain, or account for certain aspects of human experience This calls into attention philosophy's constructive and creative side

What is Williams Captain's definition of philosophy?

Rations inquiry into the structure of any thought system, its presuppositions, concepts, and the status of its claims Shows why it is possible to have the philosophies of _____

What is asserting the consequence fallacy?

Result of reversing the logic of modus ponens If A then B; B; therefore A

What is the 3rd dialogue that Plato wrote?

Socrates and his partner both admit ignorance They don't know what X is (virtue, beauty....) They both agree to look further into the questions The dialogues end inconclusively

What is the 1st dialogue that Plato wrote?

Socrates meets a young man who claims to know somethings about the big topics Socrates is happy that he has found someone to talk to about the topics Socrates is impressed with the man, and his head beings to swell

What is the 2nd dialogue that Plato wrote?

Socrates seems to notice some apparently minor problem with the formulation of the youth's argument The young man is confused and admits ignorance

What is the Tautological reasoning fallacy?

Tautology -- is a proposition in which the clause following the word "is" or the word "are" repeats in some form Plays a role in language Tautologies by themselves are not fallacies

What did Thales think?

thought everything was water He tried to explain why the Nile dried up and flooded in the different seasons He use natural phenomenon and not supernatural things to explain it Leap from everything is water to everything is atoms isn't that big Thales also observed that the world as composed of many individual things, yet the world was somehow a whole and not just a loose collection of unrelated objects. If there are many then there is a one behind the many The greeks were aware of the four elements. Thales thought water was the best suitable He made incorrect assumptions about water