Philosophy 101 final

Duty (Kant)

According to Kant, duty is the necessity of acting from respect for the moral law. Duty does not serve our desires and preferences, but, rather, overpowers them. It excludes considerations of personal preference or profit and loss from moral calculation. For example, if I criticize my boss to my coworkers, and my boss hears about it and asks me if I've done this, even if I tell my boss the truth about it, I cannot get moral credit for it, according to Kant, because my decision is based off something other than moral duty—it's based on not getting fired. Kant believes that duty cannot not be based off what I want to do, what I like or don't like, whether or not I care about the people involved.

A Priori Knowledge

A priori knowledge is derived from reason without reference to sense experience. Truths of reason and lawks of logic are usually thought to be a priori. An example of this is "all triangles contain 180 degrees" and "every event has a cause" The contrast of a priori knowledge is a posteriori knowledge. A posteriori knowledge is empirical knowledge derived from sense experience. A posteriori truths are also called factual truths, as opposed to rational truths. Priori and posteriori ideas are ideas from Descartes.

Alienation

According to Marx, alienation is the condition of workers separated from the products pf their labor; primarily and objective state but can also refer to not feeling "at one" with the product of labor. Alienation is one of Marx's most interesting and compelling notions and is a term that he derived from Hegel. Marx though of alienation as the most destructive feature of capitalism. An alienated individual rarely feels at home with himself or herself, or with others. Alienation is a state of powerlessness, frustration, represses resentment, and despair. It results from the transformation of a human being into a commodity. In Marx's sense, anyone who takes a job solely on the basis of what it pays becomes alienated.

Substructure and Superstructure of the Society

According to Marxism, the material substructure or base of society determines the nature of all social relationships, as well as religions, art, philosophies, science, and government. Substructure consists of three main components, including means of production, forces of production, and relationships of production. The superstructure of a culture consists of ideas and institutions (religious beliefs, educational systems, philosophies, the arts, and such) compatible with and produced by the material substructure of the society. Ideas and institutions are called superstructure of society because they emerge and depend on the economic structure of society.

Existence precedes Essence

According to Sartre, "existence precedes essence" means that a personality is not built over a previously designs model or a precise purpose, because it is the human being who chose to engage in such a purpose. The proposition that existence precedes essence reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence. To extenstialists, human beings create their own values and determine a meaning for their life because the human being does not possess any inherent identity or value. That identity or value must be created by the individual.

Cogito, ergo sum

Cogito ergo sum is a Latin philosophical proposition by Descartes which means, "I think, therefore I am." This Cartesian insight marks the beginning of modern worldview. The Cogito must be understood in the first person. In that form, it meets Descartes's conditions for being utterly unshakeable. No rational person can doubt his or her own existence as a conscious thinking entity. Descartes argues that we identify and know everything, including bodily and material things, through the mind. Although Descartes was rationalist, the thrust of Cogito is not reasoning, but self-awareness.

Consequentialism and Deontology

Consequentialism and Deontological theories are two of the main theories in ethics. Consequentialism focuses on the consequences or results of an action. One of the most well-known forms of consequentialism is utilitarianism which was first proposed by Jeremy Bentham and his mentee John Stuart Mill. Deontological ethics focuses on how actions follow certain moral rules. So, the action is judged rather than the consequences of the action. The biggest proponent of deontological ethics was Kant who said that moral rules should be adhered to if universalizing the opposite would make an impossible world. Some have argued deontological ethics Is flawed as it is too absolutist.

Empiricism and Rationalism

Empiricism is the belief that all knowledge is ultimately derived from the experience and that all ideas can be traced to sense data. Empiricists believe that reason is unable to provide knowledge of reality, and that such knowledge can only be derived from experience. The first founding father om empiricism was John Locke. Rationalism is an epistemological position in which reason is said to be the primary source of all knowledge, superior to sense evidence. Rationalists argue that only reason can distinguish reality from illusion and give meaning to experience. Descartes was the original archetype of the modern rationalist.

Authenticity and Inauthenticity

For Kierkegaard, Authenticity is the subjective condition of an individual living honestly and courageously in the moment without refuge in excuses and without reliance on groups or institutions for meaning and purpose. For Heidegger, authenticity is living in and with the "understanding" of our death. Kierkegaard saw inauthenticity as condition that results when the nature and needs of the individual are ignored, denied, and obscured or sacrificed for institutions, abstractions, or groups. Kierkegaard was convinced that institutionalized Christianity suffers from the same inauthenticity as other institutions. Other Christianity was authentic to Kierkegaard.

Freedom and Responsibility

For Sartre, freedom is the ability to participate as a citizen, it is political freedom, not just doing whatever we want. Freedom for Sartre is not the freedom to do something. He says we are free because we have a choice. Possible critics of Sartre's view of freedom might point out that Sartre's conception of freedom does not ensure actual freedom for individuals. In addition, it may be misinterpreted to justify the restriction of political freedoms. Responsibility goes with freedom, it doesn't mean just be lazy, it means the ability to take responsibility to provide for yourself and others.

Dialectical Process (Hegelian)

Hegel dialectic was a three-step pattern in which an original idea, known as a thesis, struggles with a contrary idea, known as an antithesis, to produce a new synthesis that combines elements of both. According to Hegel, the ongoing dialectic represents the actual structure of reality: the unfolding thought of the mind or spirit. Karl Marx took some of the ideas from Hegelian Dialectic and created his own dialectic process, which he believes to be an internally governed evolutionary cycle in which progress occurs as the result of a struggle between two opposing conditions.

Categorical Imperative and Hypothetical Imperative

Hypothetical imperatives are imperatives that tell us what to do under specific, variable conditions. A categorical imperative is a command that is universally binding on all rational creatures. Since they affect behavior, moral principles are always framed as commands, according to Kant. He refers to commands by their grammatical designation as imperatives. Examples of imperatives are "shut the door" "always brush your teeth after eating" and "love your neighbor as yourself." Hypothetical imperatives take the form, "if this, then that." For example, "if it rains, then postpone the picnic." An imperative is true at all times when it is categorical an example of a categorical imperative is, "If a person wants to stop being thirsty, then they have to have a drink."

Impression (Hume)

Impressions are more lively perceptions, when we hear, see, feel, love, hate, desire, or will. Hume believed that impressions are different from ideas. They are different from ideas because ideas are the less lively perceptions of which we are conscious. Hume believed that all ideas can be traced to impressions and are derived from experience. Hume says the only way to refute him is to produce an idea not derived from impressions or from combining and altering the ideas that impressions generate. After modifying Locke's copy theory of ideas, Hume developed an empirical criterion of meaning. The empirical criterion of meaning holds that all meaningful ideas can be traced to sense impressions.

Cash Value of Truth

James believed that virtually no metaphysical theory has any cash value. Pragmatism rejects any philosophy that lacks cash value. Pragmatic truth is human truth.

Historical Materialism

Marx combined Hegel's dialectical view of history with Feuerbach's concept of a materialist Zeitgeist to produce historical materialism. Historical materialism is the view that history is the ongoing result of a dialectical process that consists of an interaction between a thesis and antithesis to produce a new condition containing elements of both the thesis and the antithesis called synthesis. Each synthesis becomes the thesis for a new dialectical cycle driven by constant tension between two classes: the exploiters and the exploited.

Species-Life

Marx distinguishes alienated life from species life. Species life is fully human life, life lived productively and consciously. Alienated life, in contrast, creates a sense of distance from nature and renders people unconscious of precisely how unhappy, unspontaneous, and unfulfilled they really are. Alienation is not species-life or anti-human. If capitalism were destroyed, Marx thought, we would revert to species-life.

Modernity

Modernity is the historical period of 19th and 20th century nation-states and a corresponding set of cultural conditions and beliefs dominated by enlighten ideals, including faith in science, objective truth, rationality, and more. Nietzsche saw himself as the first to recognize the symptoms of a profound sickness at the core of modernity. Nietzsche's most famous pronouncement that "God is dead" is part of a generalized assessment of modernity that consists of integrated negative and positive stages. The negative stage may be the most recognized because of Nietzsche's unique engaging and confrontational style of writing.

Nihilism

Nihilism is the belief that the universe lacks meaning and purpose. According to Nietzsche, the death of god leads to nihilism. Nietzsche predicted that nihilism would be the wave of the future. He predicted that as more and more people perceive religious values to be empty and science having no meaning or purpose to offer us, a sense of emptiness would initially prevail. The overman is Nietzsche's answer to the pessimism and nihilism that follow in the wake of God's death. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.

pragmatism (William James)

Pragmatism is from the Greek for "deed." It is the belief that ideas have meaning or truth value to the extent that they produce practical results and effectively further our aims; empirically based philosophy that defines knowledge and truth in terms of practical consequences. William James was known as "the pragmatist." Building on Pierce's foundation, James advocated a new version of pragmatism that he claims others have recognized before, but only in parts. Some people would say that James made pragmatism into a kind of philosophical religion. That is, James attempted to present a philosophy that could provide values and ideas worth striving for and that could satisfy our need to believe without appealing to metaphysical abstractions.

Slave and Master Morality

Slave morality is a distortion of the will to power in which the characteristics of the inferior type are praised as virtues, and the characteristics of the superior type are condemned as arrogance and cold-heartedness. Slave morality values things like kindness, humility and sympathy. Master morality is the aesthetic honor code of the overman; morality that looks only to the authentic individual for values that transcend the slaves good-evil dichotomy. "good" equals "noble" and "evil" equals "vulgar." Master morality values pride, strength, and nobility. Master morality weighs actions on a scale of good and bad consequences unlike slave morality which weighs actions on a scale of good or evil intentions. These were ideas of Nietzsche.

Forces of Production

The five forces of production are factories, equipment, technology, knowledge, and skill. These are a concept in Marxism. Forces of production is a term used in political economy that refers to the physical means and techniques of production to which laborers add value and transform capital into products for sale. Distinction must be made between forces of production and the way they are utilized. Karl Marx wrote: "Powder remains the same whether it is used to wound a man or to dress his wounds," It can be argued that in Marx's view, forces of production are the driving actor in historical development.

Leap of Faith

The leap of faith is the act of believing in or accepting something outside the boundaries of reason. A leap of faith according to Kierkegaard involves circularity insofar as the leap is made by faith. Kierkegaard describes "the leap" using the famous story of Adam and eve, particularly Adams qualitative leap into sin. Adams leap signifies a change from one to another, mainly the quality of possessing no sin to the quality of possessing sin. Kierkegaard felt that the leap of faith was vital in accepting Christianity due to the paradoxes that exist in Christianity. The implication of taking a leap of faith can, depending on the context, carry positive or negative connotations.

Massing of Society

The massing of society was lamented by Kierkegaard and is the diminution of the individual's role in the face of mass production, mass media, and the loss of truth in the face of objectivity and abstraction. In contemporary society "the crowd" overwhelms the individual, yet the individual feels lost without "the crowd." Modern people are anonymous creatures who depend upon experts to point the way towards salvation Kierkegaard thought the massing of society combined to alienate individuals from themselves by leveling everyone "toward a mathematical equality."

Overman

The overman is Nietzsche's "higher type," a more than human being that will emerge only by overcoming the false idols of conventional morality and religion. Nietzsche's idea of the overman is one of the most significant concepts in all of his thinking. The overman is the one who is willing to risk all for the sake of enhancement of humanity. The overman is someone who can establish his own values as the world in which others live their lives, often unaware that they are not pregiven. An overman has his own values, independent of others, which affects and dominates others' lives that may not have predetermined values but only herd instinct. In Nietzsche's view, an overman should be able to affect history indefinitely. He will keep reentering the world through other people's minds and affect their thoughts and values.

Principle of Utility

The principle of utility means to always act to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. The principle of utility was an idea from Bentham which transformed personal hedonism into a potent social and ethical philosophy. It is also sometimes referred to as the pleasure principle. Although Bentham's successor John Stuart Mill coined the term utilitarianism, philosophers sometimes also refer to Bentham's philosophy as utilitarianism

Will to Believe

The will to believe is the idea that we live according to beliefs that are products of our own temperament's and experience; our beliefs are not the products of abstract reasoning. Rather, we manage to find reasons to believe what we want and need to believe. Because life demands a response, demands action, we have no choice but to believe something. Life presents us with what James calls forced options. We must make decisions whether we want to or not. We cannot remain detached and disinterested, because life simply does not allow it. We do not act on what we understand, but what we believe. The rationalist's and skeptic's demands for certainty cannot be met, yet we continue to live and act without intellectual certainty.

Will to Power

Will to power is Nietzsche's term for what he thought is a universal desire to control others and impose our values on them. The will to power describes what Nietzsche may have believed to be the main driving force in humans—namely, achievement, ambition, and the striving to reach the highest possible position in life. Nietzsche says the single goal of science, religion, and philosophy is the exertion of power. The will to power, Nietzsche tells us, includes but exceeds the will to self-preservation. For it seeks not only the continuance of life, but more life, and intensification of life.