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.