Philosophy 248 midterm

Idealism

the practice of forming or pursuing ideals, especially unrealistically.

Dualism

the presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact

solipsism

the theory that the self is the only reality

Immaterialism

The belief that ultimate reality is something that has no material properties. This reduces matter to that which is not real.

Government

The importance of ___ Hobbes: To protect us from ourselves Locke: To protect Natural Rights

Esse est percipi

"to be is to be perceived" (Berkeley)

Discourse on Method

(Rene Descartes)- This written work used skepticism to come to the conclusion "I think, therefore I am" by questioning everything that anyone thinks they are certain of. Thus, the only thing we can be certain of is that we have doubt, and doubt is thought, and thought must come from a mind. He also concluded that because we know we are not perfect, there must be something perfect that gives us that knowledge, and that perfect thing is God. In this way his highly untraditional ideas did not conflict too much with Christianity.

Berkeley Descartes

2 philosophers who are solipsistic

Mind body god

3 corners of the triangle by which philosophers debate

Stability

According to Hume, we need ______. We want to believe that objects are the exact same as how we last saw them even though they could have changed

General Will

According to Rousseau this is sacred and absolute, reacting the common interests of the people who have displaced the monarch as the holder of ultimate power.

Government

According to Rousseau, the purpose of _____ is to bring people into harmony and unite them under the "general will"

Mode

According to Spinoza, this is different forms that substance takes. Individual expressions

Rousseau's social contract

Agreement formed between government and society

Divine Law

An agreement god enters with humans. Where soul ends up in afterlife depends on this. In civil society, the sovereign decides whether citizens follow divine law

Monads

Leibnitz's notion of fundamental substance in the cosmos that cannot be divided into parts and which functions in predetermined ways and represents pre-established, universal harmony, the source of which, ultimately, is God.

Monotheistic

Belief in one God

Rousseau

Believed that society threatened natural rights and freedoms. Wrote about society's corruption caused by the revival of sciences and art instead of it's improvement. He was sponsored by the wealthy and participated in salons but often felt uncomfortable and denounced them. Wrote "The Social Contract."

Substance

Berkeley and Descartes disagree about whether or not immaterial ___ exists

Ideas mind-dependent

Berkeley's idealism states that ordinary objects are just collections of ____, which are ____ ____

Immaterialism Idealism

Berkeley's two general philosophies: ____ and ____

Prediction

Berkeley: a statement about a material object is simply just a _____

Descartes

Brings up even the possibility of an "evil god" through exaggerated/hyperbolic doubt

Ontological

Concerning the very essence or nature of a being

Meditation 1

Concerning those things that can be called into doubt

Hobbes

Conservative philosopher of the political continuum who says men are indeed equal, when concerning the state of nature

Cartesian Dualism

Descartes's view that all of reality could ultimately be reduced to mind and matter.

Berkeley

Developed a list of depth cues that help us to perceive depth

Descartes Spinoza Leibniz

List 3 rationalist philosophers: _____, ______, ______

Epistemology and metaphysics

Descartes 2 goals of meditations

Senses intellect

Descartes 2 sources of knowledge ___ and ____

Res cogitans res extensa combination

Descartes 3 options for the existence of "I"

Sense science religion

Descartes' 3 basic building blocks: ___, ___ and ____

Empiricism vs. Rationalism

Empiricism:sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge Rationalism: there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience

Locke

English empiricist philosopher who believed that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience (1632-1704)

Spinoza, Baruch

Ethics; "in the light of eternity"; all determination is negation (metaphysics)

Descartes

Father of modern rationalism

Spinoza

First philosopher to infer State of nature —-> natural state —-> civil society

reason

For Locke, the LAW of nature to govern the STATE of nature is:

Is not

God is everything: there (is/is) not 2 infinites according to spinoza

Naturalism

Government/natural state: Spinoza preserves the natural right in its entirety, while Hobbes violates ____

War

Hobbes infers the purpose of government is to prevent the state of ____

natural state

Hobbes's conception of the human condition before the emergence of formal social structuresv

Empiricist

Hume is largely a _____ philosopher

Descartes

I think therefore I am

cogito ergo sum

I think therefore I am

Metaphysical reality material

Idealism is the ____ view that associates ____ to ideas in the mind rather than to ____ objects.

impressions ideas

In the human treatise, Hume states that there is no sense of "self" but rather a series of _____ to make _____

Secure Natural Rights

Is what Locke says the purpose of government

Matters of fact

Never necessary but do give information about the world, discovered through sensory information according to Hume

Spinoza

Philosopher that infers the first priority of each and every one in the state of nature is survival. Not required to use reason to survive.there exists a state of freedom, but it's not safe.

No creation ex nihilo

Nothing comes to be out of nothing All "creation" is really just reorganization.

Corporeal

Of a material nature; physical, takes up space

Locke

Philosopher inferring that representation ensures that governments are responsive to the people and is a safeguard against oppression

Rousseau

Philosopher inferring that representation is not enough. Citizens can not delegate a representative for their civic duties, they must be actively involved. Favors a more direct democracy to enact the general will.

Spinoza

Philosopher plainly stating that our lives are guided by reason and logic, and we are self-motivated

Locke

Philosopher that says in the state of nature, men exist in perfect freedom to do what they want. The state of nature is not necessarily good or bad. It is chaotic. So men do give it up to secure the advantages of civilized society

Hobbes

Philosopher who infers that the state of nature is a state of war. No morality exists. Everyone lives in constant fear in the state of nature. Because of this fear, no one is really free. But since even the weakest could kill the strongest, men ARE equal

Berkeley

Philosopher who states that what Descartes believes as corporeal (nature of having a body) is simply a false understanding of the ideas given to him by god

Natural Rights

Proposed by John Locke, it said that human beings had by nature certain entitlements, such as the rights to life, liberty, and property.

Locke

Purpose of governments of philosopher _____: 1.Governments must be designed to protect the people from the government. 2. Natural rights must be secured

Rousseau

Purpose of governments of philosopher ______: 1.governments must be responsive and aligned with the general will. 2.People, not institutions, make a nation. 3. Individual wills are subordinate to the general/collective will.

Rationalism

The belief in innate ideas, reason, and deduction

Empiricism

The belief in sense perception, induction, and that there are no innate ideas

Descartes

Saw Algebra and Geometry have a direct relationship. Reduced everything to spiritual or physical.

Hobbes

Says governments must be designed to protect the people from themselves

Social Contract Theory

The belief that people are free and equal by natural right, and that this in turn requires that all people give their consent to be governed; espoused by John Locke and influential in the writing of the declaration of independence.

Cartesain dualism

Spinoza rejected:

Substance

Spinoza says that ____ is self-caused and eternal

Self-caused itself

Spinoza's 3 definitions: 1. Believes in something that is ______ and also there are things that are ___ by other things 2. Things can be temporary, but god is limitless, eternal, and infinite. 3. Substance is conceived through ____, it exists out of necessity

extension thought

Spinoza: There are infinite attributes, but the only attributes we know are _____ and ____

Spinoza

States that everything is god. Because we are substance, everything in the world is substance

Rousseau

States that men in a state of nature are equal and free. Men are Noble Savages. Civilization is what corrupted them

Meditation 2

The nature of the human mind, and how it is better known than the body

Descartes

The philosopher that doubts everything: deceptive vs. "common sense"

Pantheistic

The world is god, they both work hand in hand

res cogitans

Thinking thing; for Descartes, the mode of being characteristic of the human soul and God

Hume

Treatise on Human Nature, father of social science

Reality

What Berkeley believes to be taking place Within the mind

Spinoza

Wrote Ethics Demonstrated in the Geometric Manner. Rejected Cartesian Dualism and suported Pantheism where "god" is a singular self-subsistent substance.

Locke

Wrote Two Treatises of Government. Said human nature lived free and had the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. He said government was created in order to protect these rights and if the government failed to do so it was the duty of the people to rebel.

Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau

___: believes humans must have strong government to keep control, wants monarchy ___: Government was created to protect natural rights ____: Government must be in accordance with the general will of the people

Descartes Berkeley

____: res cogitans and res extensa ____: everything ONLY exists within the mind

Epistemology Metaphysics

_____: study of how we can get knowledge of things, how we can trust and know things for certain _____: underlying nature of reality, where do things come into existence, what's the most basic material

metaphysics

branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of being and of the world, beliefs are very subtle or abstruse

Cosmological Proof

the explanation that a first or sustaining cause, a necessary being, an unmoved mover, or a personal being (God) exists that caused and/or sustains the universe. The cosmological argument is part of classical natural theology, whose goal has been to provide evidence for the claim that God exists.

Rousseau social contract theory

citizens transfer their rights to the community in return for security of life and property: everyone is dependent on everybody

Spinoza

doubted anything in Scripture that the thought was contrary to reason

Idealism

the group of metaphysical philosophies that assert that reality, or reality as humans can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing.

relations of ideas

like math and logic; necessarily true, but they do not refer to the external world of experience

The fool guanilo

objected to ontological argument, can think of a perfect island but does not mean it exists, valid except this is god we are talking about

Hobbes social contract

people hand over their rights and the ruler gives us law and order

Hume

philosopher whose sceptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses

rationalists

philosophers who emphasize the role of reason in creating knowledge

Empiricists

philosophical belief that knowledge is gained from experience of senses

a priori

relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge that proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience.

Ontological

relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being