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PHILOSOPHY FINAL | STUDY GUIDE
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- 1what is Plato's allegory of the cave meant to illustrate?it represents education as a process of realization, not JUST knowledge. For people to back up and see the way things are instead of the way they are seen Prisoners mistake shadows for reality, just as people mistake the material world for reality.
- 2what do the different parts of Plato's chariot represent?Charioteer = Reason, White horse = Spirit (honor, righteous indignation), Dark horse = Impulse and bodily desires
- 3why must humans 'tame' the dark horse?Because humans are rational animals, we must train our desires to pursue honorable things through rational thought to reach higher goals.
- 4what is the descriptive vs. prescriptive claim about human nature?descriptive: how people ACTUALLY behave.
prescriptive: how humans ought to behave, often based on moral or ethical values, outlining an ideal standard for human behavior - 5how does Aristotle define a virtue?A virtue is a mean between two extremes (vices = negative character trait). Someone who has this untrained dark horse is vice (intemperance, bad relationship to pleasure)
- 6give an example of Aristotle’s virtue ethics.- Courage is the mean between cowardice (deficiency) and recklessness (excess).
- Temperance is the mean between intemperance and tastelessness - 7how do different beings flourish, according to Aristotle?Plants flourish through growth and nutrition; they don’t have rational thought. Animals flourish through pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Only act in pursuit of pleasure (Dark horse).
Humans flourish through reason. If humans are just seeking out pleasure in avoidance of pain, they would not flourish accordingly. This means acquiring virtues so that the non-rational part of our soul is ‘tamed’ by the rational part of our soul. - 8what is Augustine’s Problem of Evil?If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good, why does evil exist in our world? Seems as though you would have to give up one of those core attributes to explain why evil exists
- 9how does Augustine solve the Problem of Evil?Evil exists because humans have free will, and with that free will, they commit evil (murder, adultery, irreligion)
NOTE: AUGUSTINE IS NOT A DETERMINIST - 10what are the three classical attributes of God?Omniscient (all-knowing) Omnipotent (all-powerful) Omnibenevolent (all-good)
- 11What is the difference between free will and freedom?Freedom: The ability to act without restraint.
Free Will: The ability to choose otherwise, independent of prior events. - 12Give an example of free will vs. freedom.You have the free will to choose whether you want to steal a car or not, BUT you do NOT have the freedom to steal it
- 13What is determinism?The belief that free will is an illusion and the future is predetermined by past events.
- 14What is the religious argument for determinism?If God already knows what we will choose, then we don’t truly have free will.
- 15What is Descartes’ goal in skepticism?to find something immune to doubt
- 16What is the Dream Argument?since I can't prove that I am not dreaming, my sensory experiences are always uncertain.
- 174 differences between dreaming experience and waking experience1. confirmation, as in real life there are other witnesses to that reality, whereas while dreaming, it’s our imagination, no one else knows what’s going on
2. control, in dreams it feels as though you have no control over any actions made, whereas, in real life there is a thinking process behind behaviors or actions
3. consistency, while awake, our minds follow a clear timeline, whereas, while dreaming, everything feels mixed up and time jumps around us
4. attention to detail/sensory detail, in dreams things feel fuzzy, or blurry, meaning that we sometimes can’t always tell who is in our dreams and what they were wearing, as an example, but in real life, those types of details are much more stable and sharper in our minds - 18What is the Evil Demon Argument?Proposed by Descartes: A powerful/malicious deceiver could be manipulating my thoughts, so even reason itself can be doubted. Leading to questioning whether we can truly know anything at all
- 19What is the Cogito?“I think, therefore I am.” It proves that as long as I am thinking, I exist. Only applies to yourself, you cannot say "she is thinking" because you don't know if "she" is actually a thinking being. If you said it today, then you think about it tomorrow you might say “that could have been a dream”. BUT, you still know in that moment that you are a thinking being
- 20Why is the Cogito immune to doubt?It is absolutely certain because even after doubting my existence, it proves that I exist as a thinking being.
- 21What is mind-body dualism?The belief that the mind and body are separate substances (they function separately). The existence of the mind does not depend on the brain.
- 22How does dualism contrast with physicalism?Physicalism holds that the mind is just the brain, whereas dualism argues they are distinct.
- 23How does Descartes argue for God's existence?I have an idea of God. This idea could not come from experience or imagination. It must be innate, placed in me by God.
- 24God’s assurance in the reliability of senses and capacity for reasonGod is a perfect Being and a perfect being would not deceive me. Therefore, I can trust my senses and those things that seem most clear and obvious to me.
- 25Methodological SkepticismDescartes takes on the role of a skeptic to imagine/create reasons to doubt his deepest beliefs, he is worried humans live like prisoners in the cave (Plato)
NOTE: DESCARTES WAS NOT A SKEPTIC - 26Examples for DeterminismSecular justification for determinism: The world is governed by deterministic physical laws. Every state of affairs is causally determined by the previous state of affairs. Biological determinism - what if someone was pushed by someone else OR what if you have a ‘murder’ gene and you’re set to murder someone.
- 27what is marx's view on human nature?Humans are essentially creative and productive; we make things to express identity, not just to survive.
- 28What are the four types of alienation in Marx's theory?1. from the PRODUCT they produce
- Under-capitalism, the worker doesn't own the product of their labor
2. from the ACT of production itself
- you want to make the vase, so you make the vase, not for any specific reason
3. from their HUMAN NATURE as productive beings
- our very nature as human beings is foreign to us, we think creativity/production/labour is forced, we don't recognize our own creative nature as human beings
4. from OTHER human beings
- we become alienated from other people, you don't see your co-workers as fellow human beings, but maybe as part of the machinery (i.e., working cashier jobs) - 29What is Marx's critique of capitalism regarding alienation?Capitalism inherently alienates workers; even a good boss can't remove this.
Labor is sold, not owned. - 30What is the Augustinian 'picture of language'?It sees language as labeling objects, like sticky notes, words correspond to ideas or things.
i say cat, you think cat - 31How does Wittgenstein critique the Augustinian view of language?He argues language is social, rule-based behavior, not labels, but like chess pieces in a game there is a "correct" and "incorrect" ways of using it.
The word 'animal' refers to a broad category that includes human beings. For "you are acting like an animal" its unclear what that metaphor would be used for, even though there is not one set of characteristics or behaviors that is captured by a single idea that the word animal can be referred to - 32What are language-games according to Wittgenstein?Language is made of social practices governed by rules. Word meaning depends on context.
- 33What is Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument?You can't invent a private language. Expressing private sensations requires shared public language.
Your own private experience is the most primary thing that you have, in other words, we can only make sense of, label, or categorize our own private experiences using public language. - 34What does 'moral standing' mean?A being has moral standing if it can be wronged directly; it deserves moral consideration for its own sake.
- 35How did Descartes view animals regarding moral standing?He denied animals had moral standing, harming/live dissecting them wasn't immoral, only damaging property.
- 36What’s the difference between sentience and sapience?Sentience = conscious feeling;
Sapience = intelligence and rationality. - 37What is meant by invisibility in injustice?Victims of injustice are rendered unseen or ignored by those benefiting from the system, and could be the reason for its continuous usage, to make it seem as though 'nothing is wrong'.
- 38What is hypervisibility?When someone is made a spectacle or objectified, e.g., the male gaze turns women into objects for their entertainment.
- 39What is animalization?A form of dehumanization where people are compared to animals to justify mistreatment.
example: when the Nazis referred to the Jews as "rats" or "cockroaches", so their means of 'exterminating' them was 'just'. - 40What is the Anthropocene?A new geological era where humans are the dominant force changing Earth's systems (climate, extinction).
- 41What is animal dignity?The idea that animals deserve respectful treatment appropriate to their nature, not as entertainment objects. To preserve and treat them in a way that doesn't strip their dignity, especially since they have an inability to speak, humans have to utilize ethics to determine the BEST way to treat them.
- 42What is human dignity?The notion that humans deserve respect just by belonging to the human category, even after death.
- 43How is the zoo used as an example of animal dignity?Zoos can violate animal dignity by treating animals as objects of entertainment, not as dignified beings. Additionally, making their habitat basic (painting the walls and just providing them with an enclosure that someone's literal bedroom is bigger than)
- 44What are Cartesian Dualisms?Pairs of opposing concepts: mind/body, subject/object, knower/known, active/passive, person/thing.
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- philosophy Fichas sobre PHILOSOPHY FINAL | STUDY GUIDE, creado por leila eustace el 07/05/2025.
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