Philosophy Unit 1

Philosophy Unit 1

1. What is Philosophy? Why study philosophy and what does it allow us to do? What do philosophical questions look like? What are the areas of study within Philosophy? What do they look at?

   • -Philosophy is the attempt to solve the most basic of ourselves, our place in the universe and out relationship with others and reality
     • Known as the Love of Wisdom. Greek origins Philien (to love) and Sophia (to love)
       • Subjects: Epistemology (What is Knowledge?) Metaphysics (What is Reality?) and Ethics (What is ethical?)

2. What is wisdom? How does one achieve Wisdom? What does questioning allow one to achieve?

   • Wisdom: -The knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions and judgements
     • Involves realizing hoe little humans really know - the first step to achieving wisdom
       • Questioning allows a higher understanding

3. What happened in the Story of the Good Brahman? Why was the Brahman upset? Why was the Old Woman important? Would the Brahman trade places with the Old Lady? Why/Why Not?

   • Wise, enlightened and unhappy Brahman meets ignorant woman and would not trade positions with her

4. Who is Plato? What did he write? Summarize the parable of “The Cave”. What does the parable teach the reader and why is it important? How does it allow us to look at the world? What does it provide us with?

   • Born in Athens as a student if Socrates and founded a school of philosophy called The Academy and writes in dialogue
     • Parable of the Cave: Philosophy aims at freedom and involves questioning current beliefs in which others may reject
       • Parable of Ignorance and learning

5. What is groupthink? How is it defined? Be familiar with the symptoms and what they are about. List the Remedies of Groupthink

   • When a group makes faulty decisions
     • See Quizlet for symptoms
       • Remedies
         • The leader should assign the role of critical evaluator to each member
           • The leader should avoid stating preferences
             • Each member should discuss group deliberations with one person as devil's advocate and use outside experts

6. What is critical thinking? What does critical thinking allow? Why is it important?

   • The ability to theink clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. Creates independent thinking
     • -Understand connections, Identify and evaluate arguments, detect mistakes, solve problems

7. Who is Socrates? What was he well known for? Why was he arrested? How did he die?

   • Father of philosophy. Born in 468 BCE Athens
     • Knew he was ignorant and claimed that - to know justice is to be just - to know truth is to be truthful and to know beauty is to be beautiful
       • Died by hemlock poisoning
         • Socratic Dialogue: Posing questions and receiving responses that made people think for themselves
           • Euthyphro: Discussed the meaning of holiness
             • Thrasymachus: Questioned about justice
               • Crito: Crito suggests escape before execution

8. Who are the first philosophers and what did each one argue? How do the Pre Socratic-thinkers of the East and West vary in their thoughts of reality?

   • Thales(625-545)
     • Considered to be the first genuine scientist and said everything was made of water
       • Heraclitus (625 - 545)
         • Stated that All reality was changing and in a constant state of flux. One cannot touch the same thing twice
           • Parmenides (510 - 440)
             • Change is an illusion and reality is frozen
               • Zeno (490-425)
                 • Motion is an illusion

9. What is Scholasticism (9 - 16) Century

   • taught by the academics of medieval universities
     • Tried to bring together the philosophy of classical philosophers
       • Focused on reasoning and accepted the prevailing Catholic Orthodoxy
         • Aristotle > Plato and liked to dispute everything

10. What is the enlightenment period (17- 18)

    • Age of reason and focused on scientific and social progress
      • FAST thinkers
        • Fueled democratic revolutions
          • Applied reason to the human world
            • Stimulated Religious Tolerance
              • Taught that our rights came dfom natural law

11. Name the books of Wisdom found in the Old Testament. Name the 2 principle types of Wisdom found in the OT

    • Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiatses, Song of Solomon , Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon
      • Practical - Guidelines for happy life
        • Speculative Examines the deeper meaning of life

12. Why is Solomon important? What did he want above all?

    • Solomon chose wisdom

13. What is theodicy? Be familiar with the Defenses for God

    • Argument 1: All pain is punishment
      • Argument 2: Pain is the test in faith
        • Argument 3: All pain is education
          • Argument 4: There has to be badness to understand goodness
            • Argument 5: Without evil, there is no free will

14. What do Hume, Hicks and Augustine say about the problem of evil?

    • Hume: Evill is a being beyond human comparison
      • Hicks: Evil is pain and mental suffering. A world without suffering
        • Augustine: Evil is the absence of good

15. Review NT Stories and how they connect to Plato’s Cave. What does the NT teach us about wisdom and how is it connected to philosophy?

    • Jesus revealed new Identity to the people