Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Baccalaureate

Aristotle's Core Philosophical Concepts

Metaphysics: The Study of Being

Being and Substance

Aristotle observed that the concept of "being" has multiple meanings. However, he argued that these meanings ultimately relate to a primary concept: substance (ousia). Substance is fundamental because it exists independently, serving as the underlying subject for its various properties or accidents (e.g., quality, quantity, relation). Accidents cannot exist on their own but must belong to a substance.

Categories

The Categories represent the different fundamental ways predicates can apply to a substance, classifying the types of accidents and also including what Aristotle termed secondary substance (universal concepts like genera and species, e.g., "human"...

Historical Context

Karl Marx emerged during the Industrial Revolution and the social struggles of the 19th century. He adopted the Hegelian view of history as a process of reality, affirmation, denial, and self-improvement. Marx asserted that the true subject of history is not the spirit but the flesh-and-blood human being who produces their own life and social existence through labor in relation to nature. Marx envisioned a classless society where individuals are truly free, masters of their own work and being. To achieve this, Marx analyzed capitalism, where private ownership dominates, and proposed a workers' revolution to establish an egalitarian society. He envisioned a community forming a classless society, moving beyond the class structures...

Lyric Genre

The lyric genre is characterized by the subjective attitude of the issuer; it expresses personal feelings. It may occur in verse or prose, although its most frequent manifestation is in poetry (verse).

• Satire: A lyrical composition, in verse or prose, that censors individual or collective vices.
• Eclogue: A poetic composition of love feelings and exaltation of nature, placed in the mouths of shepherds.
• Elegy: A poetic composition expressing feelings of grief at individual or collective misfortune.
• Sonnet: A composition consisting of two quartets and two triplets with rhyme and verse, generically heroic verse.
• Song: Expresses emotions, usually of the lovely type.
• Lyrical Romance: A poem composed of an indefinite number of eight-syllable

Matching Terms with Definitions

Match the following terms with their definitions:

1. Value of Land (Income Economics): The value of land increases over time depending on location.
2. Oligopoly: Producers collaborate to maximize profits.
3. Wage Theory: Individuals are compensated based on the value of their marginal product.
4. Price Theory: Characterized by product differentiation and sales promotion.
5. Monopolistic Competition: Considers both supply and demand factors.
6. Monopoly: Market power is often measured using the concentration ratio.
7. Dumping: Selling goods produced domestically at a lower price in foreign markets.
8. Scope Economics: Combining two or more lines of production within a business.
9. Perfect Competition: Prices are determined by the interaction of supply

19th Century Spain

French War

Under the pretext of a French invasion of Portugal, and with Spain poised to support Napoleon, Joseph Bonaparte was installed as head of the Spanish government. Napoleon returned to legitimize the Catalan flag.

In 1812, the liberal Constitution of Cadiz (also known as "La Pepa") was ratified. This marked a significant shift away from absolutism towards a more representative government, granting voting rights to a segment of the population (primarily the bourgeoisie).

Fall of Napoleon and the Restoration

Napoleon's empire fell to the absolutist powers of Austria-Hungary, Prussia, and Russia. These powers formed the Holy Alliance to suppress liberal revolts across Europe.

The monarchy was restored in Spain with the arrival...

Analytic Geometry: Distances and Angles

Distance Between a Point and a Line

The distance of a point, P, to a line, r, is the smallest distance from the point to the infinite points on the line.

This distance corresponds to the perpendicular from the point to the line.

Distance Between Parallel Lines

The distance of a line, r, to another parallel line, s, is the distance from any point on r to s.

Distance Between Intersecting Lines

The distance between two intersecting lines is measured along the common perpendicular.

Let and be the direction vectors of the lines r and s.

Vectors determine a parallelepiped whose height is the distance between the two lines.

The volume of a parallelepiped is .

Given that the volume is the absolute value of the scalar...

Didactic Prose

Didactic prose answers the intention of approaching pedagogical works. Several types can be distinguished:

Doctrinal Prose

Doctrinal prose writings are reflective, of a philosophical type. Its maximum representative is Baltasar Gracián, characterized by verbal wit, precision, and expressive rigor. He pursued concision and reached a hermetic language aimed at a cultured minority. His work answers an intention to seek a doctrinal model of a person able to overcome vices. The most important works are: The Hero, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, The Art of Prudence, and The Mind's Acuity and Art of Ingenuity.

Philological Prose

Classical works of this period are:

• Sebastián de Covarrubias: authored the Treasury of the Castilian or Spanish Language.

Semantic changes are produced using a process where several stages are distinguished: innovation, spread, generalization, and consolidation. As a part of this process, there are specific procedures or mechanisms that lead to changes in the meaning of words:

1. Significant Extent

A term acquires a more general meaning. It is also a significant expansion in the use of nouns as names referring to a singular class of people (a womanizer). For this procedure, common nouns have been created (matchmaker).

2. Significant Restrictions

A common language word acquires a new meaning, more specifically, to pass as a specific term used in a group. It is also common in scientific and technical language that relies on words commonly used to form jargon (acid)....