Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Philosophy and ethics for Baccalaureate

The Sophists: Knowledge, Truth, and Social Laws

The thought of the Sophists emerged as a response to the perceived failure of the Presocratic physicists, who were unable to explain physis (nature) through logos (reason). Consequently, the Sophists shifted their focus to the human world (microcosm), as knowledge of the physical world (macrocosm) appeared unattainable.

Protagoras and the Subjectivity of Truth

According to Protagoras, humans subjectivize reality to comprehend it. Therefore, accepting a universal criterion of truth is impossible. We can only speak of truth in relative terms; however, the term is misleading, and it is preferable to use the concept of certainty.

Gorgias and the Power of Language

Gorgias rejected the standard of absolute...

Core Concepts in Science and Philosophy

Experimental Nature

A characteristic of mechanistic science where scientists work with phenomena in a laboratory.

Aristotelian Causes

• Formal Cause: What something is; its essence.
• Material Cause: What something is made of (matter).
• Efficient Cause: What produced it.
• Final Cause: The purpose for which it exists.

Science

A model of human knowledge that seeks to find the causes of observed phenomena, establish universally valid concepts, and demonstrate them with rational arguments.

Empirical Sciences

Sciences that focus on the study of observable and verifiable facts from experience.

Formal Sciences

Sciences that study abstract objects and ideals resulting from the human mind.

Consistency

A relationship between things...

Comparison with Leibniz

René Descartes, considered the father of modern philosophy due to his immense influence on subsequent knowledge, employed a destructive method to arrive at truth. However, Leibniz offered a critique of Cartesian philosophy, attempting to resolve the dichotomy between res extensa (extended substance) and res cogitans (thinking substance) raised by Descartes.

Leibniz replaced the Cartesian mechanistic dynamism and substance with his concept of monads—simple, indivisible, and independent substances. These monads, as diverse as reality itself, possess an internal energy that contrasts with Cartesian mechanism. Independent and unrelated to the outside, each monad has its own principle of action, independent of the external...

René Descartes' philosophical system begins with the indubitable truth of the cogito: "I think, therefore I am." From this foundational certainty of our own existence and thought, Descartes proceeds to demonstrate the existence of God. He asserts that without proving God's existence and goodness, it is impossible to achieve certainty about anything else, as a deceptive God could undermine all our perceptions.

The Argument from Innate Ideas and Perfection

Descartes posits that all that exists in our mind for conceiving things are ideas. Among the various types of ideas, some are neither derived from external things nor created by our imagination; these are innate ideas. They arise from the mere capacity to think, by the lumen naturale rationis...

René Descartes (1596-1650)

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a philosopher and mathematician. He was a key figure in the development of rationalism.

Descartes' Method

He devised a method that would allow progress with secure knowledge. This method is divided into four parts:

• Evidence: Do not accept anything that is not clearly evident to human reason.
• Analysis: Divide the problem into smaller parts and examine each one.
• Synthesis: Once you have the necessary elements, arrange them in an order, starting with the simplest and moving to the more complex.
• Enumeration: Review the process to ensure nothing has been omitted or done incorrectly.

The First Question and the First Truth

Descartes doubted all knowledge to arrive at a universal question. This doubt...

Nihilism

In the negative sense, nihilism is the realization that the values civilized man holds as outstanding are to be destroyed. In the positive sense, it recognizes the variety of traditional values and removes them. By removing those values, there is just nothing, which is the step to building new values. Nihilism is the logical and inevitable crystallization of Western culture. It is confusion and doubt after the collapse of Platonic philosophy. But the nihilistic time is needed for the arrival of a new perspective, a new appreciation for life and humanity. In addition to all this criticism, there are a number of proposals in Nietzschean philosophy that clearly show the claim for life and personal experience. There is a celebration of...

Marxism: Theory and Social Transformation

Marxism proposes a reversal of the Hegelian system, advancing a materialist dialectics focused on the consciousness of society and history. Against a purely interpretative view of the world, Karl Marx argued for a philosophy capable of transforming society: first theory, then practice. It proposes communism as an economic system and understands history through a materialist lens, rooted in natural concepts.

Historicism and Vitalism: Life as Experience

Historicism and Vitalism propose that life and history, understood in a biological sense, should be approached as a biography. For thinkers like Nietzsche, life is an experience.

Phenomenology: Philosophy as Strict Description

Phenomenology views philosophy...

Argued

If one person argues with another, they speak angrily to each other about something that they disagree about.

Bandage

A piece of material used to dress a wound, bind a broken limb, etc. (Vendaje)

Bending

To form a curve, as by pushing or pulling. (Flexión)

Busy

When you are busy, you are working hard or concentrating on a task, so that you are not free to do anything else.

Chasing

Run after someone or follow them quickly, to catch or reach them.

Criminal

A person who commits crimes for a living / a person charged with and convicted of a crime. (Criminal)

Cut off

To remove something by cutting.

Delivery

A delivery person or service delivers things to a place.

Empty

If you feel empty, you feel unhappy and not energetic / Containing nothing.

Feeding

To give...

Freedom as Autonomy

Freedom is autonomy:

1. Freedom of Choice

Our will is determined by our previous way of being, not arbitrary. Indifference to two equally attractive things is not enough, because then the choices would be irrational and arbitrary. Deliberation after the selection is a good reason. Those who believe in economic rationality think that humans always choose to minimize costs and maximize profits.

2. The Concept of Autonomy

Human beings can self-select our goals. Kant said that freedom is the moral law, or *the* law. There are two approaches:

• Natural-law: People view events from outside of their will.
• Human Will View: We are creating the law of freedom, as rational beings. Thanks to them, we organize our way of life and human coexistence.

Nihilism and Cultural Critique

Significance of Nihilism: Nihilism argues there is no objective basis for existence; there is nothing beyond life, and we cannot plan our lives because nothing is definitive. It can be defined as the crisis of European culture, reflected in two phenomena: the imposition of slave morality over the lords and the recognition of the "death of God."

Critique of Values

Critical Values: Western cultural values originate from Platonism, Christianity, or the scientific revolution. Platonism is criticized for being based on a world beyond this one, its rejection of the rational and sensible, and its contempt for earthly life. Christianity is viewed as negative and a sign of weakness, while science is criticized for establishing...