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

Essential English Vocabulary List

• Confine: "To limit an activity." Example: "Please confine your use of the phone to business calls."
• Fail: "To not succeed in what you are trying to achieve." Example: "He failed in his attempt to break the record."
• Engage: "To employ someone." Example: "I have engaged a secretary to deal with all my paperwork."
• Deal: "An agreement, especially in business." Example: "She got a good deal on her new house."
• Catch: "To take hold of something." Example: "He caught hold of my arm."
• Remove: "To take something away." Example: "This detergent will remove even old stains."
• Partner: "A person or organization you are closely involved with in some way." Example: "He gave up his job as a police officer after his partner was killed.

Oscar Wilde: A Literary Icon of the Victorian Era

Oscar Wilde's Early Life

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854.

Academic Journey

He attended Trinity College and earned a degree from Oxford University.

Personal Life and Controversies

In 1883, he married Constance Lloyd, who bore him two children. However, he soon grew tired of his marriage. In 1891, he met Lord Alfred Douglas, with whom he had a homosexual relationship, leading to Wilde's imprisonment for homosexual offences.

Philosophical Influences and Aestheticism

Wilde was a disciple of Walter Pater and embraced the theory of Art for Art's Sake. He believed that only Art, as the cult of Beauty, could prevent the murder of the soul.

Public Persona in London

Settling in London, Wilde became a fashionable...

The Problem of Induction

Inductive reasoning goes from the particular to the general, from the observed to the unobserved.

Practical Problems

• How many observations are enough?
• Even well-confirmed hypotheses can later turn out to be wrong.
• Most scientists believe they really are discovering the fundamental laws of the universe, yet we have observed only a minute fraction of the universe.

Theoretical Problem

Science is supposed to be an empirical discipline that makes no claims beyond what is observed. However, this would stop any hypothesis from going from the particular to the general.

Key Thinkers and Scientific Method

Karl Popper (1902-94)

Rejected theories that tried to explain everything.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

Believed that human beings are dominated...

Descartes' Proofs for God's Existence

René Descartes, starting from the doubt in his own mind, which indicates imperfection, raises questions about the origin of the idea of perfection within him. He doubts everything except his own existence, recognizing his imperfection. Thus, since this idea cannot come from nothing or from himself (being imperfect), Descartes concludes that it must come from a perfect being, God, who has "put us in as the seal of the architect."

The Argument from the Idea of Perfection

This is the first demonstration of God's existence: the idea of perfection must be given by a perfect being. Since we, as imperfect beings, possess this idea but do not embody perfection, the idea must originate from God.

God as Guarantor of

Nietzsche's Critique: Master Morality and the Death of God

Friedrich Nietzsche identifies two types of men and corresponding moralities:

• Gentlemen: In which active forces are imposed on the reactive. They possess natural moral values that promote life.
• Slaves: The opposite case. They possess a moral resentment opposing values to life.

Before Socrates, culture was Dionysian and possessed an aristocratic morality. But since Plato and Christianity, morality has become Apollonian, where slaves were led to believe the gentlemen that their values are defects. European culture is a nihilist culture, hating values that support life. As a result, God is dead; there are no spiritual values respected by society.

Christianity, Nietzsche argues, rejects all...

Nietzsche vs. Kant: A Philosophical Comparison

Metaphysics

Kant argued that metaphysics isn't a science because it doesn't meet material conditions, yet it remains relevant due to humanity's inherent moral inclination towards it. Nietzsche countered that morality itself fuels false metaphysics, with humans creating it to bear life under a veil of lies.

Human Nature

Kant viewed humans as both phenomena and noumena, shaped by animality, humanity, and personality. He believed that while animality represents a selfish, unsocial being, humanity and personality drive ethical and social development. Nietzsche, however, saw the noumenal reality of humans as a fabrication. He posited that humans are intermediaries between animals and the Übermensch (Superman)...

Kant's Doctrine of Judgments: Universality and Necessity

Kant examines how judgments can possess the characteristics of universality and necessity, similar to those found in physical science and analytical, non-mathematical sciences. He proposes a nuanced division based on:

• The inherent (or non-inherent) relationship between subject and predicate.
• The origin of the judgment.

Based on these criteria, Kant distinguishes between analytic and synthetic judgments:

• Analytic Judgments: The predicate is already contained within the subject.
• Synthetic Judgments: The predicate is *not* contained within the subject.

Examples:

• Analytic Judgment (A Priori): "All bodies are extended." (Extension is inherent to the concept of a body). "The whole is greater than the

Analyzing Poetic Devices in the Duero Elm Verses

Metaphor and Imagery: The Tree's Inhabitants

The line, "Army ants crawling in a row going for him..." is a metaphor. This is not an actual army of insects, but the comparison is used because they are always found together in large numbers, and their organization, like that of bees, is perfect, with each individual knowing what to do.

These lines also indicate the only living beings that wish to inhabit the tree: wild ants, which feed on filth, and spiders, which "order"—that is, they spin webs in the "guts" inside the rotten wood.

Poetic Voice and Personification

Although the poet speaks of the elm in the third person until the middle of the poem, describing the state of the tree, the voice then...

Nihilism and the Death of God

Nihilism and the death of God, the will and the transmutation of values, the eternal return, and the Overman: culture has reached its own ruin and total decline. Hence, there is a need for restoration. This is the philosopher's task: to liberate man from all fictitious values, restoring the right to life.

The Consequence of Absent Values

Nihilism is itself the consequence of the absence of values. With the death of God, existence has lost its sense of direction. However, this is the condition for the will to power to create other new values.

The New Morality and the Passion for Life

Nietzsche argued that Euripides, Socrates, and Plato removed the art of choosing a philosophy based on the knowledge of causes, effectively...

Features of Civil Society

Civil society designates the mode of organization and structure of society at a particular time of development, existing between the family and the state, within which social groups are displayed.

Marx and Hegel:

Represents the space for expression and the satisfaction of the needs of individuals.

Material covers the exchange of individuals, encompassing all commercial and industrial life.

Its organization is based on production and exchange.

Forms the basis of the state.

This is engineered and regulated by legislation, providing for social rights and civic duties.

Social Contract: Rousseau

Rousseau criticizes previous theories:

Hobbes believes that their form of contract, the contract of submission, denies the natural freedom...