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

Cervantes and the Printing of Don Quixote

We recently discovered a request in Cervantes's own hand, addressed to the authorities, in which he authorized the printing of Don Quixote. This discovery is significant for three reasons:

• It provides a new autograph of Cervantes.
• It reveals the title Cervantes himself conceived for his work: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha.
• It offers a key to reading Don Quixote as a celebration of the pleasure of fiction.

Structure of the Quixote

The structure of the work is built upon two pillars: the observation of reality and the symbolic nature of madness, both directly influenced by the literature of the time.

Elements, Qualities, and Temperaments

The work reflects the medical knowledge of the era regarding the...

The Human Being as a Person

Defining Personhood: Roman Law and Christianity

Roman law and Christianity significantly advanced the concept of the person. In ancient Rome, people were recognized as subjects of rights and duties. Individuals could operate freely and were responsible for their own actions. A person does not need anyone to dictate their actions; they are the source of duty and morality.

In Christianity, it is believed that every human being is a creature with a soul, capable of receiving rewards or punishments according to their performance. This underscores the value of the person as an autonomous entity with its own identity, especially with a permanence and continuity that does not end in this life. A person is an end in itself....

Plato's Intellectual Framework: Historical Setting

The Decline of Athens and the Crisis of the Polis

The intellectual work of Plato developed during the first half of the fourth century BC. The previous century, the Fifth Century BC, was the period of Athenian greatness, known as the "Age of Pericles," marked by victory in the Persian Wars (or Median Wars) against the Persians.

However, by the end of that century (431–404 BC), Athens had suffered a heavy defeat against Sparta in the Peloponnesian War and subsequently endured a year under the government imposed by the enemy, known as the "Thirty Tyrants." This marked a period of decline that the restoration of democracy in 403 BC could not fully overcome. Ultimately, Athens would be dominated,...

Anthropological Dualism: Plato and Descartes

A key similarity between Plato and Descartes is their belief in anthropological dualism: the concept that humans are composed of two distinct parts, the soul (l'ànima) and the body. Both philosophers argue that absolute truth resides in the soul, while the body is the primary source of error.

Plato's View on the Soul

Plato posits that the soul is perfect, eternal, and existed in an intelligible world of ideas before uniting with the body. He introduces the Law of Reminiscence, suggesting that the soul encountered absolute truth before birth, but the union with the body causes it to forget, requiring a process of recollection to regain knowledge.

Descartes and the Cogito

For Descartes, the soul is defined...

Saint Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy and Theology

Philosophical truths are known as natural truths. Revealed truths are those of faith (theology).

• Complementarity between Faith and Reason: There can be no contradictions between the claims of natural theology and dogmatic theology. If deductions are correct, philosophy can achieve the same truths as revelation. Aquinas denies the theory of double truth attributed to Averroes, since natural theology and dogmatic theology employ different procedures to arrive at the same conclusion.
• Philosophy as a Preamble to Faith: Philosophy makes some articles of faith understandable, but it does not replace them; rather, it acts as a preamble. For Saint Thomas, one cannot simultaneously know and have faith, because

Fundamental Rules of Deduction

• Modus Ponens: A → B, A / B
• Modus Tollens: A → B, ¬B / ¬A
• Disjunctive Syllogism: A ∨ B; ¬A / B
• Hypothetical Syllogism: A → B, B → C / A → C
• Reductio ad Absurdum: A → (¬B ∧ B) / ¬A

Formal Fallacies in Reasoning

Formal methods of deduction can be misused. Reasoning incorrectly can lead to false conclusions even when starting from true premises.

• Affirming the Consequent: A → B, B / A
• Denying the Antecedent: A → B, ¬A / ¬B

Ambiguity

Deductions may be formally valid but contain misleading content due to ambiguous language. Example: "Only man is rational" (implying women are not).

Inductive Fallacies

• Inadequate Generalization: Inductions are weak when data is insufficient or biased.
• Mock Trial (Cherry Picking)

Historical Context of the British Enlightenment

In the British Isles, a strong opposition existed between Puritans and Anglicans (who supported royal power). This period witnessed two significant revolutions:

• The English Revolution (1640-1660): King Charles I was executed, and Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan leader, established a dictatorship. Puritans sought a return to Christian roots by removing Catholic influence.
• The Glorious Revolution (1688): This bloodless revolution brought William III and Mary II of Orange to the throne, instituting a parliamentary monarchy.

Following the 1688 Revolution, England, and subsequently Great Britain, embarked on a path toward constitutionalism, becoming a model for the 18th-century Enlightenment. This era provided...

The Hellenistic Period (Beginning 323 BC)

The Hellenistic period began in 323 BC with the death of Alexander the Great. Classical philosophy, marked by the death of Aristotle a year later, underwent significant transformation. Alexander's empire fragmented into various ancient monarchies and military dictatorships.

During this era, monarchies remained strong, but democratic principles declined, and the focus on traditional politics diminished. Hellenistic theories often rejected political engagement. While the period is sometimes strictly defined as ending with the rise of the Roman Empire under Augustus, it can be argued that, given the Romans were also Hellenized, the era truly concluded with the fall of the empire.

Key Characteristics of Hellenistic

The Essence of Ideas

In each general term, "cat" in this case, there is an idea, an essence that defines it as one thing and distinguishes it from others. For Plato, the idea of a cat has content; it is not just a word. We associate that word with an idea, and an idea is a term that exists in our mind, a way to identify cats. For Plato, the cat as an idea is reality; the idea is real because it does not change. If something is real, it must remain constant. For Plato, ideas are universal; we all understand the same meaning for our ideas. All individuals share a common idea. Ideas are paramount because they do not change. He advocates for the immutability of ideas because they are the essences of what we can perceive and learn through the senses....

Rationalism: The Primacy of Reason

René Descartes is widely considered the father of rationalism. Other prominent followers of this doctrine include Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Rationalism posits the following key theses:

1. Geometry as the Model of Knowledge

   Geometry serves as the authentic model of knowledge. From a few axioms, and using deductive reasoning and logical laws, a set of theorems can be derived. For rationalist philosophers, all knowledge must follow this rigorous model.

2. Distrust of Sensory Information

   Rationalism distrusts information about the world obtained through the senses. By contrast, the successes of geometry demonstrate that deductive reasoning can establish and expand knowledge reliably.

   For Descartes, the