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

Concept of Society

The political community and civil society, although mutually connected and interdependent, are not equal in the hierarchy of ends. The political community is essentially at the service of civil society and, in the final analysis, the persons and groups of which civil society is composed. Civil society, therefore, cannot be considered an extension or a changing component of the political community; rather, it has priority because it is in civil society itself that the political community finds its justification.

Civil society is the sum of relationships and resources, cultural and associative, that are relatively independent from the political sphere and the economic sector. The purpose of civil society is universal, since it...

Understanding Causation in Tort Law

Causation focuses on whether the defendant's (D) carelessness caused the claimant's (C) injury.

The Two Tiers of Causation

• Factual Causation
• Legal Causation

Factual Causation and the 'But For' Test

The link between the defendant's breach and the claimant's loss is known as the 'but for' test. The question is: 'But for' the defendant's actions, would the claimant have suffered the injury or loss?

Case Study: Cork v Kirby MacLean

Denning LJ stated: "If you can say the damage would not have happened but for a particular fault, then the fault is the cause of the damage. But if you say the damage would have happened the same way, fault or not, the fault is not a cause of the damage."

Multiple Tortfeasors

Fairchild v Glenhaven

A) Phenomenologically

• I) Vital activity
• II) Relation between a subject and an object
• III) Intentional union

B) Metaphysics of Knowledge

• I) Condition: Proportion between the two opposite ends
  Proportion: They must have something in common.
• II) Image impressed in the subject by the action of the object
• III) Relativity (not relativism) of knowledge
• IV) The direct action of knowledge falls onto the object (not onto the image)
• V) Implies immateriality

Natural Appetite

• Proof:
  • (i) Principle of causality: The operation follows the being.
  • (ii) Principle of finality: Every agent acts for an end.
• Origin:
  • 1. Far principle: Nature’s Creator
  • 2. Close principle: The form
• Value:
  • Natural appetite cannot be wrong: it is necessarily right, because it is natural.
  • A natural desire

• Philosophy

  This term means love of wisdom. It is not so much a body of acquired knowledge, but rather a desire for knowledge that gives us a global understanding of reality. It is very difficult to define philosophy because the question of its meaning is also a philosophical question. This is why there is no one definition of philosophy that can be universally accepted. Some of the characteristics of philosophy are an enthusiasm to discover universality, a critical attitude, and a radical approach to finding the basis of the claims it produces. Philosophy can be divided further, and some of the most important areas of it are: metaphysics, epistemology, anthropology, ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy.

• Renaissance

  This cultural moment

Shareholders' Equity and Corporate Structure

Net assets are defined as total assets minus total liabilities. Paid-in Capital and Retained Earnings are two of the three primary account classifications for Shareholders' Equity (SE).

Disadvantages of the Corporate Form

• Paperwork is expensive.
• Double taxation.

Advantages of the Corporate Form

• The corporation is a separate legal entity—separate and distinct from its owners.
• Ownership interest is easily transferred.
• Shareholders do not have a mutual agency relationship.
• Limited liability: Owners are not personally liable for the debts of the corporation.
• Ease of raising capital.

Articles of Incorporation

Corporations have articles of incorporation (corporate charter). It describes the nature of the firm’s...

Scientific Methods

Scientific methods provide frameworks for investigation and understanding.

Deductive Method

This method moves from general statements to particular statements. From general judgments or definitions (premises), individual conclusions are deduced that are the necessary consequence of the first. The consistency and validity of this method are unquestionable. The deductive method is characteristic of formal sciences, although in empirical sciences it is also used in the initial part of the investigation.

Inductive Method

The inductive method starts from the particular to formulate a general conclusion. Scientists, after observing that a property or event is repeated in many individual cases, conclude that such a property belongs to...

Concept of International Society

The concept of International Society refers to a group of states that share common interests or values and participate in the maintenance of international institutions. It can be defined as the community of all nations and all people.

International Society vs. International Community

The International Community is a natural and spontaneous unity, whereas International Society is structured in an artificial way. In the community, ethical issues and common values prevail, while in the society, legal issues and legislation take precedence.

Fundamental Principles of International Society

• The International Common Good: Relations between actors must be guided by the universal common good—the good of all people. The purpose

1. Definitions

• Curse: A formula or charm intended to cause misfortune to another.
• Gift: A special natural ability, capacity, or talent.
• Double-edged sword: Something that causes both advantages and problems.
• To stack shelves: To arrange products in a pile on a shelf.
• Nursery: A school for little children.

2. Personality Traits

• Tactful: Someone who is very careful in the way they speak and behave so they do not make others unhappy.
• Tight-fisted: Not generous with money.
• Broad-minded: Someone who accepts many different types of behavior and is not easily shocked.
• Insecure: The opposite of being self-confident.
• Pushy: Ambitious in a negative way.
• Stubborn: Determined in a way that others may perceive negatively.
• Immature: Acting like a child despite being

Plato's Theory of Forms

It is not possible to give a common definition of objects that change continuously, unlike other beings. These beings were called "ideas." Things are separate ideas, but they are related. Throughout Plato's work, the term "idea" is mentioned, first in the Euthyphro about the idea of piety, where it means a model or criterion of truth. However, its definitive formation is found in the dialogues of maturity, especially in the Republic. The theory posits that ideas exist apart from particular things. They are not a "commonality" within things, nor are they concepts or mental representations. These are entities that have real and independent existence; every idea is a substance (ousia). The theory implies a doubling of the...

Nietzsche on the Body

According to traditional philosophers, human beings have a body, but are not a body. Plato or Descartes' concept of the "soul" subsumes all human reality. This is a consequence of their way of valuing: the senses deceive us (by showing becoming as real) and, consequently, everything sensible, like the body, acquires a negative connotation.

On the other hand, the body is related to the passions, to the irrational, and to pleasure—that is, to all those vital values to which the Western tradition has declared hostility.

For Nietzsche, radically opposing such a decadent way of assessing and interpreting the ontological structure of man, man is none other than a living body. The body is the being of man, his own integrity:

"I