Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Philosophy and ethics

Spanish Grammar: Key Components

Nouns

A noun is a word that refers to animals, people, concepts, and things. Nouns are classified:

• According to their form:
  • Gender: Masculine and feminine
  • Number: Singular and plural
• According to their meaning:
  • Common or proper
  • Concrete or abstract
  • Individual or collective
  • Countable or uncountable
  • Animate or inanimate
• By function: Nucleus of the nominal group

Determinants

Determinants accompany the noun. They are classified as:

• Articles
• Demonstratives
• Possessives
• Indefinites
• Numerals
• Interrogatives

Pronouns

A pronoun refers to the noun and assumes all of its syntactic functions in a sentence. Types of pronouns include:

• Personal
• Demonstrative
• Possessive
• Indefinite
• Numeral
• Interrogative
• Relative

Adjectives

An adjective expresses the qualities... Continue reading "Understanding Spanish Grammar: Nouns, Verbs, and More" »

Nature vs. Culture

Nature

Nature is innate, that which is born because it is genetically preprogrammed or develops in the embryo and fetus.

Culture

Culture is acquired or social learning, from the time when we are born.

Evolution and Species

Evolution

Evolution is the process by which individuals of a species undergo qualitative changes that lead to slowly changing the species from more primitive life forms into more organized ones.

Species

Species refers to each of the groups in which gender divides living beings.

Theories of Evolution

Fixism

Fixism was a theory established in the scientific community and the dominant concept until the nineteenth century.

Transformational Theory

Transformational theory is the first explicit theory of species evolution given... Continue reading "Nature vs. Culture in Human Evolution: Key Concepts" »

Thomas Aquinas and the Existence of God

Thomas Aquinas sought to integrate Christian faith with common sense and empirical observation (confidence in the senses). This approach influenced his quest for a rational demonstration of the existence of God. For Thomas, God's existence lies outside the scope of the obvious and, therefore, necessitates a rational demonstration. He believed that all human knowledge begins with the senses, so the existence of God can only be inferred from sensible objects. God, he argued, must have left significant clues in the world He created that lead us to prove His existence.

Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways

Thomas produced five ways to prove the existence of God. In these five ways, he argues similarly, following the same... Continue reading "Thomas Aquinas: 5 Ways to Prove God's Existence" »

Categories: Unifying Intuitions of Sensibility

Which is a category? All knowledge is to judge, that is, to unify the intuitions of sensibility by means of pure concepts or categories. Categories are the possibilities we have to make claims about what has not affected us. According to Kant, the understanding is capable of making judgments in 12 different ways, and if we are able to do this, it is because, a priori, without obtaining the experience, we have twelve categories or ways to meet phenomenal reality. Kant insists that we know reality itself, that the categories are the way the world is comprehensible to humans. Among the most important categories is that of causality. The categories allow us to make judgments about the physical world... Continue reading "Kant's Philosophy: Understanding, Reason, and Transcendental Ideas" »

Transcendental Illusion: Reason and its Limits

The basis of understanding, according to Kant, lies in the application of concepts to general phenomena, drawing upon both a priori knowledge and experience. Thinking involves organizing concepts logically, based on their universality. This process leads to what Kant calls Ideas of Reason:

• Alma (the body of knowledge about internal experience)
• World (knowledge about external experience)
• God (a synthesis of both)

Although these ideas encompass all phenomena, they do not provide us with concrete knowledge. We lack the necessary intuition to grasp them. Therefore, metaphysics as a science is impossible, as knowledge is limited by sensory experience. However, humans have a natural inclination to ponder... Continue reading "Kant's Transcendental Illusion: Reason and Metaphysics" »

The Relationship Between Ideas

Ideas are the materials of knowledge, appearing in a specific order. This order depends on whether it's power, memory, or imagination that brings them to mind. Memory maintains the original momentum and position of ideas, while imagination combines them more freely. We can imagine fantastical creatures, like a centaur, but we remember a horse. Hume identifies a 'soft power' in human nature that associates ideas along three principles: similarity, spatiotemporal contiguity, and causation. "A picture naturally leads our thoughts to the original. The mention of one room in a building naturally introduces a question or comment about the others, and if we think of a wound, we can hardly refrain from thinking about the... Continue reading "Understanding Knowledge: Ideas, Relations, and Facts" »

Understanding Discrimination

Positive Discrimination: Protection of extraordinary character, which is given to a group historically discriminated against on grounds of sex, race, religion, or language to achieve their full social integration.

Negative Discrimination: Giving inferior treatment to a person or group on racial, religious, political, etc. grounds.

Indirect Discrimination: Launching formally neutral conditions regarding sex but disadvantageous to women, lacking a sufficient cause that is objective, reasonable, and justified.

Infodona aims to provide advisory services to women, women's groups, and other entities, to facilitate their participation, on equal opportunities and conditions, in all areas that give content to the Valencian society... Continue reading "Understanding Discrimination and Labor Rights in Spain" »

Locke's Social Contract: Why Transition to a Political State?

The reason individuals renounce the freedom enjoyed in the state of nature is due to insecurity. People join in partnership to preserve their natural rights.

The Imperative for Society and Government

Human beings come together in society and are subject to government for the preservation of their properties. In the state of nature, this preservation is difficult for three reasons:

• Lack of a positive law (known by all, consensus).
• Absence of a fair trial to mediate disputes.
• No power able to enforce fair judgments.

From Insecurity to Laws and Government

Insecurity and the dangers inherent in the state of nature lead individuals to seek refuge in laws and government for the preservation of... Continue reading "Locke's Social Contract: From Nature to Political State" »

**Human Action: Features, Reason, and Societal Impact**

**Features of Human Action**

Human action is characterized by intelligence and the ability to imagine, organize, and realize desires, projects, plans, and illusions. It allows us to transcend the realm of necessity and recreate new worlds. Our actions always represent a symbolic character, hence the creative nature arises.

**Key Traits of Human Action**

• Intentionality: Aristotle understood intentionality as the way a subject acts, moving into the world as an external reality. According to him, there are two modes of directing oneself toward an object: the theoretical, which expresses the human will, and the practical, designed to meet human needs.
• Purpose: Means are defined for a purpose, presenting

What is Enlightenment? Kant's Text

Part One: The Impossibility of Self-Guidance Without External Help

The primary obstacle to enlightenment is the inability of individuals to use their own intelligence without the guidance of another. This is not due to a lack of intelligence itself, but rather a lack of the decision and courage to think for oneself, without relying on external direction. Many remain in a state of intellectual dependence, where they avoid the effort of independent thought. To overcome this, we must take responsibility for our own thinking and learn from our mistakes. Few have been able to overcome this disability and proceed steadily. When individuals start to think freely, tutors may realize that they have confused or misled... Continue reading "Kant's Analysis of Enlightenment: Reason, Freedom, and Progress" »