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

Descartes and Locke on the Causes of Error

Descartes: Causes of Error

Descartes posits a conflict between will and understanding as the root of error. The will, he argues, desires to extend beyond the boundaries of understanding.

He identifies a hierarchy of ideas:

• Innate ideas: Possessing the highest degree of certainty, originating from God. Examples include the cogito and adventitious substance.
• Adventitious ideas: Possessing a lower degree of certainty, with God serving as the guarantor of truth. An example is factitious extension.
• Factitious ideas: False ideas stemming from the imagination, representing arbitrary inventions.

Locke: Causes of Error

Locke attributes error to several factors:

• Insufficient evidence
• Inability to discover evidence
• Unwillingness

Plato: Historical and Cultural Context

Plato was born after the death of Pericles. Athens and Sparta were engaged in the Peloponnesian War, marked by inequalities in political administration. Sparta eventually defeated Athens, leading to the establishment of the Government of the Thirty Tyrants, which failed, and democracy was restored. With the rise of King Philip of Macedonia, the city-state was elevated. There was significant social division, with the aristocracy embracing democracy, which in turn led to demagoguery, a political system that Plato did not approve of. An economic crisis occurred, although cultural life was at its peak. Education was highly valued, based on stable knowledge and learning.

Philosophical Context

Pythagoreans: Plato... Continue reading "Plato's Philosophy: Ideas, Context, and the Theory of Forms" »

"Among the things / natural inclinations."

In the text, Aquinas makes a parallel between speculative reason and practical reason to try to show that the precept of natural law is unique. Like the first thing to be understood is the entity, the second captures "good." And like in that there is a first principle of any demonstration, obvious and provable, the principle of contradiction, in this there is a first principle: "Good is what all people crave," which is derived from the first moral precept of natural law: "We must act and pursue good and avoid evil." This bill, only natural, immutable, indelible, and universally valid, is that which serves as a criterion for evaluating all moral actions of man, all the ethical, "All other precepts of... Continue reading "Aquinas on Natural Law: Principles and Inclinations" »

Transcendental Idealism

Transcendental idealism is an epistemological and metaphysical conception developed by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century.

Briefly stated, transcendental idealism posits that all knowledge requires two elements: first, something external to the subject (given, or material principle), i.e., an object of knowledge. Second, something internal to the subject (the job or formal principle), which is the individual who knows. Kant claims that the conditions of all knowledge are set not by the object known, but by the knowing subject. The knowing subject introduces ways of understanding that are not pre-existing in reality. For Kant, knowledge is born from the union of sensibility with understanding;... Continue reading "Kant, Marx, and Hegel: A Comparison of Philosophical Ideologies" »

Kant's Concept of Duty and Free Will

According to Kant, our choices are free only if they are determined by duty. The human will is autonomous when it acts according to its own dictates, irrespective of other considerations. These actions are undertaken out of a sense of duty.

Rawls's Theory of the Original Position

Rawls's concept of the original position imagines a group of individuals behind a "veil of ignorance." They are unaware of their gender, wealth, race, religion, or any other characteristic that could lead to biased interests. This total ignorance defines the original position.

Justice According to Plato and Rawls

Plato views justice as the state where each part of the soul fulfills its specific virtues. The rational part of the soul... Continue reading "Kant, Rawls, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes: Philosophy Insights" »

**Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas**

**Reality and God**

Aquinas affirms that God is the creator of the universe and, therefore, is necessary, whereas created beings are contingent. In contingent beings, there is a distinction between essence and existence, as their essence does not imply their existence, but God's does. Essence is the power of being, and existence is the act of being. In turn, Aquinas provides a hierarchical organization according to the potential of their essence and likeness to God. The God of St. Thomas is a creator God who knows and loves his creatures. Aquinas argues that reason is the demonstration of the existence of God. In turn, he defends that God is a necessary being. He distinguishes two types of demonstration: *a priori*... Continue reading "St. Thomas Aquinas: Philosophy on Reality, Faith, and Ethics" »

Political Power and Legitimacy

Political power, as understood by powerful politicians, involves the authority responsible for enforcing laws. We obey the law out of fear of punishment. Throughout history, there have been various understandings of political power:

• Absolute: Grants political authority all powers (legislative, executive, judicial).
• Democracy: Power is distributed among various institutions (e.g., the executive branch runs the government; the legislature makes laws; the judiciary judges). In a democracy, the law takes precedence over the ruling power.

Legitimacy: The basis upon which political power rests. It concerns:

• The manner in which the person possessing authority acquired it.
• The exercise of that power, guided by the laws dictated

Epicureanism: Ethical Hedonism

Epicureanism states that the wise person seeks self-sufficiency. Happiness is achieved through pleasure—the satisfaction of natural desires—considered the primary natural asset, the beginning and end of a happy life. The goal is to achieve pleasure and avoid pain.

The wise person is cautious and moderately happy, not carried away by debauchery and excess. The wise person estimates activities that yield more pleasure and less pain, organizing their life by calculating which pleasures are more intense and lasting, with fewer painful consequences. The wise person intelligently distributes pleasures throughout their life. Morality, in this view, is the art of living happily.

Utilitarianism: The Principle of Utility

Utility... Continue reading "Pleasure, Utility, and Duty: Foundations of Ethical Thought" »

Empiricism

What is Empiricism?

Empiricism, as a philosophical current, developed during the 17th and 18th centuries. The term "empiricism" signifies that experience is the essential source of knowledge.

British empiricism stands in contrast to continental rationalism. These are two opposing ways of understanding philosophical activity that persist to this day.

Both share certain characteristics, and empiricism is an heir to rationalist philosophy. Above all, they have in common that we do not know things directly, but rather our knowledge of these things is driven by ideas. The primacy of subjectivity or consciousness is a feature of all modern philosophy, whether rationalist or empiricist.

They differ with respect to the origin of those ideas.... Continue reading "Empiricism and Kantian Ideas: Understanding Knowledge" »

Descartes' Arguments for God's Existence

The Causal Argument for God's Existence

This argument rests on two foundational principles:

1. The theory of the objective reality of ideas, which refers to their representative content.
2. The principle that "nothing comes from nothing," asserting that everything has a cause and a consequence.

The objective reality of an idea must have a real cause proportional to that idea. The idea of an infinite being cannot be caused by a finite being; therefore, its existence is inferred.

God as the Cause of My Being

This argument, also rooted in the theory of objective and formal ideas, posits the following: Within my mind, there exists an idea of perfection. If I were the cause of the objective reality of this idea of perfection,... Continue reading "Descartes' Proofs for God's Existence and Divine Truth" »