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

Topic 5: Introduction to Philosophical Empiricism

Empiricism emphasizes the role of sensory experience in acquiring knowledge. It denies the existence of innate ideas, proposing that the mind begins as a "blank slate." This perspective challenges traditional metaphysics, which attempts to transcend the boundaries of experience.

1. Epistemological Foundations

1.1. Elements of Knowledge

According to Locke and Hume, an "idea" represents everything we know or perceive. Hume refined Locke's concept of "idea" to encompass sensations and perceptions. He identified two key elements of knowledge:

• Impressions: These are immediate sensations—our direct experience of the world. They are strong, vivid feelings that form the raw data of our senses.
• Ideas:

The Insurance Contract

Definition of an Insurance Contract

An insurance contract is an agreement where the insurer, in exchange for a premium, agrees to indemnify the insured for losses or damages arising from a specified risk, within agreed-upon limits. It can also involve the payment of a capital sum, income, or other agreed-upon benefits.

Characteristics of an Insurance Contract

• Bilateral: Both parties (insurer and insured) have obligations.
• Consideration: Both parties seek economic benefits.
• Aleatory: The performance of the contract depends on a random event (the occurrence of the insured risk).

Elements of an Insurance Contract

The Insurer

The insurance company that assumes the risk and collects premiums.

The Policyholder

The person who signs the... Continue reading "Understanding Insurance Contracts: Elements and Key Features" »

The Problem of Knowledge: Epistemology

Hume is the most important author of the school of empiricism. Empiricism states that all our knowledge comes from experience. Hume denies the existence of innate ideas in reason, prior to experience, since our mind is like a blank page on which nothing is written at birth (tabula rasa).

He distinguishes two elements of knowledge (or "perceptions"): impressions, more vivid mental representations received by the senses (external or internal); and ideas, which are representations or copies of past impressions in the mind, characterized by being less lively. Both impressions and ideas can be simple or complex.

Ideas can be associated or connected according to three basic laws: the law of similarity, the law... Continue reading "Hume's Empiricism: Knowledge, Morality, and Politics" »

Nature and Culture

Introduction

Throughout the history of philosophy, the terms nature and culture have been used as totally different. Homo sapiens has not changed for thousands of years in nature. However, culture has had changes (new inventions, new ideas, etc.). But the development of culture cannot be understood without man undergoing changes that allow nature to think and use language. In the process of humanization, it is important to consider the nature of man and culture, as both go hand in hand and complement each other. That is, you cannot understand the natural man separated from the cultural man.

The Confusion Between Nature and Culture

There is confusion in people thinking that everything that comes from nature is good, while everything... Continue reading "Human Nature and Culture: An In-Depth Analysis" »

Nietzsche: Nihilism

Nietzsche criticized the metaphysics and morality of slaves in the Western world, who despised the sensible world. He believed this had led to the decline, the annihilation of the will of man.

If Dionysus represented everything vital, strong passions, music, and so on, with the arrival of Platonism to Greece and then to Christianity, the values are reversed: life is sentenced, it devalues the sensible world for the benefit of the supersensible.

This devaluation, after two millennia of Christian rule, leads to nihilism, when God and the supersensible world lose their value in the currency of modernity. This is symbolized by Nietzsche with the expression "God is dead." It will be passed to say "God is truth," to say "everything... Continue reading "Nietzsche: Understanding Nihilism and the Will to Power" »

The Existence of the World

Having demonstrated the existence of God, who is perfect, the possibility of self-deception and the possibility of an evil genius constantly deceiving me are eliminated. Therefore, the stated reasons for doubting both mathematical and general intelligible truths, as well as truths derived from the senses, are removed. Since God exists and is perfect, He cannot allow me to be deceived into believing that the world exists if it does not. Thus, the world exists.

The Structure of Reality: Three Substances

Descartes distinguished three levels of reality:

• An infinite substance (God), which is the ultimate cause of the other two substances.
• The thinking substance (Self), also known as the soul.
• The extended substance (the World)

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" »