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

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" »

Sartre: Life and Philosophical Context

Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris in 1905 into a bourgeois family. He studied philosophy in France. In 1940, as the Nazis advanced on France, he was taken prisoner, remaining so until the following year. This experience contributed to his transformation into a revolutionary thinker and a representative of the resistance against the occupation forces. It demonstrated for him the absurdity and hopelessness of the situation, and the concept that man is abandoned. In 1943, he published Being and Nothingness, his principal philosophical work, followed in 1946 by Existentialism is a Humanism. He died in 1980.

Key Ideas in Sartre's Existentialism

Sartre acknowledged the wide range of expressions and movements labeled... Continue reading "Sartre's Existentialism: Freedom, Choice, Responsibility" »

Jacinto Verdaguer: Atlantis and Canigó

Jacinto Verdaguer was born in 1845 in Folgueroles, a village on the plain of Vic. He was both a priest and was dedicated to the spiritual life as well as the literary one. The life is the creation of a romantic. The temperament of a passionate, idealistic, and rebellious artist led to moments of glory. Verdaguer is the creator of modern Catalan literature, he is the greatest Catalan poet, and he situated Catalan literature at the height of great European literature.

Atlantis

Atlantis is a complex work that blends religious items and paid items. The work gives much prominence to the cataclysms and catastrophes that unleash the elements of nature.

Canigó

Canigó explains the mythical and legendary origin of... Continue reading "Jacinto Verdaguer: Literary Works and Linguistic Concepts" »

The Superman

Nietzsche announced the death of God. He presents two contrasting figures: the last man and the superman. The superman is a god who will affirm earthly life. This absolute negation of old values opens the possibility of affirming new values. The superman represents the opposite pole to the last man. These new values are not based on a beyond. The superman represents the meaning of life, not merely to deny or reverse the old values, but to create new ones, faithful to the meaning of life. Not subject to the impositions of the dominant morality, the superman represents the new man who will emerge from the effort of will to power, replacing the decadent humans of Western culture.

Nietzsche describes three metamorphoses leading to the... Continue reading "Nietzsche's Philosophy: Superman, Will to Power, Eternal Return" »

Understanding the Summa Theologica: Context and Method

Context of the Summa Theologica Fragment

This fragment belongs to Part I, Question II, Article III of the Summa Theologica.

Thomas Aquinas's Theological Vision

The primary goal Thomas Aquinas had with this book was to create a theological synthesis that would make the most important problems of the moment accessible to those devoted to these studies. While the exact timing is not clear, its composition is substantially placed in the last years of his life.

His theology was inspired by the revealed word but focused on a system that took into account the logical laws of Aristotle's time. This approach led to the development of the quaestio, a fundamental element of scholastic inquiry.

The issues... Continue reading "Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica: Structure, Method, and Legacy" »

Plato: Life and Context

Historical Context

Plato was born in Athens in 427 BC. The Greek polis, located around the Aegean Sea, occupied the continent, peninsula, islands, and extended throughout the Mediterranean, including northern Africa, the shores of Ionia, southern Italy, and Spain. Sparta and Athens were the most powerful and influential poleis.

Age of Pericles

The Medical War against the Persians occurred from 490 to 454 BC. This period saw the rise of Pericles' democracy in Athens and the supremacy of Athens through the Delian League.

Decline of Athens

The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and their allies took place between 431 and 404 BC, resulting in a Spartan victory. This was followed by the Government of the Thirty Tyrants... Continue reading "Plato's Philosophy: Historical, Sociocultural, and Intellectual Context" »

Plato's Theory of Ideas: Ontological Significance

The problem of nature, with its ethical-political justification, posits that goodness and happiness are possible only within a just *polis*, governed by sound laws. This theory states that there are two worlds:

• The world of Ideas or Intelligible Forms, which is the truly real world, graspable only by intelligence. Knowledge, achieved through study, requires the purification and cultivation of the soul. In these Ideas lies the nature of being; they are the authentic, universal reality from which the physical world derives.
• The sensible world, recognized through the senses, which has no true existence. It is not real but merely an appearance of being, an imitation of the world of Ideas.

Characteristics

Karl Marx: Value, Profit, and Alienation

Value and Profit

• Merchandise has a use value and an actual exchange value, which is an amount of money that depends on the working time necessary to produce the goods.
• Goods also have a market exchange value, which depends on the law of supply and demand.
• The difference between the market value of the product and its real value (or cost price) is the capitalist's profit.
• There is also a profit that comes from the difference between the actual value of work and the wages paid to workers.

Alienation

Marx believes that alienation occurs particularly within a specific social class: the proletariat. For Marx, there are historical and socioeconomic conditions that cause alienation.

Marx's concept of man is active,... Continue reading "Karl Marx: Concepts of Value, Profit, and Alienation" »

Key Philosophical Concepts

This document provides concise definitions for a range of fundamental philosophical terms, from ancient Greek thought to modern theories. Each entry clarifies the meaning and context of essential concepts that shape our understanding of existence, knowledge, ethics, and society.

Humanism

The doctrine that places humanity at the center of all things, emphasizing human values, reason, and agency.

Idea

An intuited universal concept, existing in the mind, whether in the Platonic sense as an eternal form or in the modern sense as a mental construct.

Identity

The first principle of thought, often expressed as "A is A," signifying self-sameness and non-contradiction.

Image

A sensitive representation or reproduction of an object,... Continue reading "Key Philosophical Concepts Defined" »

Events

Events that update being. That would be the ability or potency. Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between what things are (essence) and the fact that they exist (existence). The essence is potency ('can exist or not'); existence is act.

Absolute Good

One of God's attributes. As He is absolute being, He is absolute good.

Efficient Cause

In general, it is the causal principle that in some way influences being. The efficient cause or agent is the principle of change, that which makes it possible to actualize a being. Aquinas distinguishes between the primary cause (God, the ultimate cause, not caused by another) and secondary causes (those that were caused by another).

God

Pure Act. Being in which there is no composition of matter and form, or of essence... Continue reading "Thomas Aquinas: Core Metaphysical and Theological Concepts" »