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

Descartes' Methodical Doubt and the Three Certainties

The Quest for Indubitable Truths

Descartes' attempt to exercise universal doubt aimed not at skepticism, but at establishing a foundation for true knowledge. His methodical doubt sought to identify truths immune to skepticism. Through this process, he established three indubitable certainties.

First Certainty: The Existence of the Thinking Self (Cogito)

Descartes realized that even if he doubted everything else, he could not doubt his own existence as a thinking being. This is encapsulated in his famous phrase "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am").

Second Certainty: The Existence of God

Descartes reasoned that his own imperfection implied the existence of a perfect being, God. He argued... Continue reading "Descartes' Three Certainties: Foundation of Scientific Philosophy" »

Kant's Theory of Knowledge in Critique of Pure Reason

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason presents a foundational theory of knowledge, marking a significant development in epistemology—the branch of philosophy concerned with human knowledge. Kant proposes a revolutionary idea: instead of our knowledge conforming to objects, objects must conform to our cognitive structures. This is often called his "Copernican Revolution" in philosophy.

The Faculties of Cognition: Sensibility and Understanding

Kant identifies two primary faculties involved in human cognition:

• Sensibility: The passive faculty through which objects are given to us via sensations. Its operations are called intuitions. For Kant, intuition is always sensory, never purely intellectual.

Stoicism is a philosophical current from the Hellenistic period. It is named after the Stoa Poikile, a painted portico in Athens where its founder, Zeno of Citium, taught.

Core Concepts: Logos, Fate, and Determinism

Stoic ethics is based on their cosmic determinism. For the Stoics, the law governing the universe is the Intelligent Fire itself, or the divine Logos (Reason). Given this cosmic determinism, the only wise attitude is to accept fate, as everything is governed by the providence of the Logos.

Stoic Ethics: Virtue and Living According to Nature

According to Stoic ethics, to achieve happiness (eudaimonia), one must practice virtue. Virtue lies in the intention to live according to Nature, and because our nature is rational, this means living... Continue reading "Understanding Stoic Philosophy" »

The Scientific Revolution

Several factors contributed to the Scientific Revolution. These include the rediscovery of classical Greek texts and the supersession of the ideas of Archimedes and Aristotle. However, an even more crucial factor was the introduction of mathematical methods in experimental research. Investigating phenomena with a mathematical mindset was key.

Philosophical Implications of the New Science

The consideration that mathematics represents true and objective reality, coupled with the exaltation of human reason as an autonomous source of truth, changed man's image of the world and of himself.

The Reflection on Method

There were attempts to apply the same scientific method to philosophy. The scientific method includes both empirical... Continue reading "Scientific Revolution: Causes, Impacts, and Methods" »

Nietzsche on Tragic Art and Life Affirmation

Tragedy vs. Philosophy

For Nietzsche, philosophers often seem to hate life, killing everything they touch. Artists, with their fiction and lies, manage to be faithful to reality, expressing truth better than philosophers, especially tragic artists.

Affirming Life's Pain

In an original and profound way, Nietzsche sees tragic art as the antithesis of the decadent attitude, which is both pessimistic and nihilistic. Nietzsche maintains, against common opinion, that the tragic conception of the world is not pessimistic. Pessimism, for him, is indicative of resignation and regret, a sign of spiritual weakness.

Tragedy, however, is clearly a vigorous affirmation of reality. It teaches that one must always say... Continue reading "Nietzsche's Tragic Art and Dionysian Life Affirmation" »

Kant and Hume, both prominent authors of the 18th-century Enlightenment, held differing ethical views. The comparison between them is often presented as follows: Kant's ethics are formal, while Hume's are material. Kant focuses on intentions, while Hume emphasizes ends. Kant's ethics are rooted in virtue, while Hume's are concerned with happiness.

Kant argued that reason should determine the will. Conversely, Hume posited that feelings dictate the will, informing us about what is good or bad. Hume famously stated, "Reason is the slave of passions," highlighting that reason alone does not drive behavior. Furthermore, their conceptions of reason and feelings diverge significantly.

For Kant, morality cannot be based on feelings but must be grounded... Continue reading "Kant vs. Hume: Comparing Enlightenment Ethics" »

Nihilism

In the negative sense, nihilism is the realization that the values civilized man holds as outstanding are to be destroyed. In the positive sense, it recognizes the variety of traditional values and removes them. By removing those values, there is just nothing, which is the step to building new values. Nihilism is the logical and inevitable crystallization of Western culture. It is confusion and doubt after the collapse of Platonic philosophy. But the nihilistic time is needed for the arrival of a new perspective, a new appreciation for life and humanity. In addition to all this criticism, there are a number of proposals in Nietzschean philosophy that clearly show the claim for life and personal experience. There is a celebration of... Continue reading "Nietzsche's Philosophy: Nihilism, Will to Power, and Superman" »

Confidentiality Covenants in Technology Contracts

Summary Questions - Workshop 2

1. Define the Concept of "Technological Contracts"

Technological contracts are those whose object is constituted by all the technical knowledge that can be both industrial and commercial. These include the meeting of intellectual property rights, licensing of intellectual property rights, transfer of know-how, technical assistance contracts, and engineering contracts.

2. Define the Concept of "Covenants or Agreements of Confidentiality"

Confidentiality covenants are a particular form of agreement between parties that defines their object and extinction. They are regulated as such under the provisions in contracts.

3. Indicate the Three Conditions for the Existence of

Descartes and Classical Mechanics

Characteristics of Classical Mechanics

From Galileo to Newton, a new scientific paradigm, known as classical mechanics, was imposed. The characteristics of classical mechanics are:

• Mechanism: The world must be explained in purely mechanical terms.
• Determinism: There is no freedom or chance; changes happen as strict causal relationships.
• Reductionism: Qualitative aspects are reduced to quantitative ones. Cause-effect relationships are governed by physical-mathematical laws.

The Cartesian Foundation of the New Science

Descartes is one of the promoters of classical mechanics. He also provided a philosophical foundation for the new science. Something is true if it follows the rules of operation of self-understanding.... Continue reading "Descartes' Role in Classical Mechanics" »

God Remains Constant

4.8. The Three Substances: Attributes and Modes

Descartes defines substance as that which does not need anything other than itself to exist. The only being that subsists by itself is God, res infinite. Other beings require creation and preservation by God. While God is the only substance in the truest sense, by analogy, we may also consider created beings who only need God's concurrence to exist as substances. This distinguishes two created substances: the ego or thinking substance (res cogitans) and extended substance or bodies (res extensa). We have clear and distinct ideas of them: they are autonomous or independent. We know substances by their attributes. Descartes also speaks of modes, which are variable modifications... Continue reading "Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, and Leibniz" »