Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Philosophy and ethics

The Sophists

Their Focus on Practical Reality and Ethics

The Sophists directed their analysis to practical reality, particularly politics and ethics. Traveling extensively, they offered their teaching services for a fee. These professional educators aimed to help citizens achieve social success by teaching rhetoric, oratory, and eristic (the art of argumentation).

Sophists vs. Philosophers

Unlike philosophers, who sought knowledge and truth, the Sophists were more like trainers who imparted knowledge for social advancement. They viewed knowledge as a tool for social privilege, not a means to discover truth.

Two Types of Relativism

1. Theoretical Relativism: This view holds that reality depends on one's perspective. From this standpoint, reality is

Understanding the Human Person and Social Dynamics

The person is unique, unrepeatable, indefinable, and complex. Several key concepts help us understand human behavior and interactions:

• Assertiveness: Saying what you honestly think, without deception, to another person without hurting them. This includes the ability to say "no."
• Self-esteem: The positive or negative evaluation that each person holds of themself.
• Anorexia: When a person stops eating enough because they believe they are fat.
• Bulimia: Binge eating; the opposite of anorexia.
• Empathy: Putting yourself in the place of another person to understand their feelings or what is happening to them. For example, trying to understand a person who has lost a parent.

Human Nature and Social Interactions

Human

Phenomenalism

Phenomenalism is a philosophical theory that states that the only things we can know are the reality of our perceptions. These impressions are phenomena that appear, flow, and disappear without implying something permanent beyond what these impressions cause. We do not perceive anything exterior to our minds, whether these impressions respond to an external cause. The perceived object is then devoted to the mind, forming part of our mental perception.

This involves a rejection of metaphysics: there is no substance or mind behind external or internal impressions. Skepticism, as a consequence of phenomenalism, leads to:

• Our understanding is limited.
• We doubt that we can know reality beyond the mind; there is no true knowledge of the

1. The Allure of Gossip

Why this interest is given by snooping on what happens to the characters in the gossip magazines?

R = Because it says nothing more interesting than the lives of others.

What do professionals say the gossip magazines mean when they say a person is "hanging out"?

R = Magazines say they are "hanging out," and for them, it means they do not have significant intellectual or cultural interests, or more than the great ideals that abound in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, such as hedonism and materialism.

What is life for these publications?

R = A zigzagging, uncertain adventure, in which almost everything is allowed, and everything is possible. The sensational is a key ingredient that must not fail.

2. The Fatigue of Life

What... Continue reading "Modern Man's Challenges: Gossip, Fatigue, Anxiety, and the Pursuit of Happiness" »

Consciousness

Consciousness is one of the specific traits of being human. It allows us to realize something and makes it possible to maintain a special relationship with the outside world and with ourselves. Consciousness has a physiological basis in the brain and develops along the evolutionary course of life. Consciousness is a mental activity that allows for reflection. To have consciousness implies returning to oneself. It supposes realizing, that is, giving yourself a reason to explain something, or consider that explanation.

Types of Consciousness

• Immediate consciousness: It allows us to know and realize our own presence. It appears without any intermediary.
• Mediate consciousness: It requires intermediaries, among others, the outer reality

Foundations of Ethics: What Should I Do?

Kant has already answered the question, I know, but man is not only a subject who knows, but a being who acts and uses his reason to guide their action. So, we humans not only make theoretical use of reason but also make practical use of it. The question, "What should I do?", is what Kant will analyze in the ethical realm, and above all, he will see that ethical materials share a common trait.

Objections to Material Ethics

These materials have ethical objections:

• Empirical Ethics: We say what we do, and we avoid it. Its content comes from experience and is based on observation. These ethics are full of rules and are defined as hypothetical.
• Heteronomous Ethics: These are justified in terms of interests

Justice: Under a general, stable, and perfect order of a whole, justice exists in the individual soul or the state, where the parts perform their specific function in an appropriate manner and according to their deserved power.

The Good: Plato's idea of the Good is the first of the ideas in dignity and power, comparable to the sun. It is the cause of being and intelligibility of ideas, as well as our knowledge of them. The knowledge of the Good ends the dialectic and the formation of governing ideals.

Pleasure: Plato finds meaning in and reacts against sensual enjoyment of the body. According to Plato, not all pleasures are good or beneficial.

Intelligence: Used in the sense of intellectual activity in general. It is not enough to think and... Continue reading "Understanding Key Concepts in Plato's Philosophy" »

Natural Law and the Social Contract

Thinkers spoke of a positive law, universal and prior to any other. Its defenders, the Stoics Zeno and Chrysippus (c. 3rd century BCE), maintained the theory of a state of nature, the same for everyone. In his De Legibus, Cicero (1st century BCE) speaks of the naturalis societas inter homines and ius in natura positum. Seneca conceived of society as a product of nature. This idea was taken up by later Roman legislators. In the Middle Ages, it lived on in the minds of Christian philosophers. In De Regimine Principum, Aquinas argues that the exercitium of authority is vested in the people and that it is this which confers it. The government, instituted by the community, may be toppled if it becomes tyrannical.... Continue reading "Natural Law, Social Contract, and the Rise of Liberalism" »

Christian Ethics: Middle Ages

From the Christian perspective, man is a creation of God, and therefore, God becomes the ultimate goal, the supreme good of man. Man has to go to Him all his life to reach contemplation in another life, where he will find happiness. In St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy, the concept of natural law took a leading role, since it is a law that exists in all humans, and it dictates what to do. This law coincides with the Ten Commandments.

Modern and Contemporary Ethics: Utilitarianism

David Hume denies that moral rules are justified by reason. Instead, he believes they depend on sentiment, as it is sentiment that leads man to talk about good and bad behavior. Someone endorses something if they like it, and vice versa. When... Continue reading "Christian Ethics and Political Power: Origins and Evolution" »