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

The Dawn of Modernity: A Philosophical Shift

The modern era, beginning in the Renaissance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and culminating in the Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment, marked a significant departure from traditional thought. Modernity is characterized by the decline of the Christian conception of the world. Modern philosophy developed a series of ideas and concepts that were incompatible with Christian thought. The idea of modernity is fundamentally an idea of progress, whereas Christianity is rooted in the idea of humanity. Enlightenment philosophers believed that history was a march towards the realization of an increasingly rational and infinite life.

Reason: A Cornerstone of Modern Thought

Reason emerged as a key idea... Continue reading "Foundations of Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Kant" »

Fundamental Values and Societal Harmony

• The value of life
• Duties to the community
• Power and its exercise
• The citizen and the weak
• The afterlife, death, and gods
• Ways of resolving conflicts
• Property, its ownership, and distribution
• Sexuality, procreation, and family
• Dealing with foreigners and differences

Assessing solutions: Human beings need to know the best solutions, which better respect the fundamental values of humanity and can provide a more just social reality.

• Morality: It is the system of rules governing coexistence in a society. There are many moral and cultural systems.
• Ethics: It is the part of philosophy that reflects on these issues and tries to rationally develop a universal morality, valid for all cultures.

The Search for Optimal Solutions

The... Continue reading "Ethical Problem-Solving: Universal Moral Principles" »

Dissatisfaction with Traditional Teachings

Descartes expressed dissatisfaction with the teachings at La Flèche, including scholastic philosophy and Aristotelian science. He sought a more solid foundation for philosophy, a criterion to distinguish true knowledge from falsehood. This criterion, he believed, could be found in non-traditional thinking, specifically the mathematical model of analytical geometry.

Analytical Geometry

Descartes believed that if algebra could solve geometric problems, a general method could be found to solve problems in any science. One of his philosophical objectives was to find this universal method for attaining truth.

The Tree of Philosophy

Descartes saw no distinction between scientific and philosophical knowledge,... Continue reading "Descartes' Philosophy: A Method for Truth" »

The Conditions of Possibility of Science

The problem is, can metaphysics become a science? It would require that metaphysics fulfill the same conditions that both existing sciences, mathematics and physics, meet. For a trial to be regarded as scientific, it must meet two conditions: increasing our knowledge and possessing necessary and universal validity. A trial to increase our knowledge has to be a synthetic view, and the character of necessity and universality could not come from experience. Experience only provides contingent truths of fact and individuals. That is, the necessity and universality of a trial can only be established outside of experience, or a priori. In conclusion, scientific judgments must be synthetic a priori judgments.... Continue reading "Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Conditions of Science" »

Economic Citizenship: Beyond Political Roles

It should be recognized that in addition to political citizens, we are also "economic citizens." This recognition entails embracing business ethics and fostering corporate social responsibility. Furthermore, it involves exercising our consumer citizenship by implementing an ethic of fair use. Progress in these areas creates more opportunities for citizens to participate meaningfully in the economic decisions that affect them, with the ultimate goal of poverty eradication.

Civil Citizenship: Engaging in Society

Civil citizenship refers to the participation of people in various associations and groups that pursue legitimate purposes of civility. In these freely and spontaneously generated groups, individuals... Continue reading "Beyond Political: New Dimensions of Modern Citizenship" »

Nietzsche (1844-1900)

1. Critique of the Foundations of European Culture

Nietzsche's philosophy departs from the assertion that Western culture is fundamentally decadent. This decadence, he argues, stems from inherent flaws present from its inception. To address these problems, he proposes a critique of Platonic dogmatism and the elimination of the core error: the opposition of culture to life and instinct.

Western culture, according to Nietzsche, is built upon three inverted worlds, the values of which are symptoms of decadence. These are:

• Dogmatic Philosophy
• Christian Religion
• Traditional Morality and Science

1.1. Critique of Morality

Nietzsche's most profound critique targets Western morality, which he views as unnatural and opposed to life. He... Continue reading "Nietzsche: Decadence of Western Civilization" »

"I Think Therefore I Am": Descartes' First Principle

"I think, therefore I am." This text reflects Descartes' discovery of the first principle of philosophy. In the first lines, Descartes expresses doubt regarding the testimony of the senses. This is the first level of methodical doubt, invalidating any scientific certainty and the apparent evidence of external reality to thought. From the third line, the text reflects the second and third levels of doubt: the inability to distinguish waking from sleep, and the risk of error even in the simplest truths of geometry or mathematics. This is the application of methodical doubt to reasoning itself. However, as Descartes reaches this level of depth in implementing doubt as a method, a radical enlightenment... Continue reading "Descartes' Cogito: Understanding 'I Think Therefore I Am'" »

Nietzsche's Critique of Hypocrisy and Morality

Hypocrisy of the Poor and Priests

Nietzsche's critique was fundamentally directed against hypocrisy. He observed the hypocrisy of the poor who claim wealth is bad, yet secretly aspire to it. Similarly, he criticized priests who preach chastity while, in his view, their underlying motives are often rooted in envy of those with power and influence.

Philosophical Dualism and Hidden Intentions

Philosophically, traditional morality has often justified a distinction between two worlds: ideas and matter, body and soul, noumena and phenomena (as seen in Plato, Descartes, and Kant). Nietzsche argued that people often harbor hidden intentions behind their actions, a form of hypocrisy he vehemently opposed.

Nietzsche

Vitality: Nietzsche's Philosophy

Defending life as the full and real existence of human beings.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of thinkers established a philosophy centered on the exaltation of the vital and affective, in contrast to the excessive rationality of Hegel's idealism or the scientific positivism of Comte. They defended irrationalism and the affirmation of life as the fundamental reality of human beings.

Reason is not the exclusive faculty for understanding reality; poetic inspiration, intuition, instinct, prophetic vision, and the unconscious are also important.

A Critique of European Cultural Values

Nietzsche saw 19th-century culture (dogmatic philosophy, religion, and morality) as the decline of a Christian-bourgeois society... Continue reading "Nietzsche's Philosophy: Vitalism and Critique of Morality" »

Classification of Speech Acts

Perlocutionary Acts: This refers to the effect produced by uttering a statement. For example, the recipient's execution of an order. For instance, if someone is told to "close the window," the perlocutionary act is the actual closing of the window.

Types of Speech Acts

Directives: The speaker intends to make the listener perform an action. Examples include:

• Requesting
• Ordering
• Asking
• Requiring
• Resolving

Commissives: In this type of act, the speaker is committed in varying degrees to perform an action. We are dealing with speech acts such as:

• Promise
• Swear
• Gamble

Expressives: The sender expresses an emotion, physical, or emotional state. Speech acts of this type are:

• To congratulate
• To thank
• To complain
• To say hello

Declaratives: