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

11_ Forms Relate to Things in Three Ways:

1. The form is the cause of the essence of the thing.
2. A thing imitates a form.
3. A thing participates in a form.

Although the form is separated from the house, every real thing owes its existence to the shape. Forms are mutually related as genus and species and tend to interlock while maintaining their own unity. For example, the animal form is present in the horse form. This provides a hierarchy of forms, for which the visible world is only a lower reflection. The higher we are situated in the hierarchy, the more universal is the knowledge.

12_ Plato's Moral Philosophy

Plato's moral philosophy is concerned with the theory of forms. If one can be deceived by appearances of the physical world, one can still succumb... Continue reading "Plato's Philosophy: Forms, Soul, Virtue, and State" »

Key Dimensions of Human Existence

• Personal Dimensions: Internality, sociability, openness, eagerness to transcendence, life project.
• Components: Socio-cultural, socio-political, moral, and religious.

Determinism vs. Freedom

Determinism

Determinists argue that human beings are not free, but determined in their choices, doing what they can do at any given time.

Types of Determinism:

• Cosmological: Argues that a universal law governs humans and nature, making the future predictable and unchangeable.
• Theological: Believes that God knows and dominates all, predetermining all human actions.
• Scientific: Aims to explain human behavior through empirical dimensions.

Despite these theories, determinism fails to explain why we praise or reject certain behaviors,... Continue reading "Understanding Freedom, Responsibility, and Moral Living" »

Answer to the Question: What is the Illustration? (1784) The Illustration is ... explains the meaning of what will be discussed in this work, summarized as what is the I and its target, in the expression slogan "Dare to know." The output is that man has a disability. We declare that this inability is because man’s self-blame has chosen to star in their views of others, such as laziness, poor decision-making, cowardice, or lack of valor. The aim is to exceed the minority of intellectual maturity and learn to think for oneself, i.e., the development of autonomous reasoning. This concept is very Kantian in terms of autonomy and understanding its fundamental edge. It has been seen in their ethics. It signifies a critical exercise of reason without... Continue reading "Understanding the Enlightenment: Key Concepts and Ideas" »

The Institución Libre de Enseñanza: A History

The Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE) was founded in 1876 by professors from the Universidad Central de Madrid (Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Gumersindo Azcárate, Teodoro Sainz Rueda, and Nicolás Salmerón, among others). They defended academic freedom and refused to adjust their teaching to any official dogma in religion, politics, or morals. Giner de los Ríos stood out as a key figure.

The ILE was a moral regeneration project that remained consistent throughout its 60 years of existence: it aimed to create a "new man," capable of confronting the moral situation of the country and overcoming it, as well as fostering a new model to enhance individual and collective life, making it more rational,... Continue reading "The Institución Libre de Enseñanza: History and Legacy" »

Philosophy: Understanding Knowledge Through Reason

Philosophy, as a form of knowledge acquired through the use of reason, inquires into the fundamental nature of all things.

Characteristics of Philosophy

• It wonders about the nature of all real knowledge.
• It is radical, rational, and critical.
• It challenges dogmatism.

Functions of Philosophy

• Interdisciplinary: It connects various fields of study.
• Critical: It analyzes and evaluates assumptions.
• Abstract: It develops reasoning beyond the immediate and concrete.
• Practical: It is oriented towards human action.
• Radical: It deals with ultimate questions.

Science: Explaining and Predicting Phenomena

Science attempts to explain phenomena, predict outcomes, and control processes. Scientific knowledge is rational,... Continue reading "Philosophy, Science, and Epistemology: Key Concepts" »

Philosophical Perspectives on Man

To understand the philosophical concept of man, we can refer to the Platonic and Aristotelian views. According to Plato, man is a dual being, consisting of the soul and the body. The soul, considered the true man, is perfect, immortal, and immutable, imprisoned in the body to pay a karma and dominated by reason. The body is the prison of the soul.

Aristotle views man as a unitary being formed by the union of body and soul, where each alone would be nothing, but together they form man. A synthesis of these views suggests: "Man is created in the image and likeness of God, the focus of His work, interacting with others and the environment, equipped with superior intelligence, and constituted as a unit with itself... Continue reading "Philosophical, Religious, and Evolutionary Perspectives on Man" »

Plato's Theory of Forms: An Introduction

Plato asserts that the possibility of true knowledge, resting on absolute truths, necessitates the existence of immutable realities.

The World of Forms: True Reality

In Plato's work, the theory of Forms is not developed as such in a single treatise. In the early dialogues, he discusses some Forms, like "beauty," attempting to find their definitions. In the dialogues of his maturity period, he refers to Forms as the fundamental theory of the Platonic school. He also critically examines this theory in his works from old age. Plato posits this reality as an unseen and eternal world of essences, distinct from concrete existences. It is a world of values and "ideal models," independent of human opinion, which... Continue reading "Plato's Theory of Forms: Understanding True Reality" »

Anthropological Theory: Plato's Doctrine of the Soul

For Plato, the soul is prior to man. It existed before his earthly life and will continue after death. The union between soul and body is accidental, temporary, and the body is mortal, but the soul is not. The soul is embodied and conditioned. He founds the division of social classes in society on the tripartite nature of the soul. These three parts: concupiscible, irascible, and rational, in some, fight each other and represent different aspects of the psychological activities of man: appetites, passions, and reason.

The noble and very human soul, the rational soul, is immortal, and its attachment to the body prevents it from living a life of successive incarnations. It suffers and only stops... Continue reading "Plato's Doctrine of the Soul: Theory & Anthropology" »

What is the Etymology of Feeling?

Etymology: Hens are a tool that allows linguistic words to refer to their origin in linguistic order to ascertain their original sense.

Phenomenology: This is a philosophical tool that allows a description of the essential features of something.

Reflection: They arrested a way of thinking about things.

What is the Ultimate End of Our Actions?

Aspiration to happiness: Happiness is an activity under the soul of virtue, manifested in a feeling of power that drives us to create.

What is the Meaning of the Allegory of the Cave?

The myth of the cave: They live cheated, they think that reality is their world because most know nothing, but the reality is out.

Is There Something That Concerns Us All? Is Philosophy a Humanizing

Hierarchy of Beings

Hierarchy of beings: God (pure and infinite spirit, uncreated), angels (created and finite spiritual beings), rational human soul (embodied, finite, and created), sensory-irrational animals, vegetables, and inorganic forms.

Principles of Existence

Essentially non-Aristotelian principles of existence: Monism posits only one Being (God), while Aquinas supports a pluralism of beings, with God as the primary being and numerous created beings. God is necessary and cannot not exist. Creatures are contingent, existing but not necessarily so. Creatures are composed of essence and existence (received from God). God's essence and existence are identical, devoid of composition.

Existence is the act of existing. Essence (nature) is hylemorphism.... Continue reading "Hierarchy of Beings: God, Angels, Humans, and the Soul" »