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

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" »

Cartesian Notions: Doubt and Certainty

With doubt begins the implementation of the method. As the first rule states: "Never accept anything as true without having met with evidence that it is so, avoiding precipitation and prejudice, and including nothing more in my judgments than what presents itself so clearly and distinctly that I have no reason to doubt it."

Defining Cartesian Methodical Doubt

Cartesian doubt is a methodical doubt. It involves provisionally considering as false those opinions, beliefs, and knowledge previously taken as true, questioning them, and treating them as false. Methodical doubt is a way or path to reach indubitable truth, unlike skepticism, which remains perpetually in doubt.

The Reasons for Doubt

The processes (reasons... Continue reading "Descartes: Methodical Doubt and the Cogito Principle" »

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:

Contemporary Philosophy: The 19th Century Context

Contemporary philosophy extends from the early 19th century to the present day. The most visible feature of this period is the lack of unity in its problems and approaches. Therefore, one cannot speak of a unified vision for this stage of philosophy, as the variety and disparity of interests and philosophical movements, motivated by profound and rapid societal changes, became its only common characteristic.

This article focuses on the 19th century. While historically known as the century of revolutions, from a philosophical perspective, the 19th century is defined by the rise of idealism and the subsequent reactions against it.

This period of philosophy can be broadly divided into two main stages:... Continue reading "19th Century Philosophy: Idealism, Critiques, and New Movements" »

Aristotle's Core Philosophical Concepts

Metaphysics: The Study of Being

Being and Substance

Aristotle observed that the concept of "being" has multiple meanings. However, he argued that these meanings ultimately relate to a primary concept: substance (ousia). Substance is fundamental because it exists independently, serving as the underlying subject for its various properties or accidents (e.g., quality, quantity, relation). Accidents cannot exist on their own but must belong to a substance.

Categories

The Categories represent the different fundamental ways predicates can apply to a substance, classifying the types of accidents and also including what Aristotle termed secondary substance (universal concepts like genera and species, e.g., "human"... Continue reading "Aristotle's Metaphysics, Ethics & Hellenistic Philosophy" »

Descartes' Theory of Substances

The theory of the terms of commonality is the weakest part of Cartesian theory. The Cartesian doctrine of reality is based on the cogito, from which the self is sensed as a substance whose whole essence is to think. Descartes defines substances *a priori* under existing concrete entities, but one that does not need anything else besides itself. He distinguishes three types:

• Res Cogitans: The human being is conceived as a thinking substance; its body does not need thought to exist.
• Res Infinita: The thinking being is imperfect, so it needs a perfect being (God).
• Res Extensa: The thinking being has a body, just like everything else.

Descartes' concept of the thinking substance assumes that the only thing beyond doubt... Continue reading "Descartes' Substance Theory: Mind, Body, and God" »