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

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" »

Human Development: Soma, Psyche, and Pneuma

The tripartite nature of man—soma, psyche, and pneuma—is inherent in its evolution, development, growth, and maturation. Authentic human development is not merely the accumulation of years, indicated by chronological age, but the evolution of the guiding principle that directs and governs. Thus, childhood is characterized by the mastery of the soma over the other two components; youth, by the domain of the psyche; and maturity, by the domain of the pneuma over the other two components.

Maturation is contained within the very nature of form and is the evolution of man towards the pneumatic. This somatic evolution is achieved by denying the immediately preceding stage. In this evolution, we are driven... Continue reading "Human Development: Soma, Psyche, and Pneuma Stages" »

Four Theories of Justice

Plato's Conception of Justice

In opposition to the Sophists, Plato declared in Gorgias that justice is a condition of happiness. He asserted that the unjust individual cannot be happy. For Plato, the notion of justice was a central philosophical concern.

Aristotle's View on Justice

For Aristotle, justice entails giving each individual what is due to them according to law. Justice, according to him, is the virtue by which one receives what is rightfully theirs, as prescribed by law. Injustice, conversely, is when one receives the goods of another, not in accordance with the law. Aristotle related the concept of proportional justice to equality, believing that justice involves treating equals equally.

Hayek: Neoliberalism

Nietzsche's Core Critique

The prevalence of instincts and the decline of moral 'superation'. It kills life; life is the only thing that is real. What is needed is to propose another moral: the moral of life is the moral of the will to power.

Two Types of Morality

He distinguishes two types of morality:

Master Morality

The morality of lords, the chivalrous morality of high spirits, which loves life, power, grandeur, pleasure; it is the morality of the self, the superman, who wills the death of God.

Slave Morality

Which is the inversion of values: pain, smallness, humility, kindness... these do not create values, but find themselves; it is passive.

Critique of Christian Religion

All religion is born of fear, anguish, needs, and the impotence felt by man... Continue reading "Nietzsche's Critique of Values and Reality" »

William of Ockham: Reason, Faith, and Nominalism

Radical Separation of Reason and Faith

Ockham defends the radical separation between reason and faith. These powers pertain to different areas of knowledge and information sources. Reason would take on the observable, while faith would deal with that which is not observable. The mission of philosophy is not to face theological problems, as reason cannot say anything beyond its own scope. With this separation, Ockham distances himself from much of the philosophical tradition, causing a resurgence of the experimental sciences.

Intuitive Knowledge

Ockham maintains that knowledge is intuitive. When you have something in front of you, the understanding retains an imprint, like a photograph, which allows... Continue reading "William of Ockham: Philosophy of Nominalism and Faith" »

Collective Representation of Associations and Unions

Unions are non-profit associations of employees whose primary purpose is to achieve the economic and social progress of their members. This is accomplished through maintaining or improving their working conditions. They have standing, as maintained by Kapteyn, with varied partners.