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

Aristotle's Virtue Ethics

Achieving Happiness Through Reason and Moderation

It is not enough to know good practice. Virtue is to know, to look for, deliberate on ways to achieve it, choose between them, and have the will to act decisively. It consists of a mean between two extremes.

As I said before, happiness is to do what is proper to human intellectual activity. But we are not only intellect; we have sensitive appetites, so there are two kinds of virtues:

• Dianoetic: arising from the habit of reasoning, such as prudence, science, etc.
• Moral: arising from the habit of guiding passions; meet but do not allow us to move them.

Rational control of passions leads us to stay in the middle ground. There are irrational governing forces in the soul, such... Continue reading "Aristotle's Virtue Ethics: Achieving Happiness Through Reason and Moderation" »

1. Cosmological Period (6th Century BC)

Western philosophy began in the Greek colonies of Ionia and Magna Graecia. Early philosophers like Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus sought rational explanations for the cosmos.

2. Anthropological Turn

Focus shifted from nature to humans and society, exploring ethics and political issues.

3. The Sophists (5th Century BC)

Professional teachers from various regions came to Athens. Notable Sophists include:

• Protagoras of Abdera: Advocated relativism, stating "Man is the measure of all things."
• Gorgias of Leontini: Argued for radical skepticism, denying the possibility of being, knowledge, and communication.

They focused on rhetoric and persuasion, criticized... Continue reading "Evolution of Western Philosophy: From Cosmos to Socrates" »

Philosophy

Philosophy is an activity that involves thinking and reasoning about concepts and ideas. Philosophical activity is initiated, therefore, by asking questions about concepts. To answer, the philosopher defends or criticizes a thesis using arguments or reasoning. The term "philosophy" means love of wisdom.

The issues raised by philosophy fall into two types: questions about how the world is and how we know it, and issues that address the question of living well in the world and about human behavior.

• Theoretical philosophy is based on reality and knowledge of the world.
• Practical philosophy focuses on human action and moral conduct.

Questions About Reality

Natural phenomena, such as lightning, eclipses, earthquakes, etc., have constantly been... Continue reading "Philosophy: Understanding Reality and Human Action" »

San Anselmo: Faith, Reason, and God

1.1 Ser = Think. This concept belongs to the Presocratics, who are rationalists. The first is Parmenides, for whom both terms are equal, and this underpins all the Presocratics (less critical). For Ockham, the problem is not the existence of God, but the essence of this naming. St. Thomas Aquinas believed that you cannot know God's essence because we would have to be God to know this. According to San Anselmo, that in which nothing greater can be conceived must exist not only in thought but also in reality, for something to reach perfection it must be real. A being that only exists in the mind will be less perfect than another that does so in reality. Ockham defended the justification of reality, stating that... Continue reading "San Anselmo: Faith, Reason, and the Existence of God" »

**Enable and Rehabilitate**

Enable: To make a person fit for something they were not previously capable of. It is the process by which a subject acquires a new function.

Rehabilitate: The process by which a subject retrieves a lost function.

**Special Education**

Special education serves students who do not benefit from regular education systems and require specialized methodologies to achieve learning. It requires a multidisciplinary curriculum, special and differential methods (motor, sensory, intellectual, social, or multi-deficit), and a multidisciplinary support team.

**Education**

Education plays a critical role in the community. It is inherent in the continued existence and lifestyle, performed by a sum of cultural processes of assimilation... Continue reading "Special Education and Rehabilitation: Key Concepts" »

Key Concepts in Anthropology

Man vs. Person

Man: Refers to the human animal, focusing on the human body.

Person: Refers to a man living in a civilized society, engaging in complex social roles. Not all men are considered persons. A person is a subject operating with a persona. A person may cease to be when they no longer exert social roles, such as in death. Animals die, and people die; the distinction lies in the social roles.

When a person uses a basic language, they can communicate with themselves. Through language, a person can plan, but the man knows how to act on the plans, becoming both an individual.

Citizen

A man living in a nation with a state, laws, rights, and obligations. Citizens are not necessarily global; a baby is a citizen from... Continue reading "Understanding Key Concepts in Anthropology" »

Myth vs. Philosophy: Understanding Reality

1. Mythical Conception of Reality: It encompasses a way of conceiving reality, understanding knowledge about reality, and a way of behaving. The mythical conception (CM) of the ancient Greeks saw man as obedient to the whims of natural forces that threatened his existence. Reality was divided into:

• Divine Sphere: Immortal gods.
• The Wild: Nature, a chaotic force responsible for the processes of production and destruction. Sacred power resided in every force of nature, ruled by its god.

Myths: Anonymous accounts that crystallize the collective memory of a culture. They are ethnocentric and tell stories of gods, demigods, or heroes.

• Irrational: The account can be believed or not; the meaning of the myth is

Man's Place in the Universe

Is man the center of the universe? The Greeks thought the Earth occupied the center of the cosmos and that man was the center of the universe, a microcosm; that is, everything is surrounded, there is also behind him, and vice versa. Thus arose the idea of man as the center of the universe (anthropocentrism). Later, the Earth ceased to occupy that prominent place. If our planet does not occupy the center of cosmic space, is man the goal and purpose of the evolution of the universe?

Teilhard de Chardin asked: "What sense is this becoming? Is evolution directed? What I intend in this essay is to build a picture of the physical world around the individual, chosen as a significant element within the whole system..." So,... Continue reading "Humanity's Place: Cosmic Significance and Social Nature" »

Descartes: Impressions and Ideas

Impressions: Our perceptions are more intense when we hear, see, feel, love, hate, desire, or want. We feel so strong and alive.

Ideas: The copy is saved in the mind as diffused memory and representation. Impressions and ideas can be simple or compound.

Work Experience and Association of Ideas

Work experience is the association of ideas by space-time contiguity. Experience is a product of custom and habit that leads us to relate ideas and to expect that events will occur in a certain way.

Laws of Association

Ideas mutually attract; this attraction is not arbitrary but responds to certain laws.

• Similarity Law: Act 1 is the association of ideas designed to compare ideas with others.
• Contiguity Spatial-Temporal Law: Ideas

Plato's Theory of Knowledge: Four Levels

Sensible and Intelligible Worlds

In Plato's theory of knowledge, each level of reality, encompassing both the sensible and intelligible worlds, corresponds to a specific type of knowledge. The Allegory of the Cave illustrates this concept, emphasizing the challenges in transitioning between levels of knowledge and the moral and political implications for those who attain supreme knowledge, the Idea of the Good.

Four Levels of Knowledge

Plato divides knowledge into four levels. The first two belong to the visible world and constitute opinion rather than true knowledge. The remaining two pertain to the intelligible world and represent true knowledge.

1. Imagination (Eikasia)

Eikasia is the lowest level of knowledge.... Continue reading "Plato's Theory of Knowledge: Levels and Dialectics" »