Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Philosophy and ethics for Primary education

Introduction to Aristotle's Philosophy

Aristotle criticizes the Platonic Theory of Ideas. While Plato defended Ideas as essences, known to be intelligible things in the world, Aristotle did not entirely reject the concept of Ideas. Instead, he denied their separate existence, proposing that ideas are immanent, inherent in the things themselves. What Plato called 'essence', Aristotle often referred to as 'form' or 'substance' within the particular.

Aristotle's Ontology: Theory of Reality

Plato had contemplated the solution to the enigma of reality, which he divided into two worlds: the intelligible (the Ideas) and the sensible (physical things). Aristotle also proposed an explanation of reality, making a distinction between what he called 'First...

Animal Farm Vocabulary List

1. Scullery: room for washing dishes
2. Whelped: given birth to
3. Paddock: enclosed field
4. Lurched: staggered
5. Propulsion: motion; driving forward
6. Faculty: mental ability
7. Tyranny: rule by absolute power
8. Windfalls: fruit blown onto the ground
9. Cockerels: young roosters
10. Expelled: forced out of power
11. Indefatigable: tireless; persistent
12. Resolutions: formal statements of decisions
13. Rations: daily food allowance
14. Lowing: mooing
15. Mincing: walking primarily with little steps
16. Knoll: a small hill
17. Gambolled: skipped playfully
18. Plaited: braided; interwoven
19. Trotter: a pig's foot
20. Weaned: stopped nursing
21. Din: loud harsh noises
22. Cunning: slyness; cleverness
23. Ratified: approved; confirmed
24. Publican: a bar or saloon owner
25. Faction: contentious, quarrelsome groups
26. Marshal: bring

Philosophical Views on Human Nature and Law

There are many reasons why human nature and the purpose of laws exist. Thomas Hobbes believed human nature to be brutish and destructive; thus, the purpose of laws is to prevent such nature and maintain order. Hypothetically, an anti-violence law regulating society to prevent harm would align with Hobbes's views.

For Aristotle, human life is neither inherently good nor bad by nature; rather, upbringing determines social and political character. Nevertheless, Aristotle believed the purpose of laws is to encourage virtue. He would likely support laws aiding those in need, especially after natural disasters. For instance, the Model Act for Facilitation of International Disaster Relief and Recovery Assistance...

Philosophical Perspectives on Existence and Morality

Thomas Aquinas: Arguments for God's Existence

In his cosmological arguments, Thomas Aquinas presents his explanations for God's existence. His first argument, the Argument from Contingency, posits that everything in our world is dependent on something else for its existence. Therefore, there must be an independent Prime Mover—a first cause—that initiated everything into motion at the beginning of the universe.

Aquinas's fourth argument, the Argument from Gradations of Perfection, suggests that if individuals can judge some things as more perfect than others, then an ultimate source of perfection must exist.

His fifth argument, the Argument from Design, explains that the universe exhibits...

Emblematic Art and Imagery

"In Occasionem"

The structure uses a question-and-answer format. The lady depicted is called “Occasio Calvata” (The Bald Opportunity/Passion). This image is part of a political pamphlet where the central idea is repeated consistently. The designs are repetitive: the image is surrounded by a frame, followed by the text. The woman in the image resembles a Venus figure.

"Pulchritudo sine fructu"

In this image, we see a tree—a cypress—in the middle of a hill. There are more hills behind it. One of the distant hills features a structure resembling a coliseum, and further back are more hills and mountains. They appear to be located on the coast. In the sky, we can observe only one cloud and four birds.

The Pre-Raphaelite

Matthew Arnold's Intellectual and Cultural Theories

The Concept of Disinterestedness in Criticism

Even colloquially, disinterestedness often carries a negative connotation; however, for Matthew Arnold, it signifies that a superior critic should remain focused exclusively on the intrinsic value of poetry. To focus solely on the poetry is not a negative trait. Critics should keep aloof—maintaining a sense of objective distance—from the practical view of things. Similarly, they should not be influenced by political considerations.

Arnold's idea of disinterestedness is of significant proportions. He posits that literature must maintain a disinterested voice so the reader can contemplate the work without disturbance. The writer should avoid writing...

Lemuel Gulliver

’s vivid and detailed style of narration makes it clear that he is intelligent and well educated, his perceptions are naïve and gullible. He has virtually no emotional life, or at least no awareness of it, and his comments are strictly factual. Indeed, sometimes his obsession with the facts of navigation, for example, becomes unbearable for us, as his fictional editor, Richard Sympson, makes clear when he explains having had to cut out nearly half of Gulliver’s verbiage. Gulliver never thinks that the absurdities he encounters are funny and never makes the satiric connections between the lands he visits and his own home. Gulliver’s naïveté makes the satire possible, as we pick up on things that Gulliver does not notice....

Symbolism in Literature

Symbolism in literature was a complex movement that extended the evocative power of words to express the feelings, sensations, and states of mind that lie beyond everyday awareness.

Charles Baudelaire and Open-Ended Symbols

Charles Baudelaire created open-ended symbols. He brought the invisible into being through the visible and linked the invisible through other sensory perceptions, notably smell and sound.

A symbol is a keyhole to a different world, giving way to ambitions.

Poets focused on their inner life. They explored strange cults and countries. They wrote in allusive, enigmatic, musical, and ambiguous styles.

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) and Irish Literature

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) - Irish literature

• On Baile's Strand (1903)

Aristotle's Concept of Substance and Reality

The reality, or substance, to which Aristotle alludes exists by itself; it is not inserted into anything else and therefore does not need anything else to be referred to. Unlike Plato, for whom these entities were ideas, for Aristotle, substance constitutes reality. The first things are the specific individuals.

Primary and Secondary Substances

We can ascribe attributes to individual beings, but these attributes do not exist sufficiently on their own; they do not exist if there were no specific individual beings to whom we predicate them. In summary:

• Individual beings are the primary substance because without them, there would be no world or nothing to speak of.
• Species (which apply to individual beings)