Philosophy

Well, we're at it again!

Those of you who took the Ethics at Inver Hills remember this blog site during the second semester. We have Brandon returning from the Ethics course and Mai, who is new to Dr. Larson, and Khatra, who will be taking Philosophy at St. Mary's in Winona.

The idea of this blog is to print a set of notes that Dr. Larson lectured from in past classes. They are not his personal notes but are a compilation of notes taken by his students and turned in to us to reprint. We will also include general information that might be a help to those taking the program, both at Inver Hills at St. Mary's (rah! rah! Khatra). For Dr. Larson's group, the book is not absolutely necessary, but this year I will buy one copy that can be shared by the group. I am also buying Philosophy for Dummies because a couple sections are very well done. For those preparing papers and take-home tests, some extra information can get you "brownie points" with the teachers.

Well, let's get on with it! By the way, the students in my day class and maybe those taking the St. Paul circle with JP will also be using these notes as they will be instructed by those taking the class. I also hope that Khatra will make additions to our blog covering some of the material that she is taking at St. Mary's.

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, justice, beauty, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument. The word philosophy is of Ancient Greek origin: φιλοσοφία (philosophía), meaning "love of knowledge", "love of wisdom".


Divisions of Philosophy

• Epistemology
• Study of truth and knowledge
• Epist = trust
• Investigates knowledge (5 whys)
• Empiricists- people in this branch who look, seek truth, demonstrate truths.
• Rationalists- people who say you know some things for sure
• Skeptics- you can’t know anything for sure
• What are sources for knowledge?
• What can be known for certain?

• Metaphysics
• Study of reality & human nature
• Meta = beyond physical existence
• Nothing happens for no reason
• Causation 1st -> 2nd, then 3
• What is reality?
• How do I fit in?
• God? Religion?

• Materialist
• Real can only be defined by what can be observed through the five senses
• Idealist
• An idea makes it reality
• Pragmatist
• Pragmatism is a philosophic school generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Peirce, who first stated the pragmatic maxim. It came to fruition in the early twentieth-century philosophies of William James and John Dewey. Pragmatists consider practical consequences or real effects to be vital components of both meaning and truth. Other important aspects of pragmatism include anti-Cartesianism, radical empiricism, instrumentalism, anti-realism, verificationism, conceptual relativity, a denial of the fact-value distinction, a high regard for science, and fallibilism.
• Dualist
• Idealist and materialist both

Ethics- study of right and wrong actions
• Relativist/consequentialist
1. Right & wrong differ from society to society
2. Morality and custom are dictated by society
• Moral objectivist/non-consequentalist
1. There are absolute rights and wrongs

Test #1

1. Why is Socrates the father of Philosophy?
a. Socratic Dielectic- unending series of questions used to probe for truths we believe and challenge us to say why we believe something to be true
b. Willing to die for beliefs
c. Brought Philosophy to everyone/thought everyone should know philosophy
2. Compare Sophists and Plato’s view of reality
a. Sophist
i. Reality is what individuals say it is
ii. Knowledge is simply defined logic; “whatever I say”
iii. No universals
b. Plato
i. Reality is a perfect form of something in Hades
ii. Knowledge is based on apriori knowledge (ideal knowledge in its pure form)
iii. There are universals
iv. Mathematical, ethical, and physical forms exist perfectly in Hades
3. Four causations of ▲ (Aristotle)
a. Stuff of which things are made in their crudest state- physical substance
b. Formal cause- defines a thing’s potential
c. Efficient cause- the agent that brings about a change to cause it to become what it is supposed to be
d. Final cause- achievement of purpose
4. Compare forms of reasoning
a. Deductive reasoning: if a & b are true, then the conclusion has to be true
b. Inductive reasoning: if a & b are true then the conclusion is probably true
c. Analogy: comparing two things- one known and one unknown

 As it relates to religion (three proofs for God)
a. Deductive Reasoning, AKA Antological
• Major- God is all powerful
• Minor- It is better to exist in reality than to merely exist in understanding
• Conclusion- God does exist

b. Inductive Reasoning, AKA Aristilian
• Major- Something cannot arise from nothing
• Minor- The world exists
• Conclusion- Unmoving creator caused the world to exist
5. Why is there evil?
a. The world was not meant to be paradise
b. Free will
c. Uniformity is a necessary glue to hold nature in the balance
d. Evil is necessary to know what good is
6. Why use philosophy as a tool to look at religion?
a. To allow us to use reason as a tool to understand religion
b. To make religion reasonable
7. Why reject philosophy as a tool for religion?
a. Can’t say for 100% whether God exists or not
b. Faith must in the end sustain belief



Plato’s Myth of Cave (AKA Parabola of Cave)
• From Plato’s “Republic” trying to build a just society
• Why in cave to begin with?
• Lescaux- cave art from 30,000 years ago in France
• DM Roberts asks why were they in the cave? Maybe to tell a story in a secure place
• Thought to be the oldest but then in Africa a 78,000 year old cave full of paintings was found
• Allegory of cave… Plato trying to take us out of cave/safe place
• Aristotle was Plato’s student
• Myth tells role of reason: deep cave, men inside unable to speak, chained, face only back, can hear each other, can see shadows of outside shadow. Plato asked his brother what they would see as real- they answered the shadows, but no one escapes, very bright, person outside he wants to talk to, but talks to shadow- realizes that what is real is not shadow, tells others about reality but they don’t believe- AKA cave = ignorance and to get out is work
• Plato says reality is through reason, not just senses (do you “see” what I mean?)
• Cidos- to see with mind; to see reality with reason
• Must be something outside of “the truth” that makes it real
• Philosophy is an activity to get us out of the cave; search for reality

SIDEBAR
500 BC – 500 AD = Ancient Times
500 AD – 1300 AD = Dark Ages
1300 – 1600 = Renaissance
1600 – 1850 = Age of Reason
1850 – 1950 = Industrial Age

(page 8)
Author says Philosophy is a verb- hard work. The aim of Philosophy is to gain freedom & should be a basic concern of human living.


Pre-Socratics
• Know countries- Greece & Turkey & others
• Melititis: city-state where philosophy began (in Turkey), very beautiful city where Thales lived
• Thales introduced reason
• Always included as 7 wise men (all lived at about the same time)

Socrates charged with treason by way of corrupting the youth & hearsay.
• 500 people vote on jury- they are rich/wealthy
• Athens at war
• Starts to protest attack on city state for not helping Athens (kill men, rape women, sell kids, burn to ground) then he is charged
• 218 guilty vs. 219 not guilty
• after a month in jail of visits & goodbyes, he is killed by his acceptance of hemlock even though he would have escaped (Socrates is nicknamed “The Bull”.)

Plato (means broad shoulders)
• at age 23 he starts following Socrates
• Athens has fallen to Spartans at this time (he is 29) for 11 years
• Plague is rampant, no food, dirty city
• Not happy time for Athens or Plato
• He hires himself out as a teacher for rich people around the Roman Empire. Returns to Athens at age 38
• He then builds a school to compete with Sophists in high olive grove with all amenities for students.
• Goal is to prove Socrates is right
• Two women sneak into the Academy, had to pass exam to get it, told to dress as men to stay
• All schooling is paid for for 800 years with Plato’s money, then closed by Empire Augustino/ no set date to leave
• Wants to teach future leaders to be guardians of truth and justice (let no one enter unless they know geometry- educated not trained).
• Plato said intellectual knowledge is the ideal knowledge in its pure form.
• Plato said two worlds exist- Hades has the perfect forms (not material objects but metaphysical things) and they never ▲ - act as blueprint for all that are like it
• Three kinds of forms: mathematical, ethical, physical
• Theory of recognition- before you physically existed, your ideal form (aka soul) in Hades & that is how you know ideal forms. You die – go to Hades – reflect on physical life – born again – die…

Aristotle
• From northern Greece
• Started at Plato’s school at 17 years of age/parents die- left at 38
• Starts by accepting Plato’s views
• Marries the daughter of a king (Tartus) and lives there observing life in tidal town
• Wife dies in childbirth, goes on to teach a young Alex the Great for three years
• Alex the Great takes on goal to rule the world- starts with Persian lands and gets to India
• Alex & Aristotle travel together and name animals
• Alex promises to send Aristotle specimens live & dead (first zoo)
• Splits with Plato
1. Plato names his nephew to Academy
2. Disagrees with his version of reality
• Opens his own school in the marketplace (Lyceum)
• Had to learn through real life and those considered experts in chosen fields
• Aristotle has problems with Plato
• Does not understand how ideals correspond with physical things
• Plato never answers why physical things ▲ - no purpose to physical things then
• Alex the Great dies at 29
• Believes everything exists to fulfill its purpose (form follows substance?)
• Reality of something is its purpose
• “:Reality is the coming together of form & substance to achieve a purpose”
• we know justice because of experiences with justice and injustice
• why do things ▲? They did their purpose- ie: acorn to tree to seeds- change to fit its purpose
• we are happy when we act in a way to fulfill our purpose- know your skills & strengths, know self through introspective examination
• why things ▲
1. material cause- physical substance can’t get something from nothing
2. formal cause- is the thing’s design- ie potential
3. efficient cause- ▲ing to become what it it meant to be
4. final cause- end result, achievement of purpose- death or ▲ of thing to something else (recycle material)

Philosophy of Religion
• getting toward Middle Ages (500-1350 AD)
• Characteristics
• Europe backwater, dreary life, loss of literature, loss of freedom of speech and movement
• Arab’s Islam rise- they are “New Greece”, reason moves here
• Rise of Roman Catholicism
• Rome is no longer protector of life, property, and intellect- church takes over
• Church is biggest landowner, controls banking, contract overseer, wealth, AKA center of society
• Belief that faith must proceed reason “I believe in order to understand”
• Thomas Aquinas: God exists perfectly- all beliefs must not go around that
• Aquinas wrote “Suma Theologica”: establishes basic beliefs in church- kind of put some reasoning behind beliefs
• Says all should be treated equally, because God loves all the same
• Duty is owed both from king to servant and servant to king
• 31 AD, Christianity branches from Judaism
• both Jews and Christians persecuted by Rome
• apostles spread Christianity through the Mediterranean
• St. Paul (3AD to 68AD) invites apostles and others to spread gospel
• St. Paul speaks Greek so he is chosen and he is a Roman citizen
• Rome goes Christian in 252 AD
• 300 AD- Rome (east), Zyntium (west) are the sources of power in Rome
• two emperors step down from Rome and Zyntium to try to unite Rome under Constantine
• Constantine has religious convergence to Christianity and makes it legal
• He tries to then unite different branches of Christianity into one, and in 326 AD he calls a conference of the branches to work out all differences
• “The son of being of one substance of God” so Christ is divine afterall
• 529 AD- close of Academy because it was heresy to Roman Christianity
• reacquainted with philosophy of Greece with the Great Crusades and Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates are translated so Europe can have access to them.

Saint Augustine :: Cosmology
• God is perfect
• Born and raised in North Africa
• Neoplatic education in Alexandria. At age 29, St. Ambrose teaches Augustine, and at 32 he becomes a priest
• “We live in a three-tier reality: heaven – earth – hell. Earth is middle battleground and our job is to engage in fight for good
• Platonic Dualism: the soul that wills our basic animal instincts to good/be subdued (spirit strong/flesh weak)
• Introduces the idea of the trinity
• God- as transcended, father
• Jesus Christ- as liaison, intervener between God & us
• Holy Spirit- everywhere

Theist- God exists
Atheist- God does not exist
Agnostic- Don’t know

Arguments for God’s existence
• Ontological: deductive reasoning
• Cosmological: observation, AKA inductive reasoning
• Theological: analogical reasoning (known – unknown)

Valid = follows a logic
Aquinas
• Northern Italy, 3rd son in family, left for religious school at age five
• Benedictines: monks enter into society, are part of it
• Dominicans: vow of silence, isolate selves for intellectual pursuits, librarians, scholoars, teachers
• Franciscans: help whenever you can, hurt nothing, helpers and healers
• Benedictine monastery from 5-14
• At age fourteen comes in contact with Dominicans and learns from them
• A. Magnus teaches him with Aristolitic philosophy- amazing life from there
• Does God exist? Based on observation
• Aquinas looks at his handywork, i.e., recognize an artist by their creation (Picasso)

Cosmological
• Motion
a. Everything in motion is only in motion as a result of something already in motion (something set the universe in motion- prime mover must be God)
b. Causation- nothing can be the cause of (had to be a 1st existence)
c. Existence- everything that exists arises from preexisting it
d. Gradation- God is the maximum of all things
e. Natural Law- God imposes order on the cosmos
• Arguments against Cosmology
a. Why not say the universe is infinite & how can something non-physical give rise to something physical?
b. If we are in God’s image, what does that mean? We owe each other respect and a fundamental equality that demands equality whether rich or poor. Also, laws of land must conform to God’s laws and a ruler’s job is to see it done.

William Paley
• Argument by design: watch found in ground- nature or watchmaker did it?
1. Nature has a number of properties analogous to human artifacts. Human artifacts are known to be designed by intelligence. Since the world also exhibits design, it too must have been designed by intelligence (known to unknown reasoning)
2. Design has purpose- order does not
3. What is the purpose then of life/God/us?
4. Maybe life is to teach us something

Non-traditional proofs of God
• Miracles: divine intervention to cause something or not cause something to happen that would otherwise not happen
• Secular definition- a violation of natural law at the volition (will) of a deity i.e.- water to wine, walking on water
• Religious definition
1. Is always accompanied by a greater power
2. Some sign that accompanies the miracle, revelation
3. There are witnesses & they are awed

{no religion without mystery}

Four characteristics of religious experience
1. Cosmic consciousness: a feeling that one is in the presence of God- can be introverted (melt into self) or extroverted (become one with universe)
2. Mystery
3. Terror
4. Bliss
5. Emotional: one remembers feelings from time with God

God and the problem of perfection
1. Omnipotent- all powerful
2. Omniscient- all knowing
3. Good- and nothing but good
4. Personal- God knows you and prayer is important

Paradox of Stone
• Can God create a stone he cannot lift? Is it possible?
• Can he tell a lie?
• It is impossible to attribute perfection to any being in reality
• Thomas Aquinas: God can do all those things possible but not those things contradictory
• Omniscience: a baby cannot learn anything if it already knows everything
• Time is for us, not for God. God exists outside time. Time is to help us pace things.
• Problem: trying to give a being an infinite amount of attributes is not possible in reality
• To solve God is three beings as in trinity

Problem of Evil
1. God exists and is perfect
2. The world contains instances of suffering
3. A perfect God would have no morally sufficient reason not to prevent suffering
• Theoist: would need to answer #3 like “a perfect God would have reason to allow suffering”
• Evil could be there to test us, punish us, and allow for human free will
• Test us- as in Book of Job
• Punish- i.e. plague
• Evil as absence of God- close to God then less evil
• Evil = hell = no God = no good
• St. Augustin already argues that evil is something so it can’t be nothing
• Evil exists for good to be known, but how can perfectness be total (omnipotent)?
• Good in and of itself is ok, but good out of evil will bring about the greatest good.
• Good + Evil = Greatest Good
• Good acts almost require some evil to require the need to do good
• Free will argument and criticism (what about natural disaster, illness, etc.)
• Argument for natural evil by Tennant
1. God wills uniformity for nature and it is good that it is consistent
2. Uniformity of nature necessarily causes some evil. i.e.- fire is always hot and some will be burned by fire
3. God wills the good in a uniform nature, not in the nature
• Criticism of it:
1. God could have created nature without so much uniformity

John Hick
Dumps idea of ever having a reasonable argument for God. Says there is some purpose in evil. This world was not to be a paradise. Evil is to cause you to find your faith. Without evil there would be no purpose to life. He is giving an emotional response but not really a rational basis.

Kierkegaard (1813-1855 AD)
• God must be experienced subjectively
• Emotional experience is what’s important
• God can’t be proved only; faith can sustain belief
• Philosophy and religion don’t mix
• To live a Christian life one must treat Christianity as a verb; defined by actions
• Sum total of our action
• Authentic- living Christianity as a verb, doing good deeds passionately and emotionally

Tillich (1886-1965)
• Also an Existentialist
• God not a being in a reality- forget dualism
• God is ground of your being
• God is aspect (perceptive) of how to look at reality; innermost experience we have with the universe
• Can’t define God but can only experience
• God and being are the same
• With philosophy you often can’t verify anything
• God arguments and pros often time God to circular arguments

Feminist Theology
• After 600 AD, women were cast out of main roles in Catholic church and masculine pronouns; put more into “helper” roles
• Assert God is feminine not masculine
• Because God is cast as a man, females are somehow treated as outcasts and not on as high a level as men
• Solution would be to incorporate male and female in God


Metaphysics
• Renaissance = rebirth
• Begins in northern Italy with a looking back of philosophy
• 1350-1650, flat earth changes to round earth
1. Exploration: Europe races to discover and colonize new land
2. Birth of nationalism- before this time people looked at selves in regard to religion, local land- now French and French speaking and writing
3. 1447, printing press born- everyone can read the bible & other books are now cheaper- new emphasis on people reading
4. Protestant reformation- Martin Luther 1557, German monk
5. Rise of science- Nicholas Copernicus, monk astrology, shatters idea of everything going around earth published after death

Dualism- named after (1596-1650) Rene Descartes from France
1. Res Extensia- physical reality
2. Res Cognitans- reality of consciousness

Materialism- reality is ultimately composed of matter
1. Exist in space within a certain location and if it does not, it does not exists
2. It must have mass to be real and ditto
3. All matter is in motion AKA in constant state of ▲ and ditto
4. All matter responds to certain physical laws without plan or design AKA nothing is supernatural/spiritual and there is no free will

Hobbs (1558-1679- time of Spanish Armada)
• After dad ran away, rich uncle pays for his private education.
• He works for a rich family after graduating from college and travels the world and comes in contact with new philosophies.
• While in exile Hobbs wrote Leviathan- no need for God & religion, king, etc.
• Taught at Oxford until age 91

1. Seeks answers through objective methodology (can’t 5-sense it, it isn’t there)
2. Materialism is deterministic AKA already predetermined to happen
3. Denies any form of spirituality
4. Reductionistic- everything must add up to total sum of parts and vise versa

Bottom line: tiny specks we are without meaning or purpose in a random universe where nothing matters & we’re here by mere fluke

Objectives to Mat’l
1. Can’t explain consciousness
2. Emotional visceral objection to say that my life doesn’t matter
3. Dematerialization of Matter- inability to define substance at atomic level

Idealism | George Berkeley
• Subjective & objective
• Materialism is wrong because everything is based on sense perception and there is no proof the world is really as I see it
• Only thing you can really know is your own perceptions of reality = subjective
• God = objective reality

Spinoza (1632-1677)
• Left Portugo during Spanish Inquisition for Holland
• Attended school to become a Rabbi
• Says Bible is false in its theology
• Ostrasized for beliefs AKA treated like dead- as in the way Amish do it
• Writes books, “The Ethics” banned by Jews and Catholics because he deductively proves God and reality are one AKA God is everything

Six-point assertion deductive
1. Substance is the cause of itself & it exists eternally (because you can’t get something from nothing)
2. Everything that exists is self-caused or caused by something external to it
3. If more than one thing is self-caused it could have no relation to any other thing that is self-caused (rejects dualism- how can something nonphysical effect something physical?)
4. This substance has always existed and always will exist, everything is part of this one cosmic substance which is God
5. Since one substance can not be produced by another substance, there can be only one substance AKA there is only one reality, no dualism
6. Everything that occurs is the result of its cause, hence nothing is free AKA God is cause of everything – God is the only free agent

Pragmatism (American Philosophy)
• Pragmu = action: philosophy of action
• Three founders:
1. Charles Pierce (1839-1914)
a. At sixteen goes to Harvard- 4 year chemistry/math degree
b. Works as assistant in astronomy and taught a course “Philosophy of Science”- stressed your place in it
c. What is real is based on our values
2. William James (1842-1910)
a. Went to Harvard, met Charles Pierce, discovered he is really depressed
b. Majored in chemistry, then went to medical school, but was sent home due to bout of depression
c. Charles tells him to choose life – get medical degree
d. Reality, for James, is always in the making free choice
3. John Dewey
a. Revolutionized justice and educational system
b. Teach how to learn/ education should have functional value
• What defines pragmatism?
1. Pragmatism is humanistic- people at center of reality, not God. We are here to make life better, make the world better
2. Problem solving philosophy- can do, will do attitude, a certain amount of arrogance
3. Reality is not a singular, it is pluralistic and is in the making- think of different roles we play in our lives: mom, teacher, wife, friend, etc.; continually changing by us
4. There is no distinction between mind & matter (talk to dead and it affects your life). Only those beliefs and actions that yield a cash value are valued
5. Pragmatism is consequentialistic- consequences of actions matter
• Criticisms of Pragmatism
1. Something can not both be an not be at the same time
2. Pragmatism denies all order to the cosmos
3. Truth can change