Philosophy

Senior Elective: Philosophy

Page Contents:

Overview

Assignments

Links

school of athens2.jpg (185605 bytes)
The School of Athens, Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)
http://www.csbsju.edu/philosophy/raphael.html
(see "links" below for a website that explains the various figures)

Overview:

What approach should we take to familiarizing ourselves with western philosophy?

A history of philosophy approach would take us chronologically from the Greek period (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) through the Medieval (Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas) and the Enlightenment (Descartes, Locke, Hobbs) and into the Modern period (Kant, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein).

The other common approach is to examine the various branches of philosophy: epistemology (the study of knowledge), ontology (the study of existence), metaphysics (the study of ultimate reality) and ethics (the study of morality). Additionally, there is philosophy associated with every field of human endeavor: politics, art, religion, law, medicine, education, etc. Any time people explore fundamental concepts and principles they are doing philosophy.

Another way of understanding this second approach is to conceive of it as an exploration of the big questions philosophers have pondered through the ages: What is reality? What is time? What is the connection between the Mind and the Body? Does God exist? Do we have Free Will? What is the good life?

It is this approach, that of exploring the big questions, which we will adopt for this class. In the process, we will familiarize ourselves with many of the great philosophers and schools of philosophy.

What is common to any approach is the method of rational argument. Whether you are studying general ideas or those ideas associated with particular philosophers, you will judge these ideas based on logic. Philosophy does not rely on any outside authority (e.g. the Bible), it relies on the inherent logic of one’s arguments. Therefore, you will be expected to learn something of what makes arguments not only logically valid, but sound.

Assignments:

Grading:

Grading in this class will be arranged by contract. You will choose whether you want to earn a grade in the 70’s, 80’s, or 90’s and complete the assignments expected for that level. Based on the quality of your work and class participation you will earn a more precise grade within that range.

70’s

Student has read the material on ten philosophers and completed the reading questions on their own.

80’s

Students will meet the expectations for those in the 70’s.

Students will pass tests on eight of these ten philosophers.

Students will write a three page final paper using two philosophers to analyze a current issue (see below).

90’s

Students will meet the expectations for those in the 80’s.

Students will select a significant and accessible passage of one philosopher’s work to share with the rest of us. This will require finding the work on the internet, copying it and paring it down to manageable size on MS Word, citing the source on the document, and bringing it to me to photocopy. Students will be expected to explain it to the class.

Final Paper:

You will write a three page paper using the ideas of two philosophers from our textbook to analyze a current event or issue. You will be expected to follow standard McQuaid formatting practices. The paper will be submitted to me and to turnitin.com.

Reading Questions:

Questions – Descartes (pp. 84 – 89 The Story of Philosophy )

1. Under what religious order was René Descartes educated?

2. What were his two great philosophical works, published in 1637 and 1641?

3. What branch of mathematics did Descartes invent?

4. Descartes hoped to find a method like that of mathematics that could be used to refute what group who maintained that nothing else could be known for certain?

5. Once we find any propositions outside of mathematics whose truth it is literally impossible to doubt, for what would we then use them?

6. What was the result of the first stage of Descartes’ search for indubitable premises?

7. His second set of considerations also relate to being deceived or misled. Explain.

8. In his third phase, Descartes proposes that, unknown to him, a Malignant Demon has deceived him entirely and that everything he thinks he knows is the result of the illusions created by this Demon. Is there anything at all about which even a malignant spirit such as this would be unable to deceive him?    Explain his answer (both the long and the short version).

9. Based on his certain knowledge that he exists, he then moves to a variation of the ontological argument for the existence of God. Summarize his proof.

10. Descartes places utter trust in his mind, which apprehends both ________ and ____________, two things that cannot be apprehended by the senses.

11. His conclusions led to the establishment of the philosophical school known as Rationalism . On what does rationalism base itself?

12. What is “Cartesian dualism”?

13. According to Magee, Descartes was more influential than what two figures in selling science to educated Western man?

14. What is epistemology and for how long has it remained the center of philosophy?

Questions – Hume (pp. 112-117 The Story of Philosophy )

1. List David Hume’s four most influential philosophical writings.

2. What did his posthumously published Dialogues concerning Natural Religion seek to do?

3. What is the basic empiricist premise that he shared with John Locke?

4. In what ways does he agree and disagree with Berkeley regarding the material world?

5. What argument does Hume use to claim that the experiencing self, the subject of knowledge,

     is a fiction?

6. How does he apply this argument to the existence of God?

7. What is causality and why is it a central preoccupation of philosophers?

8. What is Hume’s position regarding causality? (Also, come up with an original example to mirror his   regarding night and day.)

9. How has Hume’s arguments regarding causality influenced science? Cite the example used to support his position.

10. Explain Hume’s statement, “reason is the slave of the passions”.

11. What is the “mitigated skepticism” that Hume advocated?

Questions – Locke (pp. 102-109 The Story of Philosophy )

1. As our author says, “Locke derived great satisfaction from being involved in practical affairs as well as philosophy.” Summarize his political activity from 1667 to 1689.

2. What were John Locke’s key works?

3. In what two different areas of philosophy, is Locke considered a thinker of the front rank?

4. According to Locke, is there a limit to what humans can know, regardless of what actually does exist externally to us? And how would we discover our limits?

5. What are some of the names of influential philosophers who have followed in this tradition?

6. What does Locke mean by an “idea”? List examples of the contents of our consciousness.

7. What are the steps (from birth) through which we, as individuals, form increasingly complex and sophisticated ideas? And, on what are these ideas ultimately based?

8. What does Locke’s empiricism rule out?

9. What is one social consequence to Locke’s idea that the mind of a newborn is a tabula rasa ?
10. What is the distinction between the primary and the secondary qualities of an object?
11. Why can we never know an object completely?

12. How does this also apply to the subject? In other words, can we ever know ourselves?

13. What, then, is the domain of possible knowledge?

14. In what ways does Locke agree and disagree with Hobbes regarding the establishment of government and the rights of individuals?

15. What is the sole legitimate purpose of government, according to Locke? And under what circumstances can a government be overthrown?

16. What are the elementary foundations of liberal capitalism?

17. Explain Locke’s views on tolerance and explain how they bring together his theory of knowledge and his political philosophy.

18. On what basis does Magee claim, “It is doubtful whether any philosopher between Aristotle and Karl Marx has had a greater influence on practical affairs?”

Questions – Kant (pp. 132-137 The Story of Philosophy )

1. What was Kant like socially?

2. Which of his works does Magee consider “one of the great books of all time”? What is its slimmer and clearer version?

3. In addition to the limits on our knowledge imposed by what there is, how else is our knowledge limited? (Here he follows in Locke’s line of thought)

4. What does Magee’s use of the example of the purpose of the camera reveal about Kant’s views on bodily apparatus and epistemology?

5. So, what are the two limits on what we can know?

6. What “common mistake” do people make regarding representations of things (e.g - a photograph)?

7. What is the difference between the world of phenomena and the world of noumena ?

8. What does Kant mean when he says the noumenal world is “transcendental”?

9. How does Kant’s ideas relate to religious experience?

10. How does Kant address the problem of free will? (include reflections on science, his distinction between the phenomenal and the noumenal world, and our moral conceptions)

11. What is Kant’s famous “Categorical Imperative” and why does it sound familiar?

12. Explain Kant’s opinion regarding a “proof” of God.

Questions– Nietzsche (pp170-179 The Story of Philosophy)

1. His career as an academic was remarkable because it was attained at an early age and was short lived. What brought an end to his academic career?

2. Name three of his key works.

3. Why was he unaware of his growing international reputation dueing the course of the 1890s?

4. In what ways did Nietzsche agree with Schopenhauer regarding God and this life?

5. In what ways did he disagree with Schopenhauer regarding reality and the world? What was the central question posed by Nietzsche’s philosophy?

6. What is his attitude toward existing morals and values? What is their origin and worth?

7. What enabled human beings to emerge from their animal state and develop civilization?

8. What two moralists does he identify as putting an end to this civilizing process?

9. Who are natural leaders and how are the shackled by value systems, according to Nietzsche?

10. From whence come these slave-moralities? And whose purpose do they serve?

11. What is the “will to power’ that created civilization?

12. What is a “superman” and who did Nietzsche identify as such men?

13. What are two benefits of accepting the values associated with the will to power/

14. What is the supreme ethical challenge raised by Nietzsche?

15. In what ways was Nietzsche adopted by the Fascists?

16. What artists were influenced by Nietzsche, and how?

Questions – Hegel and Marx (pp. 158-171 The Story of Philosophy)

1. What years did Hegel and Marx each live?

2. In what two ways was Hegel’s philosophy like Schelling’s?

3. In what respect was his philosophy more like Frichte’s?

4. Hegel says that the whole process of historical change is happening to the Geist. What is this?

5. In what way did Marx disagree with Hegel regarding the subject of the historical process?

6. Explain the terms: dialectical process, thesis, antithesis and synthesis in a coherent paragraph.

7. Does the individual caught up in the dialectical process have any real power over it?

8. What is the Zeitgeist?

9. According to Hegel, what is the end result of the historical process and at what point will it be realized?

10. What are the three key ideas associated with Hegel that have played an important role in Western thinking?

11. How is Hegel’s anti-liberal political thinking summarized by Magee?

12. The terms “historical materialism” and “dialectical materialism” reflect both the similarities and differences between Marx and Hegel. Explain how Marx is a child of Hegel and yet independent.

13. How does the dialectic operate in regard to human affairs?

14. How do Marxists explain the function of art and religion?

15. How will the end of the dialectical process come about?

Questions – Existentialism (pp.208 – 219 The Story of Philosophy )

1. When did Existentialism come into fashion? And when did its founder, Kierkegaard, live?

2. Kierkegaard seems to have been responding to Hegel.

a. What is the difference between them?

b. In what sense do abstractions and generalizations exist, according to Kierkegaard?

3. What is the most important human activity? Why?

4. Why has Martin Heidegger been a controversial individual? Do you agree with Bryan Magee’s assessment that this should not disqualify him from being an interesting thinker?

5. Heidegger objected to the centrality of Cartesian epistemology in western philosophy. What was his position/response? (i.e. – what is the central mystery?)

6. What is the three-fold structure of our being?

7. Instead of starting out as isolated individuals who face the problem of making contact with one another, what is the nature of our existence, according to Heidegger?

8. Why might our lives be ultimately meaningless or absurd?

9. How is 20 th century existentialism an attempt to respond to Nietzsche?

10. Explain Henri Bergson’s application of evolutionary theories to perception and epistemology.

11. Explain how the delineation of time and space into units is both practical and misleading.

12. What is the culminating point of Bergson’s philosophy? Whose philosophy does it mirror?

13. On what basis have Bertrand Russell and others criticized Bergson?

14. What is Jean-Paul Sartre’s most important philosophical work?

15. What is Sartre’s argument for the freedom of the individual and where do people run who find such freedom to terrifying to face?

16. Why would the later, Marxist Sartre claim this emphasis on human freedom was exaggerated?

17. What is “the absurd” according to Albert Camus, and what does it have to do with suicide?

18. What is structuralism and how is it related to the literary critical approach called deconstruction.

19. According to Michel Foucault what purpose does discourse serve?

Questions - Aristotle (pp. 32 – 39 The Story of Philosophy )

1. What is Aristotle’s opinion regarding Plato’s Ideal Forms? What is the basis of this opinion?

2. What basic fields of enquiry was Aristotle the first to map out?

3. What is Aristotle’s argument against the idea that only matter exists? Summarize the argument that uses the house as an example.

4. What are Aristotle’s “four causes” of existence? What did Aristotle mean when he said that if an axe had a soul it would be cutting?

5. With what proposition does Aristotle start in discussing ethics?

6. What will give us this?

7. What are some examples of the “Golden Mean”?

8. Do you agree with Magee’s statement that the Golden Mean “may appeal less to the young and eager than it does to the middle-aged and comfortable”?

9. What is the true purpose of government, according to Aristotle? How is it related to his ethics?

10. What is the meaning of Aristotle’s phrase, “Man is by nature a political animal”?

11. What is the emotional experience we have when we watch tragedy and how is it defined?

12. What should every plot have, according to Aristotle?

Bertrand Russell and Analytic Philosophy (pp.196-201 The Story of Philosophy)

1. Was Bertrand Russell from the upper or lower class? Cite evidence.

2. What stance did he take on the political issues of his time? What were his politics?

3. Assess his relations with women.

4. Was he well known and respected in his life? Cite evidence.

5. Which of his works is “regarded by many as the greatest single contribution to logic since Aristotle”?

6. Was Russell an empiricist or a rationalist? Describe what he believed (that would support this conclusion).

7. What was his aim in trying “to provide our knowledge of the external world, including our scientific knowledge, with watertight logical foundations?” What do you think this means?

8. What question does he ask to demonstrate “the serious difficulties concerning meaning and truth in even apparently simple statements?” Why might the question he asks not have any meaning or truth?

9. What is the overall question that is asked by “Analytic Philosophy”?

10. The Vienna Circle, heavily influenced by Russell, developed a related philosophy called ___________.

11. This philosophical school asked what question in order to determine what observable differences a statement’s truth or falsehood make to the way things are?

12. What are the consequences of this question for the meaning of statements that cannot be empirically verifiable? And, can you think of a statement that you believe to be true but cannot be verified empirically? (see the glossary for empiricism).

13. According G.E. Moore and the adherents of ‘linguistic philosophy’ or ‘linguistic analysis’, how were the Logical Positivists mistaken?

14. Ever since Russell, what has been “the prevailing view of philosophy’s task”?

15. What do you think philosophy’s task is?

Wittgenstein and Linguistic Philosophy (pp.202-207 The Story of Philosophy)

1. Summarize Ludwig Wittgenstein’s interesting family background.

2. What did Bertrand Russell have to say about getting to know Wittgenstein?

3. To what realm of reality did he think intelligible philosophy should confine itself?

4. Whose ideas, regarding noumenal and phenomenal worlds, does this sound like? (use index if necessary)

5. In order to establish the limits of what human language can intelligibly express, and more fundamentally, what can be thought, he used what new 20 th century developments?

6. What was Wittgenstein’s first book?

7. What impact did the posthumously published Philosophical Investigations have?

8. Explain Wittgenstein’s picture theory of meaning and the term “logical form”.

9. When he reevaluated this theory, he found that language performs many other tasks. Identify one.

10. With what metaphor regarding language and meaning does he replace “picture”?

11. What two traditional theories of meaning does he reject when he claims that it is possible to exhaust the possible meanings of a word or concept?

12. Can there be a private language, according to Wittgenstein? Explain

13. How does the word evidence illustrate Wittgenstein’s idea that concepts may function quite differently in different worlds of human endeavor?

14. Both Wittgenstein and J.L. Austin dismissed traditional philosophical problems such as time, space, matter, and causal connection. These problems are not “presented to us by the fundamental mysteries of the world,” but are the result of what?

15. Do you think there are fundamental questions that philosophy ought to address? What are they?

Senior Elective: Philosophy

Page Contents:

Overview

Assignments

Links

Overview:

Assignments:

Grading:

Reading Questions:

Links:

General:

Texts: