Ancient Philosophical Influences 2

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SOCRATES
SOCRATES
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Who was the first to encourage critical thinking?
Socrates
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How did Socrates use questions?
Clarify and challenge. challenge assumptions in order to form sound judgements
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Why was he put to death?
Corrupting the youth and impiety
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1) What was he forced to drink? 2) What did he supposedly say at his trial?
1)Poisonous hemlock 2)The unexamined life is not worth living
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What method did he use?
The Socratic method
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1)What is the Socratic method? 2)Give a quote from Socrates demonstrating how little he thought we knew
Philosophical method of reasoning which involves critical questioning 2)"The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing
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GREEK CULTURE AND CHRISTIANITY
GREEK CULTURE AND CHRISTIANITY
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Greek philosophy greatly influenced the writers of what?
The New Testament
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Before the birth of Jesus Israel had been a...
Jewish nation
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Why was the situation of Israel important?
Located at a key point for trade routes, forming a land bridge between continents. Whenever a nation in the Near East rose to power, it's leaders wanted Israel
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Why was Alexandra the Great of Greece important?
Been tutored by greek philosopher Aristotle and raised in greek culture. When his armies moved into Israel Greek became language of educated classes. Coins imprinted in Hebrew and Greek. Some abandoned Jewish faith for Greek Gods
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How did this influence Christian views?
Understanding of the world influenced by Greek thinking. Adopted concepts from Plato and Aristotle and applied to the concept of God
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PLATO
PLATO
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What did Alfred Whitehead claim that all philosophy is?
A "series of footnotes to Plato"
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What did Plato understand as euidamonia?
moral excellence
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What did he think virtuous lives equalled?
Happy lives
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Which dilemma is found in Plato's book Euthyphro?
The Euthyphro dilemma
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What is it?
"Is piety loved by the God's because it is pious, or is it piety because it is loved by the Gods?"
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What does piety mean here?
Justice before the Gods
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What does the euthyphro dilemma mean?
Does God tell you to do something because it's good or is it good because God tells you to do it. Is piety only good because it happens to be what God likes
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What did Plato think was the highest and most powerful human capacity?
Reason
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What does reason direct people to?
A virtuos life
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What is rationalism?
Stresses reason as the way of determining truths. The mind is given authority over the body and senses. Reason alone can establish the truth
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What's the opposite of rationalism?
Empiricism
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FORMS
FORMS
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What did Plato observe about the world and what did it lead him to question?
The physical world is always in a state of progress and change, even if it not obvious e.g. things cooling down and warming up, and so he questioned how they can be the source of true knowledge
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What did this lead him to believe?
There must be other realities which are eternal and stay the same
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What did he call these realities/ concepts?
'Forms'
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The things we experience with our senses are simply...
Imitations and examples of their ideal Form
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How do we recognise things around us? Give the example of justice
When we see someone doing an act of justice we recognise it because we know what 'true justice' is as a concept.
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What is this evidence of?
An inner understanding of the 'Form of justice'
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Explain the idea of objects never being perfect using the example of a circle?
We recognise the circularity of things around us but we can never produce a perfect circle. Our mental concept of a circle is perfect but when it is translated into the physical world it looses some of it's perfection
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Why are physical objects inferior to the concepts?
They are always changing and so can rot or die away
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Plat thought that the unchanging nature of the forms made them...
more real than physical objects, physical things are given there reality by the forms- they 'participate' in them
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The fact that we compare physical things with the Forms and have an understanding of them led Plato to believe what?
That we must have immortal souls that lived in the realm of Forms before being born into the physical world
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FORM OF THE GOOD
FORM OF THE GOOD
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How are the Forms all related to each other?
Arranged in a hierarchy
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What sits at the top of the hierarchy and what does it do?
The Form of the Good illuminates all the other Forms and gives them their value
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Give an example
Wisdom, Courage and beauty are all aspects of goodness
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Goodness is seen as the most...
Pure and abstract Form that is the furthest away from the physical world
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What characterises lower down Forms?
They are more specific and more closely related to material objects
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Give 2 examples of Forms lower in the hierarchy
Form of Blueness and Form of Softness
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For Plato, what is true knowledge?
Knowledge of goodness
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What does philosopher mean?
philos (loves) sophia (knowledge)
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love involves action, not passivity, what does this mean for philosophers?
The genuine lover of wisdom, the real philosopher will want to put wisdom into practice by teaching others and setting an example
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This is why countries should be ruled by...
Philosopher kings
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What did Plato think causes immorality?
Ignorance- e.g. people tell lies because they are ignorant of the Form of Honesty
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How can people make better moral decisions?
If they became more philosophical and looked for the Form of the Good
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DEMIURGE
DEMIURGE
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How did Plato think the world was created?
By a God called demiurge
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How did he make it?
He fashioned it out of material that was already there. But was a shapeless mass before he got to work
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Where does the name Demiurge come from?
Greek word for craftsman or workman
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What does he described about the Demiurge in Timaeus?
He is good and desires the best for humanity
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How was the Demiurge limited when he made the universe and what was the result of this
Limited by his materials and so he does as good as he can. It was never going to be perfect anyway because it is physical and so changeable
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When Plato applied the word good to the demiurge what did he mean?
He can be judged in comparison with the Form of the Good. He is a being that can be judged against the external standards of the Forms
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THE ANALOGY OF THE CAVE
THE ANALOGY OF THE CAVE
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At what age did he write it?
40
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Which book was it written in?
Republic
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Where was Plato living when we wrote it?
Athens
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Why is this significant?
It was a centre of culture, learning and activity. The city was in a state of decline and he wanted to show a more ethical and considered way of living
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INSIDE CAVE
INSIDE CAVE
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Where is the cave?
Underground
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Do the prisoners have a memory of living any other way?
No
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Where does the light come from and where is it?
A fire behind them that they cannot see
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What is there between the prisoner and the fire
A low wall, Plato asks us to see this as the lower edge of a puppet theatre
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How is it similar to a puppet theatre?
People go along the wall carrying objects, as they pass the fire shadows are thrown onto the cave wall
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Give a quote relating to the men carrying the objects
"Men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels"
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What is the only thing the prisoners can see?
2 dimensionel shadows and not real objects
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What can they hear?
echoes and voices, but can't distinguish between them
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What can't they distinguish between?
Reality and appearance
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What are they unaware of?
Their own ignorance
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What gives them false information?
Everything they perceive with their senses
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WHEN THEY ESCAPE
WHEN THEY ESCAPE
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How will the prisoner initially feel when they leave the cave?
Puzzled and confused
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What does he first think about seeing objects as a pose to shadows?
They won't be able to recognise the objects and they will think the shadows are more real than the solid objects
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How will he feel physically and why?
Painful because their muscles have been unused for so long. Glare from fire will hurt their eyes but he will become accustomed and his vision will improve
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What else is a painful experience?
When we start to wonder what is real and illusory
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Give a quote to demonstrate the prisoners pain
When he "look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains"
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How does Plato describe the mouth of the cave and why
'steep' and 'rugged' as a metaphor for his struggles
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THE SUN
THE SUN
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What does the sun represent?
The Form of the Good
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What does it illuminate?
All his knowledge
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The cave and shadows are something we experience when we are...
Ignorant of the Form of the Good
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BACK TO THE CAVE
BACK TO THE CAVE
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Why does the prisoner return to the cave?
He believes he has an obligation to help those who are still ignorant
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What des he find as the biggest struggle?
The darkness
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What are the other prisoners prepared to do if his tries to lead them out the cave?
Kill him
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Why are they so determined to stay in the cave?
They may end up with more questions than answers and feel they are less knowledgeable than before
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Why was Socrates willing to take the risk?
The human search for the truth is more important than life itself
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UNDERSTANDINGS
UNDERSTANDINGS
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Plato wants us to understand the relation between...
The physical world and the world of the Forms
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The ignorance of humanity when...
Not engaged in philosophy
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The initial difficulties when...
Grappling with philosophy
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Hostility of people when faced with...
Philosophical ideas that challenge previously held beliefs
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Injustice of...
Socrates death
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Physical concerns can...
Blind us to what's important
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Plato thinks education is...
'leading out', not stuffing people's minds with information but drawing out things they already know and encouraging them to become better people
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SCHOLARS
SCHOLARS
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Richard Dawkins
Transcendent world is silly, we can study the world with all its imperfections and changes
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A.J Ayer
Good and bad are emotional reactions. It's not referring to any real knowledge
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Aristotle
We need to use empirical evidence and our senses to learn about the world
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ARISTOLE
ARISTOTLE
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What did Aristotle think was the key to knowledge?
The physical world around us
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How can we learn about it?
Through using our senses
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How did Plato and Aristotle know each other?
Aristotle was the brightest of Plato's students at the Academy
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What did Aristotle begin to do?
Question the beliefs and assumptions of Plato and decided against many of them
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What did he found?
Many of the sciences we have today:physics, biology, psychology, astronomy e.t.c
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What was his view on ideas?
They can have no real existence on their own, they have to relate to something in the physical world of our own experience
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How does Aristotles idea of how we know things differ from Platos?
Plato thought we remembered things from the Realm of the Forms and Aristotle thought we learned them
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What does per genus et differentia mean?
By type and by differenece
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How does Aristotle use this to define things?
Starts by citing a genus to which a term belongs, and then the difference that locates the species within the genus
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Give an example of this
A human is an animal (genus/type). But it is rational (differentia/difference)
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CAUSATION
CAUSATION
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What does the term 'action' mean?
Can be used to describe what something looks like, what it is made from, how it came into being
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What did he realise when exploring aetiological questions?
Things can have multiple different causes
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What is the first cause?
The material cause
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What is this, use the example of a table
What something is made of or composed of. For example a table is made of wood
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What is the second cause?
Formal cause
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What is this, use the example of a table
The form of shape that something takes, that helps us to identify it. Eg a table has a top and legs
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Whats the third cause?
Efficient cause
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What is this, use the example of a table
The activity that makes something happen. The actualising of potential. Eg the carpenter who made the table, the person who actualises the potential of wood to be made into furniture
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What is the fourth cause?
The final cause
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What is this, use the example of a table
Something's purpose or telos. For example the purpose of a table to is to eat at and sit at
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Who did the idea of fourth cause later influence greatly?
Thomas Aquinas
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When did Aristotle think that something was good? Give an example
When is fulfilled it's telos, e.g. an axe is a good axe if it cuts well
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PRIME MOVER
PRIME MOVER
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When looking at the universe what did Aristotle notice and what did this leave him to wonder?
He noticed that the universe is in a constant state of change and motion, and this left him to question what the efficient and final causes of the universe were
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Why did he reject the idea of an endless chain of cause and effect?
Didn't provide a satisfactory answer
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He came up with 5 attributes that the Prime Mover must have, what are they?
Does not depend on anything else for existence, must be eternal, must be perfectly good, must be immaterial and beyond space and time, must be the final cause of everything
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Why can't the Prime mover depend on anything else for existence?
If he did he would have to be capable of change e.g. if he relied on sunlight he would die when the sun fizzled out. He has no potential, which means no capacity to change
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Why must he be eternal?
Because he has no potential- if he cannot change then he cannot cease to be. And if he exists he must have always existed
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Why should he be perfectly good?
Badness is related to some kind of lacking. If he is pure actuality then he must contain everything that ought to be there and so he must be perfect
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Why must he be immaterial and beyond space and time?
All matter can be acted on so he cannot be made of matter. He must be pure spiritual thought- he must think of himself and his perfect nature because he can't think about anything that would cause him to change
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How is the Prime Mover the final cause of the universe?
Actualises potential in everything in the universe. It is the object of desire everything is drawn towards the Prime mover's perfection in order to imitate it.
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Why is Aristotle's work so hard to follow?
Many believe they were never meant for publication and are just lecture notes. Maybe they were written by his students who have written comments and objections which makes it seem as though Aristotle is contradicting himself
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Why do theists object to Aristotle's Prime Mover?
Irrelevant with no interaction with the universe. Very different to God of classical theism
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OTHER SCHOLARS
OTHER SCHLOARS
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Bertrand Russel
4 causes- some things are just a result of chance. "The universe is just there are thats all"
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Descartes
Cannot rely on experience- the only thing he could be sure of as that he was thinking
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Camus and Sartre
thought it was ridiculous to suppose that the universe had any meaning or purpose. (Sartre said the universe was ‘gratuitous’)Therefore there was no final cause for the universe.
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PRIME MOVER AND FORM OF THE GOOD
PRIME MOVER AND THE FORM OF THE GOOD
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How are the Prime Mover and Form of the Good similar?
1)Influential on christian understanding of God 2)Answer why anything exists 3)Necessary existence 4)Not dependant 5)No interest in moral affairs of humanity 6)Both perfect
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What applies specifically to the Form of the Good?
1) God as perfect source of goodness 2) Illuminates forms, physical things are imitations, other Forms are aspects of it 3) Not a 'being'- doesn't think, no kind of activity 4)Does not have a mind is solely goodness
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What applies only to the Prime Mover?
1) Ultimate cause not caused 2) Sets things in motion- we see effects in the dynamic world 3) draws things to itself 4) thinks of itself and perfect nature 5) More to do with motion and change
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RATIONALISM V EMPRIRICISM
RATIONALISM V EMPRICISM
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Why can't the physical world be relied upon?
It is constantly changing.
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What attractive quality does reason have?
Unshakeable and enduring e.g. never going to find 2 even numbers that add to an odd number
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What would a wise person be if they used reason?
Somebody who spent time in contemplation and withdrawn from the world
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According to an empiricist how do we form concepts? Give 2 examples
We encounter the world using our senses and form concepts using this empirical evidence. Eg we cannot picture colours we have never seen and even in imaginary world we still use real life sense experience as a basis
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How do we encounter the world?
Using our senses
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A wise person who uses empirical evidence would be somebody who...
Has traveled widely and had many experiences
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Why may a rationalist think reason is superior over senses? Give an example
Our senses can deceive us, but reason leads to certain conclusions, e.g. pencil in glass of water- our senses tell us it's bent but our reason overrides this and tells us water can't bend the pencil
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Why may an empiricist argue that sense experience is superior to reason? Give an example
Because reason is limited unless applied to sense experience- we can't use our reason to know whether it's raining or not
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In what areas may reason be more important?
Maths and maybe philosophy
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In what areas may sense experience be more valuable?
Natural science or the arts
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Explain the problem of which comes first?
Whether we start with the concepts such as beauty and then recognise beautiful things around us, or whether we see things and form the concept of beauty
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KEY WORDS
KEY WORDS
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Forms
Name Plato gave to ideal concepts
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Reason
Using logical steps and thought processes to reach conclusions
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Rationalist
Someone who thinks the primary source of knowledge is reason
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Empiricist
someone who thinks that the primary source of knowledge is experience gained through the 5 senses
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Prime Mover
Aristotle's concept of the ultimate cause of movement and change in the universe
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Socratic Method
Method of philosophical reasoning which involved critical questioning
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Analogy
Comparison between one thing in an attempt to clarify meaning
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Transcendant
Being beyond this world and outside the realm of ordinary experience
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Dualism
Reality can be divided into two distinct parts e.g. good/evil and physical/non-physical
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Aetion
Explanatory factor, a reason or cause of something
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Telos
The end or purpose of something
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Theist
Someone who believes in God or God's
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Card 5

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