Chapter #7 - Unit #2 Flashcards
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his views with respect to:
a) feelings versus reason
b) the noble savage
c) general will
d) education
a) All governments in Europe at the time were based on a faulty assumption about human nature. The only justifiable government is one that allows humans to reach their full potential, and have free will.
b) view of human nature is that humans are born basically good, but made bad by societal institutions. Believed if humans were permitted to develop freely, they would be happy, fulfilled, free, and socially minded.
c) To live in a civilized society, humans had to give up some of their primitive independence. General will describes what is best in the community.
d) Believed that education should take advantage of natural impulses rather than distort them. Perfect World: nature, child free to follow talents and curiosities, not imposing views.
What is the role of opposite forces?
Embraced opposing forces such as love and hate, and life and death. Believed that life should be to embrace these forces rather than deny them.
Describe Phenomenology
Insistence that whole, meaningful experiences can be studied. Color-contrast effect.
Describe the Will to Survive
Arthur Schopenhauer - Equated the world with “will”, which he describes as blind, aimless force, which cannot be known. It manifests itself as the will to survive which causes an unending cycle of needs and need satisfaction.
What is the relationship between intelligence and happiness?
Enhanced consciousness = more pain. Highly intelligent people seek solitude, and vulgar people are gregarious. Believed almost all our sufferings have to do with other people.
Sublimination and Denial:
Even though these are powerful forces, humans should attempt to rise above them. Humans are capable of reaching nirvana which is a state characterized by freedom from irrational strivings.
Unconscious Mind
All humans have positive and negative impulses. Repressing undesirable thoughts into the unconscious and of the resistance encountered when attempting to recognize repressed ideas.
Nature of Religious experience
Often described a proper relationship with God as a love affair. Painful, happy, passionate yet unfulfilled, lived in time yet infinite. For the people who do not have a relationship with God, God is dead.
Truth is Subjectivity
Spiritual truth cannot be taught by logical argument, truth must be experienced. The more logical we are in an attempt to understand God, the less we comprehend him.
Love Affair with God
Relationship with God is a love affair. One should read the bible as they would a love note.
The 3 Stages of Personal Freedom
- Aesthetic Stage: Most people reside here. People seek out many forms of pleasure and excitement. People operating at this level are hedonistic.
- Ethical Stage: People operating at this level accept responsibility of making choices but use as their guide ethical principals established by others.
- Religious Stage: People recognize and accept their responsibility to a personal relationship with God.
Apollonian and Dionysian sides of human nature:
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Apollonian: Rational Side - Desire for Tranquility and predictability.
Dionysian: Irrational Side - Attraction to creative chaos and to passionate, dynamic experience.
What did Friedrich Nietzsche believe about the following: Psychology, death of god.
The goal of helping individuals gain control of their irrational impulses. Dreams provide an example of barbarian chaos.
Believed that God was dead, and we killed him.
What convictions did Friedrich Nietzsche believe?
Defined conviction as the belief in the possession of absolute truth on any matter of knowledge. Convictions cause humans to sacrifice themselves through history.
What is the Will to Power?
Friedrich Nietzsche
Most basic human motive. Humans need to acquire knowledge, and then act on it. Instincts should not be repressed, but should be expressed. Can only be fulfilled if human acts as they feel to satisfy instincts.
