Developments in Philosophical Thought

Question 1

What did Plato think we could use to gain knowledge of the world?

Answer 1

Reason

Question 2

What is Plato known as?

Answer 2

A rationalist

Question 3

What was Aristotle known as?

Answer 3

An empiricist

Question 4

Why did Plato believe we should use reason over empiricism?

Answer 4

The world is always changing (in a “state of flux”) and is therefore unreliable.

Question 5

Quote from Heraclitus on the world always changing

Answer 5

“You cannot step into the same river twice.”

Question 6

What is Plato’s cave allegory?

Answer 6

People are bound in a metaphorical cave, with a fire casting shadows onto the wall (Plato said this was the world we live in). He argued that through philosophy you can escape the cave and discover ‘reality’

Question 7

What did Plato argue empirical objects were?

Answer 7

‘Particulars’- poor copies of the objects true ‘Form’

Question 8

What is Plato’s ‘Real of the Forms’?

Answer 8

An unchanging realm, outside of time, where the perfect ‘Forms’ of ‘Particulars’ exist

Question 9

How did Plato argue we identify objects?

Answer 9

We have inherent knowledge of the Form of an object, as our souls were there before we were born, and we recognise this in the Particulars

Question 10

Who was Meno?

Answer 10

A slave boy who was never educated but had impressive ability in math, Plato used him as an example of the prior knowledge he said we gained from the Realm of the Forms

Question 11

What are the Three Universal Qualities?

Answer 11

Beauty
Justice
Truth

Question 12

What is the flaw in Plato’s reasoning on the Universal Qualities?

Answer 12

If we supposedly all have the same knowledge of the forms of the qualities, why do we have such little correlation in our perceptions of beauty?

Question 13

What is the ‘Form of the Good’?

Answer 13

The most important form, which illuminates all things. All positive things are merely ‘aspects of goodness.’

Question 14

What did Plato think humans should strive to do?

Answer 14

Emulate the Form of the Good

Question 15

How did Plato argue we can do this?

Answer 15

Through education

Question 16

Criticism of Plato’s argument for reaching the Form of the Good

Answer 16

It had been criticised as elitist as in Ancient Greece only the rich were educated- is he saying they are better people?

Question 17

What seems logically incoherent about the idea of Forms?

Answer 17

If there were a perfect form of an object, it would encompass all the qualities of that object. How can, say, a chair, be both tall and short?

Question 18

What was the Platonic Demiurge?

Answer 18

Plato said a deity called thenDemiurge used the knowledge of the Forms to craft the world from raw matter.

Question 19

What did the Demiurge give beings?

Answer 19

Goals- to seek order and purity in their souls

Question 20

What were the 4 causes?

Answer 20

How Aristotle explained we identify objects
Material-What something is made of
Formal-Something’s characteristics 
Efficient-How something was made
Final-Somethings purpose

Question 21

Quote from Aristotle on causation?

Answer 21

“Every series must start with something, since nothing can come from nothing.” (Metaphysics)

Question 22

What is the Prime Mover?

Answer 22

An eternal, but not physical, spiritual being that exists in a timeless realm that unconsciously caused the universe.

Question 23

What is Euthanasia?

Answer 23

Aristotle argued this was our purpose, a sense of ‘General well-being’

Question 24

What did Aristotle say the soul was?

Answer 24

A metaphor for the formal and final cause of the body.

Question 25

What was Aristotles example for explaining the soul?

Answer 25

If the body is an eye, the soul is it’s capacity to see.

Question 26

What are the names for arguments on the mind/body distinction?

Answer 26

Materialist- we are made of one type of matter | Dualist-The mind and body are made of different matter

Question 27

What was Descartes ‘Evil Demon Hypothesis’?

Answer 27

A thought experiment that asks us to imagine the external world is merely an illusion that is shown to us by an evil demon.

Question 28

Quote about the ‘Evil Demon Hypothesis’?(+Book)

Answer 28

“I shall consider myself as not having hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as falsely believing I have these things.” -‘Meditations on First Philosophy’

Question 29

What was Descartes argument for substance dualism?

Answer 29

We cannot definitely know our body exists, but we can know for definite our mind exists as we can think. Therefore, they are different substances.

Question 30

What is Leibniz’s Law?

Answer 30

If A and B have the same properties, they are indiscernible. | If A and B have different properties, they are different.

Question 31

What is Descartes flaw in reasoning?

Answer 31

He bases an absolute truth on a doubtful context, which Liebniz’s Law doesn’t account for.

Question 32

Latin phrase from Descartes?

Answer 32

‘Cogito, Ergo Sum.’ | ‘Thought, therefore existence.’

Question 33

What is Reductive Materialism?

Answer 33

Argues the mind and body are identical. Psychologist Edwin Boring argues that physical events don’t produce chemical changes in the brain,they are the same thing.

Question 34

What was Gilbert Ryle’s argument on the soul?

Answer 34

Proposed dualists fall victim to a ‘category error.’ | Argued asking where the soul is is like asking the the Ghost is within a machine, making it run.

Question 35

What did Dawkins argue?

Answer 35

Soul 1- Religious soul, which doesn’t exist. | Soul 2-Metaphor for individual characteristics.

Question 36

What did Anthony Flew argue?

Answer 36

Compared substance dualism to Cheshire Cats grin staying when he was not there. The soul can’t exist without the physical body, as it is merely a metaphor for physical expression.

Question 37

Descartes’ property argument:

Answer 37

They mind and body have different properties, so are different things. E.g. the mind can’t be measured physically, it has no extension.

Question 38

What is Emergent Materialism?

Answer 38

Proposed by J.S Mill Argued complex physical substances gain new properties as they get more complex. Consciousness is merely a property that emerged as the brain developed.

Question 39

What is the Philosophical Zombie?

Answer 39

A thought experiment that imagines a being that is indistinguishable from a human being, but lacks consciousness and experience.

Question 40

What did Daniel Dennett call the Philosophical Zombie?

Answer 40

“Logically incoherent and thus impossible.”