Philosophy 101 Final

Question 1

What does Cyniscus confound Zeus?

Answer 1

That the doctrine of the Fates makes Zeus and the other gods irrelevant, so there’s no point making sacrifices to them. Why is because if everything is fated from the beginning of time, not even the gods can change the fated outcome.

Question 2

What does Cyniscus conclude with?

Answer 2

That believing in the Fates erases moral responsibility because we are obeying an irresistable impulse.

Question 3

What does Socrates believe about himself and do?

Answer 3

• wrote nothing, only oral thus students like Plato put his teachings into dialogue
• claimed he knows nothing, midwife of ideas (helps others gain ideas)

Question 4

What is Socrates’ philosophy?

Answer 4

Most important self-knowledge is knowing what you don’t know + trying to get a philosophical definition.

Question 5

What is the Socratic Method

Answer 5

Elenchus: using question-and-answer with another person to try to arrive to truth.

Question 6

What are Euthyphyro’s 3 attempts to define piety + Socrates’ refutes?

Answer 6

1. piety is like prosecuting those who’ve committed a crime - example is not definition
2. piety is what’s dear to the gods - gods themselves quarrel on what’s dear to them, contradicting
3. what the gods love is pious - is what’s pious loved by the gods because it’s pious, or pious because it’s loved by the gods

Question 7

What does Plato suggest?

Answer 7

1. ideally, moral action should be grounded in moral knowledge
2. moral knowledge needs careful thought about moral concepts + is possible when we have an understanding of moral concepts
3. moral knowledge is not relative

Question 8

What are 3 definitions of justice given?

Answer 8

1. Cephalus (retired businessman): speak the truth + pay your debts - if you owe your friend his knife back but discover he’s a killer, you wouldn’t give it back
2. Polemarchus: justice is giving good to friends + harm to enemies - you can want to harm your enemies, but actually doing so makes you unjust
3. Thrasymachus: justice is only in the interest of the stronger - leaders can make a mistake by commanding his subjects to do something not in their interest (is it considered injustice?)

Question 9

What is arete?

Answer 9

Greek notion for virtue: everything has a virtue, a designed goodness to fulfill.

Question 10

What is the Ring of Gyges?

Answer 10

A ring that makes you invisible.

Question 11

What does Plato believe about justice?

Answer 11

An intristic good: not just for its consequences but in itself, so that it’s good to be just even if no one’s watching.

Question 12

What is Plato’s ideal state?

Answer 12

1. guardians: make just laws, smallest class
2. auxiliaries: enforce the laws, don’t actually know what’s good but can recognize it
3. producers: produce + engage in trade, biggest class

Question 13

What are the 4 virtues from Plato and which classes are associated with them?

Answer 13

1. wisdom: reason without being hindered, guardians (knowledge of guardianship)
2. courage: taming irrational appetites, auxiliaries (ability to preserve fundamental beliefs when in danger)
3. moderation: self-control
4. justice: obtained when all classes mind their own business

Question 14

What don’t producers have a virtue?

Answer 14

They’re too weak-willed + ignorant, they need to be told what to do.

Question 15

What are 3 parts of the soul according to Plato?

Answer 15

1. reason (rational principle)
2. passion (control irrational appetites)
3. appetite (irrational part of the soul)

Question 16

What are 3 kinds of human life according to Aristotle?

Answer 16

1. life of enjoyment: doesn’t give us happiness
2. life of politics: political success depends on the will of others
3. life of contemplation: the only one that’s self-sufficient, isn’t dependent on things outside of us

Question 17

What is Aristotle’s definition of happiness?

Answer 17

Self-sufficiency, happiness is always desirable in itself + never for something else. (ex. if you think you’re happy with martinis, it doesn’t work since you’re relying on an external factor)

Question 18

What is the Human Function Argument?

Answer 18

From Aristotle, knowing what our function is

Question 19

What does Aristotle believe about virtue?

Answer 19

Virtue is a state of character that arises out of like activities + acquired by practicing it.
1. knowledge: knowing which actions are good
2. free choice: you have to freely choose the action
3. habit/character: action must stem from your own character

Question 20

Aristotle VS Plato
1. subject matter
2. approach
3. starting point

Answer 20

1. Plato: ideals, talk about truth for everyone and all time, Aristotle: individual, looks at how humans are composed + their variations
2. Plato: theoretical/hypothetical, Aristotle: practical, theory isn’t enough + ethics have to practice what we know
3. Plato: aporia (puzzles) starts with questions, Aristotle: starts with surveying + recording what people think

Question 21

What is the Stoic ethics?

Answer 21

Rationally controlling not actions but reactions. Only things that’re in accordance with nature are valuable as nature gave us everything we need, thus true conception of good must be grounded in natural world.

Question 22

What is the Stoics’ cradle argument?

Answer 22

Instinct for self-preservation comes before the desire to seek pleasure + avoid pain.

Question 23

What is the Archer analogy?

Answer 23

From the Stoics, just like how the archer tries to aim straight we too in life should aim to always do good.

Question 24

What is a wise person according to the Stoics?

Answer 24

1. always free of emotions
2. able to keep happiness even when tortured cause it’s in their power to judge differently (can see pain as a good thing)
3. doesn’t aim at preferable or dispreferable things, but doesn’t reject them either

Question 25

What is the 4-Fold Remedy?

Answer 25

From Epicureans also known as tetrapharmakos.
1. don’t fear god (they exist but they don’t care about us, rather about themselves)
2. don’t worry about death (where death is we’re not)
3. what’s good is easy to get
4. what’s terrible is easy to endure

Question 26

What is ataraxia?

Answer 26

From Epicureans, it’s inner peace + freedom achieved via complete absence of pain. Not achieving pleasure but avoiding any experience of pain, acknowledging what happens but not overreacting to it.

Question 27

What is the source of unhappiness according to the Epicureans?

Answer 27

Fear of death, thus when removed it leads to ataraxia.

Question 28

What are the 3 reforming desires according to the Epicureans?

Answer 28

1. natural + necessary (ex. food, drink, clothing, shelter)
2. natural + unnecessary (ex. any of those but above)
3. unnatural + unnecessary (ex. fame, power)

Question 29

What is the Epicureans’ cradle argument?

Answer 29

Once born you automatically seek pleasure + avoid pain.

Question 30

What is Peter Abelard’s philosophy?

Answer 30

Intentionalism: moral evaluation should focus on the intention/state of mind/ motive of agent, not the character states or an action’s consequences.
Action doesn’t matter to moral significance of the will, doesn’t add anything to goodness or badness.
If you think + consent on doing something bad, even if you don’t actually do it you’re still guilty.

Question 31

What does Peter Abelard believe about struggle?

Answer 31

1. It’s the struggle that counts. Example: don’t praise someone for having blue eyes, but someone who smoked, struggled with it, and eventually stopped since they overcame their natural disposition that led them astray.
2. Trying their best to overcome sinful desires but failing is greater in merit than doing the right thing but it comes easily.

Question 32

What does Peter Abelard’s philosophy work with?

Answer 32

Moral psychology, founded by Augustine: examining the motives we have for doing things.

Question 33

What is the servant + cruel master example show?

Answer 33

From Abelard, how even though the servant had no will to kill their master they’re still in the wrong cause they consented to it anyways.

Question 34

What does the chained monk example show?

Answer 34

From Abelard, since the monk didn’t consent to it he hasn’t committed a sin for feeling pleasure (besides God made us to enjoy certain pleasures like sex).

Question 35

What is Immanuel Kant’s philosophy?

Answer 35

Human moral agency: our ultimate end is having an absolute good will, focuses moral evaluation on particular human rights not the consequences of their actions on others.

Question 36

What does Immanuel Kant believe about freedom?

Answer 36

As we’re rational beings, our rationality leads to freedom + true freedom: when we use our will disinterestingly.

Question 37

What does Immanuel Kant believe about all human temperaments?

Answer 37

Irrelevant unless the will to use those virtues are for good.

Question 38

What does the jewel metaphor show?

Answer 38

From Kant, like a jewel that shines regardless of setting we want to show good regardless of life’s circumstances.

Question 39

What does the shopkeeper example show?

Answer 39

From Kant, purity of motive matters, it’s wrong to have self-interested motives.

Question 40

What is the Categorical Imperative?

Answer 40

From Kant, we have to be able to universalize the principle into something without exception + rationalization (moral will always act on the principle).

Question 41

What is the difference between categorical imperative + hypothetical imperative?

Answer 41

Hypothetical imperative: practically necessary to achieve a certain end + non-moral: just tells you how to achieve certain ends based on personal motive + without judging them as good or bad.
Categorical imperative: absolutely necessary to do + moral: tells you commands that you must follow regardless of personal motive + judging them as good or bad.

Question 42

Does Immanuel Kant believe everything’s equally bad?

Answer 42

Yes, because if you pick up 5 cents from the ground that’s not yours you’re universalizing the act of picking up money that isn’t yours, so even picking up $1000 from the ground that’s not yours is fine.

Question 43

What is John Stewart Mill’s philosophy?

Answer 43

Principle of utility: actions are right in proportion as they promote happiness, wrong in proportion as they promote the opposite of happiness.

Question 44

What is John Stewart Mill’s definition of happiness + unhappiness?

Answer 44

Happiness: pleasure + absence of pain
Unhappiness: pain + absence of pleasure

Question 45

What is Mill’s difference from Epicureans?

Answer 45

Epicureans: highest pleasure is complete absence of pain + additional pleasures don’t add anything
Mill: value hedonist: actions are right to the extent that they promote happiness (maximizing pleasure)
- hedonism: pleasure is human life’s aim, hedons: unit of
measurement of pleasure ( more # of hedons: more
pleasure)

Question 46

Who is a utilitarian?

Answer 46

Mill, and thus a consequentialist: actions are the proper subject of moral evaluation (requires self-sacrifice of our own happiness for the overall happiness).

Question 47

Are there higher or lower pleasure for Mill?

Answer 47

Yes, some pleasures are more desirable since we consider the quantity + quality, higher than base pleasure (ex. food, drink, sex).

Question 48

What is Karl Marx’s philosophy?

Answer 48

Distributive justice: goods should be fairly distributed in a given society.

Question 49

What kind of person is Karl Marx?

Answer 49

A young contemporary version of Mill + a determinist who doesn’t believe individuals can do anything to change history (what happens, happens).
The manifesto of the Communist Party with Friedrich Engels.

Question 50

What are bourgeois + proletarians?

Answer 50

Karl Marx
bourgeois: capitalists who own the means of production, uses their political power to oppress proletarians + feed them false ideologies to prevent rebellions
proletarians: working class that works in labour to increase capital value, alienated since they’re surviving by giving what they can only offer: labour, and their labour makes things they can’t even keep, stripped off any personality and become hollow replaceable parts of a machine, can’t become capitalists since their capital is too small + their labour’s value constantly driven down by mechanization + competition

Question 51

What does Karl Marx believe that’ll destroy capitalism?

Answer 51

Capitalism itself has the seeds of its own destruction.
Over time society’ll go from bourgeois controlled to proletarian controlled under communism (interests of the working class as whole valued).

Question 52

What is dialectical materialism?

Answer 52

Marx & Engels, in this case our understanding of the world is coloured by bourgeois/capitalist ideas to the point where we can’t separate ourselves from it.

Question 53

What is Simone de Beauvoir’s main idea?

Answer 53

Existence precedes essence, we have no innate purpose but were thrown into this world + forced to make their own choices + meaning to life.
Agency needs to be receptive to subjective reality of people’s lives since reality’s ambiguous.

Question 54

What is ambiguity according to Simone de Beauvoir?

Answer 54

The space in which an existentialist moral agent operates.

Question 55

Why does Simone de Beauvoir believe sometimes violence is necessary?

Answer 55

If it can liberate others + secure justice.

Question 56

Is there a difference between absurdity + ambiguity according to Simone de Beauvoir?

Answer 56

Yes, since human life isn’t meaningless but its meaning is never fixed.

Question 57

How does one achieve freedom according to Simone de Beauvoir?

Answer 57

Freedom manifests itself through negative resistance in which the object is clear (ex. Nazi occupation) + unequivocally rejected.

Question 58

The good of individual or a group according to Simone de Beauvoir?

Answer 58

We must act for the sake of others’ freedom (ex. depending on circumstance, not preventing someone’s suicide).

Question 59

What is John Rawls’ philosophy?

Answer 59

Rational choice theory: individuals use their self-interests to make choices that’ll give them the greatest benefit.

Question 60

What is John Rawls’ definition of justice?

Answer 60

Fairness, seeking principles that’d bring a fair distribution of goods amongst free + rational agents, but if an unequal distribution would make everyone better off than do that.

Question 61

How can society reach a place where everyone’s content with the results according to John Rawls?

Answer 61

1. original position: populated by free + rational agents
2. veil of ignorance: no one knows their actual place in society (social, economic, race, sex, abilities)

Question 62

From original position + veil of ignorance, what does Rawls believe free + rational agents would agree on the 2 principles?

Answer 62

1. liberty principle (primary): everyone has an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others (ex. freedom of speech)
2. equality principle: everyone has an equal right to prosper, social + economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they’re both at everyone’s advantage and attached to positions + offices open to all

Question 63

Why does John Rawls reject John Stewart Mill’s utilitarianism?

Answer 63

Rawls believes that it’s incompatible with social cooperation since no rational person would sacrifice their own satisfaction for the greater satisfaction of others.

Question 64

What is reflective equilibrium?

Answer 64

Rawls, going back + forth between principles/basic convictions, adjusting both when needed (ex. if you find out a baby’s been murdered + feel about it, we should try to generalize + come up with a general moral principle that explains this intuition)

Question 65

What are the 2 inequalities John Rawls suggest that may be tolerated from original position?

Answer 65

1. Monetary + other incentives that encourage more productive efforts + compensate people for the cost of education + continued performance (ex. paying physicians more)
2. Certain authority inequalities temporarily in fewer hands to bring society back from chaos (ex. after a natural disaster).

Question 66

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant tensions between the notion of individual rights and goods such as public health. On the one hand, there are those who consider getting vaccinated to be a matter of personal choice; on the other, there are those who believe vaccines should be mandatory to ensure public spaces are safe for everyone. Which side is right? Should freedom be understood as a good for the individual for the community?

Answer 66

1. “Which side is right?” - John Stewart Mill in “Utilitarianism”
   - utilitarianism requires self-sacrifice of self-happiness for the sake of others when the overall happiness as a result would be greater
2. “Should freedom be understood as a good for the individual or the community?” - Plato in “The Republic IV”
   - guardians: associated with wisdom, so they know how to make just laws
   - traders: associated with virtue, so they need to be told what to do by guardians + kept in check by auxiliaries

Question 67

What difference should someone’s intention make to the rightness or wrongness of their action? Are good intentions the only thing that matters, or are other considerations relevant in a moral decision, such as whether an agent is virtuous or whether an action has good or bad consequences?

Answer 67

1. “What difference… of their actions?” - Peter Abelard in “Ethics or Know Yourself I”
   - intentionalism: your mind is where you’re evaluated
   - works with moral psychology which was founded by Augustine
2. “Are good intentions… or bad consequences?” - Aristotle in “Nicomachean Ethics”
   - virtue: state of character showing high moral standards
   
   • habit/character: action must stem from own character

Question 68

We’ve seen many philosophers assume without question that human beings are rational creatures, and that it is our rationality that grounds ethics, allowing us to imagine possible courses of action, deliberate about them, and choose the one
we think is best. But what about emotions and desires Doesn’t what we feel and how we feel influence our actions as much as what we take to be true by reason?

Answer 68

1. “But what about emotions + desires?” - Epicureans in “The Pleasures of Invulnerability”
   - unnatural + unnecessary reforming desire (ex. fame, power)
2. Doesn’t what… by reason?” - Plato in “The Republic II”
   - virtue moderation: control of certain desires, wisdom: reason without being hindered (by emotions)

Question 69

What kind of thing is moral knowledge? Some philosophers assume that moral knowledge is like book learning (‘knowing that”), where goodness is a truth we can express in words; others seem to think it’s more like practical knowledge
(‘know-how”), like how to ride a bike. What do you think? Is moral knowledge a definition or a practice or some combination of the two?

Answer 69

1. combination - the Stoics in “On Final Ends III”
   - seek a good character (having moral knowledge,” the practicing of that moral knowledge will follow
2. ex. guardians - Plato in “The Republic IV”
   - know both the definition of moral knowledge + how to apply it into laws
3. ex. shopkeeper - Immanuel Kant in “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals”
   - applying into the practice of treating all customers the same

Question 70

Most philosophers insist that moral decisions must be impartial, so that when deciding what we should do, the agent’s own interests are weighed equally or count for the same as everybody else’s. But is that even possible for us, as
human beings with friends and loved ones we care about (and maybe enemies we’d like to harm)? If it’s natural to love and favour our friends, how can it be wrong to give them the advantage over people we don’t know when making a
moral decision?

Answer 70

1. “Is it even possible?” - John Rawls in “A Theory of Justice”
   - original position + veil of ignorance: we don’t know who we are + who we consider our friends and enemies
2. “If it’s natural… decision?” - Immanuel Kant in “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals”
   - human’s ultimate end: having an absolutely good will (decisions based on reason)
   - imagine you can only save certain group, instead of picking those who’ll likely preserve the continuation of humanity you pick your friends

Question 71

Is private property a moral good? If so, what role does it play in human welfare or happiness and how should it be distributed? If not, what should we do about our current property laws and how should we understand the products of our labour?

Answer 71

1. “Is private property a moral good?” - Karl Marx + Friedrich Engels in “Manifesto of the Communist Party”
   - bourgeois + proletarians, how the capitalists exploit working class’ labour
2. “If not… labour?” - John Stewart Mill in “Utilitarianism”
   - even if those who own the private property get less than they’d like, at least there’s a greater overall happiness as the workers are valued more for their service