Philosophy Notebook for the entire course PDF

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Philosophy Notebook for the entire course ...

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1/23 -Socrates makes a distinction between two aspects: Courageous and Dead -Courageous= admirable; good-- beneficial -Courage life= Definitely Good -Dead= bad -The cc is that admirable things are always advantageous South Body Both -Free will -Intellect 1/24 -Why do we need to know? -To be able to teach others and to be able to give good advice to ourselves -What do we need to know? -Virtue and self control -You need goodness so that you can order all things esp your life -How do we learn what we need to know? -You need to know that you’re ignorant and don’t know the answer -Objection #1- it’s about advantage not justice -Objection #2- nobody really knows justice so… fake it! (I just need to rely on my own natural talents) -Objection #3- belongings -The difference between being and having -Techniques used to explain all this stuff= reflection and analogy, distinction, and cases (you must exhaust all the possible cases but one and that one that’s leftover must be the case) -Free will is like a way of directing things -Body= part of me -Active versus passive -Is soul the same as personality? -The soul rules the body therefore the compound (body+ soul) idea isn’t true 1/26 -1- Universals vs particulars -2- Changing vs unchanging— Paramidese (for him, time is an illusion; everything comes down to what is is and what isn’t isn’t) and Hariclitus (for him everything is in absolute chaos -”You can’t step into the same river twice” -3- Form gives structure to perception -4- Forms= more perfect and real -5- Forms known through mind

-Forms is the the way we usually translate the idea of something that will be stable and unchanging (e.g. trees in general) -It’s the idea that gives shape to our perception and w/ out the ideas it’s all just chaos -We have the stable and the unstable -For Plato, the highest form gives rise to our perception -You HAVE to understand what’s good for the thing -E.g. The form of the tree is what’s good -If something exists in the material world it can NOT be perfect -Plato says you can’t grasp the material world b/c it’s constantly changing -Plato brings up a paradox about how are you gonna figure out what something is (e.g. What is virtue?) -The material world serves a purpose= jogging your memory 1/30 Summary/ Review of Last Class: 1. Forms: Universals vs perticulars -Universal= ideal -Particular= case of ideal -We are constantly judging the particulars in terms of the universal- the ideal- what it should  be 2. Forms are moral perfect, and more real 3. Change 4. Knowledge of forms is from the mind- you can feel something here and now but you can’t measure justice -When we get knowledge of forms its through the soul -E.g. the triangle or the circle remind you of the perfect circle that’s in your mind The Symposium: -It’s written by Plato -Starts the speech by saying that love is very old-- that it has no parents -The Symposium begins w/ a question-- the idea that there’s a question is significant -Phaedrus- says that love is the giver of good things thus we will worship love; love makes us honorable and productive-- it makes us look good in front of the person(s) we like; says love is something bodily/ physical; says that the beloved is more honored than the lover (beloved= more honored); the loving of something greater is what makes you so awesome and cool; he’s basically praising himself when he praises love (he praises himself in a roundabout way-huh(?)); says there are two loves (they’re are multiple myths) but one is good and the other one is

bad-- the bad love’s mother is born both male and female but the other one is born just male (there’s no female involved); says the good love doesn’t have a mother -They don’t like the women and say that they’re love is somehow defficient -All human accomplishment is the gift of love -Pausanius- constantly talks about laws and legal practice; for him love is tied to the customs (social conventions about what is and isn’t considered a part of love); says love is about the souls of people being together rather than just about the bodily things he does -Eryximacus -They decided they weren’t going to get drunk b/c they’re hungover from the previous night -When writing a diolgue always question the reliability -They keep all the women (the flute players) out -The men have young boy lovers 1/31 Phaedrus: -Love’s origin: it has no parents -Love is bodily -Love gives good things and honor -Beloved is just honored Pausanias: -Distinguishes good love from bad love -Origin of good love-- male only -Origin of bad love-- male and female -Love is good if it benefits another soul -Love is directed to the soul and lets us live in connectivity -Love is preferred Eryximacus: -He’s a doctor -Says he’s gonna compare love to a doctor thus praising himself -Says that the goal of the doctor to create a harmony between parts that are very different -Says that love creates harmony and is universal -Everything in the world relates back to harmony and disharmony -Irony= there is disorder -Harmony of opposites -Love isn’t just about things that are the same going together (e.g. adding water to water) -Prefers the love of young boys to the love of females Aristophanes: -He’s a comic (it’s individual, particular but it’s associated w/ the not serious/ funny) poet

-Wrote a play about Socrates -Love is lacking-- it doesn’t have something, it needs something Agathion: -He’s a tragic poet (writes tragedies) but just b/c a poem is tragic doesn’t mean it’s gonna be sad -Says we need to start w/ a definition of love and then defines love as beautiful -Love can’t be forced thus it’s powerful and doesn’t do wrong b/c it doesn’t force ppl -Love is courageous -Love is temperate b/c it controls tempers -Love is wise -Love is just -Love is completion and fullness -Says love is like a poet thus praising himself -Love is NOT about lacking, it’s about fullness -Looks at human beings living their everyday life -He considers humans as being divine -You don’t need anything outside of yourself, all you need is to love -Talks about fullness *Justice, moderation, courage, and wisdom= the four Greek virtues* 2/2 Summary: Phaedrus-- love= bodily and love= receiving good things Pausenius-- love is of soulda and love= giving to others Ereximacus-- love= universal and harmony btwn opposites Aristophanes-- love= lack and seeking the other half Agathon-- love= fufillment and love is beautiful and virtuous -What does Socrates think of Agathon? -He basically just makes fun of him -Socrates says if you have love is it a love for something or a love for nothing? Therefore, love is always directed toward something (e.g. I love my dog)-- if you desire something it implies that you don’t have it -Love is love of things that are both beautiful and good -It’s the desire for beauty that makes love beautiful -Love helps take the divine things and bring them down lower sort of speak -Love is in between the nothing of earthly things and the fullness of divine things -Fufillment and desire -Love is describe here as being a philosopher-- you don’t know what you think you know

2/6 -Love is a thing that deals with lack of fufillment and fufillment -Love is constantly empty but is also constantly full -Love isn’t just in the mind and soul, it also has to do w/ the body -Kinds of love include children, poetry, laws, and philosophy -You go from one to many -The idea of a ladder -You need to have a vision of the form(s) -One body-- many bodies-- soul-- laws-- science/ philosophy-- forms -”Climbing the ladder” -Love is something generative, it overflows-- climbing up the ladder and then going back down -Love is all that is yearning but never satisified 2/7 -Socrates says you seek what’s good for yourself as opposed to what’s yours/ belongs to you -To Socrates what completes you is some form that is above you -The tragic versus the comic -Alcibiades comes in drunk (“Ladies and gentlemen I am plastered”) -Alcibiades is being a little more active than before and is showing some signs of independence and rebellion from Socrates -Socrates says to Alcibiades, I’m the only one who truly loves you (everyone else, they just want your body) -Alciades says to Socrates you’re kind of like an ugly, hollow statue -Alcibiades says that Socrates (claims to be empty, but is full on the inside) is an ironic figure; he’s always going after young, pretty boys but is never interested in their physical beauty -Alcibiades sees Socrates as someone who lacks humility, that he’s a tease, and why won’t Socrates have sex w/ me 2/9 -The “Philosophy Bug” -This continual lacking -Socrates can only pass onto you the desire to know -Alcibides couldn’t get passed stage one of the ladder of love *For the Paper: -It should be an argumentative paper (take a position and argue for that position; you also must give a counterargument), the thesis (try to make everything fit w/ the thesis), you can use quotes (quotes are evidcnce- evidence of what Plato thinks), no need for a bibliography (unless you use something outside the readings), about five pages* 2/13 The Death Penalty: -I think it puts them out of misery too fast (in some reading I read in hs Latin Caesasr said it ends their pain/ suffering too fast and that they should be allowed to live out the rest of their life so that they can suffer (esp from guilt) that whole time)

-All life has value-- right to live -But on the other hand allowing this comes at the cost of taxpayers (it costs a whole lot of money to do this) -Protect society-- necessary evil; measure -High cost -Decrease in murders b/c the death penalty -The punishment should fit the crime -Justice isn’t just about protecting society-- you do need to pay for your crimes -Life= super value-- no one should/ can take it -Give due (what you’re owed) versus restoring what’s lost 1. Practice for death 2. Separating Body and Soul-- there are (2) things-- the body and the soul 3. Body hinders the soul-- A. Not dependance as in we make mistakes in perception, B. Detection-- can’t sense justice, C. Distraction-- we must care for the body b/c that steals away time and resources 2/14 1. Philosophers practice death 2. Death= seperation of the body and soul 3. Body is a hinderence to the soul-- a. Body is defective meaning sensation makes mistakes; b. Body is deficient meaning sensations can’t detect justice, good, etc…; c. Body distracts meaning evil desire and bodily needs -Philosophers don’t care about the body, just the soul thus the philosopher will sometimes deny his body -Philosophers put their to death their bodily desires on a daily basis -Plato defines death as the separation of the body and soul -Do you let your bodily passions and desire guide you or do you let reason guide you? -Plato discusses suicuide early on in the dialogue -Knowledge is known through the soul, not the body -Courage comes out of fear esp major fear -Pleasure vs pain-- Plato is concerned w/ neither -Plato says the philosopher is the only one not concerned w/ pain and pleasure b/c they’re independent of bodily needs and desires -Plato believes in reincarnated and says that ghosts are souls that are still attached to their body/ bodies -The life you life now might not be a human life -A human being lives according to reason and that’s what makes us different from other animals -We can either live like animals today or rational creatures -True knowledge is understood through the mind

What should humans be like? -We should desire knowledge -But the body traps the soul -Philosophy saves us! 2/16 Pre- Socratics- 1st principle-- Socrates is curious on what the 1st principle is- he used to think he knew what it was but now he doesn’t-- then he says the 1st principle is “the good”- the highest of all the forms/ that which illuminates all the other forms and it explains how the universe is ordered rationally -Socrates decided to stay there and let the Athenian ppl kill him b/c he thought that was the good thing to do -Participation in the form(s) of beauty make something beautiful (beautfiul things are made beautiful) -You have the form and the matter and the form enters into the matter -The big comes from the small and the small comes from the big (vice versa) -There’s a world thats changing and there’s a world that’s unchanging -Fire cannot help itself but to be hot -The soul is what communicates life to the body -The soul will always be connected to life even if the body dies 2/21 Aristotle reading(s): -He takes the body much more seriously than Plato does -1- Why study the soul -2- The categories-- substance and accident -3- Body and soul -You want knowledge of things that of a greater good -Aristotle tries to incorporate some of his predecessors ideas even if he’s gonna disagree w/ a lot of their other ideas -Tried to categorize the world in a way that made sense as opposed to Plato who tried to do this via using the forms -Aristotle is going to categorize the soul meaning he’s going to figure out what it means to be a soul (the essence of the soul) -What’s the cause of the difficulities, messiness, and trouble we have w/ understanding according to Plato? -The body (bodily needs and pleasure) cause all of this -Put more emphasis on physical/ bodily things compared to Plato -The ancient Greeks defined a soul as that which makes something or someone alive (e.g. a tree is growing thus it has a soul)

-Undersand the principle of life and understand what the qualities of the soul and its capabilities/ functions (e.g. knowledge) -A change in substanence vs a change in accendence -Gives a list of the ways we use “is” -1st order substances (very specific) versus 2nd order substances (you can get a little more general) and so forth -The contrast to substances are accidents (happen to be) -Substances versus accidents versus essential properties -Accidents must often have certain properties that go along with it/ them -A substance is an entity -”This somewhat”= (a) substance -What is the soul? -Says the soul is a substance -Identifies (3) kinds of substances- the form, the matter, and the composite (both form and matter) 2/23 Substances vs Properties -Substance- form, matter, composit -Primary substance- (e.g. Fido is a dog); more specific than the secondary substance; some sort of a form- matter composite -Secondary substance- A dog is (fill in); some kind of a form -Matter is the other kind of substance according to Aristotle but he doesn’t give it a # -Substances are independent- an entity -Properties-- essential and accidental -Essential- Socrates is mortal meaning it’s essential to Socrates that he’s mortal -Accidental- Socrates is sitting -Body and soul-- affection -Affection- do they apply to the body, soul? -Happiness and sadness are properties that belong to the soul -It’s not essential to humans to be happy but the capability to be happy is what’s important to humans 2/27 -Forms-- Plato’s view of forms vs Aristotle’s view of forms -A mixture btwn form and matter -Anger (and emotions in general) are directed towards wanting to fix a problem (e.g. injustice) perceived -A logician defines anger in terms of its purpose/ meaning whereas the purely materialistic scientist defines anger in terms of the physical aspects accompanied by it (hormones etc…) -Material good versus mind (mental) good

-If the idea exists then the form exists -Form is defined by purpose -The (3) kinds of substance- form, mater, and composite -Body= matter -Soul= form -Individuals are composed of both form and matter *The soul nor the body are a thing on their own* 2/28 -What we’ve talked about so far: substance ((form-- purpose), matter, and composite) and properties (essential and accidental); form and matter; the idea of purpose -Act and potency-- they’re not well suited for looking at purpose (substance and properties are better for that) -Actuality= form meaning form is a kind of actuality and that matter is a kind of potency -The soul is the form of the body and is therefore the actuality of the body whereas the body is the matter and potency 2/2 -Potency is the possibility of something whereas actuality is the actual being of something -Potency is matter where as Act is form -There are (2) kinds of actuality- Possession vs exercise of knowledge; having vs using (thinking/ attending -The 1st act is possession of knowledge and the 2nd act is the exercising of knowledge -The soul is the 1st actuality, not the 2nd -Every possible in grounded in some form of actuality -Plato is a substance dualist-- body ONLY exists w/ a form 2/6 -A body needs to have organs/ tools -Soul is that 1st actuality (of a specific thing)-- “...The 1st grade of actuality of a natural organized body” -Aristotle says Plato is wrong meaning the body can’t exist w/out the soul and vice versa -First act is having potency -Second act is fufilling potency -What comes 1st, act or potency? -First act comes before possibility -Potential-- Act-- Potency -Actuality is the grounf for potentiality -Form is something that exists w/ in the world -Socrates says that the soul doesn’t live on after the body dies -The accendence (what makes it what it is)= chopping 2/9

-The four casuses: -- material, efficient, formal, and final

-You have to have act before you can have potential -Plants and animals have different souls b/c they have very different final ends -He therefore says there are (3) different kinds of souls-- the nutrative, the sensitive, and the rational soul 2nd part of the semester: Augustine and His Confessions: -He’s a man of great faith -He says rest in God is the greatest thing for human beings -Says we are restless until we rest in God-- similar to what Plato said -You must 1st ask God how to get to know Him (Ask Him for help) -Augustine compares the human mind to God-- we need God to illuminate our mind *Be able to compare Augustine’s view to Plato’s view* -God is our greatest good-- God is vastly beyond us -Humans are depraved-- we will (want) what’s not good for us -The problem is ignorance and the solution is knowledge/ edu -Augustine says that ignorance isn’t the only problem human beings have-- our will is broken (the idea of a broken- will) -God is the giver of all good things -God orders everything in the world and therefore is wonderful 3/16 1. God= the highest Good 2. Man= depressed 3. Evil= userping God’s pace; nothing (has no value) -Plato and Augustine says that mans’ illnesses come from different sources -God is so above us that we must ask him for His guidance-- we will always be below Him unless He comes to us via us asking Him to 1. The stealing of the Pear -He wasn’t stealing the pears b/c he wanted the pears he did just for the sake of it being wrong -The pears weren’t even very good pears 3/20 -According to Augustine we need to b pt in the direction of God (the highest good) and you need God to steer you in the right direction -The Pears: -Augustine did it for the love of sin himself and not what he was gaining from it -Augustine says we’re impatient and impulsive -When we do evil we do it for a good even if it’s a lesser good

-Sometimes we do stuff to lose the good -Sin= a crime -What was the good Augustine was trying to seek by stealing the pears? -It wasn’t the beauty of God’s creation in the pears *ASK- When are we getting our papers back? And When will we get assigned our new paper? 4/3 Wrap up of Augustine: 1-God-- highest good/ 2-Humans are depraved/ 3- What is evil Thomas Aquinas: -Tried to Christianize Aristotle as much as possible -Summa Theologa -Set out to prove that God exists 1- Good and evil- if infinite other doesn’t exist 2- Infinite goodness 3- Evil is impossible (is WRONG!) 4- But… evil! 4/4 -God creates something beautiful out of the evil-- out of the chaos, God is able to create a new order -”The simple explanation is the best” 4/6 (5) ways for why there’s simply the existence of God: 1- Motion- action/ passion-- form and matter--- Greek idea of existence/ --God= pure act 2- Efficient cause- self caused, infinite regress, and aquinas and creation vs eternal world 3- Neccessity and contingency- God’s essence= existance and the nature of nothingness 4/10 Form= Act and Matter= Potency -Things come and go and none of them are neccessary and have to come into being -Existence does NOT means essence -God exists b/c it’s His nature to exi...