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PHIL 101 Test II Notes - Test II Lecture
Outline
Philosophy and Contemporary Ideas (Liberty University)
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PHIL-101
Liberty University
Test 2 Notes
●Aristotle
o Died in 322 BC
o Studied under Plato for 19 years
o Made fun of Plato for a lot of things
o Wrote <On the Forms= – makes fun of Plato for the forms
o Metaphysical is intimately connected to the physical
o Alexander the Great’s personal tutor
o <On Nature= = Physics
o Terms in English because of Aristotle:
- Matter
- Form
- Substance
- Essence
- Categories
- Species
- Genus
- Metaphysics
o Most influential philosopher for 2,000 years during the Dark Ages
o Was a botanist
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o Logic
- Wrote 4 books on Logic
●Edited into 1 book
- Organon (means Tools)
- 3 Rules of Logic (Quotes are from Parmenides)
1. Identity: <Only one way remains; that it
is= o It is what it is o Identifying it
o A=A or A is not B
2. Excluded Middle: <Thus it must be absolutely, or not at all=
o It either is or it is not; there is no middle ground; there is
no kind of true
o A proposition must either be true or false
o Either A or not A. Either A or B.
3. Non-Contradiction: <It is, or it is not=
o It is what it is and not something else
o No proposition can be both true and false at the same
time and in the same sense
o A cannot be not A, at the same time and in the same
sense
●Syllogism
- Mixing two truths together
●Can affirm or deny something
- Can follow, but may not be true
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●Deduction Logic
- It is rational and used by Parmenides and
mathematicians
- Conclusion is deduced from the 2 premises
- Conclusion necessarily follows the premises
- 2 True premises must produce a true conclusion
- Universals to Particulars
- If you move from universals to particulars, it
guarantees truth, as long as the premises are true
- [Premise 1] All men are mortal (Universal)
- [P2] Socrates is a man (Particular example of
universal)
- [C] Therefore, Socrates is mortal (Particular)
●Induction Logic
- Infers that we can follow a general rule
- Is empirical and is used by Heraclitus and scientists
- Cannot guarantee that true premises will guarantee
a true conclusion
- It moves from particulars to universals
- Infers general rules from observed events
- Used as a temporary crutch until you find certainty
- [P1] Copper is a metal and conducts electricity
●True
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●Particular
- [P2] Silver is a metal and conducts electricity
●True
●Particular
- [P3] Iron is a metal and conducts electricity
●True
●Particular
- [C] Therefore, all metals conduct electricity –
Universal
o False, Mercury is a metal and does not
conduct electricity
●5 Ways to Respond to a Logical Argument
1. An ambiguous term was used
2. False premise
3. Committed a logical fallacy
4. The argument passes all these 3 checkpoints and proves its conclusion to be true
and you admit it
5. The argument proves itself to be true but you don’t agree but you want to be hard
headed and say it might be true for you but not for me (but this is meaningless)
o Metaphysics
-Sometimes mind (nous) = form = soul = Telos = rational part
of soul = essence
●Metaphysical is intimately connected to the physical
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- Form is intimately connected with matter
- You cannot separate them
●4 Causes (First Principles)
- Material Cause
o What material it is made of
o Ex. Wood for wooden desk
●Formal Cause
o The shape of it
o Ex. Square with 4 legs
- Efficient Cause
o What causes it to exist
o Ex. Carpenter
- Teleological Cause
o What its purpose is; its use
o Ex. Flat surface to write on or to eat up off of the floor
- Potentiality and Actuality
- 1 type of Potentiality
o Ex. Milk is potentially cream, cheese, etc.
- 2 types of Actuality
o 1 st Actuality
- What the product actually is
- Ex. Milk is actually milk
o 2 nd Actuality
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- Fulfilling its purpose
- When it is actually used for its intended purpose
- Has Telos
- Ex. Milk has 2nd actuality when you drink the milk
- When in 1st actuality it can either become potentially or
2nd actuality
- Substance (3 Types)
1. Matter
o Material Cause
2. Form
o Formal Cause
3. Combination of Matter and Form
o The only one you will ever experience
- Substance = Matter + Form
- Sometimes mind (nous) = form = soul = Telos =
rational part of soul = essence
- Ex. Bronze sphere
o Material: Bronze
o Formal: Sphere
- You cannot separate the matter from the form
- Matter + Form also = Natural Body
- Natural Body + Soul = Living Body
o Living body is a subcategory of a natural body
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- A dead body is just a natural body
- Besouled = alive
- Unbesouled = dead
o Besouled and Unbesouled both have matter and form
- The soul is what animates the body
- Hylomorphism is matter-form-ism
o 3 rd type of substance
- Soul (3 Types)
- What defines it – what makes it what it is
1. Nutritive Soul
o Separates plants from rocks
o It receives nutrients
2. Locomotive Soul
o Locally, within itself, produces motion
o Separates plants from animals
o Includes the Nutritive Soul
3. Nous
o Nous = Mind
o Rational part of the soul to Plato
o Separates humans from animals
o Gives us the ability to think (use logic)
o Includes the Nutritive and Locomotive Souls
- Telos of a Human Being
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o To realize your capacities as a rational animal and to live a life
of virtue in accordance with reason
- Nous is a different kind of soul not connected to the body
- Soul is Formal, Efficient, and Teleological causes
- Leaves us with the possibility of an afterlife, but
doesn’t mention more on it
o Epistemology
- New Definition of Truth
- If you say what is that it is, or of what is not that it is not,
you speak the truth; if you say of what is not that it is or
what is that it is not, you speak a falsity.
- This standard of truth is subjective
o We are the standard of truth
- Also known as the Correspondence Theory of Truth
- Senses and Mind
- There is something that happens between the bottle and my
eye
o The bottle is radiating its essence and our nous is receiving it
o
Called <In-Between=
- Soul is the spark that happens between
- Soul = nous in this situation (not connected with the body)
- Soul/Psyche is what is connected to the body
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- The soul comes out of the body and receives the essence o
It picks up the form, not the matter
- You cannot be wrong that you are seeing something,
but you can be wrong about what you are seeing
- Combines the physical and metaphysical
- Plato’s Metaphysical Divided Line chart is folded in half
- There may be a world soul/global consciousness/God
- Something has to know
- Where do we get our information from?
- Being doesn’t come from being or non-being
- It comes from potential being
o Ethics
- Virtue: Moral and Intellectual
- Moral
- Virtues
o Golden Mean Chart
o Know and do the right thing at the right time for the right reason
o Every virtue is a mathematical mean of two vices
- Intellectual Virtues
(4) o Courage
o Moderation
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o Wisdom
o Prudence
- Chief intellectual virtue
- Knowing and doing the right thing at the right time for the
right reason
- Skepticism
o Academic
- Comes from Plato
- Happened after his death though
- Says the forms are true
- The truth is out there, but we cannot know it while stuck in
this body, limited to the senses.
- Keep researching
- Withhold ascent (suspend judgment)
o Pyrrho
- There is no truth possible
- Keep researching
- Withhold assent (suspend judgment)
o Philosophy of Religion
- Trying to prove the abstract concept of God exists;
proving if God is logically possible in the world today
- Plato
●God’s existence was the first step
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●God existed with the forms at first
o God used the forms to create earth
- Aristotle
- God is the last logical step
- Infinite Regress
o You cannot go on to infinity past Last logical step for anything
o If no God, nothing makes sense
- God is pure being, no becoming; pure form, no matter; pure
2nd actuality, no potentiality; telos of universe; efficient
cause of universe
- 3 Traditional Proofs for God’s Existence
●Ontological
- Anselm (1109 AD)
- Rational/A Priori
●Cosmological
- Aquinas (1274 AD)
- Empirical/A Posteriori
●Teleological
- Paley
- Empirical/A Post
●Anselm
o Died in 1109 AD
o Ontological Argument
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- Rational/A Priori
- Independent of sense experience
1. Nothing is greater than God can be conceived
2. The idea of God exists in our mind
3. If God only existed in our minds
- He would not be as great as one who
actually existed
4. Therefore, the idea of God
- as a conception which cannot be bettered –
- must correspond to one in reality ( i.e.. He
actually exists)
1 – definition of God – that which
none greater can be conceived
2 – The physical is better than
that which is in our mind
3 – If it exists it is greater than the
one that doesn’t exist (in the
mind) 4 – He actually exists
●Ontological - being
●Being/essence of God
●Essence of God exists
o Greatest of all possible beings
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- Starts with the concept of God and ends with a
reality (He actually is)
o 2 Criticisms
- Circular Argument
- Cannot start with a concept and prove a reality
o He is assuming what he intends to prove
o Assumes existence is also part of perfection
- Gaunilo’s Criticisms
- Replaces God with an island
- Committed a Logical Fallacy (Reductio Ad Absurdum)
o Come to absurd notion
o In the next chapter of his book, he gives us a different proof
for God’s existence
- Has 7 premises and comes to the same conclusion that God
exists
●Aquinas
o Died in 1274 AD
o Problem of Evil, A Posteriori and Cosmological
●5 Proofs
- Empirical
●Using the senses to prove God’s existence
●
<Summa Theologica=
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●Best theological book written – Supreme
Theology
●Article 3: Whether God Exists?
- Precise writing method
o Title
o Objections 1-4
o 5 Ways – reply to the objections
●Logical Problem of Evil
●Most common objection for God’s existence
●Proof for Atheism – deductive proof
●Goes back to Epicurus and the Epicurean
●Dilemma
●Evil
●Only evil exists
●Good
●Evil
●A mix of good and evil exists
●Good
●Only good exists
●Limited Cognition Defense (LCD)
o Comes from Wykstra
o We have limited cognitive abilities
o Explains why we cannot explain why
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●Plantinga
o Solved the Logical Problem of Evil
o Evil exists and a good God exists
●We are given freewill
●There is a perfect balance between good and evil
●Evidential Problem of Evil (5)
●Has evidence of evil's existence, so God cannot exist
Natural
o Hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, etc.
●Physical
o Cancer, thing with the physical body
●Metaphysical
o Demons, poltergeist, etc.
●Moral
o Freewill
o Ex. Drink and drive
●Gratuitous
o Excessive amounts
o Ex. Holocaust, Vegas Shooting, etc.
o Moral on a larger scale
o 1 st Way
●Must be a first mover (prime mover) to avoid infinite
regress Must move something from potentiality to actuality
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●Denying God’s existence is to deny that things move
●Fire makes wood actually hot from potentially hot
●Fire is actually hot and potentially cold, but cannot be
potentially hot in the same way and at the same time
●Law of Noncontradiction
o 2 nd Way
●To take away cause there will be no effect
●To deny God’s existence is to deny that the cause is
greater than the effect
●The cause must be greater than the effect God is the
efficient cause
- the First Cause
o 3 rd Way
●Something that was necessary had to exist since things exist
●Contingent = before
●Possible = after
●There must be a necessary being before the beginning
●Must be a necessary being to cause other things to be
o 4 th Way
●Based of values
●Worst →Worse →Bad → Is → Good → Better → Best
●Shows Anselm’s point
●Gradation found in things
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●That which is always the best is what we call God
o 5 th Way Teleological Cause
o All four causes are seen 5 th way
- Teleological Cause 2 nd way
- Efficient Cause 4 th way
- Formal Cause 1 st and 3rd ways
- Material Cause
o 1 st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th are based on facts
●Paley
o Died in 1805 AD
o Intelligent Design Debate
o Gives 3 pages on teleological proof of God’s existence
o Found pocket watch on ground
●Assume there is an intelligent designer for the watch but not the stone
o Objections and Replies
●Even if the watch doesn’t work you assume an intelligent designer
●Even if you don’t know what a watch is we still assume it had an intelligent designer
●Replace watch with house to try to prove it would have to be a polytheistic god
o Is Aquinas’ 5th Way expanded
●Pascal Wager and Ockham’s Razor
o Ockham’s Razor
●Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity
●Plurality should not be posited without necessity
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●Don’t complicate things; make it as simple as possible; K.I.S.S.
●Used both to prove and disprove God’s existence
●Marcus Hunter – 2005
●Shorter theory is more valid
o Pascal Wager
●Reason is not going to help us
●We have a 3:1 chance/odds
●Living as if God exists is a safer bet
