Introduction to Philosophy

What is Philosophy

• Philosophy translates to "love of wisdom"
• Principles discovered are intended to be universal and eternal
• Universal describes principles that apply to everything, to a certain type, or everywhere
• Eternal describes principles that never cease to exist
• Philosophy contains non-empirical studies and not experience based
• Empirical knowledge relies on world observations, with or without special instruments
• Philosophy is a priori, it draws knowledge or conclusions from reason with innate knowledge and definitions
• Philosophy is the process of actively questioning fundamental assumptions
• Fundamental assumptions support other beliefs and actions
• Fundamental assumptions are basic because revisions to them cause radical changes in beliefs
• Fundamental assumptions are not ordinarily noticed or examined

Main Areas of Study in Philosophy

• Metaphysics studies fundamental aspects of reality
• Metaphysics seeks to define the categories of existence
• Metaphysics questions reality and existence
• Ontology is included in Metaphysics and is defined as the study of being
• Epistemology is the study of knowledge
• Epistemology explores the sources of knowledge
• Epistemology is concerned with justification
• Value Theory studies value
• Ethics, social-political philosophy, and aesthetics are key focuses of Value Theory
• Ethics and Social-political philosophy concerns how humans should live
• Ethics defines what is morally right and wrong
• Socio-political philosophy seeks to define the way society should be organized and justice
• Aesthetics is the philosophy of art that questions beauty and its importance
• Logic is the formal study of the difference between good and poor reasoning

Underlying Values

• Intellectual honesty is about not misrepresenting your own knowledge or the ideas of others
• Intellectual humility is about understanding that individual knowledge is limited
• The most important goal of a debate is finding the truth

An Argument

• An argument is comprised of claims and statements
• The primary claim or statement is called the conclusion
• The remaining claims are premises to support the conclusion
• The claim in the argument is presented in standard form
• The claims will be put on separate lines with the conclusion last

Apology by Plato (of Socrates)

• Socrates is accused of corrupting the youth, of making the weaker argument the stronger, of taking money to teach and believing in Gods the city does not
• Socrates' argument states his speech is different than the other distinguished gentlemen.
• Socrates argues that wisdom is recognizing one's own ignorance, as symbolized by the Oracle of Delphi's message.
• Socrates believes his wisdom sets him apart
• Socrates seeks to question people to realize their ignorance
• The Oracle's riddle to human wisdom determines human wisdom is worth little
• Socrates claims that he never wanted to harm the youth and believes in spiritual things and is not an atheist
• Socrates does not beg for mercy and wishes understanding for others
• The unexamined life is not worth living because life is unfulfilled when avoiding seeking knowledge, questioning beliefs, and living virtuously

Euthyphro

• It is a dialogue defining piety/ holiness, in which Socrates seeks to define moral correctness.
• Euthyphro wants to charge his father for murdering a slave
• The discussions review piety as respect to a higher power
• Euthyphro first says that prosecuting wrongdoers (his father) is pious, then he says that gods love piety
• When Socrates replies "Is something pious because the gods love it, or do the gods love it because it is pious?", Euthyphro leaves with a dilemma

Ethical/Moral Relativism

• Ethical/Moral Relativism is about practices or commands such as "Stealing is always wrong", "Genocide is wrong", etc
• Claims are true or false depending on the relevant factor and are relative

Ethics of Belief (William Clifford)

• One has a moral responsibility to investigate the validity of their beliefs before accepting them
• Not seeking evidence can make one never seek evidence
• Beliefs are not private due societal implications/ group understanding
• Ethical responsibility is not acquitted if they were formed carelessly

The Will to Believe (William James)

• The deadness and liveness of a hypothesis is individual
• Decisions between hypothesis are categorized into: Living or dead, forced or avoidable, momentous or trivial
• An option is genuine when it is forced, living, and momentous
• A live hypothesis must appeal as a real possibility, while a dead hypothesis fails to engage
• Forced options require a choice, avoidable options allow indifference
• Momentous options are impactful, whereas trivial options are inconsequential
• Religious faith is a genuine option, due to life implications
• It argues for the legitimacy of believing, especially in religious matters, even without logical evidence
• Belief is influenced by: emotion, passion and will
• Passional nature is the emotional and volitional aspects of human experience that shape decisions
• Volition: is the power to use will and make choices
• Pure reason doesn't always dictate belief; will influences beliefs
• Clifford's view is challenged that belies are not entirely based on science
• Clifford argues waiting on evidence leads to paralysis in decision-making
• Clifford states it is reasonable to make decisions from passion and volition, lived experience and personal engagement demand belief (James' argument seems flexible)

Intro to the Theory of Knowledge

• Society assumes knowledge has value: truth is valuable
• There are philosophers who say that acting from true world assumptions gives greater success
• Sometimes having false assumptions gives success, but due to luck
• Distinguishing knowledge ingredients defines the value and existence of knowledge
• Denying knowledge means being a skeptic
• Skepticism about the future are more common than being skeptical about all knowledge

Knowledge

• Knowledge has different meanings
• Know-how (skills)
• Direct acquaintance
• Factual/propositional knowledge (2+2=4)
• It is justified true belief (Justified True Belief Theory)
• The elements of knowledge are belief, truth and justification
• Defining S knows that p means: S believes that p, p is true, S has a justification
• Saying knowledge is someone's belief and justification and the reverse

Skepticism

• Skepticism is a view where knowledge does not exist (global skeptic to total skeptic)
• It is a philosophical position with considered reasons
• Academic skepticism questions if knowledge is not possible or of a certain kind
• Pyrrhonic skepticism is suspending judgment on whether knowledge exits (thought to cure dogmatism)
• Focus on external world skepticism means that we can not know outer things
• Idealism: objects exist independently of perceptions by human

External World Skepticism

• It is not about the nature of reality, but its epistemological thesis
• It questions if our knowledge includes objects existing independently of our perceptions
• Global skepticism believes someone must be mistaken in order to know facts and knowledge does not equate to truth
• In the global skepticism argument, to accept these conditions gives up a great deal

Evaluating Arguments

• Two factors must be considered to evaluate an argument: premises support, and are premises true

Elements of Knowledge

• While knowledge is belief, belief is not always knowledge because people can falsely think of knowledge
• Superstitions are not a basis of knowledge
• The missing ingredient in true belief is the effort or use of logic in collecting evidence to obtain justification

Descartes' Goal and General Summary

• Descartes wants to create foundations for knowledge
• The way to find foundations is to test certainty by method of doubt, to see if any belief can be false. If so, that given belief is uncertain
• Descartes must find certainties to find foundations
• Certainties are indubitable beliefs
• He uses realistic, imaginary and scenarios
• He divides beliefs via empirical and a priori

Descartes - Testing certainties

• Testing certainties needs doubt as a foundation with Cogito, Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am)
• The argument establishes the act of thinking validates his existence
• The act of thinking confirms his nature as a mind or soal that is distinct, a non-material substance, from the body
• He argues for perfection in the 3rd and 4th Meditations
• In the 5th and 6th Meditations, he investigates sense perception with arguments for material beings/bodies

Distinctions in Reading Descartes' Meditations

• Correspondence Theory: correlation between fact and belief
• Fact: are the independent world, mind and a situation (facts formulate mind-independent reality)
• The important aspect of certainty is that it is an impossibility to be wrong
• Meditation 1 uses broad categorizations for beliefs as it relates to the senses and asking himself the possibility of which beliefs can be doubted to be dubious or uncertain

Possibility vs Probability

• Possibility: if proposition can be true with no contradiction
• Probability: the opposite with likelihood or possiblity

Illusions vs Hallucinations

• Illusions = misperceptions
• Hallucinations = non-existent sight/sound

Arguments From Illusion

• All his beliefs that fail the doubt test are uncertain.
• He does three scenarios with illusion perceptual, dreaming, evil
• Wants us to consider if we are fooled by senses, because illusions occur with special circumstances or in non-ideal conditions
• Dreaming allows for false correlation to events and is related to his mind
• According Descartes, ideas are like beliefs

Evil Genius Scenario

• He conjures an evil genius due to not understanding why god would fool him
• the argument states that this creature is all knowing and allows for a systematic mismatch where this creature can arbitrarily bring a mismatch, falsifying his world so it can seem as if he can "see a chair when there is no chair."
• He states the question, "is there nothing that is certain"

Corgito Argument

• He mentions "I think, therefore I am" and that he exits a thinking activity as a consciousness
• He specifies this statement only works for the first person in the present tense

The Mind-Body Problem

• Objects have mass, weigh and reflect
• They have 3D space and shape which allows perception of senses
• Descartes wants to understand mind relating to the physical world
• (R) Is the mind made of matter?
• (R)(i) if mind is not physical, how mental cause body
• (R)(ii)if mind is physical, what is the physical part

Descartes' Conclusion

• His answer states if mind is not physical, the mind is a ghost and cannot be subject to physics in the physical world
• Many people would agree
• His theory states mind and body are different
• Mind is immaterial and separate from physics

Competing Views

• Materialism: unvierse is made if physical matter, but based in science, it cannot explain subject experience in physical terms
• Idealism: Bishop - universe is spritiual
• Subtance is a mixture of above

Explained 2

• Identity theory: mind is brain and ideas, beliefs, desires, memories, etc, this is physical feature of brain, but theory defines "mind" broadly (species chauvinism)
• Logical behaviourism: view through behaviour when someone is disposed to their current thoughts
• Desires, beliefs etc are identical to set of behaviours

Functionalism

• It's the view where a belief is producing other beliefs, with desires/sense input as an information processing system
• If the belief of spiders makes great pets, can the functionalist (belief) define its value, or give desires for it to be satisfied

Key Concepts By Nagel

• Reductionism: explanation of a phenomenon
• Lightening is nothing but electrostatic discharge
• He questions if we can succed with subjective expression of structures
• Physicalism can be interchangeable and means for a materialistic universe
• Mature physics states fully developed process
• Qaulia says quality of awaresness like pain

Additional Key Concepts

• A table has a point of view perspective depending on angle
• Subjective: subject meaning George judgment was subjective due to no facts or only if they cannot verify truth
• Subjecitve vs. objective shows that something has many point of views and that only the subjective has accessible view

What is a Bat?

• it's about objective analysis to capture the essence by nagel
• Reductionism: objective is something from many views and subjective is a uniwue point of views

He Emphasizes

• Theory is made with experiences of internal world for subjectivity
• Reductionism is a school if tough that replace subjective because incomplete
• Existence in a bat is unique

Allan turnling

• He tests if machines think
• Can machines have the ability to communicate with each other that no one can tell.
• Turing mentions that to beat others while others give wrong statement

Limitations Criteria

• Acknowledges potential biases for others to think well
• Turing states specific machines have limit and it's known if it applies universally.
• 50 years for computing is about machines with 70% chance for machines to perform well

Lady Lovelace's objection

• She highlights machines don't lack creativity
• Turing opposes that others should know as they make meaningful way and can think
• John shows computers use wrong way in the program

Free will

• Free will is the concern for us and choices we make every time, so we have to have free mind, body It it an important connection for someone who can believe in moral responsibiliy

Maybe wave hit

• So its about a scenario that had a person pushed by an accident
• With no moral responsibility
• Next scenario says in certain accidents you are able to get in accident

The free Will

• Determinism is about things we do due to motion given by prior events when doing action
• Those thing doesn't require to being there with other event
• The classical position is about where to agree the same to all earlier people

Other notes

• It's about saying we have free will
• Many people actions are done
• Hard determinism does not exist
• The soft determinist state all can relate exist in facft

Freewill debate

• If that everyone has the existence of that will is due a
• Consistent to
• Make different argument for the people
• It to be the requirement

Many

• What should libertarian and agreement
• Events predetermine
• Determinism is fase
• Determinism exist
• Share premisce exist

Argeumetn

• If events can be with determination with actions and determinism

CA Campell

• Does not relate to where inner where he must he seen at a sole author
• CA campbell makes it
• When not know those type or we can learn a difference
• The acts come from free will

C.A

• Where an action be a sole
• Campbell say will is the one that must be to choose
• The person should consider there choice
• What there to be no inner knowledge that cannot be know is it with actual the evidence in the subject is important
• When we feel wrong we feel a sense
• Hard part is trying not to believe

Mpretcability

• It's not in action
• He wants with the real that goes more