Unit 2 Philosophy PDF

UNIT 2 PHILOSPHY Topic One: Who was Socrates IRL? - Socrates was Plato's teacher. - Socrates and Plato are part of Ancient Philosophy. - Socrates thought philosophy should be centered on fundamental questions (perhaps unanswerable questions) that most people think they already...

UNIT 2 PHILOSPHY Topic One: Who was Socrates IRL? - Socrates was Plato's teacher. - Socrates and Plato are part of Ancient Philosophy. - Socrates thought philosophy should be centered on fundamental questions (perhaps unanswerable questions) that most people think they already know the answers to, but when they think about it they realize they don’t. - Examples: What is love? What is justice? What does forever really mean? - Socrates' methodology is to question people about what they know. This is called Elenchus: - Repeatedly ask questions until they don’t know what the answer is and they no longer believe their answer. - With this method, he believes that we can reach the one true universal answer. - With this method, he believes that better ideas will lead to a better living and the goal is to live “the good life.” - Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the minds of the youth with his ideas that went against the church. - He was supposed to apologize and stop teaching philosophy, but he killed himself instead. - Socrates separated what is considered legal from what is good or moral, believing morality is much more important. His trial showed this: - At his trial, he said: “I should never yield to injustice from any fear of death.” Topic Two: Cephalus (his character and ideas) - Father of Polemarchus - In The Republic, Socrates ends up at Cephalus’s house where he states he likes to talk to the “very old” because he can find out what the path of aging is like. - Cephalus is very rich and very old, but this isn’t what makes him happy. - Unlike others around Cephalus who are old, Cephalus is happy and content because he lived a just life: - Other old people complain about how they can’t party as they once had or how sex isn’t the same now as it was then. They didn’t live a just life. - Cephalus worked hard and was kind. He lived a just life. - If you live a just life, you will be happy in old age. - Cephalus claims that old age is not the cause of unhappiness, a life lived unjustly is. - If old age was the blame, he would be miserable too.  - Living a just life brings happiness in old age. - His definition of justice: Speak the truth and pay your debts. - He means that you should return what you owe: the physical objects that you borrow and the good deeds that have been done for you. - Examples: - Return the borrowed money - Someone mows your lawn, mow their lawn back. - Socrates refutes his definition of justice: - Both justice and truth are good things, but you may need to prioritize one over the other. When you do, justice is more important. - Examples: - The people who hid Jews during the holocaust put justice above truth. Topic Three: Polemarchus (his character and ideas) - Polemarchus defines justice as giving each what is owed to him. - Benefit friends, harm enemies. - Example: Alliances in war and politics - Socrates refutes this in many ways: A) People make mistakes. They think their friends are all good and that their enemies are all bad. - Sometimes people befriend the bad and make enemies with the good. - Examples: - Your parents warn that your friend is toxic towards you, but you yell in their faces and claim they don’t know what they are talking about. - Locke and Key: the little boy and the witch during the first season. B) Harmed people do not become better in virtue. - Harming an already harmed enemy isn’t virtuous or just. - A dog that has been abused isn’t going to be nicer if you keep harming it. C) “It isn’t the function of heat to cool but its opposite” (pg.11, line 333d): a metaphor for the fact that you can’t do justice by doing harm. - Example: The bombing of Hiroshima after the attack of Pearl Harbor. - Socrates believes that the just person will harm no one. There is no reason to harm anyone ever! Topic Four: Thrasymachus (his character and ideas) - Arrogant and a bully: he scares Socrates. - Socrates trembled as he spoke. - Thrasymachus’s definition of justice: the advantage of the stronger. - He means that justice is doing what is best interest of the stronger people. - Get power, keep power. - What is Strength?: In what ways do people have power/strength in society? - Political power - Physically strong - Money power - Arrogance - Confidence - Intellectual strength - Military strength - Their connections - Thrasymachus says that rulers make laws for their own advantage– whatever keeps them in power and comfortable. They do so with control and education. - Control examples: - Unlimited terms for those in the judicial judges. - Propaganda/censorship - Jim Crowe Laws - Education examples: - Using the education system to teach only what they want citizens to know. - Our OWN VALUES are suspect! Our values come from “questionable data” if we have been controlled and educated by those with power. - This means that our values may be exactly what the people with power want them to be. They aren’t truly our own values. - Example: People who claim morals and values learned in church are their original morals and values. - With control, especially censorship and propaganda, you won’t hear stories that make the powerful look bad. - Trasymachus states that people who are unjust and serve themselves are wealthier, happier, and smarter. People who are just and play by the rules are weak, silly, and naive. Topic Five: Socrates (his refutation of Thrasymachus)  - “Do you think that a city, an army, a band of robbers or thieves, or any other tribe would be able to achieve it if they were unjust to each other?” (Pg. 28, line 351c) - To do an unjust action like robbing a bank, the group must be loyal to each other and work together to get the job done. Being loyal and working together are just actions being used to do an unjust thing. - Doing unjust actions as a team requires the individual to do just actions. - Each CRAFT must bring its own benefit: - A craft is a profession shaped by passion. - Example: - Teacher: A teacher gets to practice the craft of teaching and the students learn new things. - Doctor: A patient is healed and the doctor is proud of themselves and gains confidence. - Every CRAFT must be practiced to benefit yourself AND others and/or things outside yourself. - Good rulers do not rule to benefit themselves but to practice the craft of good leadership. - Those who WANT to rule don’t usually have a just reason for doing so: power, money, etc. - Socrates states that the really GOOD rulers will not WANT to rule at all. - Socrates's “lottery” system of choosing a leader: this is true democracy– a completely random way of choosing a leader, picked from the people directly. - Socrates claims that people who are just will live well because he is living according to the virtue of the soul. - When your soul is in order (have a pure soul), you automatically do the right thing. - “Justice is the soul’s virtue and injustice is its vice,” Socrates (pg 31- ⅓ down the page). Topic Six: Glaucon and the Three Classes of Goods - Glaucon WANTS to take up the view of what “most people” understand as justice. He wants Socrates to be right on the issue of justice, but he thinks he is being too idealistic and is skeptical. He plays devil’s advocate. - Glaucon says all human activities can be split into three categories: A) We can do something for its own sake: - Examples: - Eat candy: it takes good and that is the only reason why we eat it.  - Playing video games only for enjoyment. - Watching Looney Toon cartoons - Staying up late. B) We can do something for the sake of the RESULTS/REWARDS: - Examples: - Eating protein bars - Taking base-level courses in college that you don’t want to take. - Watching or reading school materials on topics you don’t enjoy. - Doing laundry. C) Something we can do for BOTH motives: - Examples: - Eating fruit: it's healthy and it tastes good. - Playing sports you enjoy - Hanging out with friends: learn to communicate better and enjoy the company of people you enjoy. - Watching Jeopardy. - Socrates claims that justice is doing things because they are enjoyable and because of the rewards. - Example: Volunteering because you enjoy helping people and because it makes you feel useful. - Glaucon claims that justice is either doing things because they are enjoyable or because of the rewards. It is rare that people do just actions because of the rewards and because they enjoy it. - Glaucon claims that people don’t care about being just, they only want people to think they are just. - People only want people to think that they care and are good people. Topic Seven: The Ring of Gyges and Glaucon’s Definition of Justice - The story of the Ring of Gyges: - A shepherd (a hard-working, non-greedym and simple person) is walking through the field and a storm comes. An earthquake occurs and a casum opens. He enters it. - In the casum, the shepherd sees a hallow bronze horse, then he sees a large corpse wearing a golden ring which he takes. - He learns that the golden ring allows him to become invisible. - Using the golden ring, the shepherd becomes one of the king’s messengers and then kills the king, taking over the kingdom. - Telling this story, Glaucon claims that even good people will do unjust things if they know they can get away with it.  - He claims humans are greedy. They want to compete and outdo others. - Glaucon says the only reason why people don’t try and outdo each other is because of the law. - The law is a social contract: - The worst thing that can happen to you is that you suffer injustice. - The best thing is that you commit injustice with no consequences. - Glaucon defines justice as a compromise between people who agree not to commit injustice if others also agree not to commit injustice. - He says that people only want to image and reputation for being just, a good person. - Honor and Dishonor: - Glaucon claims that to determine if someone is good or evil, we look at one’s actions. - In society, we tend to ignore the people who are truly just and honorable, and pay attention to those who aren’t. - Glaucon argues that the law is the only thing that keeps people just. Without laws everything would be chaos. We rely on: - Government laws - Religious rules - Family teachings/rules. Topic Eight: Taylor’s Movie What is Democracy– Ideas - Democracy means “the power of the people” or “the government of the people.” - Plato: “A good life is one guaranteed by a good city. A bad life is one lead in a bad city.” “A good city is a just city.” - In a city where everyone is just, a city where people are kind and follow basic moral principles, allows people to live a good life as they don’t need to fear injustice happening to them. - Moral principles: no stealing, no killing, no harming others physically or mentally on purpose. - Justice and Democracy should be for everyone, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, or sexuality. - Cornel West said, “Democracy can’t merely be majority rules.” - If Democracy was majority rule, when they integrated schools, if we had voted then black children wouldn’t be educated with white kids. - Wendy Brown said, “People governing themselves,” is democracy. - In reality, we vote on who governs us and we are limited by our options. This isn’t true democracy. - Democracy isn’t voting!  - Plato said, “A city divided by wealth and poverty doesn’t work.” - The ER doctors proved this by stating that health outcomes are worse for everyone when a city is divided by wealth and poverty. There has been an increase in homicides and cardiovascular disease for the rich and poor. - A Syrian refugee stated that Democracy isn’t freedom, it's justice: “Freedom for what?” - The basis of democracy is supporting people you’ve never seen in your life. Topic Nine: Macroscopic Justice - Socrates states that since we aren’t clever people, we must look at things separately: macro and micro. - Macro: the city - Micro: the individual - First, we need to figure out what makes a city just and then try to figure out what makes an individual just. - Why do cities exist?: A) None of us are fully self-sufficient, but we need many things. - Not everyone has the skills or the time to complete the tasks for survival. - We need many things. - We need to act as partners and helpers. B) We aren’t all born alike, each of us has different talents. - Do one craft you are good at and contribute to your city. - If you do many crafts, it will become difficult for you to be a master at them all and you won’t be able to contribute to your city effectively. - Socrates believes that we are all different and this is what makes a society move. - There are TWO different types of cities: - The BASIC/HEALTHY city: - Consists of farmers, basic carpenters, and basic metal workers. People who provide basic survival needs. - NECESSITIES ONLY!!! - The LUX city: - The basic life won’t satisfy everyone. - This city consists of poets, actors, doctors, servants, nannies, and chefs. People who provide more than just basic survival needs. - Cows are needed since more people are eating meat (many people were vegetarians, including most philosophers). - To live a lux life, you need more LAND. This means you need soldiers aka guardians.  - Why does war start? - Land starts war. Your city needs land, so you take some of your neighbor’s land. They aren’t happy, so they take some of your land. - There are three classes of people: - Producers: Anyone who produces goods or services for money. - Guardians: Like the police and military. They work for their keep and don’t make money. - The Philosopher Rulers: the wisest ones in the city. Topic Ten: The Four Virtues of the Perfect City - Wisdom (Knowledge): - The Philosopher Rulers must be wise. A city is called wise because of the Philosopher Rulers. They are the highest in class because they are wealthy in education, not money, unlike in today’s society. - Two types of Knowledge: - Wisdom: - Good judgment. - Knowing how to create a just city. - This is what Philosopher Rulers have. - Skill: - Knowing how to do a task. This is what producers have. - Guardians have both wisdom and skill: the skill of fighting and good judgment. - Courage: - The guardians must have courage. It takes courage to remain devoted to high moral standards and not be corrupted by wealth and desires. - The Dye Analogy: - Strong dye that can’t be washed out is courage. - Fear, desire, pain, and pleasure are soaps that can wash out the dye. - Guardians are the wool we wish to remain dyed. - The courage of a city is determined by the guardians of a city who fight on its behalf. - Moderation: - Everyone in a city must be moderate and know how to moderate their desires and appetites. - The extremes of both wealth and poverty must be guarded against: we need to make sure no one is too wealthy or too poor.  - This needs to happen so everyone can do their jobs well and produce. - Moderation, unlike courage and wisdom, forces everyone regardless if you are strong or weak, sing the same song. - Moderation resembles harmony. If everyone is moderate, there will be peace and harmony as everyone will have what they need. - Socrates also means that you should have an equal balance of work, food, and money. Don’t work too much or too little, don’t have too little or too much food, and don’t be extremely poor or extremely wealthy in money. - Justice: - Justice is what is “leftover” when everyone in the city is doing their part the best they can while not “meddling” in other peoples’ desires, work, and class. - Stick to what you know for the city to be just and lack chaos. - For example: - Trump went from a producer to a philosopher ruler, creating chaos. He created more chaos when he went from a philosopher ruler to a producer again. - When soldiers go to war and come back, they go from a producer to a guardian to a producer. When they come back, they often have a hard time finding jobs and becoming a member of society again. - Socrates says justice is order in the soul and the city (micro and macro). - For a city to be just, all three parts (producers, guardians, and philosopher-rulers) must be balanced and work together for a city to be just. - For a soul to be just, all three parts of the soul (appetites– moderation, courage, and wisdom) need to work together in harmony and balance for an individual to be just. Topic 11: The Cave Allegory - The people chained up inside the cave are the producers. They only believe that the shadows created by puppets on the cave wall are all there is. They are often ignorant and refuse to believe any new information.  - The guardians are the puppet masters. They stand between the producers and the outside world. They protect the producers inside, possibly providing them with the information they believe the producers need only. - The philosopher-rulers are outside the cave. The sun, representing the goodness in the world and the truth, provided them with knowledge of the real world outside of the cave. They are supposed to return to the cave and share this knowledge, making sure the world inside the cave is just and try to convince people to leave (learn). - The Cave illustrates the lack of true wisdom in the world. Wisdom isn’t the skills we learn that are popular and/or make us money. - People are the unenlightened cave dwellers. - Our knowledge is dim and shadowy. - We depend on our senses (the shackles are our senses and the material world). - The path leading out of the cave symbolizes what true education would be. - The Sun is The Good, the cause of all the goodness in the world that can be seen through education (leaving the cave). - The path out of the cave is education. - Socrates has TWO worlds: A) The Sense/Physical World: the world inside the cave. - Anything that we can touch, see, hear, feel, and smell. - The world for producers B) The World of Forms/Ideals: the world outside the cave. - The primary world. - The world for philosopher-rulers. - The guardians live between both worlds. They know enough from the world of forms/ideals to carry out their jobs only. Topic Twelve: Modern Philosophy - The Enlightenment: What happened? - The Scientific Revolution - The idea that technology and life will get better with time. - “Show me evidence for your claim” - People started to question authority and individual rights were created. - The government (the American and French Revolutions) and the Church. - The idea of education became popular and more people were being educated.  - The printing press. - More colleges and universities. - An important part of the Modern Age of Philosophy is asking questions about knowledge. This is called EPISTEMOLOGY. - Examples: - How do we come to know things about the world? - Are people born with knowledge and skills? - What are the various ways to learn and gain wisdom? - Can we keep learning or is there a point in which education stops? - Two movements that attempt to answer some of these epistemological questions: - Empiricism: The belief that knowledge begins with and is limited to our experiences. We are born a blank slate. - John Locke and David Hume are examples of empiricists. - Rationalism: The belief that at least some of our ideas or abilities can be possessed innately by the mind. We aren’t blank slates, at least ten percent of what we know, we are born with. - Kant, Descartes, and Hegel are examples of rationalists. Topic Thirteen: Hegel– The Dialectic - Hegel: German philosopher who was a key part of the modern movement of philosophy. - Known for his ideas of progress - Known most for his idea called “dialectic” - Before Hegel, people thought of ideas and reality as STATIC. Existence was understood as a state of IS rather than a state of BECOMING. - Hegel says everything is always changing, including people. - A photo of you from kindergarten isn’t a good representation of who you are now. - Existence is developmental, not stable! - Hegel’s dialectic explains how PROGRESS occurs in human civilization. - Hegel believes everything is related and the dialectic (unlike dualism: the mental and physical are different kinds of things) brings everything into a relationship of why. - Concrete time is the key! What we are and how we understand the world, cannot be understood without taking account of concrete time and change. - Too much of philosophy “neglects the concreteness, richness, and variety of actual experience.” - Steps of the dialectic:  1) Thesis: The initial idea - In this step, you are set in your ways. - Example: You trust all of your friends equally. 2) Anti-Thesis: Conflict and Negation - In this step, something bad happens that makes you rethink your initial idea. - Example: One of your friends backstabs you and spreads rumors about you. 3) Synthesis: The evolved state - In this step, you bring everything together in understanding and you have evolved as a person. - Example: You now know to be careful with who you trust. - Important note: Not every dialectic scenario will have a good synthesis or a synthesis at all. This can often be found in historical issues, such as genocides. - Many people get stuck between the Thesis and the Anti-Thesis because they refuse to “look again” at the arguments. These people are stuck in their ways and won’t evolve as a person. Topic Fourteen: The Universe Is Rational - “To say that the universe is rational is to say…” - Humans seek agreement, that is the most rational thing to do. - People who don’t seek agreement are irrational and not human (Ex: political debates during elections). - Humans are special because we have rational thinking. - Men are rational (show no feeling) and females are irrational (show feeling). - Hegel makes the distinction between humans and animals: Animals live in a state of FEELING. Humans use LANGUAGE to communicate and try to AGREE. - Humans try to find a common language so everyone can understand and agree. - Animals live in a state of feeling (I’m hungry, so I eat). - For Hegel, rationality is above feeling. - Rationality is seeking a larger view of the world beyond yourself. This is what it means to be human. - “The only thought which philosophy…”(Pg.76): Hegel says that history and the world are on the path to rationalism (using the dialectic), but the road is bumpy. - The history of the world is a rational process, reason is unfolding in the world. - Reason is the power that forces us and history forward. Topic Fifteen: Negation as Good - Negation is the Anti-Thesis: the point where you question your initial idea. - Otherness and conflict allow us to move forward. - To be a self, you must go OUTSIDE the self. - You don’t understand an idea if you don’t look at and understand the opposing views. - Example: You don’t know what it means to be Catholic if you don’t know and understand Islam and other religions. - Hegel is the ultimate rationalist: - Even evil, even irrationality is made rational in the final step of the dialectic through understanding. - Consciousness is a matter of DEGREE. - The adult is more of a self than a baby. - This is true because an adult has more experience, making their life richer. - “The man who has seen Hamlet” - The man who saw Hamlet had a greater sense of self than the man he was before, the man who hadn’t seen Hamlet. This is because he watched, analyzed, and applied the ideas in Hamlet to himself. - You aren’t human without a sense of self. Analyze and apply the world around you. - “Negation is not to be feared.” - If someone or something contradicts you, it allows you to become wiser and more forward. Without contradiction, you can’t move forward. - Someone who can’t take negation/contradiction is like a child and isn’t wise (the mind isn’t very advanced).