Term
| What is the "evil genius problem" according to Descartes? |
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Definition
-people are created by an evil/malicious God/superior being that has given us flawed cognitive abilities so that even problems that seem simple in essence deceive us
-everything (our body, our experiences, mathematics) is a deception |
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Term
| How does Descartes argue against the "evil genius problem?" |
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Definition
-we are prone to error, even in matters which seem clear
-we must accept that we might be wrong every now and then
-he believes the doubt to fall of the other side of the problem; we are not the creatures of an all-powerful being
-he also states that the evil genius problem is only one option. God (not an evil one) could have given people a nature to be deceived in "seemingly obvious" situations. You can convince yourself that you have a natural disposition to go wrong every now and then. There is nothing ruling out the possibility that people's natural constitution makes them prone to error even in matters which seemed clear. |
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Term
| Explain Heidegger's claim that the history of metaphysics is the history of forgetting of Being. |
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Definition
-must forget preconceived notions of things before you can see them objectively and really see what they are
-metaphysics has been forgotten by the history of philosophy
-things of Being, only by thinking of beings as beings. Takes the term "being" for granted and uses it to categorize it for humans. |
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Term
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Definition
-a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one's beliefs
-doubt is the foundational thing used to disprove others
-doubting senses is the source of knowledge
-being skeptical to the sources of ones beliefs so that you can find out which ones are true
-differentiate between dreams and reality |
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Term
| How does Sartre define the term "anguish?" |
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Definition
-man's actions are responsible for all men's actions and one doesn't just make the choice for himself. Choosing for oneself we choose for all humankind.
-you set the standard by acting so you indirectly assert that that's the correct way to act
-man has "burden of decision" |
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Term
| How does Sartre define the term "bad faith?" |
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Definition
-denying one's own free will
-choosing to behave without authenticity (being fake)
-thinking we understand who we are
-sincerity is being ourselves but accomplishing this is bad faith
-"I am what I'm not and I am not what I am"
-you can only define yourself by how other people see you
-means to be guilty of regarding oneself not as a person but as an object |
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Term
| What does Kierkegaard mean when he says that the crowd is untruth? What does this have to do with his claims about "subjective truth"? |
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Definition
| -truth comes from individual, truth is subjective and by its nature, crowd weakens individual. Moral and ethical standards can come from the crowd. Crowd makes truth absolute. Truth = subjective, crowd = objective. |
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Term
| What is the relationship between the Abraham/Isaac story and the "teleological suspension of the ethical"? |
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Definition
-faith is higher than universal morality, which is higher than individual morality
-telos = purpose, and if God has a greater purpose, then you can suspend universal morality |
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Term
| Describe the man of ressentiment. |
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Definition
-man of ressentiment = "other-directed"
-hears every insult
-feels insulted even when he may not be
-sense of hostility directed at that which one identifies as the cause of one's frustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one's frustration
-ego creating an enemy to remove itself from culpability
-Nietzsche himself had reasons to feel ressentiment |
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Term
| What is the difference between slave morality and master morality? |
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Definition
-master morality weighs actions on a scale of good or bad CONSEQUENCES
-slave morality weighs actions on a scale of good or evil INTENTIONS |
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Term
| How does guilt arise in the myth of the primal horde? |
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Definition
-tension between superego and ego
-brothers kill father (primal horde) but they feel bad because he is their father
-conflict between individual psych and aggression
-AMBIVALENCE (mixture of positive and negative feelings toward the same person) creates guilt |
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Term
| How does de Beauvoir's account of femininity relate to Sartre's existentialism? |
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Definition
-"existence precedes essence"
-you're not born gendered, society makes you a "woman", feminism isn't a natural thing, society impresses on you |
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Term
What does Nietzsche refer to when he says: "its beginnings were, like the beginnings of everything great on earth, soaked in blood thoroughly and for a long time"? (essay 2, section 6)
What does he mean? |
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Definition
-he refers to guilt
-the masters first created society and how guilt came about
-creditor/debtor = origin of guilt |
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Term
| What is Heidegger's conception of truth (aletheia) as opposed to the so-called "correspondence theory of truth"? |
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Definition
-truth in the sense of alloweing us to be aware of beings - unveiling of being
-we can only make correspondences based on the unveiling of being
-we must allow 'beings to be' to give meanings to things before we can make correspondences
-correspondence, things you think about, should correspond to things in the world. You can measure how truthful something is based on how it exists in reality.
-first you have to realize that something exists before making a statement about it.
-correspondence theory of truth = general consensus can verify this, in order to be able to do this there must be some sort of openness and being in the world and in man |
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Term
| What does Sartre mean by the motto: "Existence precedes essence"? |
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Definition
-your essence is what you make of your existence
-"I am, therefore I think" |
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Term
| What is the pleasure principle in Freud? |
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Definition
-seek pleasure and avoid unpleasure/pain to satisfy biological and phsyiological needs (happiness)
-opposite of reality principle which is the suppression of pleasure by society |
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Term
| Explain the relevance of the dentist's story for "A Serious Man" and for "The Trial". |
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Definition
-back of teeth there is a prayer. goes back to sleep and forgets about the inscription on the back of the teeth.
-The Trial was trying to find symbols, but the point of the trial was there weren't any symbols.
-Don't look for meaning in things that "aren't," just accept the way things are
-K freaks out and goes to the court because he has an obsession even though he should just forget about it just as the dentist freaks out and checks everybody's teeth for more inscriptions |
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