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conclusions -Inferences made based upon reasons, What the author is trying to make us believe
premises - The author's reasons, Provide the basis for inferences made by an author
arguments - Collections of statements of which one is supposed to be supported by the others
illatives - Words and phrases indicating that the author intends to make an inference
Concerning the placement of the conclusion in an argument, which of the following is true?
It can come anywhere in an argument.
A statement is analytic if its truth (or falsity) can be determined by only considering definitions and laws of logic. However, an argument is synthetic if its truth (or falsity) cannot be determined only my looking at definitions and laws of logic.
Introducing a technical term such as work by explaining how the term will be used is giving a stipulative definition.
Descriptions of how words are conventionally used, as are typically found in dictionaries, are descriptive definitions.
Phaedo
to forget - to lose knowledge
to know - to acquire knowledge, keep it and not lose it
to learn - to recover our own knowledge
to recollect - to recover our own knowledge
According to Socrates, in what way can the physical world help us gain knowledge?
Knowledge is by recollection, which is triggered by sensory perception of physical things in this world.
according to Plato, have Forms.
The just, the good, the beautiful, health, strength, the equal, etc. have forms.
What is the opinion of the majority as to what happens at death?
When a person dies, the soul is dispersed and its existence ends.
What does Plato regard as the safest source of knowledge about the soul?
the soul, because it accesses the realm of what is pure, unchanging, and immortal
What must the soul be like to escape the world?
It must be purified, dragging nothing bodily with it. The philosophical life is this purification.
What is the greatest evil and why is it so bad?
the soul feeling pleasure or pain and riveting itself to the body, because this is a result of the mistaken belief that the objects associated with pleasure are true
According to Simmias, what was the doctrine of the soul that was held by the Pythagoreans?
The soul is a harmony or attunement of opposites like a harp or lyre and its strings, or the harmony produced by playing chords.
What was Cebes' criticism?
Socrates' analogy is inadequate. The existence of a weaver after the weaver's cloak has disintegrated is not a convincing analogy that the soul persists after the death of the body. The weaver may have worn out numerous cloaks during his life and died before his last cloak had worn out.
What is misology and how does it arise?
Misology is a hatred of argument, and it arises from placing one's trust in an argument and subsequently discovering the argument is unreliable. After repeated experiences of this kind, gradually one learns to hate arguments of every sort.
For which of the following reasons was Socrates on trial and sentenced to death?
impiety and of corrupting the youth
Which of the following is not true about how Socrates reacted to his punishment?
When he was given the chance to escape, he refused to do so because he expected it to be a trap.
The Greek word pharmakon is translated as "poison" in line two of the text. How else could pharmakon also be translated?
drug or charm, enchantment
Why did Socrates spend his time in prison composing poetry?
He wrote poetry to find out the meaning of certain dreams and to satisfy his conscience in case this art of poetry was the actual art his dreams wanted him to practice.
Which of the following is Socrates' argument against suicide?
Mankind is one of the gods' possessions; as a person would be angry if one of his or her possessions killed itself without the person's permission, so the gods are angry when one of their possessions kills itself without permission.
Which of the following statements reflects Socrates' thoughts about his postmortal existence?
Socrates believes he will first go to wise and good gods, then to good men who have died and are better than men here.
According to Socrates, how is philosophy a preparation for death?
Philosophy frees the soul as much as possible from association with the body, and attachment to the body is the unvirtuous life. Death separates the soul from the body.
Why is the mind more able to gain truth than the body?
The body is subject to needs for sustenance, nurture, wants, desires, disease, fears, illusions, and all such distractions. Insofar as the mind is freed from these corporeal bonds and distractions, it is able to contemplate the truth.
What kind of person fears death?
those who are not lovers of wisdom but who are lovers of the body and its pursuits
What is the conception of the soul assumed in the beginning of the argument?
that the soul simply dissipates after death like a puff of smoke
What is the basic assumption on which Socrates' account of causation rests?
Socrates assumes that there are such things as Forms that serve as causes.
What is the point of the objection raised by the unidentified interlocutor?
The participants have contradicted themselves during the course of the discussion; previously, they argued that opposites come from opposites, but now they show that this is impossible.
According to Plato, what will become of those who have purified themselves by philosophy?
They will escape the body and its distractions, receiving a dwelling place more beautiful than that received by those who are simply pious.
Which of the following statements expresses Descartes' attitude towards scholasticism?
He attacked the view that the senses provide truth.
What were the two questions that, according to Descartes, should be resolved by philosophy rather than by theology?
the immortality of the soul and God's existence
How, according to Descartes, do his arguments on First Philosophy compare with geometrical demonstrations?
They are more certain and self-evident than those of geometry.
Descartes wants to reject everything not entirely certain and indubitable. But he cannot examine each single belief, so he simplifies his task in two ways. What are these two ways?
to methodically doubt everything that is doubtable and accept only those ideas which seem clear and distinct
What is the one proposition that Descartes finds indubitable, and what are the circumstances under which it is indubitable?
"I think, therefore I am." This proposition is true whenever I think of it or conceive that I am.
What is the essential feature of body?
spatial extension
In what ways does Descartes now recognize that the soul is different from the body?
The soul is an unextended substance and the body is extended substance.
What is the one attribute that Descartes finds to be inseparable from his nature? What are some of the specific activities that are included under this attribute?
thinking/doubting, conceiving, willing, affirming, rejecting, perceiving, etc.
On what grounds does Descartes conclude that I do not know the wax by the imagination?
The wax can take upon itself an infinite number of shapes, but the imagination is not an infinite faculty. Thus, the imagination does not know the wax.
What are the kinds of thoughts that Descartes recognizes? Which of these can be false? ideas, volitions, emotions, and judgments; judgments may be false.
What are the three ways in which ideas enter the mind?
innate, external source, made by oneself
Which ideas resemble objects? What is the reason that Descartes gives for believing that ideas resemble objects?
ideas from without, because nature teaches one that these ideas resemble objects faithfully and one has direct experience that these ideas are not dependent on one's will.
What is the difference between nature and the light of nature?
Nature cannot give certain truth, but the light of nature is what lets one know an idea is true or false. The light of nature is an exalted kind of common sense.
According to Descartes, how are we able to make mistakes?
We participate in nothingness, which is the opposite of perfection.
In Descartes's Fifth Meditation, what are the two clear allusions to Platonic theories?
recollection and the theory of forms
Descartes reasoned that some ideas must be innate because there appears to be no explanation as to how certain ideas arise in the mind. He decided that these ideas must have been learned before this life and then remembered, just as Plato believed. He also believed that these innate ideas corresponded to particular Forms, even if not to the same Forms as Plato's.
According to Descartes, how do we know that objects really exist?
God made him with senses so that he could perceive objects.
How does Descartes distinguish between qualities that are really in objects and those that aren't?
Real qualities are subject to mathematical treatment.
Viewpoints of Aquinas, Descartes, and the Pythagoreans, as well as those of Plato and Socrates.
FLASH CARDS
What is the easiest and most plausible approach to the Platonic Forms?
Definition
Through mathematics
Term
What are the 2 beliefs central to Plato's thinking?
Definition
Platonic Forms
Recollection
Term
What is recollection?
Definition
How we gain knowledge; Plato believed that we remember or recollect what we already knew about the forms from before birth. All learning is remembering.
Term
What are Platonic Forms?
Definition
Ideas that are not merely metal entities and they are not physical either.
Term
What subject was of great interest to both Plato and the Pythagoreans?
Definition
Mathematics
Term
Plato concluded that words refer to nonphysical entities that he called?
Definition
Forms or ideas.
Term
Why did Plato regard the body as a hindrance in the quest for truth and knowledge?
Definition
Because true knowledge is about the forms and the physical senses cannot tell us anything about them
Term
When did we learn about the Forms?
Definition
Plato believed that each human soul existed before birth and that in it's premortal existence it had immediate access to the forms.
Term
What 3 Pythagorean doctrine's have we encountered in the Phaedo?
Definition
1. The soul is a kind of atonement or harmony.
2. Health is a proper balance in the pairs of opposites that make up the body.
3. The study of philosophy is a kind of purification of the soul.
Term
In Phaedo, Socrates believed that experiencing pleasure and pain would lead to what?
Definition
By experiencing pleasure or pain leads one to conclude that the source of the sensation is real and true. This would result in the soul being connected to the physical world.
Term
What were the two questions that, according to Descartes, should be resolved by philosophy rather than by theology?
Definition
the immortality of the soul and God’s existence
Term
How, according to Descartes, do his arguments on First Philosophy compare with geometrical demonstrations?
Definition
They are more certain and self-evident than those of geometry.
Term
Descartes wants to reject everything not entirely certain and indubitable. But he cannot examine each single belief, so he simplifies his task in two ways. What are these two ways?
Definition
to methodically doubt everything which is doubtable and accept only those ideas which seem clear and distinct
Term
Does it follow from the fact that I am sometimes wrong in making judgments about what I see that I always could be wrong in such judgments? How about that I could be wrong in all judgments?
Definition
No. How could one know one is wrong sometimes unless one is sometimes correct and thus can compare the correct with the mistaken?
Term
Are there conclusive indications by which I can tell whether I am awake or asleep? If not, why are we so seldom wrong in deciding?
Definition
There are no conclusive indications but we are seldom wrong because there are reliable indications such as the fact that dreams lack essential features of the physical which we perceive when we are awake (such as spatial/temporal characteristics).
Term
What is the one proposition that Descartes finds indubitable and what are the circumstances under which it is indubitable?
Definition
"I think, therefore I am." This proposition is true whenever I think of it or conceive that I am.
Term
What is the essential feature of body?
Definition
spatial extension or occupying space
Term
In what ways does Descartes now recognize that the soul is different from the body?
Definition
The soul is a pure, unextended, thinking substance and the body is extended substance.
Term
What is the one attribute that Descartes find to be inseparable from his nature? What are some of the specific activities that are included under this attribute?
Definition
thinking / doubting, conceiving, willing, affirming, rejecting, perceiving, etc.
Term
On what grounds does Descartes conclude that I do not know the wax by the imagination?
Definition
The wax can take upon itself an infinite number of shapes, but the imagination is not an infinite faculty. Thus, the imagination does not know the wax
Term
What are the kinds of thoughts that Descartes recognizes? Which of these can be false?
Definition
Ideas, volitions, emotions, and judgments. Judgments may be false.
Term
What are the three ways in which ideas enter the mind?
Definition
innate, external source, made by oneself
Term
Which ideas resemble objects? What is the reason that Descartes gives for believing that ideas resemble objects?
Definition
3. ideas from without, because nature teaches one that these ideas resemble objects faithfully and one has direct experience that these ideas are not dependent on one’s will
Term
What is the difference between nature and the light of nature?
Definition
Nature cannot give certain truth, but the light of nature is what lets one know an idea is true or false. The light of nature is an exalted kind of common sense.
Term
How am I able to make mistakes?
Definition
because the power God gave to human beings to discriminate between true and false is not infinite
Term
On page 61 of Descartes’ Meditations , there are two clear allusions to Platonic theories. What are they?
Definition
recollection and the theory of Forms
Term
How, according to Descartes, does the operation of imagination suggest that physical objects exist?
Definition
Imagining is concerned with objects which the imagination has either thought of by itself or perceived through the senses, but this can only happen if there are physical objects.
Term
According to Descartes, is it conceivable that one could feel pain in some body other than one’s own?
Definition
Certainly not; minds can only feel through the body of which they are part.
Term
According to Descartes, how is the soul connected with the body?
Definition
through the pineal gland in the brain
Term
What metaphors does Descartes use to explain the operation of the body?
Definition
machine and clock
Term
Descartes says that many experiments prove that the mind receives impressions only from the brain. What kinds of experiments could Descartes have in mind?
Definition
blocking the stimulus to the brain to see if the mind perceives
Term
How, finally, does Descartes think that we can escape errors in sensory judgments?
Definition
by combining the faculties of sense, memory, and understanding together to examine the same object
Term
How does Descartes think that we distinguish between dreaming and waking?
Definition
Memory does not bind and join our dreams with the rest of our experiences as does the waking state.