1. What are intentional definitions of philosophy?
-Intentional Philosophy: seek to provide necessary and sufficient conditions in order for that term to
... [Show More] apply (necessary and sufficient conditions)
Intentional Philosophy: 5 conditions that need to be in place:
- 1.Objectivity: aim to objective analysis
- 2.Rationality: reason giving, arguments, and providing evidence to support claims
- 3.Generality: providing theories that apply to all cases
- 4.Reflectivity: reflecting upon our own beliefs, values, and ideas
- 5.Critique of our presuppositions: critical evaluation of our taken for granted assumptions
Example: what are the conditions that need to be in place before we can apply the concept museum to a situation
Extensional Philosophy
-seeks to define concepts simply by pointing to examples of X
Example: An extensional definition of a book would be pointing at an example of a book
Example: William Lawhead points at Socrates as an Extensional definition of philosophy
Who was Socrates?
- First of the three great Athenian Philosophers
- Born in Athens and lived through the Athenian Empire
- Socrates lived a life of "the philosopher" and questioned the beliefs and views of Athenians
What is the Socratic Method?
- 1. Locate the Philosophical Issue
- 2. Locate the Philisophical term/s that need to be analyzed (EX: Justice)
- 3. Socrates then would profess complete ignorance and request the help from the so called "expert"
- 4. the "expert" then proposes a definition (Justice)
- 5. Socrates then analyzes (Justice) and exposes its weakness. Socrates gets "expert" to admit that there definition is contradictory
- 6. Expert tries to improve upon previous definition again and again (5 or 6 times) and again and again it is found inadequate
- 7. "expert" finally has to face the facts of his ignorance and is now ready to learn and seek wisdom
What were Socrates Teachings?
- unexamined life is not worth living
- the most important task in life is caring for the soul (soul/psyche is most the essence of humanness)
- a good person can not be harmed by others
What is a Valid Argument
- an argument in which it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false
What is a Sound Argument
- A valid argument with true premises
How did Socrates understand his life mission?
- Socrates thought that wisdom/truth was the most important goal in life
Who was Plato?
- Classic Greek Philosopher
- founder of the Academy in Athens (first institution of higher learning)
What is the Allegory of the Cave?
- has layers of philosophical meaning
- can be found in Plato's best known work (The Republic)
- Plato describes the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation
How does the author of the book use Plato's Allegory of the Cave
- Logic: the Prisoners are asked to think critically and reason upon their situation
- Epistemology: the prisoners think they "know" reality, yet it is merely belief and not knowledge
- Metaphysics: there are levels of reality: the shadows, puppets and the real objects outside of the cave
- Philosophy of Religion: the Allegory assumes that there is a higher and transcendent reality
- Ethics: the prisoner is liberated and has an ethical obligation to liberate and the others "intellectually"
- Political Philosophy: the prisoners have no political power only those who possess power get the "right" to tell others what is real and how to live
What are the major areas of Philosophy?
- Logic: the study of reason giving, argument and inference
- Epistemology: the study of knowledge, belief and truth
- Metaphysics: the study of ultimate nature and reality
- Philosophy of religion: the study of questions regarding faith, the soul etc...
- Ethics: the philosophical study of morality and how one ought to behave
- Political Philosophy: the study of legitimacy of government authority and the best form of government
What are the criteria that philosophers use to test various systems of belief and various philosophies?
- Clarity: clearly defined concepts
- Consistency: ideas and concepts free of contradiction inherent of oppositions (A and not A is a contradiction)
- Coherence: how a set of concepts or ideas gel together
- Comprehensiveness: how encompassing a set of concepts and ideas are
- Compatibility: how concepts and ideas tie in with or line up with well established findings of biology and psychology
- Compelling Arguments
Deductive Arguments
- aims at gaining certainty because the conclusion necessarily falls from the premises
- can be valid, invalid, sound or unsound
Inductive Arguments
- aim at gaining probability because the conclusion (if true) only gains a degree of probability
- can be strong and cogent
- Strong: when premises are true then the conclusion is highly probable
- Cogent: if 1) it is strong and 2) the premises are in fact true
Abductive Arguments
- aim at offering the best explanation among a set of rival and competing arguments
Logical Inconsistency
- Two Assertions that could not both be true under any possible circumstances
Self - Referential Inconsistency
- An asumption that implies that it itself can not be true, cont be know to be true or should not be believed
Argument
- a set of statements in which one or more of the statements attempt to provide reasons or evidence for the truth of another statement
Premise
- A statement in an argument that serves to provide evidence for the truth of a claim
Conclusion
- the statement in an argument that the premises are claimed to support or imply
Premise indicators
- terms that usually indicate that a premise will follow
Conclusion Indicators
- terms that usually indicate that a conclusion will follow
Inference to the best explanation
- a form of reasoning that tries to show that a particular theory is superior to all its competitors and that is is therefore the one most likely to be true; sometimes called ABDUCTION [Show Less]