Philosophy Exam II

History And Political Science 230 with Dr.wood at Andrews University

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Created: 2011-10-23
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Theism

The belief that a personal God exists and is providentially involved in human affairs.

Pantheism

The view that God is everything and everything is God.

Atheism

The view that there is no such being as God.

a priori

Latin - "receding". Knowledge that is not based on sense experience but is innate or known simply by the meaning of words or definitions. David Hume limited the term to "relations of ideas" referring to analytic truths and mathematics.

a posteriori

Latin - "the later". Knowledge that is obtained only from experience, such as sense perceptions or pain sensation.

Contingent

A proposition is contingent if its denial is logically possible and is not contradictory. A being is contingent if it is not logically necessary.

Ontological Argument

a priori argument for the existence of God, which attempts to establish the necessity of the existence of God through an understanding of the concept of existence or necessary being.

Teleological argument

Argues to the conclusion that the world has orderly process and that they must have a designer. The world cannot be made through chance. Problems: tendency toward anthropomorphism, inability to make intercosmic comparisons.

Argument from Religious Experience

At core of religious life. Many people of different cultures and times have claimed that religion added meaning to life. Problems: discrepancies between accounts, accounts tend to be amorphous and varied, seldom are they verified.

Argument from Evil

Has to do with 3 propositions: God's benevolence, God's omnipotence, and evil in the world.

Free-Will Defense

3A: It is logically impossible for God to create free creatures and guarantee that they will never do evil.

It is a good thing to create free creatures who are morally responsible agents, but there is no assurance that they will not also do evil.

Theodicy

The view that evil can be explained in the light of an overall plan of god and that, rightly understood, this world is the best of all possible worlds.

"Wager" Argument

If we do a cost-benefit analysis of the matter, it turns out that it is eminently reasonable to get ourselves to believe that God exists regardless of whether we have good evidence for that belief.

Epistemology

Greek episteme - "knowledge" - and logos - "science". The study of nature, origin, and validity of knowledge and belief.

Acquaintance Knowledge

We have personal and direct experience with the objects in the world, our thoughts, and sensations. We have acquaintance knowledge of our pains and sensations, our friends, and the house and town in which we grew up, our introspective states, our loves and hates, beliefs, desire,a nd memory states.

Competence Knowledge

AKA skill knowledge. Involves an ability to perform a skill and may be done consciously or unconsciously. You may not be able to explain how you accomplish your feat to others.

Propositional knowledge

AKA descriptive knowledge. When we claim to know that a statement or proposition is the case, we are claiming that it is true. "I know that the sun will rise tomorrow", "I know that Sacramento is the capital of California".

Global skepticism

Maintains universal doubt. We can have knowledge of metaphysical truths, such as whether we have free will, whether God exists, whether we have souls, and so forth.

Local skepticism

Admits that we can have mathematical and empirical knowledge but denies that we can have metaphysical knowledge (God's existence, the nature of matter, whether all events have antecedent causes, whether there are other human minds, etc.)

Direct Realism

Claims that the immediate object of perception is a physical object existing independently of our awareness of it. We know the world directly and pretty much as it is.

Representationalism

The physical world exists independently of and is the cause of our perceptions. Physical objects give rise to sense data that we perceive, so we only have mediate knowledge of the external world. there really is something outside us that they represent. We know the world indirectly pretty much as it is - at least regarding the primary qualities.

Phenomenalism

Physical objects are simply constructions of sense data; they do not exist independently of sense impressions. There is nothing besides sense data in the world.

Monism

Reality is all of one substance, rather than two or more.

Dualistic interactionism

The view that there are two types of substances or realities in conscious beings, mind and matter, and that these interact with each other, the body producing mental events and the mind leading to physical action.

Functionalism

Denies there need be a type-type relationship between mental events and mental states. Although mental events may be identical to certain processes in one brain, they may be identical to a different process in a different brain, and they may eventually be produced in robots without brains like ours.

Folk Psychology

Our commonsense view about mental events (e.g. pains, beliefs, desires, emotions, and intentions) that sees them as of a different nature from physical events and substance.

Epiphenomenalism

A version of dualism that holds that bodily events cause mental events, but mental events do not cause bodily events. The action is one-way only, from body to mind.

Deductive Argument

An argument is a sound deductive argument if it follows a valid form and has true premises. In that case, the truth of its conclusion is guaranteed. A deductive argument is valid (but not necessarily sound) if it follows an approved form that would guarantee the truth of the conclusion if the premises were true.

Inductive Argument

An argument in which the premises support the truth of the conclusion but do not guarantee it (as a valid deductive argument would).

Parallelism

The view put forth by Gottfried Leibniz that there is no casual interaction between bodies and minds. Each proceeds on its own, parallel to but independent of the other.

Behaviorism

The view that no mental events exist or that they are unimportant for science. Statements about mental events are really about dispositions to behave. "She's angry with me" really means that she is disposed to do nasty things to me and say nasty things about me.

Panpsychism

The view that everything - that is, every object in the world (stones, blades of grass, molecules) as well as living beings - has a soul.

Reductive Materialism

The view that all mental states can be identified with states in the brain.

Eliminative Materialism

The view that folk psychology will eventually be replaced in favor of a neurologically accurate language reporting brain states. For example, instead of saying "I have a pain in my forehead" we might be led to say "My C5 fiber is firing at such and such a rate."

Neutral Monism

The view held by Baruch Spinoza and William James that reality was made up of one substance, neither matter nor mind, but something common to both of them.

Intentionality

Refers to the directedness of mental states. Consciousness is often directed at an object, its content - objects of desires, fear, belief, and appearances. Intentions are bi-directional: Mind to world and world to mind.

Solipsism

The view that only I (the experiencer) exist as a mental being.

Chinese Room Objection

An objection by John Searle, aims at the claim that artificial intelligence thinks. According to him, there are no grounds to suppose that robots or artificial intelligence can understand, have intentions, or perform mental acts.

Inverted-spectrum argument

You get a sensation when you look at a red apple, a different sensation when you look at a green apple. Suppose someone else has the reverse sensations, when they see the red apple they get the green sensation you get, and when they look at the green apple they get the red sensation you get.

Multiple realizability

The view that mental events could be realized in many different forms and structures. This applies to mental events, interpreting them as functions.

Cosmological Argument Outline

1. There exists things that are caused.

2. Nothing can be the cause of itself.

3. There cannot be an infinite regress of causes.

4. There exists an uncaused first cause.

5. The word God means uncaused first cause.

6. :. God exists.

Contingency Argument Outline

1. Every being that exists is either contingent or necessary.

2. Not every being can be a contingent.

3. :. there exists a necessary being upon which the contingent beings depend.

4. A necessary being on which all contingent beings exist is what we mean by God.

5. :. God exists.

Teleological Argument Outline

1. Human artifacts are products of intelligent design. (purpose).

2. The universe resembles these human artifacts.

3. :. The universe is (probably) a product of intelligent design. (purpose)

4. But the universe is vastly more complex and gigantic than a human artifact.

5. :. There probably is a powerful and vastly intelligent designer who designed the universe.

Argument From Evil Outline

1. God is all-powerful (including omniscient).

2. God is perfectly good.

3. Evil exists.

4. If God (an all powerful, omniscient, omnibenevolent being) exists, there would be no (or no unnecessary ) evil in the world.

5. There is evil (or unnecessary evil) in this world.

6. :. God does not exist.

Thomistic dualism

Version of dualism that regards the human soul neither as a distinct substance nor as a bundle of non physical properties, but rather as the substantial form of the human body.

Hylomorphism

View that holds that all physical substances are composites of matter and form. In case of living thing, the soul is identified as a form of the body.

Zombie Argument

In a different world there is someone exactly like you but they do not feel. If a zombie is a possibility, the mind and the brain must be separate.

Materialist Monism

the philosophical concept which sees the unity of matter in its globality. For the materialistic monist the cosmos is “one” and comprehensive, then a “one-all” made up of parts such as its effects. The matter is then originary and cause of all reality.

About this deck

By: Danika Gallatin
Created: 2011-10-23
Size: 48 flashcards
Views: 12

About StudyBlue

“I have been getting MUCH better grades on all my tests for school. Flash cards, notes, and quizzes are great on here. Thanks!”
Kathy