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Philosophy Summary
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PART 2 of Philosophy Questions, Answers and SOS
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Philosophy Open Book Exam Questions Answers and SOS
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All Questions and answers and SOS notes for the Philosophy Open Book Exam
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Philosophy ExamWeek 1
Science/looking for facts → crowning achievements of human mind
Importance of facts → to distinguish between true and false
- To make choices, decisions, policy
Two philosophical positions about science:
1. Scientism → Science is superior to all other attempts at securing knowledge; its laws provide
certainty
- Our mind is a perfect mirror of reality
- Age of science is age of certainty
- Facts, certain knowledge, absolute truth, 1 scientific rationality
- Associated with Modernism → rational reasoning
- It is the only method to obtain certain knowledge, it is about everything - has no limits
2. Skepticism → Science does not give certainty, it is equal to other forms of knowledge; science is
a faith
- Our mind is crooked mirror
- Critical philosophy about science
- Knowledge and facts are social constructions - relativism (all is relative/not certain)
- Postmodernism → pluralistic thinking
- No objectivity; uncertainty; knowledge = oppressive power; science is an ideology
Paul Feyerbend → The Icon of skepticism → science is closer to myth (anything goes); a carnival of
approaches should be allowed in science
Becomes a family feud (a lasting conflict) between philosophers → a shouting match
Skepticism today:
- Philosophical skepticism → a critical thinking about science within boundaries of philosophy
- Radical interpretation of skepticism → a raging fire today
- It unleashed skeptical forces in society → misinformation/disinformation
Positions about science in society:
1. Denialism/conspiracy → denies scientific facts, present their own alternative facts; we are all
victims of conspiracy against people (anti-vaccers)
2. Scientific skepticism → defenders of science in public; treat all evidence with reasonable doubt;
examine arguments and conclusions (march for science)
- Moderate skepticism - any of us could be wrong
Philo (love) + Sofia (wisdom) → love of wisdom
Philosophy of science → analyses methods of inquiry used in sciences
,Heraclites vs Peramenides: metaphysical discussion about appearances and reality
Heraclites: change is real being is not
- Convinced that change/flux is the heart of existence
- Can only truthfully claim that “nothing is everything becomes”
- Also → Panta Rei → everything flows
- You cannot step twice in the same river, fresh waters are flowing in upon you → everyone
continuously changes a little bit, so that you are not exactly the same as you were yesterday; you
have changed
- Nothing is, everything changes → due to ever-changing nature of appearances people are not
able to attain knowledge, they are like sleepwalkers
- Only people who are capable of grasping hidden and fundamental law behind appearances can be
said to arrive at knowledge
Peramenides: being is real change is not
- Senses mislead human beings into thinking that things are changing all the time; the water
that feels hot to me is lukewarm to you → we may be inclined to believe that reality is changing
all the time, but appearances are deceptive
- Reality is indivisible, immutable, and imperishable
- Nothing ever really changes; if something changes, it no longer is
- “Everything is, nothing becomes”
- Real existence means to be without change
- Senses mislead guides to reality, we must rely on reason to discover unchanging truths about
eternal reality
Plato eventually agreed with Heraclites → with the world in constant flux, our perceptions and our
knowledge will vary from moment to moment
- Protagoras → Man is the measure of all things - Homo mensura (opinion is true to each person to
which he acquires through sensation); individual things are for me such as they appear to me and
for you in turn as they appear to you
,What is knowledge? (Socrates)
Plato:
- Used Socratic method (he was Plato’s main character)→ Q&A questions to come to true
knowledge through dialectical dialogue(critical reasoning with contradictions)
- Knowledge is justified true belief; knowledge as perception and true judgment with an account
- True - corresponds with facts; Justified - with a good reason
- Without justification, it is just a belief → and that is not knowledge; it has to be true (has to give
good reasons)
- Allegory (a way of expressing through an image) of the cave → Differences between appearances
and reality; people think they see the reality but they only see the shadows (what they believe the
world appears as), they would have to go out to see the reality
- There are two worlds:
1. World of Forms (reality?); Theory of Forms → Reality is a world of perfect forms/ideas;
ideal form is innate/born into us (we are born with it)
2. Natural world (world we live in; appearances)
- He was a Rationalist → using our intellect/thinking is key!
- Thinking to recollect (remember) and learn true knowledge; Anamnesis → learning by
recollection
- Ideal worlds are put in our heads on our birth, but birth is such a traumatic experience that we
forget everything, but we can get in touch with reality by recollection (remembering/thinking)
- Rationalism → true knowledge about reality derives from the proper use of our reasoning
capacities (intellect, reason)
The Meno: dialogue between Socrates and his slave; used the Socratic method
1. Anamnesis → recollect from the world of forms
2. Hermeneutics → interpretation of your recollection
3. Intellectual midwifery → helps others in philosophizing, giving birth to true ideas
Epistemology → theory of knowledge; what we know about the world (rationalism and empiricism)
Ontology → study of the unobservable things; study of being; metaphysics → study of what is beyond
nature (first causes of things)
Aristotle:
- Turns to the natural world (world of appearances) for knowledge
- Sensory experience is the ultimate source of knowledge; senses are reliable indicators of reality
(5 senses)
- Peripatetic Axiom → Nothing is in the intellect which was not first in the senses
- He was empiricist
- Empiricism → sensory experience is key
- We are born with nothing → Our mind is like Tabula Rasa
- Founder of logic → science of reasoning and proof; the Organon - 6 treaties of logic
- Predecessor of contemporary logic and science as a system of logical statements (signs of proof)
- Logic → heart of science
, Aristotle’s system of logic: logic of reasoning or inference; inferences are steps of reasoning (coming to
conclusions); reasoning is a form of syllogism (a deductive argument)
a) Statement 1 - major premise
b) Statement 2 - minor premise
c) Statement 3 - conclusion
1. Deductive inference → from general law to a specific case (Rationalism - Plato)
- Premises a and b lead to c; all humans are immortal, Socrates is a human being = Socrates is
mortal
- If a and b are not true → it is an opinion → doxa
2. Inductive inference → from a specific case to a general law (Empiricism - Aristotle)
- First five eggs are good, all eggs have the same date stamped on them, sixth egg will be
good too
- The premise does not entail a conclusion, it is logically possible that the premises are true
and conclusion is false
His epistemological position is like a fieldwork → primarily acquiring knowledge through sensory
experience
Scientific revolution → Natural scientist questioning Aristotle’s philosophy; oppose to his dogmatism
Aristotelian Medieval Worldview: Cosmos has 2 parts:
1. Superlunary → above the moon; where objects move in perfect circles
2. Sublunary → beneath the moon; objects move in a straight line
Aristotle’s doctrine of 4 elements: air, earth, fire, water
- Geocentric view → Earth and human-centered; Earth in the center of universe
- Theological view → everything has a fixed place and is goal-directed
In the middle ages → medieval scholasticism (dialectical reasoning) is dominant
Ockaham’s Razor → development of principles of scientific thinking - “Entities must not be
manipulated without necessity” - should not make things more complicated than they already are
- When we are confronted with 2 different explanations we should choose the ontological more
parsimonious one(smaller)
Heretics - showed Aristotle was wrong; Dissidents - labeled Heretics and were burned (by church)
1. Copernican revolution → from Geocentric to Heliocentric view (sun is the center of universe);
no fixed places-things move
2. Galileo Galilei → empirical observations with telescope; moon creates sun supports
3. Johannes Kepler → planets don’t move in perfect circles but in elliptical trajectories
4. Isac Newton → laws of motion, gravitation; the same force that makes apple fall on the ground
also holds a planet in its orbit; behavior of objects
5. Francis Bacon → new method of empiricism (not a real empiricist); knowledge through
observation and experimentation (rationalistic, magical)
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