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Summary Philosophy and ethics (NWI-FFIL100) Radboud University
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Detailed summary of the lectures from the course philosophy and ethics. I completed this course with a 9,0.
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BIOLOGYYEAR 2
QUARTER 4
2020
Philosophy and Ethics
SUMMARY OF THE COURSE PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS
NWI-FFIL100
ELISE REUVEKAMP
,Content
1. Introduction to philosophy and ethics ............................................................................................ 2
What is philosophy? ............................................................................................................................ 2
Where and how did philosophy originate? ......................................................................................... 2
Difference between philosophy and science ...................................................................................... 3
Very brief history of ancient philosophy ............................................................................................. 3
Presocratics ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Fundamental concepts ........................................................................................................................ 5
2. Introduction philosophy of science ................................................................................................. 6
Philosophy of science .......................................................................................................................... 6
3. Introduction philosophy of biology ............................................................................................... 11
4. Anthropocene................................................................................................................................ 14
5. Ethics I: Introduction to ethics ...................................................................................................... 16
What is ethics? .................................................................................................................................. 16
Science and ethics ............................................................................................................................. 16
Can science be value-free? ................................................................................................................ 17
Can ethics be objective? .................................................................................................................... 17
6. Ethics II: Ethical theories and applications .................................................................................... 19
Utilitarianism ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Deontology ........................................................................................................................................ 20
In sum ................................................................................................................................................ 21
7. Ethics III: Ethical theories and responsible science ....................................................................... 22
Virtue ethics ...................................................................................................................................... 22
, 1. Introduction to philosophy and ethics
What is philosophy?
Humans are thinking human beings. The drivers of thinking and philosophizing are that:
1. Conscious about mortality
2. Wondering why things happen
3. Doubting
4. Think about the meaning of life
5. We want to be enlightened.
6. Reduced instinct
Also thinking and philosophizing can be seen as a result of our reduced instinct. Philo (loving) sophia
(wisdom) or wijsbegeerte in Dutch. Philosophy thus means to strive for wisdom and philosophers
are aware of the fact they are not wise.
Where and how did philosophy originate?
Philosophy is a Greek invention. In other countries there were also thinkers, but this specific way of
questioning originated in Greek. But this is just one model of reality, there can be other ways of
thinking, being and orienting yourself on Earth.
Socrates is the most well known philosophers from Athens. He didn’t leave behind any writings
himself, but he became known through writings of his students (Plato). He was believed that there
were seven wise man before philosophers came, and that we don’t have this wisdom anymore.
Therefore philosophy is the desire for wisdom. Greeks called this desire Eros. A good scientist or
philosopher thus have a great desire for wisdom. Socrates was self-aware of his ignorance and stated
that philosophy was really a search for true knowledge instead of illusory knowledge (pseudos) and
opinions (doxa).
Philosophy started off as a struggle with the sophists, who believed to teach knowledge but are not
interested in truth but something else such as money, power, influence etc. People who work for
politicians, marketeers etc. They do not care about the truth, but want to sell (marketeer) or
influence (politician). A scientist should therefore be only interested in the truth and desire for
wisdom.
The philosophical ideal is that philosophers first need to know and take care of themselves. You
should be critical about yourself or life is not worth living, is what Socrates said (‘the unexamined life
is not worth living’). Politicians lead other people and therefore before they do that they need to
know themselves. The goal to live as a philosopher is to live a good, true and beautiful life.
There are two basic philosophical questions;
• Questioning the what of things/ phenomena, such as what is the truth, what is time, what is
matter, what is life, what is humanity?
• Questioning the implicit presuppositions (an assumption that underlies a logical
background) of our thinking and reasoning. We think to know what genes are, but these are
all presuppositions. So questions are asked such as are our senses a reliable source of
knowledge?
The human is a rational animal that can communicate and think. Every human can by nature become
a philosopher. It can do more than it may, regarding ethics. For example a human can kill, but it may
not. Also humans want more than they can do.
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