Kant Groundwork, Chapter 3
The will: the ability to act according to the thought of laws.
This means that the will, for Kant, is something only rational agents have.
Autonomy vs. heteronomy
Autonomy: the wills ability to give laws to itself.
Heteronomy:
Theaetetus (up to 155e)
Early on, Socrates suggests that we should only defer to experts.
If experts are those with knowledge, then we need to know what knowledge is to know who to defer to.
First attempt at defining 'knowledge'
Theaetetus's first definit
Theaetetus 155e-168c
Review: Knowledge as perception
Any instance of knowledge has the form: It seems to S that x is F.
All truths (the objects of knowledge) are of the form: x is F for S.
In other words: F is predicated of x only relative to S. It might
Theaetetus 183c-195b
The challenge: defending a non-relativist view.
Knowledge is not perception, but judgement
Socrates claims that features (like being, likeness) that apply to multiple sensory modalities cannot
be derived from any sensory modality. Thi
Euthyphro (up to 9e)
About Plato
Born in 428-27 B.C.E., died in 348-47 B.C.E. Student of Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.), who was
sentenced to death for impiety. Founded the Academy in Athens, and taught Aristotle.
We should distinguish the historical (i.e. non
Great Thinkers: Introduction
What is philosophy?
One answer: Philosophy is just about giving your opinion, and all opinions are equally good.
Perhaps people think this because of some argument like the following:
1. With any topic that doesnt rely on empi
Hume Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sections 1-4
Hume's 'mental geography'
Hume aims to find those principles, which regulate our understanding, excite our sentiments, and
make us approve or blame any particular object, action, or behaviour.
Thi
Theaetetus 195b-210d
From wax to aviaries
The wax model limited false judgments to the connecting of perception with thought.
Objection: There are also false non-perceptual judgments too (e.g. miscalculations).
A new analogy: A man with an aviary possess
Hume Enquiry 11-12
Against the argument from design
Hume attacks the claim that the nature of the universe shows its cause was a perfect, just God:
1. When we infer a cause from an effect, the only qualities we can attribute to the cause are the
ones that
Kant Groundwork, Chapter 2
Types of Imperatives
An imperative says that something ought to be done.
Equivalently: an imperative says that it would be good to do something.
A hypothetical imperative says that something ought to be done by anyone who has a
Kant Groundwork Preface, Part I
Preliminaries
For Kant, the core of rationality is the ability to represent things generally.
Rational agents act differently than creatures that simply respond to impulses,
because rational creatures act on the basis of (g
Kant Introduction and What is Enlightenment?
Kants mature philosophy
Key concepts:
a priori: not derived from experience.
a posteriori: derived from experience.
transcendental: relating to a priori knowledge.
Kant sometimes calls his project that of tr
Hume Enquiry, Sections 5-7
The basis of causal reasoning
Hume claims: even after we have experience of the operations of cause and effect, our
conclusions from that experience are not founded on reasoning, or any process of the
understanding. (See previou
Euthyphro (9e-end)
Argument by direction of explanation
Socrates argues against any definition of the pious in terms of what the gods love.
One way to reconstruct the argument:
1. PREMISE: For any action A, no things that are Ad are being Ad because they
Hume Enquiry, Section 8
Hume claims that, with the liberty and necessity of the will: all mankind, both learned and ignorant,
have always been of the same opinion with regard to this subject.
The argument
1. Everyone accepts that human actions involve con
Theaetetus 168c-183c
A technical term: A premise (used in an argument attacking some view) is question-begging just in case
it would obviously be rejected by someone who believed the view under attack.
Objection 1: Who is Protagoras theory true for?
1.
2.
Philosophy - assessment 1
by Thomas Mark Kamphuis Douce
Topic: In your own words, describe Socrates objections to Euthyphros
third definition of the holy. (You should describe Socrates objection to the
definition as it is first given at 12e, and then desc
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