Philosophy 1010 Class #4

1. Philosophy 1010 Class #4 Title: Introduction to Philosophy Instructor: Paul Dickey E-mail Address: pdickey2@mccneb.edu Hand in Movie Essay & Argument Evaluations (both from Syllabus Quiz & #1 In-class Essay. Hand out Logic Study Guide & Discuss Logic Homework Assignment Pop Quiz

2. No class next week. Happy Holiday! Reading Assignment for 7/11: Velasquez, Philosophy: A Text With Readings Chapter 2., pp 69-79. • Homework Assignment for 7/11: • Practice evaluating EVIDENCE in day-to-day arguments or judgments. Come to class prepared to discuss a particular example. • Watch the video clips “Socrates on Self-Confidence” on the QUIA page. • Write a two-page “play” as a Socratic Dialogue discussing one of the questions you proposed in your Class #2 writing assignment. Use two characters, you and Socrates. Illustrate the principles of the Socratic Method in your play.

3. 4 Steps to Evaluating an Argument • Be sure you understand the argument. What is the claim? What are the premises for the claim? • Determine if the argument is deductive or inductive and apply the appropriate test for validity or strong support. • Identify and weed out any logical fallacies, rhetoric, subjectivity, or irrelevancies. Clarify any vagueness or ambiguity. • Examine the truth of the premises. If the argument is inductive, evaluate the evidence.

4. Class Review of Logic Assignment • If it is February 14 then it is St. Valentine's Day. It is St. Valentine's Day. Therefore, it must be February 14. • If I am a senior then I will graduate soon. I am a senior, so I will graduate soon. • 3. If you haven't tried our Claussen's Bread, you simply must. It's the best bread in town. We've been baking it the homemade way for 50 years. And it's good for you because it's vitamin-enriched. .

5. Class Review of Logic Assignment, cont. • 4. I don't care how many architecture awards Harry has won. He simply has no taste. His building on Main Street reminds me of a matchbox, and the house he designed for the Smiths is ugly. • 5. You are not a Christian. Either you are a Christian or you are an atheist, so you are an atheist. (Be careful here, there is an argument within an argument) • 6. The Husker football team didn’t play as well last year as they should have. The Capital One Bowl sucks. .

6. Now, what kind of a fallacy is this? The Naturalistic Fallacy • This fallacy occurs when someone attempts to derive a normative statement (what you “ought” to do) from a descriptive statement (what “is” the case).   • For example, a student argues that the instructor should excuse him from taking the mid-term exam because he was sick. • Another example would be argue that the U.S. military should remain in Iraq because they are already there. • Another example could be to argue that simply because God exists, you should act morally.

7. Ten Minute Break!

8. Chapter 2 • On Human Nature: A Metaphysical Study • What is it to be Human?What is a Person? • What is a Self? What is a Soul? What is a • Person Worth?

9. In reviewing the different attempts to answer philosophical questions such as these, please note carefully: • 1) Likely each view can give us additional or new insight into the questions and potential answers to the questions and thus provides us a richer understanding of human nature, BUT • No answer will likely give us a complete and/or satisfactory answer that will supplant all the other views. • 3) In short, all views proposed to answer a philosophical question should be respected but examined aggressively. We should not rush either to reject them or to accept them.

10. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious (has reason) and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

11. The Traditional Western View The Traditional Western View of Human Nature is the one most commonly held in our culture. Yet different philosophers throughout history have questioned and rejected every one of the four tenets with various arguments.

12. Chapter 2 • On Human Nature: • A Metaphysical Study • Video: • What is Human Nature?

13. The Traditional Rationalist View (Plato) • For Plato, humans have a nonphysical or material soul or self in agreeing with all these assumptions. • Plato contends that since reason often conflicts with our desires (or appetites) and that either of these can conflict with our aggression, each of these comprise one of the three main elements of our soul (self). • For Plato, man can choose what part of his self rules his actions. (Free Will?) Because reason alone can know how we ought to live, it should rule the appetite and our aggressions.

14. The Traditional Rationalist View (Aristotle) • Aristotle (384-322 BC) mostly agreed with Plato but went on to argue that reason can discover the truth about man in the natural world, and how we should act. • Thus, Aristotle is rejecting Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, suggesting that Plato’s world of shadows can be known through reason. • Ah, isn’t this the basic motivation for science? • For Aristotle, all living things and the natural world have purpose (telos). The purpose of man is to control desires and aggression through reason.

15. The Traditional Western Religious View (Judeo-Christian) • “The purpose of man is to love and serve God.” (St. Augustine – 354-430 AD) • Although influenced by Plato, this view asserts that humans are made in the image of God. Man has an immaterial and immortal soul and the ability to love and to know, in the very manner of God. • Augustine emphasized that humans have will and intellect, the ability to choose between good and evil. • “The purpose of man is to know God through reason.” (St. Thomas Aquinas - c. 1225 –1274)

16. The Traditional Western View The Traditional Western View of Human Nature is the one most commonly held in our culture. Yet different philosophers throughout history have questioned and rejected every one of the four tenets with various arguments.

17. The most radical view is perhaps the Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre -- 1905 – 1980. • “Existence precedes essence.” • Humans are radically free. Human nature itself is determined by a man’s choices. There is no fixed universal human nature (or soul) prior to the choices that an individual free man makes. • Existentialism challenges our basic values of western civilization that human nature in some way is “fixed.” God does not exist. • Human, All Too Human • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxbkPCLlXII

18. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious (has reason) and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

19. Challenges to the Traditional Rationalist View • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) claimed that man acts only to satisfy his desires. In particular, he possesses a basic, powerful desire for aggressiveness and sexual pleasure. Man views others as objects. • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) claimed that the man’s primary desire was for power over others. • Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) believed that man is able to act only out of self-interest. Schlick recognized the appearance of unselfish behavior, but claimed even such behavior occurred only because of unrecognized self-interest.

20. Challenges to the Traditional Rationalist View • Feminism • The traditional view seems to be sexist in that it assumes that reason is male and emotions are female (e.g. Aristotle & Augustine) By calling for the subjugation of emotions to reason, does the traditional view take a gender bias? • Some feminist philosophers repudiate the traditional rationalist view and reject reason as the basis of human nature. Others agree that reason is primary and say the view only needs to be modified to remove gender bias and to acknowledge that reason is gender neutral. • Genevieve Lloyd suggests that the issue is even more fundamental and may be near impossible to resolve. Read your text on page 73 carefully!! We will discuss this passage in class next week.

21. II the Rationalist View Racist? • Aristotle claimed that since barbarians were less rational than Greeks, it was justifiable to rule and enslave them because they were less human. • Caveat Emptor: Such an assertion does not logically follow from Plato.

22. The Traditional Western Religious View • For Thomas Aquinas, however, one is not limited in their ability to love and serve God by differing levels of intelligence or knowledge. • In his view of Human Nature, note that Love and Service to God trumps Reason !!! • Question for the class: • Does this view contradict the previously asserted suggestion in the class that it is best to seek truth and wisdom? Or Socrates’ view that the unexamined life is not worth living? Would Aquinas agree with you?

23. Darwinism • Evolutionary theory claims that random variations and natural selection make species evolve. To many, this suggests that humans are not unique and that there perhaps isno special purpose to human life. • Charles Darwin – 1809–1882 • Darwin does not himself take a position on the question whether God exists.