Philosophy

Phil 4 Midterm Study Guide

Introduction:
- Ontology is the study of being, kinds of things that exists, the different kinds of being. What is ultimately real?
- Material: spatial/public/mechanical
- Immaterial: nonspatial/private/teleological
- Materialism: Matter is truly real and immaterial things are not
- Idealism: Ideas are ultimately real
- Dualism: Reality is both material and immaterial
- Monism: There’s one single reality

Lau Tzu (Laozi):
- Taos analogy to water: water takes all shape, water doesn’t compete, it does nothing yet there’s nothing it can do, takes no form, all forms can be taken.
- Taos analogy to uncarved block: un-carved block is preconceived, preconceived thoughts/values makes it harder to respond to present situations.
- Taos analogy to valley spirit and the female: nonbeing “spirit of value with divine female”. Value -> space-> spirit -> life. Life fills empty space. Always allows for nonbeing.
- The Tao that can be told of not the eternal Tao because the name that can be named is not the eternal name.
- The Tao is the source of all reality because “The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth and The Named is the mother of all things.”
- The saying there is a doing that comes from not doing is when the action emerges from you instead of it being something that you think about.

Plato:
- Form is immaterial reality
- The divided line represents B as the highest point in the scale of reality, A being the lowest form of existence. The main division is point C. AC is the visible, CB being the intelligible world, AD is the world of images, and mathematical realities are in CE, platonic forms in EB, and the good at B.
- The allegory cave was meant to show how a philosopher was like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall don’t make up reality at all and he’s now able to perceive the true form of reality rather than the shadows. It explains the philosophers place in society, which is to enlighten the “prisoners”. It’s connection to the divided line is that by leaving the cave the prisoner was able to reach the intelligible place.
- Plato’s view of reality account for both change and immutability: Transcends world of change. All truths are immutable. World of forms changes.
- Plato was a dualist

Shankara:
- Connection between Atman and Brahman: Atman is a manifestation of Brahman.
- Difference between Brahman and Tao: Brahman is universal, spiritual, idealist. Tao is not separating us. It is the mental process.
- The relation of the body to Atman is that it’s always dependent upon the Atman. Because most of us would think of our body as part of who we are. But the intelligent man would say that I am a soul united with a body. The covering of the Atman, which is called “the vital covering”, is made up of the vital force and the five organs of action. The body is called “the physical covering”. It comes to life when it is enveloped by the vital covering.
- The relation of the universe to Brahman is that the universe is an effect of Brahman. It can never be anything else but Brahman. Apart from Brahman is does not exist. Brahman is the reality, one existence absolutely independent of human thought or idea.
- Shankara was a monist
- Shankara would answer the question of “Who am I?” by saying that I am Brahman.

Berkeley and Locke:
- Berkeley insists that “to be is to be perceived” because if we can perceive something using either of our five literally senses then that means that it exists.
- How might reality remain constant when no on perceives it? Universal perceiver. Someone must always perceive it. God.
- If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to perceive it does it make a sound, from Berkeleys perspective yes because of the universal perceiver. Someone always perceives it. God. From Lockes perspective, it wouldn’t make a sound because sound is a sensation from the mind.
- It’s an abstraction to say that an object of sense exists outside of its being perceived because to suggest it exists means to abstract it from it originally was. To be is to be perceived. Reality is perception.
- Berkeley is a dualist
- Berkeley would answer the question of “Who am I” by saying I’m a mind. A mind that perceives.

Searle and Hinrichs:
- Semantics: meanings. Syntax: language differences.
- Ockham’s razor: we don’t make up questions because no answers
- In the Chinese room argument, in order to show that no matter how complex and sophisticated digital computers may become, they will never be able to produce consciousness and hence the human brain must be significantly unlike a computer because the brain can cause consciousness.
- The system (room) doesn’t understand Chinese because all that the computer has is a formal program for manipulating uninterrupted Chinese symbols. To repeat, a computer has a syntax but no semantics.

Descartes:
- How is the mind distinct from the body? Mind is what I own.
- Decartes is a monist.