Philosophy descriptions, philosopher notes
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Aquinas (1225 or '27-1274) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
All life has a purpose
Meeting this purpose allows one to be happy.
Happiness is to be found in the love of God.
God's grace providing entrance into heaven creates the highest form of human happiness.
Short of heaven, a person can achieve a more limited form of happiness through a life of virtue and friendship.
Morality is not determined by the arbitrary will of God.
Morality is derived from human nature and the activities that are objectively suited to it.
The difference between right and wrong can be appreciated through the use of reason and reflection.
Religious reflection may supplement the use of reason and reflection to determine right from wrong.
Societies must enact laws to ensure the correct application of moral reasoning.
Human nature is good because God made it good.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
The life of virtue is rewarding for the individual and the community.
The essence of a thing does not exist independent of the thing.
There is no completely universal idea of "the good."
There is an individualized ideal form for all living things.
In living in accordance with their true nature, humans will find the most enjoyment out of reasoning.
An investigation of human nature can reveal how humans ought to act.
Humans have a pre-defined purpose.
People can have variations on the best way to exist in order to meet their purpose.
The mean between the extremes of any given characteristic is the ideal.
The rule of the "Golden Mean" is not to be applied mechanically
Aristotle discusses having practical knowledge as being able to have the right means to one's action and the right ends
See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Augustine (354-430) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Happiness is a union of the soul with God after one has died
Bodily pleasures are relatively inferior to spiritual pleasures.
Philosophical reasoning is not the path to wisdom and happiness.
A love of God and faith in Jesus is the only path to happiness.
God is the one to allow people to practice the love of God.
One must love God in order to fulfill moral law.
People are inherently evil; only the grace of God (or is it merit to be saved?) can save them.
Ayn Rand
(1905-1982) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
We should all act with our own interests as the ultimate goal of our actions.
We have free will.
Moral standards are objective, and can be known rationally.
Cynicism See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
All the fruits of civilization are worthless
Salvation is found in a rejection of society and a return to simple ascetic living
Virtue consists in finding salvation in oneself
Simone de Beauvoir See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Ethical questions cannot be solved abstractly
One must reject oppression of self and others
One must recognize one's own freedom
Jean-Paul Sartre
(1905-1980) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
When we choose something, we affirm the value of our choice because we have chosen it above other choices
When we choose something for ourselves, we should choose it for all people.
We must be consistent in our interpretations of moral situations regardless of whom the agent is.
Logic cannot help us in specific situations
Making conscious moral choices is more significant than consistently following moral guidelines
The conflict between the interests of two people is in the end, irresolvable
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
We can make a prior judgments; the negation of such judgments would a logical absurdity because a priori knowledge is known without sensory data.
We combine a priori and a posteriori knowledge to
We have freedom
God is not essential for his moral argumentation
The objective facts about the human knowledge leads to Kant's morality
We must act out of a sense of duty in order to be moral
Moral action does not come out of following inclinations
Moral standards must be followed without qualification
We must always act so that the means of our actions could be a universal law
We must always treat people as ends not means
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
We have free will
There is no God
Social conformity should not hold us back
The interests of others should not restrain us
We should be passionate beings
Masculinity, strength and passion are the highest qualities in a person
Conventional morality is a crutch to man
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Nature has placed humans under two states: pain and pleasure.
The words right and wrong are significant only when related to the Utilitarian principle.
Pleasures are not distinguished by quality; pleasure has quantifiable value.
Epicureanism
Epicurus (341-270 BC) - Greek founder of Epicureanism
Pleasure is the ultimate moral end
Dynamic (passionate) pleasures are bad, passive (mild) pleasures are good
The end result of pleasure is what is significant
Noddings, Nel See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Traditional western ethics has oppressed female voices
We should look to traditional women's practices as a way of determining our ethics
We should use an ethics of care: emphasizing loving others, meeting needs, and nurturing.
Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
By human nature, all of man's voluntary actions are aimed at self-pleasure and self-preservation
Altruism may be pleasurable for the giver
Good = 'any object of desire'
We must live under a social contract to have peace
We need a sovereign to enforce the social contract
Hume, David (1711-1776) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Reason can show us how to meet our ends, but only passions and sentiment can determine our ultimate goals.
No "is" implies an "ought."
Reason cannot give rise to moral judgments.
Humans are naturally sympathetic creatures
Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
The Utilitarian principle is correct when the quality of pleasures is accounted for
Liberty is the most important pleasure
Ockham, William of (1285-1347/49) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
God's Will is the only determinant of good and evil.
Faith and revelation, not philosophizing, allow one to know good from evil.
Plato (427-347) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
There is reason to act justly even if one can get away with acting unjustly.
There is a single, general, pure idea of goodness that all good things possess.
There is only one model of the just person.
Justice is a harmony of the soul: intellect, emotion, and desire.
The best activity is intellectual stimulation and the most important quality is a strong intellect.
The just person is pleased, not in a state of discord.
The conflict between one's own good and the good of the community is NOT irresolvable.
Prescriptivism, Universal See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Moral judgments are an expression of our will.
once we have expressed our will through moral judgments, in order to be logically consistent, we must (1) make similar evaluations about similar cases and (2) we must keep our moral beliefs in harmony with how we live and want others to live.
Moral judgments are imperatives.
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Spinoza, Baruch (later known as Benedictus)
(1632-1677) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Determinist
Something must have a desirable affect on man in order to be good
Must understand determinism of the world
Stoicism See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
The common capacity to reason allows all humans to achieve virtue and wisdom.
The external circumstances of a person's life are irrelevant.
One can achieve virtue by becoming indifferent to external differences.
Passions must be rejected all together in deciding what is good and what is bad.
Reason alone must be used in deciding what is good and what is bad.
The common ability of humans to reason is why ethical relativism should be rejected.
Utilitarianism See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Strives for moral objectivity
We ought to act in such a way that the consequence of our actions produce the greatest overall amount of good or utility
Rightness dependent on the consequences of the action
Consequences viewed in terms of how they affect everyone
William James (1842-1910) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Which is the most important, morally? Mostly the ends (the results from the action).
Will using morality properly necessarily result in maximization of our own happiness? Yes, for the most part, at least.
Is the self-pleasure or self-preservation of the individual ever in conflict with the same type of interests of others? No, and virtuous living is consistently beneficial to the individual and the community. Mostly agrees
Moral statements are primarily: statements of fact or truth (e.g. "Murder is wrong" means "It is a fact that murder is wrong").
Where does the proper distinction between "good" and "bad" come from? Generally a moral realm that is completely unique, transcendent.
Does each person have a moral purpose/morally ideal way to live? Generally, but the way to live in order to meet that purpose is unique for each individual.
Must a person be coerced/ influenced at some level by societal powers in order to live morally/virtuously? Yes, people will try to be good when they have knowledge of the virtuous life, but societal guidance and reinforcement is necessary. Somewhat agrees
To be virtuous/live morally, we should primarily make moral distinctions according mostly to our empirical knowledge (what we know with experimentation).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) See notes on other philosophers and philosophies
Rousseau argues that freedom and authority are not contradictory, since legitimate laws are founded on the general will of the citizens. In obeying the law, the individual citizen is thus only obeying himself as a member of the political community.
Rousseau asks how we can have a law of nature if we do not understand the real nature of man. In doing this, he questions the common idea that only rational beings (i.e. humans) can take part in natural law or have natural rights.
In Rousseau's The Social Contract written in 1762, he says the following: “Again, every rogue who criminously attacks social rights becomes, by his wrong, a rebel and a traitor to his fatherland. By contravening its laws, he ceases to be one of its citizens: he even wages war against it. In such circumstances, the State and he cannot both be saved: one or the other must perish. In killing the criminal, we destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgements are proofs that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the State.”