(Originally written November 30, 2006 in Book 7)
Thomas Aquinas
Metaphysics:
Hierarchy of Substances:
God
Angels
Humans
Apes
Reptiles
Each member is placed in the category and placed by the amount of actuality it possess. The amount of excellence is determined by the amount of actuality a being possesses.
Angels, man, apes, etc. Each have their own hierarchy.
To Do List:
1. Go pay ticket
2. Come back to apartment and start laundry
3. Read 1 section of Zagzebski
4. Call Merkers
5. Box up CD's
6. Read 1 section of Zagzebski
7. Box up clothes
8. Read 1 section of Zagzebski
No specific order
-Read History I
-Read Logic
-Box up Mugs
-Read Epistemology
-Do a Precis! (or 2)
-Read Leibniz (new book)
-Read Genesis (new book)
Freedom and Determinism
-Freedom from coercion
-Freedom of contingency
-Freedom to choose a particular
-We are not free to choose God. All of us desire God and seek the love of God, but we don't manifest it correctly all the time
-Predestination (Augustinian view)
-There are divine exemplars (decrees) for all that come to pass
-God does not cause sin or damnation. God simply abandons some to their chosen sin and they damn themselves
-Why does God save the ones He does? We don't know why, but he doesn't do so arbitrarily
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Virtue or Vice - a Habit
(Originally written November 29, 2006 in Book 12)
Virtues of the Mind continued...
2.5 Virtue and habit: the transformation machine
A virtue is an acquired excellence. A vice is an acquired defect.
A virtue or a vice becomes a second nature of a person.
A virtue/vice is relatively permanent and gradually acquired.
Virtues and vices form a part of who a person is.
Virtue is a kind of habit, but virtue is not identical with habit.
Virtues are acquired through a process of repetition over time.
Aristotle did not hold moral strength or continence as the same as virtue.
A virtuous person has a better form of moral knowledge than a continent person.
"Aristotle claims that moral virtue is logically connected with phronesis and phronesis involves an insight into particulars that may not be fully capture by any general rule" (Zagzebski, 119).
A person's moral identity is intrinsically connected with experience of the world.
Virtue is not a virtue if it is not acquired gradually.
A single act of will is causally insufficient to transform oneself.
David Brown argues that it is impossible for a person to be transformed into a state of moral perfection of death. If there is a heaven, there must be a purgatory.
Virtues of the Mind continued...
2.5 Virtue and habit: the transformation machine
A virtue is an acquired excellence. A vice is an acquired defect.
A virtue or a vice becomes a second nature of a person.
A virtue/vice is relatively permanent and gradually acquired.
Virtues and vices form a part of who a person is.
Virtue is a kind of habit, but virtue is not identical with habit.
Virtues are acquired through a process of repetition over time.
Aristotle did not hold moral strength or continence as the same as virtue.
A virtuous person has a better form of moral knowledge than a continent person.
"Aristotle claims that moral virtue is logically connected with phronesis and phronesis involves an insight into particulars that may not be fully capture by any general rule" (Zagzebski, 119).
A person's moral identity is intrinsically connected with experience of the world.
Virtue is not a virtue if it is not acquired gradually.
A single act of will is causally insufficient to transform oneself.
David Brown argues that it is impossible for a person to be transformed into a state of moral perfection of death. If there is a heaven, there must be a purgatory.
Class Notes on Aquinas (A)
(Originally written November 29, 2006 in Book 7)
History of Philosophy Notes I
Thomas Aquinas
-1225 - 1274
-Born in Monte Casino
-Studied at the Universities of Paris and Cologne
-Studied under Albert the Great
-Studied the newly rediscovered Aristotelian works
-Embraced a separative approach to faith and reason
-Embraced an empiricist approach to epistemology
Historical developments that set the stage for 13th century philosophy:
1) European recovery of Aristotle's works (12th century)
2) Emergence of the University
-Three major ones
A) Salerno - Medicine
B) Paris - Theology
C) Bologna - Law
Medieval Education (classical)
-Trivium: Grammar, logic, rhetoric
-Quadrivium: Math, astronomy, music, geometry
3) Mendicant Orders
-Dominicans
-Franciscans
Thomas Aquinas was concerned with reconciling theology and classical Greek thought, especially Aristotle. He wanted to synthesize, systematize and create a sound philosophical/theological theory.
The relationship between philosophy and theology according to Aquinas: faith and reason were separate realms.
Revealed Theology: special revelation and knowledge of God via the Bible
Natural Theology: knowledge of God via reason and experience.
Natural theology confirms revealed theology.
Theistic proofs: 'Five Ways'
3 cosmological arguments
1 argument from perfection
1 teleological argument
1) the argument from motion
2) the argument from efficient cause
3) the argument from necessary being
4) the argument from perfection
5) the argument from order - all things act from an end (Telic cause)
Attributes of God
God is a single, unitary spirit who is unified by the fact that God is one with his essence ('one of a kind')
He is His only category
He has no accidental or incidental qualities
Doctrine of divine simplicity, he is indivisible, unchanging, immutable
God is omnipotent - the ability to do anything that is logically possible
History of Philosophy Notes I
Thomas Aquinas
-1225 - 1274
-Born in Monte Casino
-Studied at the Universities of Paris and Cologne
-Studied under Albert the Great
-Studied the newly rediscovered Aristotelian works
-Embraced a separative approach to faith and reason
-Embraced an empiricist approach to epistemology
Historical developments that set the stage for 13th century philosophy:
1) European recovery of Aristotle's works (12th century)
2) Emergence of the University
-Three major ones
A) Salerno - Medicine
B) Paris - Theology
C) Bologna - Law
Medieval Education (classical)
-Trivium: Grammar, logic, rhetoric
-Quadrivium: Math, astronomy, music, geometry
3) Mendicant Orders
-Dominicans
-Franciscans
Thomas Aquinas was concerned with reconciling theology and classical Greek thought, especially Aristotle. He wanted to synthesize, systematize and create a sound philosophical/theological theory.
The relationship between philosophy and theology according to Aquinas: faith and reason were separate realms.
Revealed Theology: special revelation and knowledge of God via the Bible
Natural Theology: knowledge of God via reason and experience.
Natural theology confirms revealed theology.
Theistic proofs: 'Five Ways'
3 cosmological arguments
1 argument from perfection
1 teleological argument
1) the argument from motion
2) the argument from efficient cause
3) the argument from necessary being
4) the argument from perfection
5) the argument from order - all things act from an end (Telic cause)
Attributes of God
God is a single, unitary spirit who is unified by the fact that God is one with his essence ('one of a kind')
He is His only category
He has no accidental or incidental qualities
Doctrine of divine simplicity, he is indivisible, unchanging, immutable
God is omnipotent - the ability to do anything that is logically possible
Book notes on Aquinas
(Originally written November 29, 2006 in Book 7)
Louis Pojman
Classics of Philosophy 2nd Edition
Thomas Aquinas
-Roman Catholic Dominican Monk
-1225 - 1274 A.D.
-He is considered to be the greatest theologian in Western religion
-He was born in Roccasecca to the Count Aquino.
-He studied at the University of Naples and joined the Dominicans, despite his parents' strong objection
-He was determined to live the celibate life of the Dominicans. He avoided the company of women.
-He went to the Dominican school at Cologne and studied under Albert the Great
-He earned the nickname "dumb ox" from his fellow classmates
-In 1252 he went to the University of Paris and began to develop an Aristotelian version of Catholic theology
-He wrote voluminously and encyclopedically
-Then on December 6, 1273 he had a deep religious experience, stating, 'All that I have written seems to me like straw composed to what has now been revealed to me' and stopped writing. He died four months later
Summa Theologica
Question 2 - The Existence of God
First article: whether the existence of God is self-evident?
Objection 1 - The knowledge of God is naturally implanted in all, thus the existence of God is self-evident.
Objection 2 - Once the name God is understood, his existence is seen to be actual, therefore God's existence is self-evident
Objection 3 - The existence of truth is self evident. God is truth. Therefore, the existence of God is self-evident.
A thing can be self-evident in two ways:
1) Self-evident in itself
2) Self-evident in itself and to us.
Aquinas claims that God's existence is self-evident in itself.
Reply to objection 1 - This natural knowledge of God is general and confused. We know something is out there, but we know not what.
Reply to objection 2 - Once the term God is understood, a mental existence, not an actual existence of God is known.
Reply to objection 3 - The existence of truth in general is self-evident, but the existence of a primal truth is not self-evident to us
Second Article - Whether it can be demonstrated that God exists?
Objection 1 - It is an artifice of faith that God exists. Faith is not demonstrable.
Objection 2 - Essence is the middle term of demonstration, but we cannot know in what God's essence consists.
Objection 3 - If the existence of God were demonstrable, it could be only from his effects. God is infinite, but his effects are finite.
Reply to objection 1- Faith presupposes natural knowledge, faith or reason can lead to knowledge of the existence of God.
Reply to objection 2: the means of the name God is the middle term, not God's essence.
Reply to objection 3: we cannot have a perfect knowledge of God, but we can know some from his effects.
Third Article - Whether God Exists?
Objection 1 - There is evil in the world and if there were an infinitely good being this would not be so.
Objection 2 - There is no need to assume God exists, everything can be explained naturalistically.
Reply to objection 1 - Augustinian response: His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good out of evil
Reply to objection 2 - Whatever is done by nature must be traced back to God.
Louis Pojman
Classics of Philosophy 2nd Edition
Thomas Aquinas
-Roman Catholic Dominican Monk
-1225 - 1274 A.D.
-He is considered to be the greatest theologian in Western religion
-He was born in Roccasecca to the Count Aquino.
-He studied at the University of Naples and joined the Dominicans, despite his parents' strong objection
-He was determined to live the celibate life of the Dominicans. He avoided the company of women.
-He went to the Dominican school at Cologne and studied under Albert the Great
-He earned the nickname "dumb ox" from his fellow classmates
-In 1252 he went to the University of Paris and began to develop an Aristotelian version of Catholic theology
-He wrote voluminously and encyclopedically
-Then on December 6, 1273 he had a deep religious experience, stating, 'All that I have written seems to me like straw composed to what has now been revealed to me' and stopped writing. He died four months later
Summa Theologica
Question 2 - The Existence of God
First article: whether the existence of God is self-evident?
Objection 1 - The knowledge of God is naturally implanted in all, thus the existence of God is self-evident.
Objection 2 - Once the name God is understood, his existence is seen to be actual, therefore God's existence is self-evident
Objection 3 - The existence of truth is self evident. God is truth. Therefore, the existence of God is self-evident.
A thing can be self-evident in two ways:
1) Self-evident in itself
2) Self-evident in itself and to us.
Aquinas claims that God's existence is self-evident in itself.
Reply to objection 1 - This natural knowledge of God is general and confused. We know something is out there, but we know not what.
Reply to objection 2 - Once the term God is understood, a mental existence, not an actual existence of God is known.
Reply to objection 3 - The existence of truth in general is self-evident, but the existence of a primal truth is not self-evident to us
Second Article - Whether it can be demonstrated that God exists?
Objection 1 - It is an artifice of faith that God exists. Faith is not demonstrable.
Objection 2 - Essence is the middle term of demonstration, but we cannot know in what God's essence consists.
Objection 3 - If the existence of God were demonstrable, it could be only from his effects. God is infinite, but his effects are finite.
Reply to objection 1- Faith presupposes natural knowledge, faith or reason can lead to knowledge of the existence of God.
Reply to objection 2: the means of the name God is the middle term, not God's essence.
Reply to objection 3: we cannot have a perfect knowledge of God, but we can know some from his effects.
Third Article - Whether God Exists?
Objection 1 - There is evil in the world and if there were an infinitely good being this would not be so.
Objection 2 - There is no need to assume God exists, everything can be explained naturalistically.
Reply to objection 1 - Augustinian response: His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good out of evil
Reply to objection 2 - Whatever is done by nature must be traced back to God.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Skils vs. Virtues
(Originally written November 28, 2006 in Book 12)
Virtues of the Mind continued...
Every virtue must have a corresponding vice.
Virtues are not faculties or natural capacities. Aristotle calls them "states of character".
Skills, like virtues, are acquired excellences, but the two are not the same.
Aristotle's lack of care in distinguishing virtues from skills has led to subsequent mischief.
Phillippa Foot says skills are merely capacities. Gilbert Meilander states that skills can be unpracticed and retained, but virtue has to be constantly practiced.
James Wallace argues that some skills are not worth having, but virtues always are. Wallace argument only proves that not all skills are virtues, but virtues could still be skills. Wallace also states that skills are mastering techniques to do a different task. Virtues help a person perform difficult tasks, but these tasks are not difficult because they are technically difficult. Wallace argues that a skill can be forgotten, but a virtue cannot. Wallace took his idea from Gilbert Ryle and Aristotle. Wallace also argues that a person without a virtue can act consistently wit that virtue, but a person cannot act consistently with a skill he/she does not have.
Zagzebski argues that advice is the contrary of a virtue, not its contradictory. A skill has no contrary, only a contradictory. A vice is not analogous to a lack of skill in that a vice is not merely a lack of a virtue.
Vice, like virtue, is acquired by habituation.
She also argues that an exercise of skill is not essentially connected to anything valuable, whereas a virtue is essentially connected to something valuable.
Zagzebski maintains there are moral skills and moral virtues, and intellectual skills and intellectual virtues.
Moral virtues often have many skills associated with them.
List of moral virtues/moral skills: pg. 113
List of intellectual virtues/intellectual skills: pg. 114
"There are intellectual skills connected with moral virtues and moral skills connected with intellectual virtues" (Zagzebski, 115).
Virtues are psychically prior to skills because the motivational component of a virtue defines it more than external effectiveness.
Virtues are broader than skills.
von Wright argued that skills are tied to specific activities, whereas there is no essential tie between virtue and a specific activity.
Virtues are strongly connected to Motivational structure.
Virtues of the Mind continued...
Every virtue must have a corresponding vice.
Virtues are not faculties or natural capacities. Aristotle calls them "states of character".
Skills, like virtues, are acquired excellences, but the two are not the same.
Aristotle's lack of care in distinguishing virtues from skills has led to subsequent mischief.
Phillippa Foot says skills are merely capacities. Gilbert Meilander states that skills can be unpracticed and retained, but virtue has to be constantly practiced.
James Wallace argues that some skills are not worth having, but virtues always are. Wallace argument only proves that not all skills are virtues, but virtues could still be skills. Wallace also states that skills are mastering techniques to do a different task. Virtues help a person perform difficult tasks, but these tasks are not difficult because they are technically difficult. Wallace argues that a skill can be forgotten, but a virtue cannot. Wallace took his idea from Gilbert Ryle and Aristotle. Wallace also argues that a person without a virtue can act consistently wit that virtue, but a person cannot act consistently with a skill he/she does not have.
Zagzebski argues that advice is the contrary of a virtue, not its contradictory. A skill has no contrary, only a contradictory. A vice is not analogous to a lack of skill in that a vice is not merely a lack of a virtue.
Vice, like virtue, is acquired by habituation.
She also argues that an exercise of skill is not essentially connected to anything valuable, whereas a virtue is essentially connected to something valuable.
Zagzebski maintains there are moral skills and moral virtues, and intellectual skills and intellectual virtues.
Moral virtues often have many skills associated with them.
List of moral virtues/moral skills: pg. 113
List of intellectual virtues/intellectual skills: pg. 114
"There are intellectual skills connected with moral virtues and moral skills connected with intellectual virtues" (Zagzebski, 115).
Virtues are psychically prior to skills because the motivational component of a virtue defines it more than external effectiveness.
Virtues are broader than skills.
von Wright argued that skills are tied to specific activities, whereas there is no essential tie between virtue and a specific activity.
Virtues are strongly connected to Motivational structure.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Zagzebski on what is virtue
(Originally written November 27, 2006 in Book 12)
Virtues of the Mind
Linda Zagzebski
"Although a virtue is always a good thing for a person to have, then, there is a complication in that equal degrees of a virtuous trait are not always associated with equal degrees of internal good in the agent" (Zagzebski, 96).
This concept has existed since Aristotle's golden mean being relative to each person.
Intellectual virtues are similar to this, some people do their best work by "careful plodding" and others do their best work in "Exuberant intellectual impetuousness"
Zagzebski states that phronesis (practical wisdom) is an exception to this rule because it is a higher-order virtue.
Nietzsche maintains that virtues are not good for their possessor. A virtue makes its possessor the victim of the virtue.
Plato held that virtues are good for the possessor.
Alasdair MacIntyre holds that the benefit of a virtue is intrinsically valuable to its possessor by definition. MacIntyre defines virtue as "an acquired quality the possession and exercise of which tends to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving any such goods" (Zagzebski, 97-98).
Zagzebski applies MacIntyre's definition of virtues to intellectual virtues.
Virtues are good for the possessor and for the world. Virtues are good internally and externally.
Zagzebski holds that a virtue is good, but not because it increases the goodness of its possessor and the goodness for the world, but because it makes the possessor closer to the ideal level of admirability and the world closer to a high level of desirability.
Virtue is related to the good in a number of ways:
1) A person is good through the possession of virtue
2) A person who possess a virtue is closer to the good
3) The world is closer to the good because of #2
4) A virtue increases the possessor's moral worth
2.3 Virtues distinguished from natural capacities
The narrower conception of virtue maintains that virtue is acquired.
Phillippa Foot states nothing is virtue unless it involves the will and resistance to contrary temptation.
G.H. von Wright states that the virtuous person is no longer susceptible to temptation like he/she was at one point.
von Wright and Foot state virtue is not a natural trait and the opposite of virtue is actually the natural state of humanity. Zagzebski believes this is too strong.
Virtues of the Mind
Linda Zagzebski
"Although a virtue is always a good thing for a person to have, then, there is a complication in that equal degrees of a virtuous trait are not always associated with equal degrees of internal good in the agent" (Zagzebski, 96).
This concept has existed since Aristotle's golden mean being relative to each person.
Intellectual virtues are similar to this, some people do their best work by "careful plodding" and others do their best work in "Exuberant intellectual impetuousness"
Zagzebski states that phronesis (practical wisdom) is an exception to this rule because it is a higher-order virtue.
Nietzsche maintains that virtues are not good for their possessor. A virtue makes its possessor the victim of the virtue.
Plato held that virtues are good for the possessor.
Alasdair MacIntyre holds that the benefit of a virtue is intrinsically valuable to its possessor by definition. MacIntyre defines virtue as "an acquired quality the possession and exercise of which tends to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving any such goods" (Zagzebski, 97-98).
Zagzebski applies MacIntyre's definition of virtues to intellectual virtues.
Virtues are good for the possessor and for the world. Virtues are good internally and externally.
Zagzebski holds that a virtue is good, but not because it increases the goodness of its possessor and the goodness for the world, but because it makes the possessor closer to the ideal level of admirability and the world closer to a high level of desirability.
Virtue is related to the good in a number of ways:
1) A person is good through the possession of virtue
2) A person who possess a virtue is closer to the good
3) The world is closer to the good because of #2
4) A virtue increases the possessor's moral worth
2.3 Virtues distinguished from natural capacities
The narrower conception of virtue maintains that virtue is acquired.
Phillippa Foot states nothing is virtue unless it involves the will and resistance to contrary temptation.
G.H. von Wright states that the virtuous person is no longer susceptible to temptation like he/she was at one point.
von Wright and Foot state virtue is not a natural trait and the opposite of virtue is actually the natural state of humanity. Zagzebski believes this is too strong.
Logical exercises involving Santa, Eskimos and Scarlet Fever
(Originally written on November 27, 2006 in Book 9)
Quantificational Logic
No Santas are at the North Pole
Some who live at the North Pole are eskimos
Therefore, eskimos are not Santas
Santa - major term
Eskimos - minor term
At the North Pole - Middle Term
[logical argument and proof not worth typing here]
Some Santas are red.
Some red people have scarlet fever
Therefore, some who have scarlet fever are santas.
[another logical argument, proof and refutation that are not worth typing]
An existential statement is true if it is true for at least one constant. It is false if it is false for all constants.
A universal statement is true if it is true for all constants. It is false if it is true for no constants.
Quantificational Logic
No Santas are at the North Pole
Some who live at the North Pole are eskimos
Therefore, eskimos are not Santas
Santa - major term
Eskimos - minor term
At the North Pole - Middle Term
[logical argument and proof not worth typing here]
Some Santas are red.
Some red people have scarlet fever
Therefore, some who have scarlet fever are santas.
[another logical argument, proof and refutation that are not worth typing]
An existential statement is true if it is true for at least one constant. It is false if it is false for all constants.
A universal statement is true if it is true for all constants. It is false if it is true for no constants.
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