PHI 121 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - God, René Descartes, Christianity
PHI 121
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Findings leading to age of denial
Cosmology
: A view of the universe and our place in it.
Earth is flat, in the center of the universe, and doesn’t move
Plotinus
: Hierarchy of power in the world is...
God
Angels
Humans
Animals
Plants
Objects
Ptolomy
: All planets revolve around the Earth
Life negative cultures have a concept of special creation, if we
are no longer with God in the center of the universe, this is BAD!
Descartes
“If God and humans aren’t in the center of the
universe, of what can I be certain? NOTHING.”
“If the universe is absurd, so am I.”
“My life has no meaning... I reject this.”
“What do I think about?” (infinite/finite)
HUME
Empiricism
: Knowledge comes only from sensory experience, based on
perception.
Idealism
: The view that if something exists, it is mental. This leaves open the
possibility that among the minds that exist is the mind of God.
“I perceive that there is an order in the universe, not my creation, it’s God’s.”
Empiricism
: Knowledge comes only from sensory experience, based on
perception.
Idealism
: The view that if something exists, it is mental. This leaves open the
possibility that among the minds that exist is the mind of God.
“I perceive that there is an order in the universe, not my creation, it’s God’s.”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
KUHN
Every scientific theory is a paradigm (view of the world), and it is
neither true or false.
The goal of science is proving that the paradigm works
Anomalies
: Things that don’t fit the model
Too many anomalies lead to crisis and angst
That leads to competing models
The most “workable” model “wins”
Competing goods
Emerging conflict between equal rights of homosexuals and
religious freedom
Mike Pence said “I’m a Christian, Conservative, Republican in
that order.”
This statement encourages an isolated systematic worldview, or
a call to arms
The Bill of Rights rules dissent as fundamental a right as
religious freedom
Is freedom of religion a higher right than equal treatment?
Is the appeal to religious freedom simply another way to justify
discrimination?
Life negative culture
Every life negative culture believes it has a special relationship to the divine
The only “real” humans
American Exceptionalism
: White, Anglo-Saxon, male, Protestant,
landowner, educated (ALT RIGHT). 20th century Manifest Destiny.
Manifest Destiny
A nineteenth-century belief that the U.S. had a
mission to expand westward across the North American continent,
spreading its form of democracy, freedom, and culture
Monroe Doctrine
: A statement of U.S. foreign policy expressing opposition to
extension of European control or influence in the western hemisphere.
State of Nature
: Kill or be killed! Survival of the fittest
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
: a view of the universe and our place in it. Earth is flat, in the center of the universe, and doesn"t move. : hierarchy of power in the world is Life negative cultures have a concept of special creation, if we are no longer with god in the center of the universe, this is bad! If the universe is absurd, so am i. : knowledge comes only from sensory experience, based on perception. : the view that if something exists, it is mental. This leaves open the possibility that among the minds that exist is the mind of god. I perceive that there is an order in the universe, not my creation, it"s god"s. Every scientific theory is a paradigm (view of the world), and it is neither true or false. The goal of science is proving that the paradigm works. Too many anomalies lead to crisis and angst.
