We'll discuss this after the exam.
Kant, Bentham, Hegel, Schopenhauer-LH 19-23, FL 19-20, HWT 20
1. Kant said we can know the ____ but not the ____ world.
2. What was Kant's great insight?
3. What, according to Kant, is irrelevant to morality?
4. Kant said you should never ___, because ___. Kant called the principle that supports this view the ____ _____.
5. Who formulated the Greatest Happiness principle? What did he call his method? Where can you find him today?
6. Who created a thought experiment that seems to refute Bentham's view of how pleasure relates to human motivation?
7. What did Hegel mean when he spoke of the "owl of Minerva"? What did he think had been reached in his lifetime?
8. What Kantian view did Hegel reject?
9. What is Geist? When did Hegel say it achieved self-knowledge?
10. What "blind driving force" did Schopenhauer allege to pervade absolutely everything (including us)?
11. What did Schopenhauer say could help us escape the cycle of striving and desire?
Discussion Questions
- Do you think the human mind and its categories are like rose-colored spectacles, permanently preventing us from knowing the "noumenal" world but enabling us to see the "phenomena" more clearly? 111-12
- Was Kant's "great insight" really a breakthrough? 114
- Is sympathy irrelevant to morality? 115
- Have you ever helped someone because you felt sorry for them? Was that a moral action on your part?
- Should you ever lie? Is Kant's reasoning on this question reasonable, or rational? Is it emotionally intelligent? 117-18
- What do you think of Jeremy Bentham's auto-icon?
- Do you agree with the Greatest Happiness Principle? 122 Why or why not?
- Is a Felicific Calculus possible or desirable? 123
- Would you plug in to the Experience Machine? 125 Do you think virtual reality technology will one day make that a real option?
- If wisdom and understanding come only at a "later stage" of history, is philosophy worth doing now? 126
- Should Hegel have rejected Kant's view about noumena and phenomena? 128
- Is Geist real? Is there a "single mind" shared by all humanity? 129
- Was Hegel being arrogant to claim that Spirit first came to "know itself" in his own books?
- Was Schopenhauer right about Will? 133
- Is asceticism "the ideal way to cope with existence"? 136
FL
- Has the film industry narrowed the perceived distance between fantasy and reality? Is it like a drug? 136-7
- Is advertising manipulative and misleading? Has it engendered false desires and a confusion about what will make us happy? 138
- Do you think you would have been fooled by War of the Worlds?
- Are Americans too preoccupied with celebrity, and celebrities? 140
- Is the American suburb a mistake, a "happy fictionalization"? 143 Is suburban nostalgia racist? 144
- What do you think of LA and South Florida as fantasylands? 147-8 Do you want to live there?
HWT
- Did you know there's a Confucius Institute at MTSU? 222 Should there be a Western Philosophy Institute in China?
- Are there other "bonds" of harmony besides those noted by Mencius? 223
- What's the difference between harmony and conformity, compliance, sameness, or uniformity?
- Would we have a more eastern attitude about harmony and cosmic order in the west if Heraclitus (and Hegel) had "won out" over Plato? 225
- Do the Chinese actually have greater "family values" than westerners? 227
- Would you ever denounce your parents for political reasons?
- Do you feel a moral obligation to visit (and perhaps eventually care for) elderly relatives? 228
- Is Kant's view about Enlightenment and "maturity" an implicit critique of hierarchical and monarchical societies? 230
- Do you know any parents who try "to maintain their authority over their children after those children have grown up"? 231
- Is it disrespectful not to criticize others' views when you disagree with them? 234
- What do you think of people who are "beyond care" and have "given up"? 235
- Is/are "yin/yang" two things, or one? 237 Or are they things at all? 238
- Any comment on "picking yin"? 239 (Keep it clean please.)
- Are Daoists libertarians? 242
- Is the Confucian principle of quan anti-Kantian? 243 How about the African concept of ubuntu? 246
- Was Han China's version of Machiavelli? 244-5
Schopenhauer and his sidekick "Atman"
"His closest relationships are now with a succession of poodles, who he feels have a gentleness and humility humans lack... He acquires a new white poodle and names her Atman, after the world-soul of the Brahmins..." Consolations of Philosophy
Reminds me of...
(Cancel Dr. Seuss?!)
But he's still fun to read. He's often clever and amusing, and he's frequently right.
Schopenhauer on Hegel:
- “The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.”
- “Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.”
- “Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
- "Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.”
- “We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”
- “A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man.”
- “What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.”
- “If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?”
The great rational optimist and cynical pessimist, ultimately (like us all) in the same boat. "Shipwreck is a permanent possibility," said William James...
Schopenhauer on Hegel:
“But the height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously been known only in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most barefaced general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, and will remain as a monument to German stupidity.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, trans. Haldane-Kemp (The World as Will and Idea, vol. 2), London: Kegan Paul, p. 22.
==
William James on Hegel:
Some "Hegelisms" James came up with, when reading Hegel while ingesting nitrous oxide:
What's mistake but a kind of take?
What's nausea but a kind of -ausea?
Sober, drunk, -unk, astonishment.
Everything can become the subject of criticism—how
criticise without something to criticise?
Agreement—disagreement!!
Emotion—motion!!!
Die away from, from, die away (without the from).
Reconciliation of opposites; sober, drunk, all the same!
Good and evil reconciled in a laugh!
It escapes, it escapes!
But——
What escapes, WHAT escapes?
Emphasis, EMphasis; there must be some emphasis in order
for there to be a phasis.
No verbiage can give it, because the verbiage is other.
Incoherent, coherent—same.
And it fades! And it's infinite! AND it's infinite!
If it was n't going, why should you hold on to it?
Don't you see the difference, don't you see the identity?
Constantly opposites united!
The same me telling you to write and not to write!
Extreme—extreme, extreme! Within the extensity that
'extreme' contains is contained the 'extreme' of intensity.
Something, and other than that thing!
Intoxication, and otherness than intoxication.
Every attempt at betterment,—every attempt at otherment,—is a——.
It fades forever and forever as we move.
What's nausea but a kind of -ausea?
Sober, drunk, -unk, astonishment.
Everything can become the subject of criticism—how
criticise without something to criticise?
Agreement—disagreement!!
Emotion—motion!!!
Die away from, from, die away (without the from).
Reconciliation of opposites; sober, drunk, all the same!
Good and evil reconciled in a laugh!
It escapes, it escapes!
But——
What escapes, WHAT escapes?
Emphasis, EMphasis; there must be some emphasis in order
for there to be a phasis.
No verbiage can give it, because the verbiage is other.
Incoherent, coherent—same.
And it fades! And it's infinite! AND it's infinite!
If it was n't going, why should you hold on to it?
Don't you see the difference, don't you see the identity?
Constantly opposites united!
The same me telling you to write and not to write!
Extreme—extreme, extreme! Within the extensity that
'extreme' contains is contained the 'extreme' of intensity.
Something, and other than that thing!
Intoxication, and otherness than intoxication.
Every attempt at betterment,—every attempt at otherment,—is a——.
It fades forever and forever as we move.
There is a reconciliation!
Reconciliation—econciliation!
By God, how that hurts! By God, how it does n't hurt!
Reconciliation of two extremes.
By George, nothing but othing!
That sounds like nonsense, but it is pure onsense!
Thought deeper than speech——!
Medical school; divinity school, school! SCHOOL! Oh my
God, oh God, oh God!
Reconciliation—econciliation!
By God, how that hurts! By God, how it does n't hurt!
Reconciliation of two extremes.
By George, nothing but othing!
That sounds like nonsense, but it is pure onsense!
Thought deeper than speech——!
Medical school; divinity school, school! SCHOOL! Oh my
God, oh God, oh God!
The most coherent and articulate sentence which came was this:—
There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference...
William James, On Some Hegelisms
==
==
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “schopenhauer” (5)
2013-07-11 | John Gray against humanism. Influenced by Schopenhauer, Conrad, and an abiding cynicism, the philosopher has lost hope for mankind more »
2014-03-13 | Schopenhauer called noise 'the most impertinent of all forms of interruption,' and he was right. Thus our obsession with silence: the new luxury good more »
2013-10-23 | Schopenhauer dismissed dignity as 'the shibboleth of all perplexed and empty-headed moralists.' But the notion has been revived as a liberal ideal more »
2010-01-01 | 'Hitler kept Schopenhauer's works in his knapsack through WWI, so he claimed. Too bad that he couldn''t actually spell the philosopher''s name' more »
2018-01-27 | Philosophers haven’t had much to say about middle age, but Schopenhauer is an exception. His view of the futility of desire -- getting what you want can make you unhappy -- illuminates the darkness of midlife more »
HEGEL
2011-01-01 | Darwin has displaced Hegel as a political thinker, suggests Francis Fukuyama. Is this the end of the end of history? more »
2016-08-02 | A philosophy of education. Influenced by Hegel and Darwin, John Dewey launched a revolution that overthrew the methods of the day. Hannah Arendt was not pleased more »
2017-07-26 | The tradition of Kant, Hegel, and Habermas has given way to slick performers. Is German philosophy exchanging profundity for popularity? more »
2014-12-04 | For an apostle of alienation, Herbert Marcuse sure was a media star. To think his unsettling blend of Hegel, Marx, and Freud ended up in Playboy more »
2011-01-01 | Hegel goes west. In the 1870s, an odd idea took hold on the American frontier: History had a direction, and it pointed toward St. Louis more »
2018-05-12 | For Plato, uprightness made us human; for Kant, people were inherently bent; Hegel worried about stiffness. Why does posture attract such philosophical attention? more »
2017-05-12 | Since Hegel, philosophers have declared the end of art, meaning that no further progress is possible. In that sense, it’s a good thing: Art is now free to be anything more »
KANT
2014-07-08 | What would Kant do? His maxims, applied to ethical quandaries, seem contradictory, incoherent, a mess. But there's another way more »
2012-11-29 | Harvard wants to enroll the next Homer, Kant, Dickinson. But how likely is it that future philosophers, critics, and artists will be admitted? more »
2015-02-23 | At least since Kant said the 'true strength of virtue is a tranquil mind,' anxiety has been something to avoid. Was he wrong? more »
2015-04-09 | Feeling distracted, as if advertisers, Facebook, and Apple had colonized your mental space? Is silence ever harder to find? Blame Kant more »
2015-08-21 | Kant is associated with optimism, ambition, progress. But he suffered from depression and “general morbid feelings.” His last word: “Enough” more »
2018-08-15 | Kant believed that beautiful art “must always show a certain dignity in itself.” Alfred Brendel disagrees. He believes in musical jokes more »
2018-09-14 | In 1791, a depressed Austrian woman wrote to Kant seeking advice. She later killed herself. Oh, the folly of asking philosophers for practical advice more »
2015-04-18 | John Searle has a bone to pick with Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Kant. He blames them for the basic mistake of modern epistemology more »
2017-01-14 | Because the study of logic ended with Aristotle, Kant believed, the field had run its course. But what was logic for in the first place? more »
2016-04-22 | Philosophy has been overrun by Kant and by moralistic rules. We need a version that appeals to people — we need a return to Hume more »
2018-09-06 | Hobbes, Hume, and Kant alike sympathetic to the thought that “there must be something more,” and sensitive to the limits of speculating about God more »
2015-05-13 | From the Greek philosophers to Kant and beyond, theories of the cosmos have been proposed and discarded. Has the expansive debate finally slowed? more »
2016-05-20 | Kant declared fashion "foolish." To Kierkegaard, outer garments kept us from ascertaining inner truth. But clothes are a form of thought, freighted with meaning more »
2017-07-26 | The tradition of Kant, Hegel, and Habermas has given way to slick performers. Is German philosophy exchanging profundity for popularity? more »
2017-11-02 | Kant thought entire civilizations incapable of philosophy. Derrida said China had no philosophy, only thought. Why did Western philosophy turn its back on the world? more »
BENTHAM
2018-02-17 | The comprehensive John Stuart Mill. He was out to combine Bentham with poetry, the Enlightenment with Romanticism, and to span the entire philosophy of his time more »
Kant's Categorical Imperative
In Our Time-Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how, in the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) sought to define the difference between right and wrong by applying reason, looking at the intention behind actions rather than at consequences. He was inspired to find moral laws by natural philosophers such as Newton and Leibniz, who had used reason rather than emotion to analyse the world around them and had identified laws of nature. Kant argued that when someone was doing the right thing, that person was doing what was the universal law for everyone, a formulation that has been influential on moral philosophy ever since and is known as the Categorical Imperative. Arguably even more influential was one of his reformulations, echoed in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which he asserted that humanity has a value of an entirely different kind from that placed on commodities. Kant argued that simply existing as a human being was valuable in itself, so that every human owed moral responsibilities to other humans and was owed responsibilities in turn.
Utilitarianism
In Our Time-A moral theory that emphasises ends over means, Utilitarianism holds that a good act is one that increases pleasure in the world and decreases pain. The tradition flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and has antecedents in ancient philosophy. According to Bentham, happiness is the means for assessing the utility of an act, declaring "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." Mill and others went on to refine and challenge Bentham's views and to defend them from critics such as Thomas Carlyle, who termed Utilitarianism a "doctrine worthy only of swine."
Schopenhauer
In Our Time-Melvyn Bragg and guests AC Grayling, Beatrice Han-Pile and Christopher Janaway discuss the dark, pessimistic philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.As a radical young thinker in Germany in the early 19th century, Schopenhauer railed against the dominant ideas of the day. He dismissed the pre-eminent German philosopher Georg Hegel as a pompous charlatan, and turned instead to the Enlightenment thinking of Immanuel Kant for inspiration. Schopenhauer's central idea was that everything in the world was driven by the Will - broadly, the ceaseless desire to live. But this, he argued, left us swinging pointlessly between suffering and boredom. The only escape from the tyranny of the Will was to be found in art, and particularly in music. Schopenhauer was influenced by Eastern philosophy, and in turn his own work had an impact well beyond the philosophical tradition in the West, helping to shape the work of artists and writers from Richard Wagner to Marcel Proust, and Albert Camus to Sigmund Freud
Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Free Thinking-What links Beethoven & Hegel's philosophy of freedom? Anne McElvoy talks to New Generation Thinker Seán Williams, Christoph Schuringa, Gary Browning, and Alison Stone about Hegel's discussion of freedom, law, family, markets and the state in his Principles of the Philosophy of Right 1820.
Kant's Metaphysics-Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is a great but difficult work. In this interview for Philosophy Bites A.W. Moore gives an accessible account of the main themes of the book and explains what might have been motivating Kant's approach to metaphysics (no mean feat in under 20 minutes!). Listen to Adrian Moore on Kant's Metaphysics
H03
ReplyDeleteKant said we can know the ____ but not the ____ world.
Phenomenal world; noumenal
What, according to Kant, is irrelevant to morality?
Sympathy.
Kant said you should never ___, because ___. Kant called the principle that supports this view the ____ _____.
Lie because you can't make a general principle that everyone should always lie when it suits them;; Categorical imperatives.
Is sympathy irrelevant to morality?
ReplyDeleteI think sympathy plays a huge role in morality. To say something isn't morally correct just because someone sympathizes with someone else seems like a huge oversight. That's just being a good person. To say that morals don't apply because they care is just foolish. But that may be because I don't seem to agree with Kant at all on this point of view.
Have you ever helped someone because you felt sorry for them? Was that a moral action on your part?
Of course I have. I felt it was the right thing to do. Do I think it was morally correct? Yes. I'm not going to be talked down from that either. Often times when I help people I get nothing in return from it. And I don't expect to either. Often times I help people who are struggling in subjects in school. This is something I've never asked for anything in return for. I do it because helping them is the right thing to do and I feel bad for them because I understand the struggle of not understanding something other people seem to grasp pretty well.
Should you ever lie? Is Kant's reasoning on this question reasonable, or rational? Is it emotionally intelligent?
Lying may not be what's "morally" right, but in some cases it is absolutely necessary. Like the killer example. There's absolutely no reason you would tell the truth if you care about your friend at all. And say you didn't care about your friend, you wouldn't have let her hide in your house in the first place. Lying is something everyone does, or at least has done before. I've lied numerous times to help people feel better, especially if I know it's something that won't hurt them in the long run. I see Kant's reasoning as unreasonable, especially in the aforementioned killer scenario. It benefits no one but the person with clear murderous intent if you tell the truth there.
Would you plug in to the Experience Machine? 125 Do you think virtual reality technology will one day make that a real option?
I'd be afraid to. Tempted, of course, but it seems akin to some sort of Matrix. I'd be afraid of getting lost. Ultimately, life is nothing without the pain you endure in it. A great and simple example is the Pixar movie, "Inside Out." When Joy takes full control of your life and you try to be constantly happy, it doesn't work out. You have to have room for other emotions like Sadness to truly live out this odd thing that is "life." Of course, no one likes to be sad. No one really wants it. But it's just a part of the world we live in. Sadness is a necessity to truly enjoy the happy moments. Whether or not this machine will truly become real one day... I think it could be possible. Virtual reality is already fascinating as is, but the really advanced ones are beyond expensive to replicated. To be able to feel within that reality is something on a completely different level, but I do think it could be possible. People in the past never would have imagined smart phones and computers, so what's stopping us from being ambitious today?
I have also helped someone because I felt sorry for them. I feel like it's engraved in our culture to do that!
DeleteWould you plug in to the Experience Machine? 125 Do you think virtual reality technology will one day make that a real option?
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know if I would. I feel like it would be an awesome experience but I don't know if I could live every day out like that (like in The Matrix movie). In addition, I don't think virtual reality will ever be able to replace our reality. While it does offer an escape, its not cheap and there are negative side effects for using these devices. Whether it does happen, who knows, but I don't see it becoming mainstream anytime soon.
Would you ever denounce your parents for political reasons?
No absolutely not. I mean, my parents and I share the same political views so I find it hard to even picture that. I feel like our generation is very skewed; half are able to understand and respect people's political opinions while the other half doesn't care what you think, their opinion is right.
Do you think you would have been fooled by War of the Worlds?
Most definitely yes. Even though the movie wasn't made yet, it still would've shocked me. I've watched the movie and still had a hard time thinking afterwards. The concept and possibility of that occurring just seemed to real because of the story.
H03
DeleteH03
ReplyDeleteHas the film industry narrowed the perceived distance between fantasy and reality? Is it like a drug? 136-7
In a way I do think the film industry plays a role in narrowing the distance between fantasy and reality. I just feel like more people rely on film as a way to escape the normality of everyday life and because of that certain individuals may have a hard time breaking away from living in a fantasy land they create for themselves.
Is advertising manipulative and misleading? Has it engendered false desires and a confusion about what will make us happy? 138
Advertisements sometimes do lead to false realities that do put people in danger. For instance, I think there’s this huge false advertisement when it comes to cosmetic surgery and not enough people talk about the hazards it could cause when it comes to getting a surgery that could lead to problems whether it’s physical or mental.
Are Americans too preoccupied with celebrity, and celebrities? 140
Majority of Americans are too occupied with celebrities and their lives and I say that because I feel more people have become more concerned with how famous people go about living their lives instead of focusing on themselves.
H01 I agree that society focuses too much on celebrities.
DeleteI agree with how you said a lot of the time advertisements lead to false realities. I think it's something that needs to change because it is tricking a whole group of people into believing they are getting something when they aren't!
Delete(H03)
ReplyDeleteDo you know any parents who try "to maintain their authority over their children after those children have grown up"?
I am one of those children to an extent, having maintained a bedtime of 10pm, device and location monitoring, as well as general surveillance and activity direction past my 18th birthday and to an extent after entering college. I have several friends and my brother who had "helicopter parents" that keep a high degree of influence, oversight, and control despite the ages and maturity levels that have been reached.
Are Americans too preoccupied with celebrity, and celebrities?
Americans are FAR too obsessed with celebrity culture and its products, with people weeping and basing political, moral, and internal views entirely around what celebrities or public figures publicly tout as their own. Movie stars and musical artists especially have become an exclusive group of hyper-attractive and highly worshipped individuals. Video also killed the radio star in that aspect, to an extent. The animation field especially has become extremely preoccupied with celebrities, as the general public only needs to see a popular name to become a stout defender of any movie they are apart of. This practice became noticeably successful following Robin Williams's appearance in Aladdin. Nowadays, it's nearly impossible to find a large animated property or movie without at least one celebrity not originally known to voice act taking a major role.
(EX: Tom Holland and Will Smith in Spies in Disguise, Dwayne Johnson in Moana, Chris Pratt in the Lego Movies and Onward, Lebron James in Space Jam, Oscar Isaac and Snoop Dogg in Addamns Family 2, Willam Dafoe in Finding Nemo, Alec Baldwin Jimmy Kimmel, James Marsden, Jeff Goldblum +more in boss baby 2, this can continue for several pages.)
I think the effectiveness of celebrities in drumming up interest is frankly too much, and it can dry out industries, reduce creativity, and generally get stale. Also, people get to the point of fainting or hurting themselves over celebrities appearing, saying certain things, or feuding. Nobody should be worshipped like a god or paid this much attention.
Who formulated the Greatest Happiness principle? What did he call his method? Where can you find him today?
ReplyDeleteBentham developed the Greatest Happiness Principle even though he was not the first to idealize doing the right thing. His design is in prisons and libraries today.
Do you agree with the Greatest Happiness Principle? 122 Why or why not?
I do agree with the Greatest Happiness Principle because in the end, the fulfillment comes after doing the right thing. It is a moral and emotional tug of war between what you want to do or how you feel about it vs. following your conscience's inner voice. I also think about this a lot. Sometimes I do not listen to my conscience and sometimes my emotions take over. Ultimately, this principle is subjective to the person's judgement. My judgement may be different than someone who was brought up differently on the other side of the globe. So, there is a grey area, but the general idea of finding the most happiness in doing the right thing checks out for my own experience.
H01
ReplyDeleteKant, Bentham, Hegel, Schopenhauer-LH 19-23, FL 19-20, HWT 20
1. Kant said we can know the ____ but not the ____ world.
Phenomenal; noumenal
2. What was Kant's great insight?
7+5=12, don’t need to check but gives new knowledge
3. What, according to Kant, is irrelevant to morality?
Sympathy
4. Kant said you should never ___, because ___. Kant called the principle that supports this view the ____ _____.
Lie, it is always morally wrong; Categorical Imperative
5. Who formulated the Greatest Happiness principle? What did he call his method? Where can you find him today?
Jeremy Bentham; Utilitarianism; The University College London
6. Who created a thought experiment that seems to refute Bentham's view of how pleasure relates to human motivation?
Robert Nozick
7. What did Hegel mean when he spoke of the "owl of Minerva"? What did he think had been reached in his lifetime?
Wisdom and understanding in the course of human history will only come fully at a late stage when we’re looking back on what has already happened
8. What Kantian view did Hegel reject?
Noumenal reality lies beyond the phenomenal world
9. What is Geist? When did Hegel say it achieved self-knowledge?
Spirit in German; when it is aware of its freedom
10. What "blind driving force" did Schopenhauer allege to pervade absolutely everything (including us)?
Will
11. What did Schopenhauer say could help us escape the cycle of striving and desire?
Turn away from the world altogether
Discussion Questions
Have you ever helped someone because you felt sorry for them? Was that a moral action on your part?
I have, but it was immoral because I should have helped them for another reason.
Should you ever lie? Is Kant's reasoning on this question reasonable, or rational? Is it emotionally intelligent?
Sometimes it is necessary to lie, but that does not make it right.
Would you plug into the Experience Machine? Do you think virtual reality technology will one day make that a real option?
It will likely be an option one day, but there is a possibility that society could become too reliant on those machines. I would personally not like to plugin because I would feel guilty for ignoring my responsibilities outside of that machine.
If wisdom and understanding come only at a "later stage" of history, is a philosophy worth doing now?
Yes because to have wisdom at the later stage you need to build up to it. Putting in the work now is why you have wisdom in the future
Do you think the human mind and its categories are like rose-colored spectacles, permanently preventing us from knowing the "noumenal" world but enabling us to see the "phenomena" more clearly?
ReplyDeleteI think our mind does limit what we can see in terms of noumena, but still allows us to see the effects clearly.
Have you ever helped someone because you felt sorry for them? Was that a moral action on your part?
I feel like doing that is always seen as a good thing, but really, the moral thing to do would be to help people regardless of how you feel about them.
Would you ever denounce your parents for political reasons?
No i wouldn't, everyone has different opinions, as long as they don't bring it and use it to control our relationship.
H01
DeleteI agree that we should help people regardless of our own feelings. That is a great mindset to have, but I think dI have the motivation to stop and help every person in need. Though it would be moral I do not think it is reasonable.
DeleteI find that the question of denouncing parents for political reasons is a hard one. On one hand I think that the bond with family should be maintained as long as it doesn't become toxic in any way. On the other hand no one "owes" their parents anything because they didn't ask or sign a contract to be born. But to get to politics, if their politics are abhorrent enough or their politics leads them to deny your existence as a human being you kind of have too. But how far is "abhorrent beliefs" for any one person is hard to pin down exactly.
DeleteI wouldn't denounce my parents for their political views either. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and belief!
DeleteH01
ReplyDeleteExam 1 quizlet
https://quizlet.com/_aaqq7g?x=1jqt&i=39jwb4
Are Daoists Libertarians?
ReplyDeleteI find this question really fascinating. However there is a problem that comes from it. Trying to compare political philosophies that had essentially no contact with each other can lead to misrepresentations of either one. So in either case we'll have to admit that Daoists weren't libertarians. But would they be today? I think that their form of noncommitment from government stems from a place of harmony and peace. Not really one that is at all similar to Libertarianism. Libertarianism (in the American sense) focuses on no government control in order to let markets have complete control of humanity. It's more about attempting to expand choice by letting markets have the final say in what survives and doesn't. Whereas Daoism wants there to be harmony from a lack of control from government, and I would say any system outside the "natural world."
H01
ReplyDelete1. Kant said we can know the ____ but not the ____ world.
Phenomenal, noumenal
2. What was Kant's great insight?
We can, by the power of reason, discover features of our mind that tint all our experience.
3. What, according to Kant, is irrelevant to morality?
Sympathy. Moral actions should be based on duty.
(H2) Is sympathy irrelevant to morality?
ReplyDeleteI do not fully agree that sympathy is irrelevant to morality because sometimes sympathy plays a major part in why people help others. If someone feels sorry for another person, then that more fortunate individual may try to assist the other person. Sympathizing with others should not been viewed as an immoral action because it gives individuals the opportunity to connect on something. However, some people help others solely for the fact of fulfilling their own moral compass. Although it may not be the most morally correct action, some feeling of sympathy is still involved.
Have you ever helped someone because you felt sorry for them? Was that a moral action on your part?
I have helped someone because I felt sorry for them, however I do not view this as a immoral action. Personally, I was raised in a household and community where we always helped those around us because it was morally correct. Often times, I would assist my peers with their homework or further explain a topic that they did not fully understand. I do not believe this should be seen as an immoral action due to my feelings towards them because ultimately, the person in need is still receiving help.