What are Epicurus' dates?
- 341-270 B.C.E
To which pre-Socratic philosophy of nature did Epicurus adhere? That being said, Epicurus' philosophy did not focus on theoretical questions. What was the focus of Epicurus' thought?
- Atomic theory of Democritus, Finding out about the good life
According to Palmer, in Epicurus' time "it no longer made sense to advocate being active, influential, political, and responsible as a way of self-improvement [as Aristotle had thought]." Why not?
- Epicurus lived in the Roman Empire where only a few had power and made political decisions, and individuals were not heard like in Socrates' and Plato's time.
Compare and contrast Epicurus' views and those of Aristotle on the goal of human life.
- Aristotle and Epicurus believed that the goal of life is happiness, but Epicurus believes happiness is equated to pleasure while Aristotle believed in being virtuous is being happy. Aristotle believed the only way to be virtuous and happy is to be wealt
In Epicurus' view, there are two kinds of desires. List, explain, and give some examples of these two kinds of desires.
- Natural desires- natural or necessary human desires (food, sleep, sex); Vain desires- luxury desires (decorative clothing, exotic foods)
There are also two kinds of natural desires. List, explain, and give some examples.
- Necessary- food, sleep; Unnecessary- sex
One of the natural and necessary desires to which Epicurus pays a great deal of attention is the desire for repose" (p. 98). What does Epicurus mean by repose?
- Free from worry, anxiety, or stress
How does Epicurus define pleasure? What's a potential problem for Epicurus' philosophy that Palmer mentions in light of his defining pleasure in this way?
- Pleasure is the absence of pain; the logical extremity shows the absence of life is better than any life at all
Why is it not rational to fear death according to Epicurus?
- Death was merely the absence of sensation and consciousness; therefore, there could be no sensation consciousness of death to fear
Who is the most famous follower of Epicurus? When did this famous follower of Epicurus live?
- The Roman Lucretius who lived during the first century BCE
Who was the Greek founder of Stoicism? When did he live? The three most famous Stoics were Romans. Who were they and when did they live?
- Founded by Zeno of Cyprus ?; Seneca(4-6 BCE), Epictetus(late first century BCE), Marcus Aurelius(121-180 BCE)
Explain the stoic conception of the good life.
- Gaining human excellence through gaining enlightment through wisdom. To achieve complete blessedness or perfection one must free oneself from all worldly demands, particularly the emotions of pleasure.
According to the stoic philosopher, since the wise person knows that (a) determinism is true (determinism = (df) for any event E in the universe, E had to happen because of events antecedent to E), (b) freedom is being able to do what one wants, and (c) h
- What You Get
Compare and contrast stoic philosophy with Christian belief as we did in class.
- Both share the doctrine of resignation- disdaining from the attachment to earthly things, and concern with conforming to the will of divine Providence. Stoics believed suicide was justified to prevent going against the divine plan of the world, while Ch
The most prominent philosophical religious competitor with Christianity during the third century C.E. was a mystical form of ________ known today as _____________, espoused by ___________. What are Plotinus' dates?
- Platonism, Neoplatonism, Plotinus (204-270)
How does Palmer compare and contrast the doctrines of Plato and Plotinus on what can be known and how we come to know it?
- Nothing can truly be known about the One in any rational sense, nor can any characterization of the One be strictly correct. Plato's Simile of the Line from a Plotinian perspective sees that language and thought functions by drawing distinctions, but in
Palmer mentions a way in which one might prepare oneself for union with the One. What is it?
- Ascetic program of virtuous living
Jewish and Christian philosophers in the period in which Plotinus lived taught that God created ex nihilo, which has the implication that what God creates is not divine. Contrast this notion with the Plotinian doctrine of emanation, which has it that ther
- The difference would be that in the Christian and Jewish belief they believe he creates things, but they are not divine. Plotinus's idea of emanating says that nothing is created, but that God is reflected onto lower planes, and these reflections repres
Certainly interesting in its own right, Plotinus' philosophy is also important for understanding later developments in the history of philosophy. Why?
- Because it is the framework of the metaphysical scheme and framework of Platonism and helps to unify and systemize the Christian worldview.
What are St. Augustine's dates?
- 354-430
Contrast Manicheeism and Christianity on the power of God, the nature of evil, and human freewill.
-It was a philosophy that combined Christian and Persian elements and that understood reality in terms of an eternal struggle between the principle of light (good) and the principle of darkness (evil). The strife between these two principles manifested it
After his conversion to Catholic Christianity, St. Augustine was ordained a priest, and later, a bishop. He wrote voluminously, often against heretical forms of Christianity. Be able to recognize the five heretical forms of Christianity that St. Augustine
- Donatism- belief that sacraments depends on the moral character of the minister
- Priscillianism- concepts of Priscillian
- Arianism- it taught that Christ was not truly divine but a created being
- Manicheanism- combined Christian and Persian elements
With what question does Evodius open book one, chapter one of On Free Choice of the Will? St. Augustine responds to Evodius's question with a distinction. List and explain. How does St. Augustine answer Evodius's question with this distinction in hand?
- Isn't God the cause of evil?; There are two kinds of evil: first, when we say that someone has done evil and second, when we say that someone has suffered evil; St. Augustine says that God is just, so he rewards the good and punishes the wicked, which t
According to St. Augustine, why is there no single cause of evil?
- Everyone who does evil is the cause of his own evildoing
(25) What is the interesting epistemological claim that St. Augustine finds in the prophet Isaiah? How did the professor defend the plausibility of this claim by speaking about the biology student and the biology teacher?
-"Unless you believe, you will not understand." We believe that everything that exists comes from the one God, but God is not the cause of sins.
In book one, chapter two, St. Augustine formulates a problem that we might call "the problem of the origin of evil." Explain the problem.
- If we admit that sins come from the souls that God created, and those souls come from God, pretty soon you'll be tracing those sins back to God.
According to St. Augustine, what is the truest beginning of piety? How do Evodius and St. Augustine think about God?
-It is to think as highly of God as possible
-We believe him to be omnipotent, and not changeable in the smallest respect; that he is the creator of all good things, but is himself more excellent than all of them; that he is the supremely just ruler of ev
In order to solve the problem of the origin of evil, St. Augustine suggests we might first define evil-doing. How do Evodius and St. Augustine begin to do that?
- Adultery, murder, and sacrilege
How does Evodius first answer St. Augustine's query about why adultery is evil? What problem does St. Augustine raise for such an answer? What is Evodius's second answer to St. Augustine query for a reason that adultery is evil? What problem does St. Augu
- Evodius knows it is evil because he would not tolerate it if someone tried to commit adultery with his own wife, and anyone who does to another what he does not want done to himself does evil; St. Augustine says that if someone's lust is so great that h
At the end of book one, chapter three, St. Augustine suggests a reason for why adultery is evil. What is it? What preliminary defense does he give for such an explanation of the wrongness of adultery?
- St. Augustine says that inordinate desire makes adultery evil, which he then states that if a man is unable to sleep with someone else's wife, but it is somehow clear that he would like to, and would do so if he had the chance, he is no less guilty than
As St. Augustine notes, both good and bad people desire to live without fear. What is the difference between the good and bad according to St. Augustine? Here Evodius offers a preliminary definition of disordered desire. What is it?
- The good turn their love away from things that cannot be possessed without the fear of losing them, and the wicked try to get rid of anything that prevents them from enjoying such things securely. Disordered desire is the love of those things that one c
The professor suggested in class that St. Augustine's views on disordered desire undergo some development. According to the view of disordered love presented in On Free Choice of the Will, what things ought we to love? What things should we not love? This
...
St. Augustine's most mature doctrine of ordered and disordered love involves distinguishing two kinds of love. What are they? How should we love non-persons? How should we love persons? St. Augustine thinks we should love created persons and God, i.e., th
...
In responding to the problem of the origin of evil, the professor distinguished three ways of thinking about 'perfection.' What are these three ways? In light of these different meanings of 'perfect', how did the professor attempt to make sense of the not
-The greatest possible being or absolute perfect, Perfect relative to a kind of being, unable to sin or no defects
- Adam and eve could easily be good, but not impossible to be bad and humans are easy to be bad but not impossible to be good.
What is the problem of divine foreknowledge and human freedom (DFHF)? What are the three responses to DFHF we talked about in class? How did we motivate the God's-intuitive-knowledge-of-the-world response to DFHF? How did we motivate the compatibilist res
...
Describe, in general terms, the work of the so-called encyclopediasts of the early medieval period. Name the three most famous of these thinkers. What were their dates? Where did each of them live?
-The work was the systematically compiled and conserved whatever remnants of classical wisdom they could lay their hands on; Boethius-Italy (480-525), Isidore-Spain (570-636), The Venerable Bede (674-735)
What are John Scotus Eriugena's dates? Where was he from?
-(ca. 810 - ca. 877), Ireland
Who is the sixth century philosopher�who took the name of a famous disciple of St. Paul�that had such a marked influence on John Scotus Eriugena?
- St. Dionysis
What are the three different kinds of reality that Eriugena distinguishes? Give an example of each kind of reality.
Things that are not" and examples include a particular tree or horse contains less being than the form "tree" or the form "horse" and all lacks and deprivations, "super-reality" and it cannot be grasped by the human intellect such as God, "Things that ar
What are St. Anselm's dates?
- 1033 - 1109
St. Anselm eventually entitles the work you are reading the Proslogion or Proslogium (a dialogue). What was his original name for the work (preface)?
- Faith Seeking Understanding
What is St. Anselm's reported motive for writing the Proslogion (P)? What two motives does Anselm expressly rule out for writing it (ch. 1, final para.)?
- He wrote it because he strives to lift his mind to the contemplation of God, and seeks to understand what he believes. He also wants to prove in a single argument that God exists; He didn't right it to penetrate the Lord's sublimity because he in no way
How does St. Anselm argue for God's existence in P, ch. 2?
- He says that the fool doesn't believe God to exist in reality, but he has God in his understanding or mind since he thinks about him. He then says even the fool will realize God exists in reality when he understands that nothing greater can be conceived
What are the two famous objections that the monk Gaunilo raises for St. Anselm's reasoning in P, ch. 2 that we spoke about in class (see also Palmer, p. 125)? How can St. Anselm respond to these objections? What is another possible objection to St. Anselm
- Gaunilon's objects by saying it would be impossible to conceive a being that which nothing greater could be conceived because it would boggle the mind, and this brings him to his second objection that if Anselm's argument was valid then you could concei
What property does St. Anselm attribute to God in P, ch. 3?
- God is God when nothing greater can be conceived
How does St. Anselm distinguish God and creatures in P, ch. 3, para. two?
- He says that if someone could conceive a creature better than God the creature would rise above the creator, but this is absurd because whatever else there is, except God alone, could not be conceived to exist.
What implication does St. Anselm draw about the person who says in his heart, "there is no God" (P, ch. 3, para. two)? Why?
- He is dull and a fool because it is so evident to a rational mind that you do exist in the highest degree to all
What new description of God does St. Anselm employ at P, ch. 5 in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of God? What are some of the attributes of God that St. Anselm derives from this new description of God (P, chs. 5-6)?
- God is whatever it is better to be than not to be, and he is the only self-existent being. He also creates all things from nothing; God is just, truthful, blessed, sensible, omnipotent, compassionate, and passionless.
What puzzle about omnipotence does St. Anselm raise in P, ch. 7? How does he attempt to resolve it?
- Omnipotence means he is all-powerful, but he is not capable of some things like corruption and lying. This brings up the problem that if he isn't capable of all things then he can't be omnipotent but impotent. He then says that the impotence is actually
What is impassibility? What is the objection against God's being impassible that St. Anselm raises? How does St. Anselm try to make sense of the divine impassibility (P, ch. 8, para. two)?
- impassibility means that you do not feel sympathy; if he is impassible then he must not be compassionate, which comes in great consolation to the wretched; St. Anselm then says that he is compassionate in terms of our experience, and not compassionate i