Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677)

Defends a monistic metaphysics in which God and Nature are identified. God is no longer the transcendent creator of the universe who rules it via providence, but Nature itself, understood as an infinite, necessary, and fully deterministic system of which humans are a part. Humans find happiness only through a rational understanding of this system and their place within it. (IEP)

Baruch Spinoza Method: Begin

with self-evident metaphysical truths and deduce theorems implied implied by those truths, producing an absolutely certain science of reality.

…[T]here cannot be conceived one substance different from another,- that is, there cannot be several substances, but one only.

Extension and consciousness are modes of one infinite substance, God.

G.W. Leibniz July 1, 1646 – November 14, 1716

Mathematician and philosopher.

There are also two kinds of truths: truth of reasoning and truths of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; those of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible.

Leibniz The concept of extension is derivative, the

building blocks of reality are psychic particles, monads. Extension is a property of a collection of particles, each of which is unextended.

Each monad is designed by God to mirror the universe. They do not interact causally, but a pre-established harmony governs their behavior.

A human is composed of monads, the chief of which is the soul.

Principle of sufficient reason. This is the best of all possible worlds.

John Locke’s Empiricism If by this inquiry into the

nature of the understanding, I can discover the powers thereof; how far they reach;…and where they fail us, I suppose it may be of use with the busy mind of man, to be more cautious in meddling with things exceeding its comprehension; to stop when it is at the utmost extent of its tether; and to sit down in quiet

ignorance of those things, which, upon Examination, are found beyond the reach of our Capacities.

To ask, at what time a man has first any ideas, is to ask, when he begins to perceive; having ideas and perception being the same things.

He that would not deceive himself ought to build his hypothesis on matter of fact.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

Locke’s Causal Theory of Perception, Truth, and Knowledge

The perception of external objects and events causes images (ideas) in the mind; reflection on how the mind responds to this data causes ideas of another sort (belief, hope, fear).

A tabula rasa (without innate ideas) acquires and sorts images, creates abstractions, and utters propositions.

The Production of Ideas An apple has qualities

that produce the simple ideas of red, sweet, crisp; from which we form the complex idea of apple, which, when compared with other ideas, gives rise to even more abstract ideas of fruit, taste, and nutrition.

Only primary qualities (extension, number, figure, motion, solidity) are real, inseparable properties of objects.

Secondary qualities (color, taste, smell, sound) are produced in our minds but do not really exist out there.

Options in Modern Philosophy Dualism (Descartes) Materialism (Locke*) Occasionalism (Malebranche) Idealism (Berkeley): Esse est

percipi; to be is to be perceived. There is no such thing as (what philosophers call) material substance.

The materialist world view. Physical objects

would continue to exist even if there were no minds.

Physical objects cause ideas to arise in our minds.

Physical objects have primary qualities and secondary qualities.

It is impossible to prove beyond all doubt that the physical world exists. Skepticism is irrefutable (but it may be ignored)

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

My endeavors tend only to unite, and place in a clearer light, that truth which was before shared between the vulgar and the philosophers: the former [holding] that those things they immediately perceive are the real things; and the latter that the things immediately perceived, are ideas which exist only in the mind. Which two notions put together constitute...what I advance.

Idealism Things we call

substances are really just collections of ideas which depend for their existence on the mind. Reality is a community of spirits.

We perceive ideas, so if we perceive objects, objects are ideas. If they weren’t ideas, we couldn’t perceive them. Since ideas are mind dependent, so must objects be.

Refutation of Secondary Quality Realism. Intense heat = pain. Pain is mind-

dependent. Intense heat is mind-dependent.

Place cold left hand and warm right hand in water. Is the water cool or warm?

Reducing sound to vibrations implies that sound is not heard.

Against Primary Quality Realism Red and purple

sunset- is the color in the clouds? What is the real color? Sunlight? candlelight? Under the microscope? Reducing color to matter and motion makes real color invisible.

Perceptual relativity affects primary quality perception as well. How large is a Perseae mite’s foot? To a mite----medium. To us------ tiny. To a Sub-mite---HUGE!

David Hume (1711-1776) We find in our minds

impressions (direct sensations) and ideas (copies of impressions). Meaningful ideas can be traced back to the impressions that produced them. Ideas without impressions are meaningless (e.g. substance, self, cause).

Legitimate ideas refer either to relations among ideas (math, logic) or to matters of fact (always possibly false).

The gazing populace receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition, and promotes wonder.

Cause and effect. Reasoning about matters of fact

assumes causal connections. But there are no impressions of causality. Sensation discovers only constant conjunction of event pairs (fire, heat). Hence, custom or habit (not knowledge) is the source of our belief in causal connections. Experience only teaches us how one event constantly follows another, without instructing us in the secret connexion which binds them together.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) What has hitherto been called

metaphysics cannot satisfy any critical mind, but to forego it completely is impossible; therefore, a critique of pure reason must be attempted.

All knowledge begins with experience, but not all knowledge arises out of experience. Impressions supplied by sensation are structured by cognition. A Copernican revolution in Philosophy.

Is Synthetic apriori knowledge possible? Analytic statements:

Content of the predicate is contained in the subject. (Nuns are female)

Synthetic statements: Content of the predicate goes beyond content of the subject. (Nuns are nice)

Apriori knowledge: Independent of sense experience.

Aposteriori knowledge: Dependent on sense experience.

Noumena: Perceiver independent reality.

Phenomena: Reality as it appears to us.

Midterm Review Pt I. Matching. Match the

philosopher with his quote: Thales, Democritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus (wk 1),Socrates (wk 2), Aquinas, (wk 3) Hume, Mill, Pascal, James (wk 4)

Part II. Short answer. 1.Objection to piety

definition (Euthyphro)(2) 2. The Socratic Mission (2) 3.James- skeptical balance

(4) 4.Religious ambiguity(3,4)

Pt. III. Essay (a) teleological (design) argument or (b) problem of evil.

Part IV. Multiple choice 1. Definitions- libertarianism,

hard determinism, compatibilism. 2. Problem of evil as objection to argument for God’s existence. 3. Why Plato opposes prayer/sacrifice piety. 4. Definition of “rational agent.” 5. Why Mill thinks God is finite. 6. Heraclitus’ main point. 7. Famous Socrates quote.