PHI 1101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Snakebite, Iceberg, The Butler

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Mark Brown

Document Summary

Aristotle: human being is a rational animal. The ability to reason or think is the most fundamental characteristics of human beings. Non-human animals (dolphins, apes) exhibit a lower level capacity to think or reason, but the capacity to reason remains a central feature of what we are and how we think about ourselves. Certain conscious human activity involves reasoning (solving problems, making decisions, predict elections, making discoveries, interpreting works of arts, repairing cars, etc) Reasoning: active & systematic process of analyzing, evaluating, and formulating beliefs or statements by rational standards. Reasoning: conscious activity, but mere consciousness or mere thinking is not reasoning. Ex. watching tv or listening to others or taking note of what is going around us or experience feelings are conscious activity, but they are not reasoning. We are merely thinking when our thoughts occur to us (sometimes in a passive manner)