Philosophy 3170F/G Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Aristotle, Soul, Wisdom
12 Oct 2018
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Department
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Philosophy 3170F/G
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
3170 – January 8, 2018
Happiness and the Human Good
**See day 1 handouts**
What is Ethis “hort Paragraph
• Contemporary Moral Philosophy
• Ethics = traits of character
• Aristotle ouldt eessary alled his ethis oral
• ‘ight/rog doest our i Aristotles ethis he ore talks aout ole/shaeful
• Aristotle does not have any moral principles
o Though he does talk about owing people (a.k.a. justice)
• Both Aristotle and contemporary are concerned with action and practice rather than just knowing
o How to act rather than just knowledge
o Pratale good
o Critial of Platos for of good eause it is ot ahieale y huas
• Questions at end of paragraph are shared by Aristotle
• Aristotle doest thik e should fous o speifi situatios i.e., trolley problem) but rather character
traits that dispose us to act in a certain way
o Goal = to achieve eudemonia (flourishing)
o A good complete life rather than one specific scenario
• Aristotle = traits of character
Aristotle: Virtue & Vice
• Virtue = character traits (positive/ideal/perfection)
• Vice = something bad, inherent connection to having excess/deficiency, i.e., anger
• Metaphysical analysis
o Character = disposition to act/react emotionally to the world
o I.e., anger
▪ Reacting emotionally to something
▪ You have a character trait that disposes you to act angrily towards certain things
▪ Vice causes you to overreact to something
• Character traits are dispositions (well-disposed = virtue; ill-disposed = vice)
• I.e., good humour = virtue (leads to a better social life)
• What makes a good person = the more virtues they have
Practical Wisdom
• Intellectual virtue
• Huas are a slae to their passios
o Aristotle disagrees
• Ideal human being = reason is in charge (a.k.a. practical wisdom)
• Passionate part of the person = child
• Reasoning part of the person = parents
• Practical Wisdom = virtue that governs deliberation
o Tells us how to achieve our goals
o Always in charge
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Eudemonia
• Happiness
• The human Good
o Happiness
o Found in an activity that engages our uniquely human capacities of reason
• Happiness consists in the use of our reason
• Happiness
o Different from our notion of happiness is that we think of it as a blissful optional state (that we
will one day achieve)
o Aristotle: ot a state of eig, its a atiity its ot soethig you are, its soethig you do
▪ Where oept of flourishig oes fro
▪ Biological notion
▪ I.e., what does a tree need to do to flourish as a tree?
▪ What type of life does a perso hae to lead to flourish?
Aristotles Ethis Flourishig = ojetiist view
• We tend to think of happiness as a subjective state (Aristotle rejects this)
• Disagrees because he thinks flourishing is a biological thing
o Exercising your human function
• You a e rog aout hether you are happy
o You ay thik you are otept…ut you are not flourishing as a human being
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Aristotle: virtue & vice: virtue = character traits (positive/ideal/perfection, vice = something bad, inherent connection to having excess/deficiency, i. e. , anger, metaphysical analysis, character = disposition to act/react emotionally to the world. I. e. , good humour = virtue (leads to a better social life) Intellectual virtue: (cid:862)hu(cid:373)a(cid:374)s are a sla(cid:448)e to their passio(cid:374)s(cid:863, aristotle disagrees. 2: the (cid:862)(cid:272)hief good(cid:863) is so(cid:373)ethi(cid:374)g that is do(cid:374)e fo(cid:396) the sake of itself, (cid:374)ot fo(cid:396) the sake of so(cid:373)ethi(cid:374)g else (further, exploring whether politics is the chief good. If it is the chief good, it must be good for all of man and state. 3: those that are experts in a certain field can be judges of the correctness of information (within his field) If we know the good, then we are better able to attain it. 7: what can the good that we are seeking be, seems different in different actions and arts.
