PHIL 1000 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Soul, God, René Descartes
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PHIL 1000
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
22 January 2018
Meno
Q: Can virtue be taught?
A: What is virtue?
● Socrates has no knowledge on what virtue is
○ Tell me what virtue is and then I’ll tell you whether it can be taught
○ How can I know what the characteristics are without knowing what it is
● What is an acceptable response? (what can Meno say or do that will provide Socrates with
an answer)
○ Describes virtue completely
○ Doesn’t describe anything else
○ Doesn’t confuse it with its parts
○ Doesn’t confuse it with instances or examples of it
○ What the instances have in common
○ Be clearer than the term virtue
○ Shouldn’t be circular (shouldn’t appeal to the term virtue
○ Should give necessary and sufficient conditions
● Gives explanation as its parts
○ What unifies the parts of virtue?
○ Justice is example, but not virtue
● Calling for definition of virtue
○ Are the conditions for definition reasonable?
Reasonable
Unreasonable
● Can’t answer a question about a topic
if you don’t know what the topic is
● Need to know what you know/think
● First question depends on the answer
● If you don’t know what something is
with so many limitations
● May be no satisfying answer
● Limits the amount of other questions
you can ask
● Leads to an infinite regress
● Responding to the unreasonable arguments
○ Concepts can be relative to the person
○ Can never get a correct, absolute truth or answer because there is no such thing
○ There is a satisfying answering because it is inside you
○ Actually unlimited because it opens up lots more questions
○ Wouldn’t have an infinite regress with the theory of recollection
● Responding to the reasonable arguments
○ Can never answer the original questions
○ Answering a question about the topic can help you know more about what the
topic is
○ If you can’t guarantee an answer, then why is it reasonable to assume they can
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● General principle of inquiry: Socratic Method
○ Criteria for a good definition
○ Should begin with a definition that meets all of the requirements
■ Examples where this isn’t the case
● Why are some animals nocturnal
● Will people who get this shot get the flu
● Why do people sweat
● How much dark matter is there
● Asking questions before we have definitions of things
○ Things we’re defining are the forms
■ FORMS: Theory whereby things have characteristics because they
participate in the transcendent non spatially located places
● Drives Socrates’ argument
● Characteristics
○ Abstract
○ Not in space and time
○ Can’t be sensed
○ Found by the intellect
● Virtue is more than just characteristics
● Meno’s Paradox
○ If you know something, you can’t learn it
■ Refutation: experiential learning is different than knowing just facts
○ If you don’t know something, you won’t know what you’re looking for
■ Can know what we’re looking for without knowing what it is
○ Therefore, Learning is impossible
25 January 2018
Meno
Rationalists
Empiricists
● Empiricists are wrong
● Not all knowledge comes from
experience
● Nativists: all knowledge doesn’t come
from experience (a priori)
● Decartes,
● All knowledge comes from sense
experience (a posteriori)
● Have to give a story for everything
explaining that you could only know it
through experience
● Hume, locke
● Knowledge that is a priori
○ Math (calculus, 3+1=4)
○ My heart beats (?)
○ How to breathe
○ That the earth is round (?)
○ We could stop existing
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Socrates has no knowledge on what virtue is. Tell me what virtue is and then i"ll tell you whether it can be taught. How can i know what the characteristics are without knowing what it is. What is an acceptable response? (what can meno say or do that will provide socrates with an answer) Doesn"t confuse it with instances or examples of it. Shouldn"t be circular (shouldn"t appeal to the term virtue(cid:874) Can"t answer a question about a topic if you don"t know what the topic is. If you don"t know what something is with so many limitations. Limits the amount of other questions you can ask. Concepts can be relative to the person. Can never get a correct, absolute truth or answer because there is no such thing. There is a satisfying answering because it is inside you. Actually unlimited because it opens up lots more questions. Wouldn"t have an infinite regress with the theory of recollection.
