Term
| According to Aristotle, what is the function of humans? What is Virtue? And what are some virtues? |
|
Definition
Aristotle’s concept of virtue is based on a very special conception of man as a rational being. Virtue, accordingly, is rational activity, activity in accordance with a rational principle. Aristotle can then defend, for example courage as a virtue by showing that the courageous man is more rational than the coward. Aristotle arrives at this conception of man as an essentially rational being by asking what “the natural good for man” is. This, he argues, will be discovered by finding what all men desire “for it’s own sake” and not “for the sake of anything else.”
For, Aristotle the virtuous man wants to act virtuously and enjoys doing so. |
|
|
Term
| Compare and contrast the Aristotelian and Christian views on humility and pride and how they highlight the differences between these two moral worldviews. |
|
Definition
| In Christian morality pride is one of the seven deadly sins while humility is a virtue. In Aristotelian views it is reversed, pride is seen as ambitious and a call to due desire for honor and if you do not take pride you are seen to be a gentle man who is wrathless. |
|
|
Term
| According to Aristotle, how do you acquire virtues? |
|
Definition
| According to Aristotle to acquire virtue one must be a good citizen and more importantly a happy person, but Aristotle argues that virtue is not only acquired by practice, he also argues that virtue is a state of character. The virtuous person wants to do virtuous acts and he does them “naturally”. We sometimes think that we are moral just because we believe in moral principles. But believing isn’t enough virtuous action is required. The virtuous person does not force himself to do virtuous things because he is supposed to; he does it because he wants to its built in his very character. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Aristotle’s account of how virtues and vices are exhibited in actions within particular contexts using his example of cowardice-courage-rashness. |
|
Definition
| Courage, particularly courage in battle (extremes: cowardice, rashness). What motivates courage, Aristotle tells us, is a sense of honor, not fear of punishment nor desire for reward, nor merely a sense of duty. The courageous man is afraid, he adds, because without fear there would be no courage. The man who feels no fear in the face of danger is rather rash. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Aristotle’s views on (1) pleasure, (2) honor/fame, and (3) goodness as three possible goals of life and grounds for happiness. |
|
Definition
| Aristotle uses one logical strategy, the idea that every act is for the sake of something. But, since there can be no "infinite regress," there must be some ulimate end. Aristotle examines two popular conceptions of this ultimate end that is the natural good for man: pleasure and success. He rejects both because neither pleasure nor success is desired for its own sake. Rather, happiness is what all men desire for its own sake and is the natural good for man. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Hume’s theory of moral sentiment: talk about sentiment, moral sentiment, self-love and sympathy. |
|
Definition
| Before, Kant the ruling conception of morality was based upon a conception of personal feeling. The key to this theory is the notion of sentiment or “feelings” and the notion of sympathy or “feeling pity for other people and taking their interest into account as well as our own”. The main hypothesis is that morality is determined by sentiment. Hume also gives us his very strong opinion that “reason is and ought to be, the slave of passions. As for self-love virtue is only desirable on its own account for the immediate satisfaction which it conveys. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Rousseau’s notions of conscience and the natural goodness of humans. |
|
Definition
If good is good, it must be good in the depth of our heart as well as in our actions; and the first reward of justice is the consciousness that we are acting justly. If moral goodness is in accordance with our nature, man can only be health in mind and body when he is good. If it is not so, and if man is by nature evil, he cannot cease to be evil without corrupting his nature, and goodness in him is a crime against nature. If he is made to do harm to his fellow creatures, as the wolf is made to devour his prey, a humane man would be as depraved a creature as a pitiful wolf; and virtue alone would cause remorse.
For Rousseau, sentiment also defines morality. |
|
|
Term
| Explain why Kant prefers rationality over sentiment as a ground of morality. |
|
Definition
| Kant argued that morality must be based solely on reason and reason alone. Its central concept is the concept of duty, and so morality is a matter of deontology. Kant replies that reason also has a practical side, one that is capable of telling us what to do as well as how to do it. Rousseau had said that morality must be universal, common to all me, even in a “state of nature.” Kant agrees, but says that the nature of this universality cannot lie in people’s feelings, which may vary from person to person and society to society, but only in reason, which by its very nature must be universal. The only thing that is ultimately worth moral consideration is how a person is brought up, good morals are universal. It is more of a call of duty then a natural state of being. To be in accordance with such “moral laws” in time makes us morally worthy. |
|
|
Term
| Use the Golden Rule to explain the core of Kant’s logical structure of morality. |
|
Definition
| The conception of “universal conformity to law” is Kant’s central notion of duty. He defines it, as we shall see, as a generalized version of the Golden Rule: “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” The point is, decide what you ought to do by asking yourself the question, “What if everyone were to do that?” The Golden Rule can also be used to explain Kant’s “hypothetical imperatives”; for example “go to law school” (if you want to be a lawyer). Similar to if you’re going to be rude and malicious to someone, expect them to be rude and malicious back- so in other words an imperative is given (a command in discussion of morality) don’t be rude and malicious! |
|
|
Term
| Explain Kant’s notions of “means-to-an-end” versus “ends-in-themselves” and “kingdom of ends”. |
|
Definition
| Similar to the Christian “Golden Rule” Kant demands that we derive from our own self-interest a general concern for all human beings. |
|
|
Term
| Briefly explain every one of Bentham’s criteria as used in his “happiness calculus” to characterize and quantify pleasures and pains: intensity, duration, etc. |
|
Definition
To a person considered by himself, the value of a pleasure or pain considered by itself, will be greater or less, according to the four following circumstances.
Its intensity
Its duration
Its certainty or uncertainty
Its propinquity or remoteness
Its fecundity
Its purity |
|
|
Term
| Explain utilitarianism’s “happiness calculus”, “principle of utility” and “greatest happiness principle”. |
|
Definition
Principle of Utility- Jeremy Bentham’s whole aim was to make most people as happy as possible. Bentham was motivated to formulate his utilitarian theories not so much by complexity, but a single principle that would simplify all morality. Bentham looked for a single principle that would simplify the law. Bentham began with the fact that people seek pleasure and avoid pain thus he developed the “Principle of Utility”. Morality, according to Bentham’s principle of utility, means nothing other than action that tends to increase the amount of pleasure rather than diminish it.
“Happiness Calculus”- According to Bentham people do always know what is best for them. That is the reason for formulating the principle in philosophy. The heart of Bentham’s theory is the formulation of a procedure for deciding, in every possible case the value of alternative courses of actions. The procedure simply involves the determination of alternative amounts of pleasures and pain.
“Greatest Happiness Principle”- The actions are right to the extent that they promote happiness and are wrong to the extent that they diminish happiness. By happiness, of course, Mill means pleasure and the absence of pain. Pleasure or happiness according to Mill, is the only thing desirable in the end and all desirable things are so desired for the pleasure that they produce. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Plato’s distrust of Art. Explain his two basic objections to it. |
|
Definition
| Plato thought that art tends to impress us with the wrong thing entirely; with the appearances of this world and with unenlightened talent. Beauty is one thing, art is something very different. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Aristotle’s notions of closure, unity, and aesthetic necessity |
|
Definition
| Closure- According to the principle of closure, an artwork should have clear, well defined limits and should not “begin or end at any point on likes.” Instead, it should present something that is complete in itself. Aesthetic Necessity- The idea that the work should be so perfectly structured and the elements so perfectly coordinated in serving the effect of the whole that any change would be for the worse. Unity- Simply tracing the events in one person's life does not unify a play, for many unrelated incidents transpire in a single individual's life. Instead, the unity of a tragedy should come from presenting the play as a signle action. Aristotle believes that to accomplish this the playright should limit the material to the events of one twenty-four hour period. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Aristotle’s notion of catharsis as it applies to tragedy. |
|
Definition
| By catharsis Aristotle means the burden of our sense of vulnerability is lightened as a result of our co-suffering with the tragic hero. Perhaps Aristotle believes that we master our feelings of insecurity and vulnerability by expressing them vicariously through the play. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Plotinus Neo-Platonic idea of art as an answer to Plato’s view. |
|
Definition
| Plotinus a neo-Platonic philosopher argued that art can provoke insight into the Forms more effectively than nature can. To recognize beauty in anything is, in his view, already to be attuned to true reality. Thus, beautiful art should be seen not as a distraction but as a vehicle to the transcendent truth. And in this capacity art can be more valuable than beautiful nature, for art-enlightened by human insight- can be designed with the explicit intention of illuminating the underlying reality to its audience. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Hume’s views about aesthetic sentiment versus aesthetic judgment and his criterion of aesthetic value. |
|
Definition
Hume argues that we judge beauty much as we judge morality; we judge by means of peculiarly aesthetic sentiment. Although each of us judges subjectively, the sentiment by which we judge is a natural and human one. Thus, we can expect considerable agreement among those whose sensibilities have been nurtured properly. Agreement about what is beautiful indicates that the aesthetic sentiment, which beauty naturally arouses, in the human soul has been aroused in various observers by a particular object.
Hume’s criterion on aesthetic value- A thing is appropriately called beautiful if and only when if it provokes aesthetic sentiment in appropriately disposed competent judges. What matters, then is not so much the character of the object as the state of mind occasioned in the observers. In other words, the test of an object’s beauty is the experience it provokes in an observer. |
|
|
Term
| Explain Kant’s notions of “the free play of the imagination and judgment” and of “the sublime” as they apply to good art or good aesthetic experience. |
|
Definition
In aesthetic experience, the same two faculties (imagination and understanding) again operate together. However the end result is not a determinate concept. Instead, the two faculties interact in a free play. Imagination forms a representation in an object, but understanding and imagination are not cognitive they just “help each other out” imagination forms representation and to us beauty symbolizes morality. By stimulating the free play of our faculties of imagination and understanding, beauty naturally reminds us of another situation in which we are free.
The experience of the sublime consists in a feeling of the superiority of our own power of reason, as a supersensible faculty, over nature. |
|
|
Term
| Compare Schiller’s and Tolstoy’s views about the function of art. |
|
Definition
| Schiller argued that we live in a world that we must force to give us what we want. But when we begin to experience beauty, we learn that our interests and the external world can coincide harmoniously. This experience provides our first step toward personal and political maturity. Tolstoy similarly argued that the value of art lay in its social/political function. But the function that Tolstoy had in mind was quite different from that of Schiller. Art serves its purpose, in Tolstoy’s view, when art sincerely communicates emotion and thereby promotes feelings of community among people. |
|
|
Term
| Compare and contrast Nietzsche’s notions of “the Dionysian” and “the Apollonian” in art. |
|
Definition
| Nietzsche postulates two aesthetic principles, the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Each of these principles guides a particular kind of aesthetic experience. Dionysian principle fashions art that is frenzied and chaotic; Apollonian principle depicts pheomea through beautiful, idealizing images. |
|
|
