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Humanities

Humanities

 Philosophy: (“The love of wisdom”)

- Discovering general principles (Awareness of that which was basic &
unchangeable) & normative (Distinguishing between “what is” and “What Page | 1
ought to be”) criteria, using the method of rational reflection (The act of thinking
hard about something / Reflecting on the facts we are already familiar with).

 Tasks of philosophy:
1) Constructive: Discovering the ultimate causes of all natural phenomena.
2) Analysis: Reducing complicated phenomena to its main parts.

 The subjects matter of philosophy:

Any area of human concern.

 Epistemology:
- The study of Knowledge (How we know things / limit & certainty attached to
knowledge).
- Knowledge: Justified (proven) true beliefs.

 Rene Descartes’ method:

1) Accept things as true only when they are indubitable/ proven.
2) Divide every question / difficulty to simple / manageable parts.
3) Begin with the simplest  ascending to the more complex of these parts.
4) Review frequently enough to retain the whole argument

 Pragmatism movement:
Claim that an ideology is true if it works satisfactorily (Impractical ideas to be
rejected).

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Humanities

Empiricism
The sense (intuition) is the only source of
our certain knowledge
 David Hume:
- Adopted John Lock’s theory that
the mind is blank like a piece of
white paper on which our
experiences are written.
- All ideas in our minds are either
copies of sense impression or are
constructed out of these copies.
Rationalism
 Kant: Page | 2
- The consciousness follows a certain
set of rules (categories) that hold
thoughts together in the mind &
which are innate (A person is born
with them) and cannot be changed.

** Argument on causality  When we say ** If Hume’s argument was accepted, then

event ‘A’ is the cause of its effect event ‘B’ we could be certain that nothing exists
we do it out of habit or custom, but this outside the mind.
does not prove there is any necessary
connection between the two events.

 The main characteristics of mental phenomena (Supposedly the difference

between man & machine):
1) Consciousness: The central fact of human existence…(without it  other
human aspects like love & language would be impossible)
2) Intentionality: The feature by which our mental states are directed at.
3) Subjectivity: A person’s awareness of himself & his internal state of mind (e.g.
“I can feel my own pain, you cannot / I see the world from my point of view,
you see it from yours”).
Turing Test Chinese Room
A game that involves a person, a machine, A non-Chinese speaker is locked in a room
and an interrogator in separated rooms & full of boxes of Chinese symbols
the objective is for the interrogator to (Database) with a book of instructions
recognize who is the man & who is the (program) for manipulating these symbols
machine between the two (without seeing  people outside the room send in
them) simply by asking empirical & questions in Chinese (input) & the person
conceptual question. in the room uses the instructions book to
send out answers to these questions
(output) even though he does not
understand a word of either the questions
nor the answers.

 These experiments used to argue whether machines have or could have the
capabilities of the human mind in the future.

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Humanities

 Ethics: (Moral Philosophy):

Evaluates humans’ actions [Is it good? / Evil? / right? / wrong?]

Page | 3
 Aristotle: -Morality of self-realization-
- Nothing is good or bad apart from the performance of its function.
- Good is to allow reason to control our actions.

 Golden Mean:
A balance between the extremes…

Extreme of deficiency Golden mean Extreme of excess

Cowardice  Courage  Recklessness

A warrior fleeing from A person who knows A warrior charging at

the battlefield. when to resist, when to fifty enemy soldiers.
retreat, and when to
remain silent.

Utilitarianism Immanuel Kant

Morality depends on the consequences.
[Actions are good when they produce
happiness / Evil when they produce pain
or suffering]
Morality depends on the motives because:
1) We cannot always predict the
outcome of our actions correctly.
2) Utilitarianism would allow a
person to do actions for the worst
possible reason

Good will (absolute good) Relative good

The only thing that is good without May be used for harmful or immoral
qualifications. reasons if put in the hands of an evil
person (wealth / intelligence)

 Acting from duty:

We are acting morally when we act according to the laws & rules we freely
accepted & imposed on ourselves.

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Humanities
Hypothetical imperative / command
 An “if-then” sort of command
which is based on the acceptance
of a set of conditions.
 Utilitarianism is based on it
according to Kant
Categorical imperative / command
(Kant)
 Is unconditional  “Tell the truth
no matter the consequences” Page | 4
 The action is morally permissible
if:
1) The rule on which it is based
on can be universalised.
2) It treats people as ends in
themselves ( does not use or
sell others)
3) It is carried out based on a
freely imposed rule (your own
command / not from an outer
authority)
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