Intro to Philosophy Class Notes

   9/29/2026   [Philosophy Club every Wednesday, 5-6 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave") Bioethics Club Tuesdays from 4:30-5:30 in CAS 436.]   If you really know something, do you have to be able to explain HOW you know it?   Problem of the criterion: “In order to have knowledge, you must know what knowledge is.” “In order to claim to know something, you must know what ‘know’ means.”   Epistemology (episteme = knowledge) Study of knowledge but also rationality, belief, …     Regress problem: If you have to know that you know in order to know, then you also have to know that you know that you know….   Same problem for belief: Suppose you believe something. Do you also have to believe that you believe it in order to believe it?       A resolution lies in distinguishing first-order and higher-order cognitions. You don’t have to have a ...

   9/24/2026 [Philosophy Club every Wednesday, 5-6 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave") Bioethics Club Tuesdays from 4:30-5:50 in CAS 436.]   Is free will all-or-nothing or does it come in degrees? Compatibilism affirms that determinism could be true but we could still have free will.   A better expression of compatibilism is that the truth or falsity of determinism is irrelevant to the question of whether or not we can have free will.   Compatibilists reject the alternatives principle as being part of what defines free will.   Rather, compatibilists think that the concept of free will needs to be defined in some other way than in terms of alternatives.   Compatibilism is mainly motivated by the ‘Reasons Principle’: S performs A freely at T only if A is consistent with the totality of reasons S has at T for acting.   Compatibilism suggests that what really matters to a cho...

   9/22/2026 Do insects have free will?   [Philosophy Club every Wednesday, 5-6 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave") Bioethics Club Tuesdays from 4:30-5:50 in CAS 436.]   What, exactly, is free will?     Is free will compatible with determinism? Yes: Compatibilism No: Incompatibilism       What, exactly, is determinism?   Combination of two causal principles:   Universal causation: Every event must have a cause.   Causal uniformity (2 versions): Strong: Given exactly the same causes, the exact same effects must follow. Weak: Given relevantly similar causes, relevantly similar effects follow.     LaPlacian demon: (Pierre LaPlace) Given a complete knowledge of the state of material reality at some time and perfect knowledge of the laws of nature, every subsequent event would be perfectly predictable.   Incompati...

   9/17/2026 What is something you don’t believe, even though you agree that it is possible?   [Philosophy Club every Wednesday, 5-6 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave") Bioethics Club Tuesdays from 4:30-5:30 in CAS 436.]   The concept of moral negligence is that moral responsibility attaches not only to actions (what we do), but also to omissions (what we fail to do or allow to happen).       The basic claim behind the Evidential Argument from Evil (EAE) is this:   An omnipotent, wholly good being will prevent any instance of evil (or suffering) that it can unless doing so would thereby either allow an equal or worse evil or prevent a greater good (otherwise, it would be morally negligent).   To put it another way: If an omnipotent wholly good being exists, then the only evils that exist are ultimately justified.     To say that an evil is ulti...

9/15/2026 If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?   Argument from Evil   Logical Argument from Evil – It is logically impossible that both God and evil exist   Traditional attributes of God (despite being beyond understanding): Omnipotent = all-powerful Omniscient = all-knowing Omnibenevolent = all-good     “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” (Epicurus)     A being B is omnipotent =df. If B wills some logically possible state of affairs S, then S obtains.   Stone paradox: Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift? Suicide paradox: Could God commit suicide?         LAE: 1.           If God exists, G...

   9/10/2026 Do you think it’s likely that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe?   [Philosophy Club every Wednesday, 5-6 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave") Bioethics Club Tuesdays from 4:30-5:50 in CAS 436.]   Remember that arguments are structurally good in either of 2 ways: (1)      Deductive: Premises guarantee their conclusions. If the premises are true, the conclusion must be true as a matter of logic. (2)      Inductive: Premises make the conclusion probable.   Most real-world arguments, even those that are deductive in structure, are really inductive/probabilistic.   This is because the premises in most arguments are derived from experience or testimony.   Example: 1.           All ducks quack. 2.           Daffy is a duc...