Intro to Philosophy Class Notes

   4/27/2026   Would you rather understand a few things perfectly or many things imperfectly?   A “sorites paradox” is a paradox of vagueness.   Suppose you pour a container of salt on the table to form a heap of salt.   Rule1: If you remove 1 grain of salt, you will still have a heap.   We know that if we remove enough grains of salt,   Rule1 will fail (certainly when there are zero grains left).   Now start putting grains of salt back on the table.   Rule2: If you add 1 grain of salt, you won’t have a heap.   We know that if we add enough grains of salt, Rule2 will fail (certainly when the whole container has been added back).   The question is what “enough” means in both Rule1 and Rule2.   There are different basic theories of vagueness.   Metaphysical Vagueness: The world has vague objects and vague boundaries.     This model of a hydro...

 4/24/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] I am sure that I would never ___.   Week 14 response Ask me any philosophical question   A possible answer to “What, exactly, is art?” Art is a form of play in which something that is created or constructed is presented for the primary purpose of appealing to an audience’s interest. The disadvantage of this is that many will think it too broad (it will allow works of fiction, movies, tv shows, games, etc. to count as art forms).  But this could also be considered an advantage. The emphases on “primary purpose” and “audience interest” rules out a lot of commercial art, sports, club dancing (though if oneself can be the audience this might be different). Another interesting question about art is whether qualitative judgments can ever be true or false. The sayings:  “Beauty is in the eye of the beh...

   4/22/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408]   What is your most useless talent?     What, exactly, is art ?   As with many concepts, dictionary definitions are inadequate. (Example: “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects” – Merriam-Webster)     Some forms of art do seem to involve skill or technique.   (La Pieta by Michelangelo) (Great wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai) Other works of art emphasize ‘creative imagination’:   (Les Voyageurs by Bruno Catalano)   (Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen) But then there are pieces of art that don’t seem to require either skill or creative imagination (though the crucial question is what, exactly, is mean...

4/20/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] Can you think of a situation where it would be wrong to tell the truth?   Deontology: Ethics of duty/obligation/rules/principles Consequentialism: Actions are made right/wrong entirely by consequences Opponents of consequentialism generally think that some action-types are subject to restrictions. Restrictions (forbidden) Requirements (obligatory/duty) Options (ok to do but also ok not to do) Utilitarianism: An action is morally right if and only if performing the action produces at least as great an overall balance of utility over disutility for all affected as any alternative action that could be performed instead. Some actions are BETTER or WORSE than others. It seems that in some cases, requirements and restrictions can be overridden. Under what conditions? When the consequences become “heavy eno...

 4/17/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] Is it wrong to cheat on your partner even if no one ever finds out?   Subjectivism How might we avoid subjectivism? How could objectivism in ethics possibly be defended? Principle of reciprocity (rational consistency) This makes it possible to value the experiences of others. And the qualitative character of experiences (whether our own or others’) is a matter of FACT, not opinion. Utilitarianism: The right action is the one that produces the most overall pleasure for all affected among all available choices. Utilitarianism is an instance of CONSEQUENTIALISM = actions are made right or wrong entirely by their consequences. Deontology: Some actions that are wrong “on principle” independently of their consequences. (Ethics is broadly a matter of following certain rules of conduct.) Best known deontolo...

4/15/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] Is it ok to lie to protect someone’s feelings?   Plato: Knowledge, including ethical knowledge, is a function of reason. Perception/sensation belongs to the body. Reason belongs to the soul. Empiricism: David Hume   Ethical subjectivism is the view that the truth of ethical judgments is subjective. Arguments FOR ethical subjectivism: There are two main arguments for ethical subjectivism. The first derives from the question of how anyone could ever KNOW whether or not ethical judgments are true. Consider: “It was wrong for Eric to murder Bob.” How could anyone ever know this was true? David Hume approached this question from his empiricism. Do we perceive the wrongness of killing Bob through the senses? (No.) Is killing Bob wrong by definition? (No.) Then what is the basis of the judgment? Hume’s answ...

 4/13/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] A and B have been married 40 years. B is dying. During years 20-25 of the marriage, A had an affair with B’s best friend, C. Should A confess to B before B dies?   History of Modern Philosophy (Summer & Fall)  Ethics: the use of reason in the service of the good. Meta-ethics: the examination of ethical concepts (good, bad, right, wrong, obligation, etc.) “What, exactly, does that mean?” Normative ethics: How do we decide what is right and wrong? (Includes ethical theories) Applied ethics: Are specific types of actions permissible or impermissible. (Include questions like is the use of autonomous weapons systems permissible?) Both normative and applied ethics make use of the other main methodologies from this class: “Why should we do that rather than something else?” “What (moral) difference migh...

 4/10/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] Do you think it is possible to change how fast time seems to pass (the subjective sense of how fast time passes)?   What, exactly, is time? Time is the measure of change. Is time possible WITHOUT change? In the absence of something that changes that can serve as a “clock” there can be no passage of time. For time to pass is for time to pass relative to some changing thing that “measures” (or observes) it. If all “clocks” were to stop and nothing existed by which the passage of time could be marked, then it makes no sense to talk about time PASSING at all. Sydney Shoemaker’s frozen regions thought experiment Suppose the universe was divided into three regions, each of which experiences a “local freeze” During a local freeze, the frozen region has no changes taking place within it   A local freeze las...

 4/8/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] If you COULD travel into either the past or the future but the trip had to be ONE WAY: a)    WOULD you opt to time-travel at all? b)    Which “direction” would you travel?   If presentism is true, then neither the past nor future exist as possible destinations for time travel. Modus ponens If A then B A Therefore B Modus Tolens If A then B Not B Therefore Not A Here is a related concern: How is motion through time (even at the normal rate) possible if the future doesn’t exist? How is any change at all of any sort possible under presentism? (How is it possible for something that exists to become something that doesn’t exist or for something that doesn’t exist to become something that does exist? ) Empirical arguments against presentism: -    Special relativity shows that there ...

 4/6/2026 [Philosophy Club every Monday, 4-5 pm, in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences room 436 ("The Cave")] [Bioethics Club: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm in Leigh Hall 408] How fast does time pass?   What is time? Time is often compared to space Time line Time is often considered to be symmetrical with respect to past and future Does time have a direction? There are different conceptual models of time There are three dominant models of time: 1.    Presentism (only the present exists) a.    The past used to exist but doesn’t anymore b.    The future will exist but doesn’t now c.    The present exists, but not for long (Analogy: novel written in disappearing ink) 2.    Fixed past open future (growing block view) a.    The past is “fixed”. What has happened is a permanent part of history and has as KIND of reality. b.    The future is open (undetermined). What is going to happen is not yet fixed. c.  ...