Notes for 8/27/2026

  

8/27/2026

Could two things exist that are EXACTLY alike?

 

Philosophy lounge

CAS 436

When asked what soft skills they most need in employees, the three most mentioned usually include: Critical Thinking, Communication, and Ethical Judgment.

 

Philosophy excels in teaching 2/3 of these … or maybe 2.5/3 … because philosophy teaches clear and precise expression in language.

 

 

 

Thinking of Law School?

 

Business school?

 

Oh yeah? Well, what about Medical School?

(Why 1998? Because that was the last year before philosophy got lumped in with other Humanities majors)

 

Other grad school?

 

(By GRE section):

 

 

 

 

 

Philosophy majors outperform other humanities majors in earnings

 

 

Studying philosophy integrated with technical disciplines (especially data sciences), tends to result in outperforming studying only the technical disciplines.

 

(Philosophy major + subject minor > Subject major + philosophy minor)

Why?

Because of the difference between durable and fugacious skills.

 

Philosophy

PPE – Philosophy Political Science Economics

PSP – Philosophy Sociology Psychology

 

 

 

Could two things be exactly alike?

 

 

“Problem of Universals”

 

No?

 

 

 

Leibniz proposed:

Identity of indiscernibles: If x and y are exactly alike, then x=y.

 

Indiscernibility of identicals: If x = y, then x and y are exactly alike.

 

Leibniz’s Law: x = y if and only if x and y have all the same properties.

 

“All electrons are exactly alike.”

 

 

What makes 2 things 2 things of the same type?

 

Socrates

Plato

 

 

What makes 2 llamas alike?

 

1.          These two things have something in common.

2.          Therefore, these two things have some one thing in common. (Plato calls this a FORM (idea).)

Forms are abstract objects that exist apart from us and our minds.

 

Do universals exist in our minds (or in language) or in reality?

 

Two llamas would still be alike even if no one thought or said they were alike. (Platonists say this)

 

Forms are eternal, unchanging, (perfect)

Particular exemplars in the world are always imperfect instantiations of the forms.

 

For Plato, the Forms are MORE REAL than the things that instantiate them.

 

Plato divides reality into three tiers:

Being (Forms) (Most real)

Becoming (material things – instantiations of Forms)

(less real than Forms)

Nonbeing (Un-Formed matter)(in some sense not real)

 

How many Forms are there?

 

As many as there are likenesses (commonalities)

How do we know the Forms?

 

Plato: We know them through the intellect.

But how, exactly, does this work?