Spring 2010 Philosophy of Human Nature Study Questions
These are the study questions for the course. To contribute your answers, use the discussion tab. I will comment on any posts to the discussion page during the next class.
Return to Human Nature
Study Questions: Use the study questions below to prepare for the final exam in this course.
Implicit Questions: To avoid having to specify lots of obvious study questions, let's say that study questions implicitly include questions about the basics elements of reading. In philosophy, this is usually easy to organize in terms of the topic and arguments. So, while I may not add an explicit question about the topic and argument of a reading, you should assume that you need to know this kind of basic information about everything we read.
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- Course Goals
- Roll Call
- Schedule, Grading Schemes, Wiki, Journals, Study Questions
- Philosophy
What is Philosophy?
- Philosophy is a discipline of inquiry directed toward a wide range of basic questions about the nature of the universe and our experience in it. It involves a turn toward "basic questions". It also involves meta-level cognition.
- Philosophy uses general tools of reasoning and knowledge to answer basic questions and to develop theories about the nature of reality, both as a whole and in parts.
Logos, Mythos, and Theos
- locating philosophy in relation to Mythos and Theos
Logos (Human culture associated with discovery of truths about a wide range of objects)
- Associated with Philosophy, Interpretation, and Science
- Requires belief in the truth on conclusions.
- Aspires toward rational knowledge.
Theos (Human culture associated with our relationship to totality and to the divine)
- Associated with Religion.
- Commitment to truth of beliefs, but no longer typically asserted as rational knowledge.
- Includes both individual and communal experience which produce insight and knowledge about important matters in life.
Mythos (Human culture associated with myth and story in drama, books, and other media.)
- Typically associated with fiction, but includes dominant myths of the culture.
- Does not require belief in the reality of objects in the story.
- Claim to truth derived from indirect reference.
It is important to acknowledge that these three areas of culture interpenetrate each other extensively. There are stories and philosophies at work in religions. Philosophy attempts to purge itself of narrative, but some saying that is never successful. And story telling almost always seems to imply a view of life and a hence a range of philosophies.
Philosophical Methods
- Go to Philosophical Methods
What is Real? (1st Exercise)
- In small groups,
