- Socrates takes this to mean that the Oracle meant that no man is wise because all men do not know that they do not know. Therefore, Socrates refuses to accept that he is the wisest because if he did, he would have implied that he was wise, whereas he knew that he was not. Socrates believes that his source of knowledge is self examination and introspective assessment of one’s thoughts, characteristics, emotions, and actions. Socrates believes in distributing of wisdom to others, making goodness come first while wealth follows it, which he advised the Citizens of Athens lead him to become a ‘gadfly.’ He considers unexamined life unworthy living because one does not get a chance to become accountable for their actions and the resulting consequences.
- Inchoate social contract theory
Inchoate social contract theory is found in Plato’s Crito because they agree that the state deserves our highest allegiance and deepest respect. Socrates clarifies the flux of reflexivity between a person and the society. He clarifies the supra relation when he speaks of the Athens. Socrates values the acculturation that the Athenian society provided beyond his individuated experience therein; therefore, he gives the yield of his identity to Athens.
- Appealing to function permit Aristotle because of the interpretation that when a person has a function than that is their special kind of life of action. Human good is living well. The function of an individual is the soul’s doings portraying reason. The Human beings function operates according to reason. The human function is a given life because reasoning is special for human beings, and action undertaken by the soul and its result is an action the show reason. This helps us understand that an individual who reasons well is a virtuous person since the reasoning reflects his soul’s activity. Aristotle says that, moral virtues are objects that play a role in engaging an individual in the life of rational actions and enables them to do these things well. It shows that gratification and pleasure is not the correct kind of life for humans. Doing moral good results into eudemonia (happiness) and flourishing in life.
- MILL uses the “utilitarianism and higher pleasures”.
He argues that we should inspect our actions on the basis of general moral rules such as do not steal and assesses utility only when caught between conflicting secondary moral principles. Happiness means absence of pain and, therefore, all actions that result into happiness are morally relevant.
KANT uses the principle of “the categorical imperative.” He argues that actions promote happiness or pleasure, both intellectual and physical pleasures. He, however, says that we should select intellectual pleasures because they of the natural logic of human dignity. Actions that cause intellectual pleasure are morally right according to Kant. Treat people as an End but not a means.
- Existentialism
Existentialism means that humans create their own nature. Existence precedes essence and essence precedes existence. Sartre links human emotions, facility, anxiety and despair to existentialism. Bad faith’ means that as we are thrown into a world they did not choose this can result into throwness due to dissatisfaction in the nature. The dissatisfaction results into optimistic toughness’ in the hope to build a better conducive nature. This is the principle of existence and it implies that the human beings are responsible for the nature they create.
Short essay questions, to be answered in about a page
- The role of happiness in Aristotle’s and Kant’s theory
Aristotle claims that the result of the activity is an end that is usually the initial purpose. He describes that all things are not pursued the sake of another thing. Happiness is the one thing that makes this true because it is not searched for the sake of another thing. Therefore, happiness is the highest of all good or “good that is self sufficient”. Happiness is explained as an end in itself in Kantian theory. Aristotle concludes that the morality (or moral actions) would result into happiness.
According to Kant morality, is not the principle how to obtain happiness. . He states that actions motivated by the need to acquire one's happiness are devoid of moral worth, not entirely immoral, but can be immoral if they are done out of duty and for self-interest. Kant believes that the moral theory based on happiness is immoral; actions based on duty and acted through goodwill are moral. For example, actions of Adolf Hitler were evil and were committed for the sake of personal happiness and were not moral.
Kant and Aristotle disagree because according to Kant morality is the way to act so as to make oneself worthy of happiness and not a doctrine of the way to acquire happiness. Aristotle disagrees arguing that morality will always lead to happiness.
My view is that morality is the way of acting so as to obtain personal, as well as general happiness. Actions that result to personal happiness will usually be harmful to the general public and, therefore, immoral. Morality should be guided by happiness. However, the happiness should not happiness for most people. The result should be happiness for self and the general public. For example, in a democratic country voting is moral as it results into selection of the majority people’s choice.
- Mill’s principle of utilitarianism
Mill’s principle of utilitarianism concurs with the “natural sentiments” which come from human’s social nature. Mill argues that happiness is the only basis for morality, and that is all that people need. An action morally is right if maximizes its utility (happiness or pleasure). For a society to adopt utilitarianism them, it would have to adopt the standards morally to bind their actions. Mill supports that all objects of people’s desires are aimed at happiness. He argues that the justice sentiments are based on utility and that rights exist because they result into happiness. Mill distinguishes happiness from sensual pleasure and explains happiness as a higher order satisfactions or pleasures like aesthetic , minimum suffering or intellectual. Utilitarianism has the problem that, the action is not always right even if it cause happiness.
- Kant and Sartre existentialism
Existentialism is a term used by philosophers like Kant and Sartre, who the nature of the human beings condition as the main philosophical problem and the philosophers believe that the problem is being solved by ontology. Philosophers grouped as existentialists are mainly from Europe and they date back to the 19th and twentieth centuries.
Kant and Sartre give different explanations of human freedom. Kant explains that freedom is autonomous where it is given by self by the recognition of its responsibilities.
Existentialism is believed not to make problems of pain in existence of freedom but usually takes it to arisen level. Freedom entails responsibility for one's activity and to self. Freedom and responsibility become absolute in a situation where one exists on their own, defined in anxiety. This explanation means that there is nothing else that acts through the individual or that shoulders their responsibility. Freedoms and responsibility extend through time unless the human existence ceases. This means that the two factors stop acting only after the individual dies.
Satre believes the consciousness is defined as nothing. He calls being of things the ‘in-itself’ and the human existence the ‘for-itself’. Since it is not a thing then it is not bound by the laws of things. This especially refers to the chain of causes and their identity. Distinctive nature of the human beings existence becomes important in existentialist themes where the nature of existence is defined.
Sartre’s conception of free will is correct, his definition of the will relates to the universality of choice in that free will leads one to make the desired choices. The free mind wonders around different option and allows the individual to make the perfect choice.
Sartre explained the existentialist account in relation to other philosophers; he took the Hegelian idea into a greater account. Sartre has since changed his view of the topic, and he no longer thinks of concrete relationships with other philosophers in a pessimistic way.
An authentic existence means the following to Satre, it is like a style of living, where an individual is totally aware of the fragility and absurdity of freedom
References
Mill, John S, and George Sher. Utilitarianism. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co, 1979. Print.
Kant, Immanuel, James W. Ellington, and Immanuel Kant. Grounding the Metaphysics of Morals; Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns. , 1993. Print.
Plato, , and F J. Church. The Trial and Death of Socrates: Being the Euthyphron, Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Plato. London: Macmillan, 1886. Print.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism and Human Emotions. New York: Philosophical Library, 1967. Print.
Crisp, Roger. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.
