Understanding Action, Knowledge, Morality, and the Universe
Action Elements: Intention, Ends, and Means
Action Elements: Intention involves attributing to a person a tendency to act, which can be spontaneous (happening to me even if proposed) and assumed conscious. Ends and Means: The end refers to desires consciously and explicitly proposed. Means are what we need to reach those goals.
Consequences are derived from the action. Every action has predictable and unpredictable consequences. Sense refers to why the action happens in a particular way.
Theoretical vs. Practical Knowledge
Theoretical knowledge is characteristic of scientific reasoning, where principles are intended to be universally applicable.
Practical knowledge is reasonably calculated and under study, where principles can be otherwise.
Moral vs. Technical Knowledge
- Purposes: The cautious perform good deeds without a specific end, while the technician produces objects for a specific end.
- Virtue: The kind of virtue is very important for this activity.
- Goods: Technique produces particular goods, while the wise seek happiness.
The technical person is clever in production, and the wise person seeks good ends. (The action is intended.)
Moral Freedom and Structure
Moral freedom involves the freedom of choice and the ability to recognize that there are ways to be more themselves than others, encompassing both moral structure and moral content.
Reflection on ethics is the domain of moral philosophers.
Skepticism, Emotivism, and Subjectivism
Skepticism is a knowledge attitude where the human mind is unable to reach a true and complete knowledge of reality. Emotivism expresses emotions and feelings; it increases our knowledge but can neither falsify nor validate. It originates in sentiment and states that evil or goodness is perceived by the senses.
Subjectivism emphasizes instrumental rationality, where subjects adapt appropriate means to the ends they propose, versus evaluative rationality, responsible for setting values based on past experiences or reasonable convictions.
Moral Relativism
Moral Relativism suggests that right and good can only be found within each context, including cultural relativism, contextualism, and ethnocentrism.
Political Philosophy
Political Philosophy, political sociology, and political science must deal with describing the activity and structure of political institutions.
Philosophy must be familiar with traditions and scientific contributions. The main task is to understand social and political reality through concepts.
Criteria include discovering principles and justice, designing models for a just society, thinking about the notion of the state, and promoting practical and engaged citizenship.
Origin of the Universe
Science, Philosophy, and Faith
Science: Using its method, explanatory hypotheses are formulated from the observation of facts. It must be ideologically neutral; a scientist must separate their philosophical beliefs and dogmas from science and cannot be atheist or theist, materialist or spiritualist.
Philosophy goes further, using empirical-rational methods to question the ultimate cause of the universe.
Faith answers the question of the origin of the universe since the revelation of God in the Bible. Scientific data do not contradict the truths of faith, so faith need not fear the progress of science. When there is a conflict between science and faith, it is due to the dogmatism of the former or an incorrect literal interpretation of the latter.
Mechanistic vs. Finalist/Theistic Views
Mechanistic or Materialistic. Mechanicism is a cosmological theory that explains the universe from an eternal material fact subject to movement and as a result of pure chance. Materialism is a theory of reality according to which only matter exists; everything comes from matter and it all comes down to matter. Matter is eternal in time and has always existed. Marxism is materialistic.
According to this theory, the primitive atom is eternal, expansive material, and the process that gives rise to the current universe is the result of pure chance and no response or an ultimate cause other than the same or a prior intelligent design.
Finalist and Theistic. The end is a cosmological theory according to which there is a purpose that presides over natural processes, especially biological ones, and understands the universe as a result of a plan or intelligent design. Theism is a concept that supports the existence of a Creator God and people.
The arguments or philosophical reasons for this position are two:
- A complex and ordered universe, this means in Greek Cosmos can not be explained only from the original atom and chance.