The Classification of knowledge

The Classification of knowledge
Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of Aristoteleanism is the classification of knowledge according the objects of that knowledge. The Greeks for some time had been concerned about the nature of human knowledge ; this concern is called epistemology, or the "study of knowledge ."For a long time, Greek philosophy dealt with questions of certainty; how could one be certain of knowledge? Suppose everything was an illusion? Aristotle resolved the question by categorizing knowledge based on their objects and the relative certainty with which you could know those objects. For instance, certain objects (such as in mathematics or logic) permit you to have a knowledge that is true all the time (two plus two always equals four). These types of knowledge are characterized by probability and imprecise explanations. Knowledge that would fall into this category would include ethics, psychology, or politics. Unlike Plato and Socrates, Aristotle did not demand certainty in everything. One cannot expect the same level of certainty in politics or ethics that one can demand in geometry or logic. In Ethics 1.3, Aristotle defines the difference in the following way,” we must be satisfied to indicate the truth with a rough and general sketch :when the subject and the basis of a discussion consist of matters which hold good only as a general rule ,but not always, the conclusions reached must be of the same order For as well-schooled man is one who searches for that degree of precision in each kind of study which the nature of the subject at hand admits: it is obviously just as foolish to accept arguments of probability from a mathematician as to demand strict demonstrations from an orator.”

KANT

Philo Notes

- A being of higher faculties requries more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering,and certainly accessible to it at more points,than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities ,he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade existence.

- for the standard is not the agent's own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altgether

- Alternative to happiness : Virtue and the absence of vice no less really than pleasure and the absence of pain. The desire of virtue is not as universal ,but it is an authentic a fact as the desire to happiness. And hence the opponents of the utilitarian standard deem that they have a right to infer that there are other ends of human action besides happiness

- Psychological fact the possibility of its being, to the individual,a good in itself ,without looking to any end beyond it.

- Virtue is part of happiness. The reason people seek for itself is because of the connection to happiness

- There is in reality nothing desired except happiness.

- Virtue: Moral excellence and righteousness;goodness.

JOHN STUART MILL

JOHN STUART MILL

Utilitarianism The ethical doctrine that one should always act in a way that maximizes "utility'' which is understood as the greatest good for the greatest number. According to act utilitarianism, one should perform the act that maximizes utility in a particular situation.

- Political parties utilize this philosophy


- Secular ethic


- A theory of human nature

- The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals "utility" or the "greatest happiness principle" holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness

- This theory of morality is grounded namely, that pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends! And that all desirable things are desirable either for pleasure inherent in themselves or as means to the promotion of pleasure and prevention of pain.


- Human beings have facilities more elevated than the animal appetites and, when once made conscious of them, do not regard anything as happiness, which does not include their gratification

- However, that utilitarian writers in general have placed the superiority of mental over bodily pleasures chiefly in the greater permancy, safety, uncostliness, ect., of the former-that is, in their circumstantial advantages rather than in their intrinsic nature.

Aristotle: Bio

Aristotle (384-322Bc) was Greek Philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, Music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in western philosophy. He was the first to create a comprehensive system of western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.

Aristotle’s views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and their influence extended well into the Renaissance, although they were ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics. In the biological sciences, some of his observations were confirmed to be accurate only in the nineteenth century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic. Which was incorporated in the late nineteenth century into modern formal logic .In metaphysics, Aristotelianism had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish Traditions in the middle Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially Eastern Orthodox theology, and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues it is thought that the majority of his writings are now lost and only about one-third of the original works have survived.