Plato
This philosopher argues that the senses cannot provide genuine knowledge.
Who is Plato?
This philosopher defines humans as “political animals.”
Who is Aristotle?
This philosopher argues that evil does not exist as a substance.
Who is Augustine?
Descartes’ method for eliminating all uncertain beliefs to find absolute certainty.
What is the Method of Doubt?
This philosopher famously said, “Existence precedes essence.”
Who is Simone de Beauvoir?
This process explains how learning occurs despite the unreliability of sense perception.
What is recollection (anamnesis)?
Aristotle believes humans differ from other animals primarily because of this capacity.
What is reason (logos)?
Evil is best described as this type of absence.
What is privation of good?
This claim survives even the evil demon hypothesis.
What is “I think, therefore I am”?
Beauvoir argues that woman is socially defined as this in relation to man.
What is the Other?
These immaterial entities are the true essences of things.
What are the Forms?
This cause explains what a thing is, not how it came to be or why it exists.
What is the formal cause?
According to Augustine, sin originates in misuse of this human faculty.
What is the will?
Descartes explains error by distinguishing between these two mental faculties.
What are the understanding and the will?
This term describes self-deception in the face of evidence to avoid responsibility.
What is bad faith?
In this dialogue, Plato claims that the body distracts the soul from truth.
What is the Phaedo?
According to Aristotle, the soul is the formal cause of this.
What is the living body?
This Neoplatonic idea allows Augustine to claim God is all-good despite the existence of evil.
What is evil as privation?
This thought experiment imagines a being who deceives us about reality.
What is the evil demon?
This sociologist-philosopher introduced the concept of double-consciousness.
What is Du Bois?
Plato divides the soul into these three parts.
What are the rational, spirited, and appetitive parts?
This Aristotelian idea was later used to justify social inequality.
What is natural hierarchy (or natural slavery)?
For Augustine, this—not reason, virtue, or politics—is the foundation of human goodness.
What is a personal relationship with God?
This example shows that the mind knows bodies better than the senses do.
What is the wax example?
This form of consciousness is flexible, intentional, and potentially helpful.
What is multiple consciousness?