Epistemology
Knowledge which is independent of experience (does not rely on, or come from sensory experience)
What is a priori knowledge?
According to this framework, actions that maximise happiness and well-being and minimise unhappiness are the right actions
What is utilitarianism?
The idea that one's mind is the one thing one can be sure exists
What is solipsism?
Nagel describes death as an evil because of this...
What is death deprives the person of life and future possibilities?
the idea/framework that asserts we choose our own actions
What is Free Will?
A theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience
What is empiricism?
This philosophical framework asserts that redistributive taxation is theft and that government has no right to take people's hard-earned money
What is libertarianism?
The idea that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another.
What is dualism?
Nagel says, "you may have had the thought that nothing really matters because in two hundred years we will all be ____________."
What is dead?
The idea (--ism) that all events are causally determined.
What is determinism?
Knowledge derived from experience
What is a posteriori knowledge?
According to him, morality is doing the right thing just because you know it’s the right thing--out of duty.
Who was Immanuel Kant?
The view that everything that exists is ultimately physical
What is physicalism?
Based on ordinary observation, the evidence points strongly to the dependence of consciousness
on the nervous system, and therefore gives no ordinary reason to believe in ______________.
What is an afterlife?
He argued that the right thing to do is that which we are all obliged to do all of the time--people are acting morally only if they act out of duty.
Who is Kant?
The theory of knowledge that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge
What is rationalism?
The two sources of undeserved inequalities that are difficult to remedy/make equal in a competetive economy?
What are ones socioeconomic status and differences in talent/ability?
Nagel discusses this method of indirect interference in the economic lives of people as a potential method of reducing social and economic inequality
What is redistributive taxation?
According to Nagel, who suffers misfortune when someone dies?
Who are the people left behind?
The view that people are made of two very different components: a physical organism and a purely mental soul.
What is dualism?
These three conditions are necessary to claim knowledge
What are 1. a belief condition; 2. a truth condition; and 3. a justification or evidence condition
According to Kant if a sinister-looking man carrying an axe knocked on your door and asked you where your best friend was, would it be morally acceptable to tell a lie?
No, Kant argued that lying is always wrong regardless of the consequences
He demonstrated that unconscious brain activity (readiness potential) precedes the conscious decision to move by approximately 350-500 milliseconds--offering some evidence that Free Will is illusory
Who is Libet?
According to Nagel, there’s a clear gap between how seriously we treat our lives and the fact that we can always step back and see our choices as uncertain or even a bit random. This gap makes human lives________.
What is absurd?
According to Nagel, who suffers misfortune when a person dies?
The person's loved ones, family and/or friends