Philosophy Study Guide:

Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morality, First Treatise; Section 11 of Second Treatise):
• True goodness is not just being altruistic
• To find out real human goodness, Nietzsche goes back to study history and the study of words-etymology
• In the words and roots that designate good, the nobles felt themselves to be humans of a higher rank. Call themselves the truthful.esthlos means the one who is, who possesses reality, who is true. Becomes the catchword of the aristocratic and feel like it distinguishes them from the common “lying” man.
• *Origin of morality is power*
• Justice is a product of power. It puts order in place/creates laws/preserves power so it continues. There isn’t universal justice.
• Life is understood as the desire for power.
• Nietzsche believes there have been two types of moralities: o The first morality- aristocratic morality-moral reality
 The “good” are the few. They possess reality. They have power, strength, victory, self-affirming, freedom, possessors of truth, active. They have a healthier expression of life. More beautiful. They look down upon and despise the “bad”
 The noble human beings live with himself in confidence and openness
 The “bad” are the many. They are lower in class, weak, simple, restricted, lacking, degenerate, oppressed, plotting, hating, lying, and passive. They will eventually gain power which leads to Nietzsche’s slave morality.
 The priests are the leaders of this “bad” slave morality. Priests are the most powerless. Out of their powerlessness their hate grows into something most spiritual and poisonous. The truly great haters in the world have always been priests.
 The miserable alone are the good, the poor, powerless, lowly alone are the good; the suffering, deprived, sick, ugly are also the only pious, the only blessed in God, for them alone is there blessedness- whereas you, you the noble and powerful ones you are in all eternity the evil, the cruel, the lustful, the insatiable, the godless, you will eternally be the wretched, accursed and damned.
 Weak ones someday want to be strong ones o The second morality-slave morality
 Religious teachings are important
 “Bad” have resentment, hatred and envy towards the powerful.
 Morality of love that comes from hatred. Morality of revenge.
 The “bad” become the good by default because they’re not evil
 Evil were the original good ones.
 Degenerate form of life has to wait for its moment
 With the Jews slave revolt in morality begins. That revolts which has a two-thousand year history behind it and which has only moved out of our sight today because it has been victorious.
 Hate, Jewish hate- the deepest and most sublime hate, namely an ideal-creating, value reshaping hate
 Slave revolt in morality begins when resentment itself becomes creative and gives birth to values
 Slave morality to come into being needs an opposite and external world
 Lie themselves into it. Artificially construct happiness by looking at their enemies.
 The “bad””good” believe they are good because they do not do violence, don’t attack, leaves vengeance to God, avoids all evil, demands very little of life, believe they are humble, patient. Nietzsche believes they really are saying “ we weak ones are simply weak; it is good if we do nothing for which we are not strong enough”

Plato (Republic I, Republic II, Republic III 413c-end, Republic IV):
• The Republic is Plato’s greatest work
• Polemarchus means one who leads/begins a battle/conflict
• Thrasymachus means bold in battle
• Republic Book I o It begins in conflict between the strong and the weak and inner self o Money is good for a good person. Need money to be comfortable in old age if you’re a good person o Cause is whether you’ve lived well or not o If you’re bad with money you won’t live a happy old age o Knowledge is important throughout the book. Pursuing knowledge for its own sake. o To start discussions-begin with opinions you have o Question your thoughts to see if they’re consistent- we want a kind of unity o Polemarchus
 Believes you should give what is due. Owe benefits to friends and harm to enemies-justice
 Justice benefits friends and harms enemies. Provided friend is a good person
 Just people can’t use justice to make people unjust. Good people can’t use their virtue or goodness to make people bad
 If justice is excellence it cannot produce ineptitude that is harm o Justice is a craft/skill. Form of knowledge – know how. Useful o Thrasymachus says justice is the advantage of the stronger
 What is advantageous for the established rule
 It is just to do what is disadvantageous for the rulers and those who are stronger, whenever they unintentionally order what is bad for themselves
 No ruler considers what is advantageous for himself but for his subject
 A shepherd as a shepherd is thinking of benefiting the sheep
 Justice is really the good of another, what is advantageous for the stronger and the ruler and harmful to the one who obeys and serves
 A just man must always get less than does an unjust one. A just man finds that his private affairs deteriorate more because he has to neglect them. That he gains no advantage form the public purse because of his justice
 Justice is what is advantageous for the stronger while injustice is profitable and advantageous for oneself
 An unjust person is wise and good and just is neither
 Then Socrates proves an unjust person tries to do better than those like and unlike him and a just person won’t do better than those like him but those unlike him. Then a just person is like a wise and good person and an unjust person is like an ignorant and bad one.
 Socrates then proves. That just people are wiser and better and more capable of acting while unjust ones are not even able to act together. For whenever we speak of men who are unjust acting together to effectively achieve a common goal, what we say not is altogether true.
 A just person is happy and unjust one wretched
 Unjust tries to outdo everyone
 Outdoing person is a weakness more than a strength

 Any craft benefits something weaker
 Crafts supply and improve what is in need of the craft
 Injustice is better stronger/freer more masterful
 Relates injustice with virtue and wisdom and excellence
• Republic II o Adeimantus- tradition brings up poets/religion o What we have inside of us comes from genealogies o If you’re stronger than anyone else you won’t make an agreement o Gods themselves are unjust o Need to appear just when being unjust o If you seem unjust people will fear and want to attack you o Glaucon gives argument of Hobbes o Adeimnatus fives argument from tradition o Socrates begins his argument by building a city/society o Justice in a small scale is to justice on the large scale o As the individual soul is to the city o City
 Craftsmen
 Auxiliaries
 Rulers
 These parts of the city will correspond to parts of the individual soul o Needs- people are not self sufficient. Community is needed for an individual to survive o Everybody has a different nature. Use those natural talents in special way. Need to be specialized based on excellence or virtue o City just about having needs fulfilled then creates a luxurious city. Competition can arise. Can start war. o Special craft the warrior
 Protects the whole city
 Knowledge of what is good for the whole city o Best of the warriors will be the rulers
 Will be philosophical and know what is best for the whole city.
 Have wisdom/knowledge
 Loyal and obedient
 Unified o Auxiliary
 enforce the dictates of the rulers
 Have courage o Correspond to 3 parts of the soul o Craftsmen
 Physical needs that need to be fulfilled o Stories – gods have to be good- should have no reason to change perishable things change o People are responsible the for bad things not the gods
• Republic II (413c-end) and Republic IV o Warrior class defends the city as a whole so someone needs to know what’s good for the city rulers- ones with wisdom o Best of warriors become guardians o Three classes
 Craftsmen-produce
 Auxiliaries-obey
 Guardians-know what’s good o The city is based on excellence. It is according to nature o Identify natural calling and use them in best possible way o Harmony since everyone is fulfilled at what they do- unity o This is the only city that is really one. Other cities have potential for conflict o Has unity, solidity, harmony so the city is good. o Good put together well, lasts, peace, freedom o For Kant we need to divide empirical from a priori then we can develop
 We shouldn’t be afraid of common power. When reason finds a law that is universal beyond our individual self we have respect for it. Goal of empirical self is happiness o For Plato justice is equivalent to happiness o Classical virtues: courage, temperance, wisdom and justice o Guardians have wisdom- want city according to nature based on excellence o Laws and the right education they know what is best and good of the whole city o Auxiliaries have courage- but have to be afraid of disobeying the city. Obey wisdom should be afraid of breaking the principle o Temperance is self mastery. Agreement between guardian and auxiliaries and the craftsmen (agreement btwn rulers and rules) but without potential for civil war. Individual o Justice is simply everyone doing what is meant to be done. Each part performing its proper role o Knowledge without strength is meaningless you have to have discipline to work it out o Need all the virtues. Virtue is like one thing with four different aspects o The principle of non contradiction- the same thing cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect o Physical desire(appetites) meant to be rules- natural ally o Spirit (part that gets angry, feels shame has emotions) o Reason( interprets emotions, interprets desires) natural ruler o Emotions are closer to reason than appetites o Not able to follow principle o Spirit is better off when siding with reason

Hobbes (Leviathan, Introduction, Part I, 1-5, 13-14):
• By nature we are in conflict with each other
• Science starts to deal with what you can quantify
• Science and philosophy start to break
• Artificial-society
• Natural- individual mean (isolated)
• Sense-fancy-origin of human knowledge
• Subjective-depends on my perception, knowledge
• Objective- mass volume shape
• Memory/imagination-decaying sense
• Speech-raised imagination
• Thought- unregulated or regulated-from individual desire or passion
• All names refer to groups of individual since all humans are one individual
• Universal- refer to a bunch of individual- nominalism
• Reason is a calculator
• Passion is the drive
• Science – consequences of names. Material advancement. Satisfy passions. A knowledge of how to make something happen for our own purposes
• We’re all equal- material reality. Competition-diffidence-lack of trust
• Diffidence is fear or suspicion o Equality o competition o diffidencefear everyone o war
• doesn’t matter if you’re modest, going to have to neutralize ambitious person
• we have a right to everything including everyone else’s body
• ultimately everyone wants safety in that case everything is allowed
• War is a time when anything is possible. Includes time before actual fight too
• To get war  to peace you need a common power that keeps all in awe
• Fear is basis for peace and war
• Natural state of humans is war but it is unbearable
• The fear needs to be so big you won’t try to get away with anything- common power
• Reason will make everyone want to go from war to peace
• Nothing would compensate for taking over the power
• Making contracts that are formidable and everyone is going to fear it
• Cannot sustain constant fear for everyone for a long time
• Passion definitive of human beings is fear
• State of nature. Fear of everyone, right to everything
• Can end up with nothing. Reason tell you to want peace
• Social contract-rights reduce right to extent that you won’t violate anyone else so you stand out of the way of others
• Justice and injustice only could be in society not in the individual
• Both Nietzsche and Hobbes agree justice and injustice only exist when there is a common power and law. Good of other and your own good don’t agree
• To benefit other is to hurt yourself in this natural state
• For Hobbes cities are built out of fear isolation
• Hobbes looks at physical experience and things we do
• The right of nature o Liberty each man hath to use his own power for the preservation of his own nature, of his own life and consequently of doing anything which in his own judgment and reason he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto
• A law of nature o A precept or general rule found out by reason by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life or taketh away the means of preserving the same
• Right – the liberty to do
• Law- determines and binds
• War of every man against every man. Everyone is governed by his own reason. Everyone has a right to everything
• Where there is no common power there is no law and no injustice or justice
• The passions that incline men to peace are fear of death
• Nature made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind
• If two men want the same thing they become enemies. They will then endeavor to destroy or subdue one another
• Three principal causes of quarrel o First makes men invade for gain o Second for safety o Third for reputation
• War takes place not only in battle but also in the time before the battle
• All other time is considered peace
• Justice and injustice are nowhere in the body and mind of a person. They are qualities that relate to men in society not in solitude
• Every man should want to endeavor peace. Seek peace and follow it but by all means we can use anything to defend ourselves
• Right is laid aside either by simply renouncing it or by transferring it to another. o Transferring is when you intend the benefit to some person o The mutual transferring of a right is what men call a contract o Men are freed from covenants by performing or being forgiven

Kant (Groundings for the Metaphysics of Morals, Preface and First Section):
• Kant wants to talk about pure, ideal morality
• Calls it a priori philosophy
• Empiricism- all knowledge derived from experience -Hobbes
• Kant’s work tries to establish we have knowledge that isn’t just from experience
• Thinks that humans contribute to life
• Do we have any moral knowledge in advance of experience
• Physics not just empirical because it has laws
• Pure things you know in advance of experience- a priori
• Empirical- a posteriori knowledge from experience
• Morals too are divide into pure and empirical
• Metaphysics of nature and metaphysics of morals
• Is there a part of us that is truly free and rational in a universal and necessary way
• Metaphysics of morals: o Pure: a priori reason duty/ goodwill o Empirical a posterioriinclination/needssatisfaction of its happiness
• Happiness is at the level what is physical not what is free
• Being moral-self sacrifice
• Duty and goodwill should be a stronger motive than happiness
• Good will- o good unconditionally not a consequence of anything else o Ruler of oneself. No one can force you to want to do something
• why do we have reason o to produce a will good in itself to produce good will not happiness
• the more cultivated you become the less you are going to be able to satisfy inclinations
• don’t reason about desires
• to have a good will you have to have duty
• duty to preserve your life
• when is it that duty entails moral worth o actions in accord with duty-immediate or mediate o actions from duty o duty(moral worth) when no inclinations are cause of action o if the duty is determining the action not inclination then you have moral worth
• human nature another source of endeavor not just based on experience but comes from pure reason
• source of action is higher than empirical
• good will listens to reason not based on inclination follows duty o when duty manifests moral worth in virtue of duty
• reason- to create goodwill not happiness
• agrees with duty paying taxes
• from duty
• how do we know there’s moral worth from duty o doing duty don’t want to but nevertheless do because of duty o first prop- actions should be following duty o second prop- duty is not about purposes and consequences but the maxim(rule or principle) o the worth in the action cannot be expected in the effect o the will stands at a crossroads between a priori principle (formal) and it’s a posteriori (material) o action should be drawn from a priori o third prop- have respect for the law o respect for law is like fear-thwarts our own self love o respect is a presentation of worth that thwarts self love
• What kind of law elicits respect? o Conformity to universality law o Not lying because of duty isn’t because of moral worth o Always treat others as ends in themselves o Treat all human beings as moral agents o All rules apply equally to everybody o Will is in crossroads o Universal intersect o What is important is to see a priori source of reality.
• There lies the idea that existence has another and much more worthy purpose for which and not for happiness, reason is quite properly intended and which must, therefore be regarded as the supreme condition to which the private purpose of men must for the most part defer.
• To preserve one’s life is a duty o Everyone has an immediate inclination to preserve one’s life o They preserve their life to be sure in accordance with duty but not from duty o To be beneficent when one can is a duty o A law that one should promote his happiness not from inclination but from which has moral worth. o An action done from duty has its moral worth not in the purpose that is to be attained by it but in the maxim according to which the action is determined. The moral worth depends on the principle volition according to which without any regard to any objects of the faculty of desire the actions has been done. o Duty is the necessity of an action done out of respect for the law o The moral worth of an action does not lie in the effect expected from it or in any principle of action that needs to borrow its motive from this expected effect. o The good whish is called moral can consist in nothing but the representation of the law in itself and can only be found in a rational being