Ethical Philosophy Test

[JohnFKennedy]

1.    Nietzsche   (100%)  Click here for info
2.    Jean-Paul Sartre   (95%)  Click here for info
3.    David Hume   (84%)  Click here for info
4.    Thomas Hobbes   (71%)  Click here for info
5.    Stoics   (68%)  Click here for info
6.    Epicureans   (64%)  Click here for info
7.    Spinoza   (64%)  Click here for info
8.    Kant   (60%)  Click here for info
9.    Ayn Rand   (50%)  Click here for info
10.    Prescriptivism   (47%)  Click here for info
11.    John Stuart Mill   (45%)  Click here for info
12.    Nel Noddings   (42%)  Click here for info
13.    St. Augustine   (39%)  Click here for info
14.    Jeremy Bentham   (37%)  Click here for info
15.    Cynics   (35%)  Click here for info
16.    Aristotle   (34%)  Click here for info
17.    Aquinas   (29%)  Click here for info
18.    Plato   (29%)  Click here for info
19.    Ockham   (28%)  Click here for info

Strange.....I consider myself at least partially utilitarian and yet JSM was only a 45% match and Bentham a 37% match.

[JohnFKennedy]

1.    Nietzsche   (100%)  Click here for info

Scary

Now why do you say that? I assume you are making a judgement on the fact that the Nazis adopted and twisted much of his philosophy in order to justify their actions.

[JohnFKennedy]

1.    John Stuart Mill   (100%)
2.    Epicureans   (83%)
3.    Jean-Paul Sartre   (80%)
4.    Aquinas   (80%)
5.    Jeremy Bentham   (76%)
6.    Ayn Rand   (70%)
7.    Aristotle   (68%)
8.    Kant   (59%)
9.    Nietzsche   (48%)
10.    St. Augustine   (47%)
11.    Spinoza   (47%)
12.    Plato   (46%)
13.    David Hume   (44%)
14.    Thomas Hobbes   (44%)
15.    Cynics   (39%)
16.    Prescriptivism   (37%)
17.    Nel Noddings   (36%)
18.    Stoics   (33%)
19.    Ockham   (31%) 

I can't say I know who any of these people are.  Can anyone help?  Who's John Stuart Mill?

A famous Utilitarian. He wrote a series of essays that are compiled in a book called On Liberty (being the name of one of his essays) and another book called utilitarianism.

John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism

[JohnFKennedy]

I wouldn't go so far as to call him fascist, but he had a rather sick and twisted world-view. A disturbed individual.

IIRC He was very introverted and lived in solitude for much of his life.

[JohnFKennedy]

Hmm, well, having read those two articles (thanks for that), that result looks pretty good.

It is, I am a bit of a fan of utilitarianism though I have yet to read Bentham or Mills, I do have On Liberty by my bed waiting to be read.

[JohnFKennedy]

I wouldn't go so far as to call him fascist, but he had a rather sick and twisted world-view. A disturbed individual.

IIRC He was very introverted and lived in solitude for much of his life.

He had a mental breakdown and became clinically insane.

Yes, ten years before his death, his philosophical works were written before than however so what is your point?

[JohnFKennedy]

1.    Nietzsche   (100%)  Click here for info
2.    Jean-Paul Sartre   (95%)  Click here for info
3.    David Hume   (84%)  Click here for info
4.    Thomas Hobbes   (71%)  Click here for info
5.    Stoics   (68%)  Click here for info
6.    Epicureans   (64%)  Click here for info
7.    Spinoza   (64%)  Click here for info
8.    Kant   (60%)  Click here for info
9.    Ayn Rand   (50%)  Click here for info
10.    Prescriptivism   (47%)  Click here for info
11.    John Stuart Mill   (45%)  Click here for info
12.    Nel Noddings   (42%)  Click here for info
13.    St. Augustine   (39%)  Click here for info
14.    Jeremy Bentham   (37%)  Click here for info
15.    Cynics   (35%)  Click here for info
16.    Aristotle   (34%)  Click here for info
17.    Aquinas   (29%)  Click here for info
18.    Plato   (29%)  Click here for info
19.    Ockham   (28%)  Click here for info

Strange.....I consider myself at least partially utilitarian and yet JSM was only a 45% match and Bentham a 37% match.

You think that "God is dead" then?

Put it in context:

 Have you heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly, "I seek God! I seek God!" As many of those who do not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter...

Whither is God," he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. All of us are murderers.... God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him...

(The Gay Science 1882)

So first of all Nietzsche himself didn't proclaim that "God is dead", a character - no less a madman - in one of his books proclaimed as such.

Secondly, it is not meant to be taken literally, Nietzsche's character does not mean that God is literally dead, his point is that what God represents in Western society is dead, that the Christian notion of God was losing its application as great numbers of intellectuals and writers in Europe at the time had abandoned traditional Christianity. The idea is that God is dead in the hearts of man, replaced by rationalism and science.

It was all part of his case for a "superman".

Here is a quote from Wikipedia:

Nietzsche is also well-known for the statement "God is dead." While in popular belief it is Nietzsche himself who blatantly made this declaration, it was actually placed into the mouth of a character, a "madman," in The Gay Science, and later was proclaimed by Nietzsche's Zarathustra. This largely misunderstood statement does not proclaim a physical death, but a natural end to the belief in God being the foundation of western philosophy. It is more of an observation than a declaration and it is noteworthy that Nietzsche never felt the need to advance any arguments for atheism. Nietzsche believed this "death" would eventually undermine the foundations of morality and lead to moral relativism and nihilism. To avoid this, he believed in re-evaluating the foundations of morality and placing them on a natural foundation.


------------------------

It seems to me that the proclamation is coming true, accepted moral standards have been undermined and people have been re-evaluating them, traditional marriage, abortion, stem cell research. Much of Western philosophy is n o longer concerned with a belief in God, just look at Russell.

[JohnFKennedy]

I wouldn't go so far as to call him fascist, but he had a rather sick and twisted world-view. A disturbed individual.

IIRC He was very introverted and lived in solitude for much of his life.

He had a mental breakdown and became clinically insane.

Yes, ten years before his death, his philosophical works were written before than however so what is your point?

He had Syphalis. He was mad when he wrote his crap ("Why I am So Wise"...)

He didn't have Syphilis that is a myth, most of the claims he had syphilis came from anti-Nietzschean tracts, besides, syphilis isn't consistent with Nietzsche's symptoms as was shown by recent research in the Journal of Medical Biography.

[JohnFKennedy]

1.    Nietzsche   (100%)  Click here for info
2.    Jean-Paul Sartre   (95%)  Click here for info
3.    David Hume   (84%)  Click here for info
4.    Thomas Hobbes   (71%)  Click here for info
5.    Stoics   (68%)  Click here for info
6.    Epicureans   (64%)  Click here for info
7.    Spinoza   (64%)  Click here for info
8.    Kant   (60%)  Click here for info
9.    Ayn Rand   (50%)  Click here for info
10.    Prescriptivism   (47%)  Click here for info
11.    John Stuart Mill   (45%)  Click here for info
12.    Nel Noddings   (42%)  Click here for info
13.    St. Augustine   (39%)  Click here for info
14.    Jeremy Bentham   (37%)  Click here for info
15.    Cynics   (35%)  Click here for info
16.    Aristotle   (34%)  Click here for info
17.    Aquinas   (29%)  Click here for info
18.    Plato   (29%)  Click here for info
19.    Ockham   (28%)  Click here for info

Strange.....I consider myself at least partially utilitarian and yet JSM was only a 45% match and Bentham a 37% match.

You think that "God is dead" then?

Put it in context:

 Have you heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly, "I seek God! I seek God!" As many of those who do not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter...

Whither is God," he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. All of us are murderers.... God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him...

(The Gay Science 1882)

So first of all Nietzsche himself didn't proclaim that "God is dead", a character - no less a madman - in one of his books proclaimed as such.

Secondly, it is not meant to be taken literally, Nietzsche's character does not mean that God is literally dead, his point is that what God represents in Western society is dead, that the Christian notion of God was losing its application as great numbers of intellectuals and writers in Europe at the time had abandoned traditional Christianity. The idea is that God is dead in the hearts of man, replaced by rationalism and science.

It was all part of his case for a "superman".

Here is a quote from Wikipedia:

Nietzsche is also well-known for the statement "God is dead." While in popular belief it is Nietzsche himself who blatantly made this declaration, it was actually placed into the mouth of a character, a "madman," in The Gay Science, and later was proclaimed by Nietzsche's Zarathustra. This largely misunderstood statement does not proclaim a physical death, but a natural end to the belief in God being the foundation of western philosophy. It is more of an observation than a declaration and it is noteworthy that Nietzsche never felt the need to advance any arguments for atheism. Nietzsche believed this "death" would eventually undermine the foundations of morality and lead to moral relativism and nihilism. To avoid this, he believed in re-evaluating the foundations of morality and placing them on a natural foundation.


------------------------

It seems to me that the proclamation is coming true, accepted moral standards have been undermined and people have been re-evaluating them, traditional marriage, abortion, stem cell research. Much of Western philosophy is no longer concerned with a belief in God, just look at Russell.

Of course, that could be just the editors of Wikipedia apologizing to its readers. Because that contradicts nearly entirely what the Encyclopaedia Brittanica has to say about Nietzsche.

And about Russell: He had to give up his mathematical career when his principle work, the Principia Mathematica, was found to be just a tautology.

It could very well be, generally wikipedia tries to be impartial I believe but it could possibly be, my main point was really to point out that Nietzsche himself did not say that "God is dead", a character from The Gay Science did and that it is not necessarily a physical death.

[JohnFKennedy]

Nietzsche's "superman" theory is digusting. As are a lot of his other ideas come to think of it... killing all disabled people is just... urgh...

Overman is the commonly accepted translation by philosophers, the idea that man needs to overcome himself. Uber can mean over as well as super I believe.

The original word was Ubermensch.

Also, I never professed to agree with all his ideas now did I? I am merely defending him against many criticisms which are often taken out of context.

[JohnFKennedy]

Nietzsche's "superman" theory is digusting. As are a lot of his other ideas come to think of it... killing all disabled people is just... urgh...

The abuse and the distortion of the ubermensch idea are disgusting.  Nietzche's postulation of Overman in Zarathustra is much more benign.  Man is the bridge between animal and overman.  The overman is simply a higher state of conciousness and understanding.  The Herbert Spencer like arguments were not explicitly stated by Nietzche.  You can blame his popularizers for that- mainly his siter who was a National Socialist and perverted many of his writings.  Nietzsche was no Nazi and would have looked unkindly on them.  One of the reasons he broke with Wagner was due to Wagners anti-semitism.  Nietzche also frequently criticized Prussian/German natiopnalism and militarism.  Nietzche was a very complex and often contradictory philosopher.  He is frequently taken out of context and misunderstood.  On the whole, I disagree with his general ideas but I think he gets an bad rap on many things.

^^ What he said, glad to see others are out there who will defend Nietzsche, heh, also to Angus heehee.

[JohnFKennedy]

*Bump* I liked this thread, why'd it get buried?