Canary Islands PAU History of Philosophy cheat sheet

Plato's Forms are separate, eternal and known by reason; things participate in them.

Aristotle's four causes and the mean of virtue must be defined and applied, not just listed.

Augustine holds evil to be privation, not a created substance.

Aquinas harmonizes reason and faith through natural law and the five ways.

In commentary, map images onto arguments and explain technical terms.

Descartes' doubt is methodological; the cogito is an immediate certainty, not a syllogism.

Clear and distinct perception is validated through God's non-deceptive nature.

Hume's copy principle ties simple ideas to impressions.

Causal necessity is explained by constant conjunction and custom, not observed power.

The self is a bundle of perceptions; induction lacks a non-circular justification.

Rousseau's general will aims at the common good, not the sum of particular wills.

Kant explains synthetic a priori knowledge through forms of intuition and categories.

The categorical imperative is formal: universalizability and humanity as an end.

Hegel's Aufhebung cancels, preserves and elevates; recognition shapes self-consciousness.

Avoid the thesis-antithesis-synthesis caricature of Hegel.

Marx's alienation has four dimensions: product, process, species-being and others.

Ideology naturalizes class relations; surplus value explains exploitation.

Nietzsche's genealogy contrasts master and slave morality; will to power is self-overcoming.

Ortega's vital reason unites self and circumstance without relativism.

Sartre: existence precedes essence; bad faith denies situated freedom.

Commentary needs thesis, argument map, term explanation and evaluation.

Define vocabulary in context: eidos, cogito, Aufhebung, alienation, will to power.

Comparison requires explicit axes and a stated shared premise.

The essay must include thesis, counterargument, reply and conclusion.

Avoid biography, unanalyzed quotation and anachronism.