Estela Garcia
June 10, 2014
PHI 2010

Module 3: Chapter 13 & 15.

1. Explain and evaluate the notions of Karma, samsara, and Nirvana. - Karma, samsara and nirvana fall under the religion of Hinduism. When all of our actions bring consequences, either in this life or the next is referred as karma. Samsara means the cycle of birth and death. Us humans are basically good, but are caught up in a cycle of pure desire and also of suffering that is a direct result of ignorance and of the go. Nirvana is another word to describe the permanent liberation from life. It is a liberation from the cycle of samsara, in which we cease to exist and become one with the universe.

2. Explain and evaluate the Hindu ideas of Brahman, atman
The second way dealt with events that cause other events. If an event happens, then some prior even outside of itself must cause it. It can not be an infinite chain of cause and effect. God was the first cause and effect. The third way (cosmological argument) stated that contingent things exist. Each contingent thing has a time when it fails to exist since objects can not be eternal. If everything was contingent, then there would be a time in the past when nothing existed. There has to be some necessary being that has its own necessity and that is God. The fourth way proves that God was consider the fact that all nature things possess degrees of goodness, truth, nobility and all other perfections. And lastly the fifth way was predicated on the observation that natural things act for an end or purpose. An intelligent being exists by which things are directed toward their end and this intelligent being is God.

12. Leibniz claims that this is the “best of all possible worlds”. - Leibniz was a continental rationalists of the 17th century. He believed that God, being all powerful, all knowing and all good, created the best of all worlds. With the principle of sufficient reason, stated there are a reason why things are exactly as they are and not some other way. The cause was that any event can be explained by referring to a prior cause, but the prior cause can be influenced by an earlier cause,