Philosophy Homework & Notes January 22Philosophical Plumbing. By Mary Midgley1. Philosophy exists to satisfy mankind's need to define itself and to keep some sense of order in the unavoidable chaos that comes from our existence. We also need it to, as the article said, correct the unrefined faulty assumptions that society makes.2. Great philosophers are like poets in the sense that they create new ideas as well as state these ideas in an appealing way. They are like lawyers because in these new ideas there is a great deal of logic and reason not just flowery wording and misleading stories.3. The issue with the "social contract" idea is that it usually only helps the people and agencies that can help us or that we already owe something to. This often leaves out very important groups like young children who haven't yet had their chance to make their voices heard or the animal kingdom which is unable to directly tie itself into the "social contract" system.4. The alternative to getting a proper philosophy is getting a bad philosophy. This happens when the philosophical system you are using is flawed in the sense that it doesn’t take some factors into account. An example of bad philosophy is the “social contract” system.5. What Socrates meant by this claim was that someone who lives their life without using philosophical reasoning isn’t living to their potential and really can’t accomplish what they should. Notes- Conceptual Schemes -> Ways to organize the world, a way to map out ideas. No conceptualscheme is perfect. o An example would actually be colors, in that we have a classification for them but theyoften “run in the background” of our minds.  Black and white -> simple color classification uses dark and light. Black, white and red -> when red is introduced it adds warmth into the spectrum  Black, White, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Pink, Brown, Grey ->are the 11 groups that society generally use to describe all colors. Pink and greyare the weird ones in this group because they are what you get when you addwhite to colors (red+white=pink, black+white=grey). These distinctions are madebecause these colors have different emotions attached to them.Pink=girly,feminine; where red=anger, blood. This conceptual scheme is actually a very prevalent thing in our lives; think aboutif you saw a green stop sign or even a little boy dressed in all pink. o Social Contract Followed the feudal system, which was quite flawed in that you listen to the kingbecause he was appointed by god. Lots of “destiny” and “divine rights”. In the social contract system you listen to the president, king, etc. because he isput into place by the people, and acts in the best interest of the people. Citizens give up certain rights for the advantage of the entire society. In exchangethe government gives protection with laws and helps the people. The flaw of this system is that it can leave out people and things (children, theunborn, animals, environment). The small flaws are often ignored but it usuallyleads to the downfall of that government and that nation. o Going back to the plumbing, you can have a small, one-dropevery hour leak under the sink. You can easily ignore thisproblem for a certain amount of time with little ramifications buteventually, the leak will get worse and eventually blow up in yourface.- Part Poet, Part Lawyer (expert) -> must be able to explore the depths of your mind and come upwith new ideas but at the same time be logical and have a sense of formality. o Poet creates new ideas but doesn’t see the flaws or can’t put ideas into placeo Lawyer (expert) can put idea into play but is often ignorant and isn’t open to new