A thought or notion that cannot be true or false | God, Dog, Evil | Proposition | A statement which is either right/wrong | “God is pink” | Knowledge | Expressed in propositions that are formed by joining concepts, state something that is true or false | “The dog is Yellow” | Three Types of Knowledge | – Propositional- “Know that” – Knowledge by Acquaintance – “Know of” – capacity/Ability – “Know how” | | A Priori | Propositional knowledge that we know is right before (sense) experience | “2+2=4 “ | A Posteriori | Propositional knowledge that we know is right only after (sense) experience | “The sky is blue” | Synthetic | Not true by definition – Tells us something substantial about the world | “Snow is white” | Analytic | True by definition | “All Bachelors are unmarried men” | Necessary | Had to be true, true in all possible worlds | Maths – 2+2=4 | Contingent | Could be otherwise | “Obama was elected President” | Induction | Reasoning that draws conclusions from a finite collection of specific observations. | 1).
The sun has always risen 2).
The sun will always rise | Deduction | Reasoning in which the conclusion must follow the premises | 1).
Man is mortal 2).
Socrates is man 3).
Socrates is mortal | Innate | Knowledge that is present in the mind at birth | Conceptual Schemes – Kant | Intuitive | propositions that we know are right through pure thought | “I think therefore I exist” – Descartes | Empiricism | Argues that you can only have analytic a priori knowledge | “All Widows were once Married” (Analytic a priori) | Rationalism | Argues that you can have analytic and synthetic a priori knowledge (Not Plato) | “God Exists” – Descartes (Synthetic a priori) | All Ideas Come From Experience: Empiricism John Locke | David Hume | The mind is a Tabula Rasa – Blank Slate Sensation + Reflection
The Review on The Novel The Perfect Storm A True Story Of Men
The Novel: The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men against the Sea by Sebastian Junger I enjoyed this book because it was based on a real story about a brave crew of fishermen, which happened in 1991. I think that the perfect writing skills of Junger embellished it with the makings of a superb thriller. Critics highly evaluated the style and language of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men ...
Simple, complex, and abstract ideas Simple ideas come from sensation Complex + Abstract come from reflection | Sensation creates impressions in our minds Ideas are ‘faint impressions’ of sensations which are ‘vivid and forceful’ All thoughts are combinations of ideas e. g. Golden Mountain | Counter Arguments: Not all simple ideas come from experience Missing shade of blue – Hume | Complex/Abstract ideas are not from experience general idea is required to form the abstract idea – Curruthers | Some ideas are innate Ideas of God/Infinity – Descartes Veined Marble – Leibniz All knowledge is innate in the soul, just needs to be recalled – Plato |
Knowledge about what exists must be justified by sense experience: John Lock | 2 Fountains of Knowledge – Sensation + Reflection All ideas are from these – So all propositions must be as well | BUT | David Hume | Hume’s Fork Relations of Ideas – Analytic a priori knowledge Matters of Fact – Synthetic a posteriori knowledge Anything is ‘Empty Metaphysical Speculation” and should be ‘cast to the flames’ e. g. God | Hume’s Fork itself is ’empty metaphysical speculation’ – contradicts itself | Alfred Jules Ayer | Verification Principle Analytic or Empirically Verifiable (can be proven by experience) Anything else is meaningless e. g. Infinity | | John Stewart Mill | No a priori knowledge All knowledge is a posteriori and learnt through induction, including logic and mathematics | What about analytic a priori knowledge? “A bachelor is not married” | Strengths:
Sets clear limits on appropriate objects of knowledge – Allows us to learn without being distracted by ‘Empty Metaphysical Speculation’ The view reflects our experience of learning – It explains why we learn like we do Counter Arguments: Sense experience is never certain – Leads to scepticism Senses, Dreams, Deceiving Demon – Descartes Cave Analogy – Plato | Some knowledge about what exists is known a priori Self/God/EW – Descartes Forms – Plato Causation, self, space – Kant | Knowledge of relations of ideas is a priori Don’t get more certain – True in all possible worlds – Russell | Experience alone is unintelligible Needs to be mediated through a conceptual scheme – Kant, Saphir/Whorf | Mind contains innate knowledge:
The Essay on Ideas Of Justice God Testament Unjust
The idea of justice has been very prominent in the readings and discussions that we have had this quarter. The Old Testament and Plato's Republic both give definitions and ideals of justice, but sometimes these ideas are contrasting or even hypocritical in their respective practices. These books both give examples of justice and how people come across their individual ideas of what justice is. I ...
Plato | All knowledge is innate Slave Boy Analogy No education but still recognises the proof Learning as recollecting/remembering prompted by questioning Reason recognises truth not the senses | BUT Boy is prompted through questions | Leibniz | Veined Marble Mind not passive – contains ‘natural inclinations and dispositions, habits or potentialities’ | | Kant | Conceptual Schemes are innate Categories are innate e. g. Space, Time, Self | The conceptual scheme is innate capacity/ability knowledge, not propositional knowledge | Counter arguments: This knowledge can be explained through intuition and deduction Reason discovers the knowledge – Descartes | innate knowledge is absurd – There is no universal assent Children and idiots don’t know the simplest truths – Locke | Innate knowledge is a ‘near contradiction’ – Impossible to know but not know that you know – Locke | Doctrine of Innate Ideas:
Descartes | Ideas are either: Adventitious – From experience Factitious – Made up by us Innate – In the mind at birth | ‘God’, ‘Infinity’, and ‘supreme perfection’ are not experienced or made up They must therefore be innate (Trademark Argument – We know of God, but do not experience God – He left his mark on us – This is innate) | Innate ideas provide the materials for reason to think develop knowledge without needing experience | Counter Arguments: John Locke | The mind as a Tubula Rasa (slank slate) at birth There is no innate knowledge only a posteriori knowledge We have of positive idea of infinity Infinity is defined in the negative ‘never ending’, only ever experience being able to add more on | David Hume | All ideas are formed from experience E. g. Golden Mountain – God is just qualities in man joined together and ‘augmented without limit’ |
The Term Paper on Formal Conditions Kant Knowledge Experience
Background, Importance And Essence Of Kant's "Copernican Revolution" In Philosophy It is beyond doubt that Immanuel Kant is one of the most important and influential philosophers in the history of western philosophy. In the same vein, the assertion that his major work, Critique of Pure Reason, represents a turning point in philosophical thinking could hardly be refuted. In other words, it paves ...
Knowledge Through Intuition + Deduction Key Terms | Intuition | Self evident truths – Reached through pure thought | Deduction | Conclusion reached by following same premises e. g. Sudoku – Original numbers are self evident, other numbers discovered through reason. Answer is certain | Descartes | Intuition | Self as a thinking thing exists (The Cogito) | Deduction | God Exists > External world exists (Ontological Argument) | Counter Arguments: Descartes’ intuitions and deduction don’t work Existence of self not known through reason – Cogito only proves only the existence of thought, not a thinker e. g.
BFG (Big Friendly Giant) Ontological Argument fails to prove the existence of God – Only proves hypothetical existence – Hume Proof for existence of external world depends on existence of a good God | Hume’s Fork Reason limited to tautologies/relations of ideas | No a priori knowledge – Mill | Is certainty confined to introspection and the tautological? Key Terms | Introspection – Looking inwards i. e. Internal experiences Tautology – Saying the same thing twice E. g. Reverse Backwards (i. e. Analytic) | David Hume | Hume’s Fork Reason is limited to the meaning of words | Descartes | Experience is limited to immediate awareness We can never be sure that the external world corresponds to out experiences (we might be dreaming/demon) |
Conclusions: David Hume | Yes | Hume’s Fork Only relations of ideas can be certain, all matters of fact are open to doubt | Descartes | No | Reason can discover certain knowledge of the world through intuition and deduction e. g. God exists | Kant | No | We can have certain synthetic a priori knowledge of our conceptual scheme e. g. We will perceive the world in space, time, causation | Yes | We can never know of the world of the noumena | Experience is intelligible due to a conceptual scheme: Kant | Mind is active – Organises experience into categories e. g.
Filing Cabinet Ordered into Space/ time/causal relations/unity Conceptual scheme > Universal, a priori, necessary | Implications | Synthetic a priori knowledge of the categories is possible e. g. Cookie cutter analogy – Cutter is set (conceptual scheme), What it is cutting can change, but still get the same shape Only know the phenomena, never the noumena Fishing Net/Blue Spectacles Analogy | Saphir/Whorf | Experience is ordered due to the language that we use Linguistic relativism – Societies organise experience by defining thing with words e. g. Inuit + Snow, and Hopi + Time Conceptual Scheme > A posteriori, relative contingent | Implications | World as it is is still unknowable No innate scheme, rather a range of different schemes |
The Term Paper on Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme
1 FORM 8 INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FUND MIANGO ROAD, P.M.B. 2199, JOS STUDENTS INDUSTRIAL WORK EXPERIENCE SCHEME END-OF-PROGRAMME REPORT SHEET PART A (To be completed by the Student) 1. (a) Name in full: (b) Registration/Matriculation Number: (d) Year of Study (c) Course of Study: (e) Name of Institution: 2. (a) Name & Address of the Establishment of Attachment: (b) The Department/Section: (c) ...
