Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The
Study of
Knowledge
Looks at how
people can know
and be certain of
what they know
2 key questions
What is knowledge?
What does it mean to
know?
We ask epistemological
questions every day
Rationalism
Reason
Believe knowledge
comes from human
ability to reason.
Reason enables
humans to know
things the senses
dont reveal and is
the primary source of
knowledge.
Plato and Descartes
Empiricism
Sensory
Experience
Knowledge
primarily comes
from evidence
presented through
sensory experience.
Aristotle and Locke
A Priori knowledge
Gained before
sense experience
Does not depend on
sense experience
but mental ability to
reason.
Innate
Ie) math
Rationalists
A Posteriori
Knowledge gained
with sense
experience
Depends on the
evidence presented
by the senses
Empiricists
Confucius
Plato - Aviary
Rene Descartes
17th c. Rationalist
Begins with doubt uses this doubt as a
tool to discover truth rather than accepting
what has been presented
Looking for a solid
foundation for knowledge
Doubting the
Senses
Descartes dismissal of Empiricism
all that I have hitherto received as
the most true and assured I have
from or by the senses. Now, I have
sometimes found that these senses
are deceptive; and it is wise never
to rely entirely on those who have
deceived us once.
I am, I exist
If you can say I am, I exist
than you must
Cogito ergo sum I think, I am.
St. Augustine had come to a similar
conclusion For if I am mistaken, I exist
but using a different approach and left it
This gave Descartes a starting point on
which to rebuild his knowledge
Because doubting is thinking Descartes
also knows that he is a thinking thing
Criticism
Cartesian
Based on the philosophy of Descartes
Cartesian philosophers or ideas are those
that look to the ideas of Descartes
Ie) Cartesian Dualism the idea of
Descartes that the mind and brain are
separate entities
John Locke
Empiricist
Mind is a blank slate at birth
Knowledge is added through sensory
experience
Ideas are a byproduct of sensory
experience
Immanuel Kant
Kant cont
Ideas shook the foundations of
epistemology by focusing on the need for
both reason and sensory experience.
Reason provides structure for sensory
experience
Very basically put
Sensory experience + reason =
knowledge.