Ch. 3 : Decartes, Locke, berkley and Hume Flashcards
Which perspective did Descartes applied when it comes to epistemology?
Rationalism
Explain Descartes’ method of DOUBT
Doubt is used to obtain true knowledge. Anything that can be doubted is uncertin and should for this reason not be refarded as knowledge. Only that which cannot be doubted can count as real knowledge. He is a rationalist, therefore regards the senses as not trustworthy. Only one thing is certain : Cogito ergo sum.
‘Cogito ergo sum’ explain
After doubting everything, what is left? In doubting everything he know one only thing for certain, that he is doubting. HE has a body therefore he has to exist. I THINK THEREFORE I AM ( res cogitans+res extensa)
Res Cogitans
Thinking thing
Res extensas
Physical thing
Malin genie
all-poweful demon that constantly attempts to decieve us
What is the relationship between res cogitans and res exensas and what is the problem if we consider human beings as a unity of the two?
the ‘res extensa’ as spatial dimentions, while ‘res cogitans’ doesn’t. These two ways of being seem to belong to two different realms that cannot interact. How can they move each other? How can we explain their interaction?
What epiistemologic perspective does Locke advocate?
Empiricism. He is one of the three British empiricists
Explain what Lock means by stating that we are born with a mind that’s like a ‘White paper, void of all characters’.
We do not possess any inborn knwoledge and we dont obtain knowledge through reasoning, but instead through EXPERIENCE
How do we obtain knowledge accoriding to Locke?
Experience
What do our mental representations stem from according to Locke?
From Sensation and Reflection
Explain what SENSATION and REFLECTIOn refer to when talking about Locke.
SENSATION = Source of most ideas we have. depemds on our senses and how we derive it through understanding. (Cold, Hot, White, etc)
REFLECTION = Mind reflection and its own operation with itself
Locke draws a distinction between 3 types of properties, how does he call them?
QUALITIES : primary, seondary and tertiary.
Explain Locke’s 3 qualities
PRIMARY QUALITY = quality of the object no matter how we percieve it, independently from who percieves it.
SECONDARY QUALITY = quality that only exits linked to who percieves it , for example smell or sound. They very from mind to mind, and simply cease to exist if no one is around to perceieve them.
TERTIARY QUALITY = quality caused by one object changing the other, e.g the sun melting hot wax.
Snowball concept
Primary quality = it is round
Secondary quality = it is white
Tertiary = it melts in the hot sun
What is the empiricist problem with the distinciton between primary and secondary qualities made by Locke?
If you are a true empiricist and therefore trust your senses, how can you make a distinction between the two categories when they are both percieved by the observer thorugh their senses? How do you decide that some qualities cease to exist ? If they did then how could we assert that the senses actually give us knowledge of the world as it is?
What constitues experience?
Sensation + Reflection . Sensation is the source of msot ideas we have, depending on our senses and how we derive it thorugh understanding , while Reflection is the mind’s own operation with itself.
What is Berkeley’s response to Locke’s qualities distinction?
He argues that there is no such thing as a two-fold existences of ideas adn the objects they are supposed to resemble. If what locke says is true, how do we know shapes are really there if we have to rely only on our experience of them? ESSE EST PERCIPI
Explain Berkley’s concept of ESSE ES PERCIPI
‘To be is to be perceived’. Objects only have an ideal, not real or material existence. Thery are a collection of ideas. Eg. Cherry =if you take away the softeness, redness andother mental constructs, what is left of it?
But the how do we know that something still exists when we are not percieving it? ETERNAL GOD
How does Berkley explain objects’ existence when we are not perceiveng them?
An ominipresent Eternal God who always keeps watch and percieves objects.
What is Berkley’s stance on the dualism of res cogitans and res extensa?
He claims that the only substance that exists is the mental substance, and that all physical objects are determined by that substance and not vice versa.
