Chapter 1: Rationalism and Empicirism in Antiquity

Question 1

Epistemology

Answer 1

The branch of philosophy that focuses on knowledge.

Question 2

Rationalism

Answer 2

Maintains that true knowledge about reality derives from the proper use of our reasoning capacities (intellect, reason or ratio).

Question 3

Empiricism

Answer 3

Sensory experience is the ultimate source of knowledge. Senses are reliable indicators of what reality is like.

Question 4

Metaphysics

Answer 4

The branch of philosophy that asks and tries to answer the pre-eminent (more important or better) philosophical questions.
-> “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
-> “What is the world made of?”

Question 5

Pre-socratici

Answer 5

In search of the archè, the first principle. The basic of all things.
Thales of Miletos: water.
Anaximander: the apeiron, the undefined.
Anaximenes: fire.
Leucippos: atoms.

Question 6

Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

Answer 6

• Ethics rather than epistemology: “How to live a good life?”
• Wanted to know the essence of certain concepts, their unique identifying properties, like beauty, justice, courage, etc.
• Intellectual midwifery: Q&A/discussions with fellow Athenians to bring about true identities.
• Socrates claimed that his not knowing was his only certainty.

Question 7

Heraclites of Ephese (600-540 B.C.) “The Obscure”

Answer 7

• Called change “flux”.
• Nothing is, everything becomes / change is real and being is not.
• You cannot step into the same river twice, as both you and the river have changed.
• Panta rei: everything flows.

Question 8

Parmenides of Elea (510-440 B.C.) “Our Father Parmenides”

Answer 8

• Everything is, nothing becomes / Being is real and change is not.
• Nothing ever really changes: if something changes, it no longer is. Real existence means to be without change.
• It is their senses that mislead human beings into thinking that things are changing all the time -> how water feels hot to one person and cold to another.

Question 9

Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Answer 9

• Rationalist.
• Systematic thinker: not just ethics, but also metaphysics and epistemology in writing.
• Perception ≠ knowledge -> a stick in the water looks like its bending, but its not.

Question 10

Relativity of truth

Answer 10

• Plato
• Having genuine knowledge is impossible, as it is relative to the observer and his own perception and beliefs.

Question 11

Anamnesis

Answer 11

• Plato
• To learn is to actually be reminded of what one knew in prenatal existence through reason. Plato believed we were born with all knowledge (reincarnation) but lose it at birth due to the (traumatic) process of getting a new body.

Question 12

Nativism

Answer 12

• Plato
• Human beings possess innate ideas (no observation needed) when they are born, knowledge is already present.

Question 13

Forms

Answer 13

Plato believed that the world cannot be the ever-changing world of appearances, but a supernatural realm which contains the eternal and perfect Form, and the world we inhabit, which only has Impressions of objects of the perfect Forms (e.g. triangle in the board).
If we reason well, we will remember the Forms from before birth (e.g. Meno’s slave example).

Question 14

Allegory of the Cave

Answer 14

• Plato
• Human beings contenting themselves with observations of the world as it appears to them by sensory experience, are in a similar position as prisons. They mistake appearance for reality.

Question 15

Doxa

Answer 15

Belief / opinion.

Question 16

Episteme

Answer 16

Knowledge

Question 17

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) “The master of those who know”

Answer 17

• The first great scientist: physics, astronomy, biology, etc.
• Dismissed Plato’s view of two worlds: we only have one.

Question 18

Mind as a tabula rasa

Answer 18

• Aristotle
• The mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) before it receives impressions from reality.

Question 19

Organon

Answer 19

• Aristotle
  A scientific method. Six logical treatises which are assembled as the “instrument” (organon). We must construct a so-called syllogism (deductive argument).

A. General premise (unrestrictedly true law).
B. Particular premise.
———
C. Conclusions from two premises.

~~~~~

A. All human beings are mortal.
B. Socrates is a human being.
———
C. Hence, Socrates is mortal.

Question 20

Induction

Answer 20

From observations/experience, combined with knowledge to form a conclusion. Advancing from the observation of a particular phenomenon to universal law.

Question 21

Deduction

Answer 21

We move from an unrestrictedly true law (e.g. mortality of all human beings) to a particular case (the mortality of Socrates). Using a general premises to form a specific conclusion.

Question 22

Problem of induction

Answer 22

No matter how many observations, the conclusion will never be entirely certain.

Question 23

Nous

Answer 23

The spirit, the mind.

Question 24

Aristotle’s doctrine of four causes

Answer 24

Example: a statue of Apollo.

1. Formal: the idea of creator (Apollo shape).
2. Material: material used (marble).
3. Efficient: primary source of change or absence (the sculptor).
4. Final: the goal (devotion/aesthetic).