Empiricism

Question 1

Plato and Descartes arguement

Answer 1

(with very different reasons) that what is special about us is our ability to think in a particular way. Our Reason.

Question 2

Descartes

Answer 2

Our reason also shows us that there must be a realm of the forms

Question 3

Hume overview

Answer 3

Hume wants to provide an account of how our minds work that is empirical that is Hume wants to base his conclusions on observation rather than on reason.

Question 4

Hume two groups (pt 1)

Answer 4

Relations of ideas - this is what we might call a priori truths like a triangle has three sides etc.

This is true whether there actually are any triangles in the world. A chiliagon has 1000 sides - this is true but as far as I am aware there aren’t any in the world.

Question 5

Hume two groups (pt 2)

Answer 5

Matters of fact - these depend on what the world is like - for example Donald Trump is orange in colour. The truth of this statement requires us to go into the world and check.

Question 6

Hume on rationalists

Answer 6

Hume wants to show that things rationalists want to put in the first category (relations of ideas - a priori knowledge) should actually be in the second category (matters of fact).

Question 7

Cause and Effect

Answer 7

Here Hume argues that cause and effect is not an a priori notion. It is not, according to Hume, something that we know prior to considering the world.

Instead we learn cause and effect by observing things in the world.

Hume puts it, we learn from the “constant conjunction” of things.

If this is right then we don’t use reason but experience to understand the world and a key part of what rationalists say is incorrect.

Question 8

Cause and effect example

Answer 8

God: god is a just ideas like power “without limit”.

Morality: is just our prejudices

Reason: Hume shows how an idea like causality is not based in reason but experience - a set of complex ideas to show that ideas such as this are not the outcome of reason.