Empiricism

Question 1

Define ‘sense impression’

Answer 1

Raw data that we see, hear and feel which we use to form concepts which are copies of these impressions

Question 2

Define ‘knowledge’

Answer 2

Justified, True Belief. It is only Justified if it is verified by experience

Question 3

Explain what is meant by ‘A priori knowledge’

Answer 3

True propositions which can be justified without experience. Empiricists believe the only kind of A priori knowledge is analytic

Question 4

Explain what is meant by ‘A posteriori knowledge’

Answer 4

True propositions which are justified through or after experience

Question 5

Explain what is meant by ‘Analytic Truths’

Answer 5

Statements which are true by definition (e.g. “a triangle has three sides”)

Question 6

Explain what is meant by ‘Synthetic Truths’

Answer 6

Statements which are not true by definition (e.g. “My hair is brown”)

Question 7

Explain what is meant by ‘Necessary Truths’

Answer 7

A necessary truth is one which could not be otherwise. (e.g. “Triangles have 4 sides”)

Question 8

Explain what is meant by ‘Contingent Truths’

Answer 8

A contingent truth is one where the world could still be imagined otherwise if it was false (e.g. my kitchen walls are white, but they could be blue)

Question 9

Explain what is meant by ‘Deductive Arguments’

Answer 9

Where the conclusion must necessarily be true if the premises are true

Question 10

Explain what is meant by ‘Inductive Arguments’

Answer 10

The premise is doubtable so the conclusion can be false

Question 11

Outline Locke’s denial of innate ideas

Answer 11

.Firstly,

1. For an idea to be innate, it must be present at birth
2. Rationalists believe “God” is an innate idea
3. Although he is not present in the mind of young children and idiots

Secondly,

1. If there were innate ideas, they would be universally agreed
2. Rationalists believe “God” is an innate idea
3. There are whole societies (Atheists) who do not believe in God

Question 12

Outline the objections and replies to Locke’s denial of innate ideas

Answer 12

Objection:
What if ideas, like “God”, are in our minds but we are not conscious of them?

Locke’s reply:
You cannot say we have knowledge but are not aware of it, by that principle, ANYTHING could be innate

Question 13

What does Hume think of Causation?

Answer 13

• It would be a generalisation to assume that, for example, a brick thrown at a window will smash the window every time
• That would NOT be a ‘necessary’ connection as we can’t ever know if it will happen every time

Unlike Kant, who believes that the concept of: “all events have causes” is an innate idea

Question 14

List the main criticisms of Empiricism’s origin of ideas

Answer 14

1. What is a simple idea?
2. The Missing Shade of Blue
3. Acquiring general or abstract concepts
4. Experience without ‘conceptual schemes’

Question 15

Outline the “What is a simple idea?” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas

Answer 15

• Complex ideas are made up of simple ideas, such as a horse and then “mane, “hooves” etc…
• But where is the line drawn? As a mane is made up of hairs, which are “straight”,”thin”,”brown”. All simple ideas.
• This leaves the distinction between complex ideas and simple ideas unclear

Question 16

Outline the “Missing Shade of Blue” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas (include response)

Answer 16

• If a blind boy were to be able to see for the first time, briefly experienced the colour blue and then was given a spectrum of blue colours with a missing shade, could he identify the shade? This criticism says no.
• This is because the boy hasn’t had sense experience of the shade before

(In response, Empiricists could say the missing shade is a complex idea made by the boy mixing other shades. However, this would then mean colours are/can be, complex ideas)

Question 17

Outline the “Acquiring general or abstract concepts” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas

Answer 17

• Hume’s Copy Principle states that we copy sense impressions into our minds upon first experiencing them
• However, all my experiences of cats are different to another person, yet we are able to talk of other cats and discuss them universally

Question 18

Outline the “Experience without conceptual schemes” criticism of Empiricism’s origin of ideas

Answer 18

• Hume believes our minds are like a blank slate at birth, and are filled with knowledge through experience
• However, Kant thinks that there MUST be some kind of structure (or conceptual schemes) to organise our sense experiences

Kant also believes that space/time/causation/self are also innate ideas

Question 19

List the main criticisms of Empiricism’s justification of knowledge

Answer 19

1. Descartes’ Three Waves of Doubt
2. Innate Knowledge
3. Conceptual Schemes

Question 20

Explain Descartes’ 1st Wave of Doubt (include reply)

Answer 20

1) Illusions
- Where you believe you see something like an illusion (e.g. pencil in the water looks bent) demonstrates that our senses are not necessarily reliable

Reply
-We need to know something things are false to contrast them from what is true

Question 21

Explain Descartes’ 2nd Wave of Doubt (include reply)

Answer 21

2) Dreams
- Some dreams are lifelike and difficult to differentiate between dreams and reality

Reply
-We can explain dreams once we wake up, we can’t explain life from a dream

Question 22

Explain Descartes’ 3rd Wave of Doubt

Answer 22

3) ‘Brain in a Vat’

- Our surroundings are manipulated by an evil demon who may even be deceiving us about basic truths such as 2+2=4.

Question 23

Explain how Innatism criticizes Empiricisms justification of knowledge

Answer 23

Descartes and Plato believe we all have innate knowledge which is simply triggered by experience

+Descartes’ Trademark Argument

Question 24

Explain how Conceptual Schemes criticizes Empiricisms justification of knowledge

Answer 24

The fundamental laws of logic cannot be learned through experience as they are needed in order to learn