Epistemology - Scholars & quotes Flashcards
Plato in support of Rationalism
Questioned an uneducated slave boy who was still able to get the answers right. - the questions were simply bringing about knowledge that the boy already possessed within him
Fear is also an example of something innate within us - experience just lets it be brought it to the surface and displayed
Syllogistic meaning
Deductive arguments are syllogistic
A general statement leads necessarily to a logical conclusion
Deductive arguments
If the premises are true and logically related, then the conclusion follows necessarily (i.e. cannot be otherwise) It is not possible to deny the conclusion without falling into absurdity or contradiction
René Décantes on against empiricism
Analogy of wax:
Before and after melting the properties have all changed appearance - limited to our senses we would be fooled into thinking they were different pieces of wax.
Reveals empiricism’s fundamental flaw: can allow us to be fooled by illusion
Noam Chomsky
Child can speak their native language perfectly without any form of ‘formal teaching’ about it
John Locke on empiricism
Sees the mind as a tabula rasa (blank space). Through experience and sensation, as we learn and grow, our mental powers develop and we gain ‘ideas of reflection’ from witnessing the mind’s own operation.
David Hume on Empiricism
And against Decartes’ doctrine of innate ideas
Our ideas are copies of original sense impressions - our original experiences leave impressions on us like a stamp
Being denied a sense denies you of being able to access the corresponding ideas
David Hume criticism of a priori knowledge
A priori knowledge cannot be substantive knowledge of the world - it will only tell us about connections between ideas
These are ‘relations of ideas’ - definitions, logical & mathematical reasoning. Matters of fact are by contrast substantial truths about he world that can only be obtained through experience
