Formal arguments

Question 1

What is Plato’s formal slave boy argument?

Answer 1

P1: The boy had no prior knowledge of geometry/squares.
P2: Socrates did not teach the boy anything, merely asked him questions.
P3: At the end of the questioning, the boy was able to answer truths of mathematics.
P4: this eternal truth was not derived from experience or Socrates.
C: these truth of squares must have been innately in his mind.

Question 2

What was Locke’s formal universal asset argument?

Answer 2

P1: If an idea is innate, x, it must be universally held.
P2; Children and idiots do not have these concepts held in their minds.
P3: For something to be in our minds, we must be aware of it at some point (Transparency of ideas argument)
P4: x is not universally held in the mind.
C1: x cannot be innate.

Question 3

What was Leibniz’s formal universal truth argument?

Answer 3

P1:Our sense experience can confirm a general truth.
P2: our sense experience is not enough to establish an eternal necessity.
P3: Our minds can grasp the concept of universal truths.
P4: Our senses are not enough to reveal this to us.
C: we must have these ideas within us innately.

Question 4

What is Hume’s ‘Tabula Rasa’ formal attack of innatism?

Answer 4

P1: The theory of innatism claims that we are born with innate ideas.
P2: The tabla rasa theory proves that all ideas come from simple concepts received through the senses.
C: Therefore, Innatism is false.

Question 5

What is Hume’s fork?

Answer 5

A proposition can only have meaning if it either:
- Prong 1: Is a relation of ideas.
- Prong 2: Is a matter of fact