Lecture 1: Prehistory and the Classical Antiquity Flashcards
wat is unique aan mensen
language -> makes it possible to do rational thinking
image
numbers
prehistory=
de tijd voor written records (dus dit was eerder voor egypte dan voor nl)
waar leiden language, image, numbers toe?
representatie -> relations between things
wat weer leidt tot:
religion
money
complex social structures
agriculture
Man discovers representation, in which ….
things are denoted with symbols and relations between things are represented with relations between symbols.
- With language a representation can be
brought from one head into another - With writing, representations can be brought
into someone’s head without the other being
physically present - It becomes possible to have shared
representations: ideas can easily spread and
can also be sustained over generations
oke
- When you have representations, it
suddenly stands out that some of these
representations are “correct” (2+2=4)
and others are not (2+2=5) - We thus get the concept of “truth” with
it - The question of what it is that makes
some representations true and others
false is a central issue in philosophy - This part of philosophy concerns
“theories of truth”
oke
hoe konden denkers en philosophy ontstaan
doordat agricultuur was ontdekt, dus mensen hadden genoeg eten (geen competitie meer) en mensen konden gaan settelen, en taken werden verdeeld. -> community -> hierarchy -> higher ranked individuals have time spare.
ontology=
what is the world like?
epistemology=
how do we know what is true?
aesthetics =
what makes some things beautiful and others ugly?
ethics =
what makes some things good and some bad?
dus: whats the world like? =
ontology
dus: how do we know whats true? =
epistemology
maybe there were people in earlier ages thinking about philosophical questions, but they just did not write them down
oke
2 generations in greece
before & after socrates
presocrats=
only have smaller pieces of text.
Heraclitus
after socrats
plato
aristotle
after aristotle=
stoics
epicureans
skeptics
Heraclitus =
- Heraclitus (“the Obscure”) doubts whether something ever stays the same
- “No man ever steps in the same river twice.”
- The only constant is change itself
- This principle is known as Panta Rhei (“everything flows”)
wat studeerde Heraclitus dus voor soort vragen
ontology!!!
bij wat voor vragen horen rationalism en empiricism
epistemiology!!
wie was wat: plato vs aristotle
plato= rationalism
aristotle = empiricism
plato wijst…
omhoog -> transcendental world (world of Forms) where the perfect forms of everything is located. we try to remember this from our innate knowledge, due to which we only see the imperfect versions of these forms.
dus rationalism =
what we know about the world is in our mind already.
empiricism =
knowledge comes from experiences with the world, observations
aristotle wijst naar…
de grond: the physical world, nature, world of substance.
plato main gedachtes
- knowledge comes from the ratio (intelligence)
- knowledge is only partly based on observation
- real knowledge (about the good, true and the beautiful) does not come from observation
- knowledge from reason is superior to knowledge frome experience
- associated claim: there is innate knowledge (nativism)
plato’s rationalism in circle
how do we know that these cirkels always have the same properties, we always see perfect cirkels, even though these circles made by man are never perfect (imperfect forms!!!)
because we know already!!!
if our idea of a circle does not come from perception (because men cannot make perfect circles) where does it come from?
we remember them from our divine origin. knowledge is recognized and therefore we know it is true.
Plato: Our mind is born out of the world of forms, which is a transcendent world where the perfect forms are. Plato believed in reincarnation, used this to explain our knowledge of perfect forms. For real knowledge you should not turn to empiricism; you should remember what you already know
oke
wat was nog een argument van plato voor knowledge that we remember from our divine origin
dat een slaaf van Meno het niet geleerd kon hebben, maar hij wist nog steeds dingen.
socrates dialogues were really pushing someone towards an answer tho
oke
plato’s cave:
we only look at shadows, what we observe on earth are always imperfect observations. observations are always subjective and subject to changes. (dus GEEN empiricism, observations zijn niet veel waard)
maar…
door hard na te denken, introspection and reason te gebruiken, kunnen we uit de cave komen en de echte wereld zien!
dus vraag over empiricism of rationalism:
vinden ze het belangrijk om na te denken, reason te gebruiken, of juist te letten op observaties?
wat is hedendaags bewijs voor rationalisme
- hele jonge kinderen kunnen causaal redeneren
- babies are surprised when natural laws are violated
- language ability may be innate
- contemporary nativism is not rooted in reincarnation, but evolution of the brain
empiricism =
- knowledge lies in observation
- if you want to know what is going on, you have to observe (common sense view)
- associated thesis: if all knowledge comes from experience, there is no need for innate knowledge
aristotle over empiricism
- grondlegger (soms zo gezien)
- first to think about how to gain knowledge from observations
- self-evident axioms can not be rejected by observations (rationalism)
- but, these axiomas are acquired through experience, they are not innate or shown to us before birth
dus hoe was aristotle soms een rationalist
hij dacht dat observations de self-evident axioms niet zouden kunnen weerleggen. maar wel dat die axioms acquired werden door experience
wat vond aristotle van de twee werelden theorie
niet goed, there is only one world we can observe. everything around us consists of form and matter. the forms are not just something in our head, but our essence of being.
wat zei aristotle over de circle
you investigate the circles by observation.
= induction (observations -> general law)
wat zei Thomas Acquina
nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses
dus thomas acquina was een
empiricist
tabula rasa theory =
the mind is an unwritten tablet/blank slate at birth
wat was john watson
ook een empiricist: tabula rasa inspireerde zijn behaviourism
“To say of what is that it is not, or of what is
not that it is, is false, while to say of what is
that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is
true.”
= aristotles definition of truth
Correspondence theory of truth:
True statements “correspond” with
states of affairs (situations) in reality
In psychology this is not trivial: what
is the state of affairs that a
statement about mental states
corresponds to?
aristotles view on knowledge
knowledge based on:
- sensory experiences
- induction
- logic
hoe is deze view van aristotle over swans
- we observe swans
- we induce that swans have specific properties
- logic: all swans are white + cygnus is a swan -> cygnus is white
aristotle over logic
Logic does not tell us what to think, but how we get from premises to a conclusion
what was aristotles meest rationalistische standpunt
- Aristotle sees the ability to know (observation and reasoning) as natural qualities of the soul
- Knowledge, however, does not spring from the soul but from perception.
- But knowledge deduced from self-evident laws is stronger than the observations that contradict this knowledge
wat gaf plato wel toe
- Plato was also willing to admit that some knowledge comes from observation
- But the important knowledge (about the true, the good and the beautiful) comes from the ratio
stoicism =
it is best to minimize your feelings
epicureanism=
happiness is the ultimate persuit, which you can achieve by living your life as balanced as possible
skepticism=
refrain from judgement, no one can ever know anything for sure
voor wie was skepticism zijn primary motivation
descartes
DOUBT EVERYTHING
wie was weer geinspireerd door descartes
hume
wie startte het skepticism
pyrrho (300 BC)
wat was er met de romans
were a bit more practical, cared more for engeneering, military and warfare, history writing. minder nadenken over philosophical questions.
2 werelden van plato
intelligible = true world
sensible = untrue world, observed by our perceptions
“[The] mind is in a sense potentially whatever is thinkable, though actually it is nothing until it has thought. What it thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing stands written: this is exactly what happens with mind”
aristotle
“We must, therefore, pursue the things that make for happiness, seeing that when happiness is present, we have everything; but when it is absent, we do everything to possess it.”
epicurus
- Some of the greatest inventions stem from prehistoric times (language, numbers, representations)
- The development of agriculture has made it possible for elites to be exempted from working the land
- The Greeks start wondering where knowledge comes from
- Rationalism and empiricism are first elementary answers to this question
- But it will be many hundreds of years before humans invent the Great Knowledge Machine: The Scientific Method
oke
Heraclitus’ panta rei =
everything flows
Peripatetic principle =
Aristotle walked around while teaching in his lyceum: peripateo in Greek.
That’s why Thomas Aquinas called the empirical principle the peripatetic principle:
‘Nihil est in intellectu quod non priusfuerit in sensu’ (“nothing is in the intellect that was not
first in the senses”).
syllogism
aristotle: “a discourse in which certain (specific) things having been supposed, something different from the things supposed results of necessity because these things are so.”
