Lecture 2

Question 1

What was Descartes’ stance on epistemology?

Answer 1

Rationalist
- God places some innate ideas into us
- Broadly platonic, in that we can’t encounter perfection in real life
- so, knowledge of something perfect must be innate

Question 2

What was Descartes’ stance on epistemology?

Answer 2

Rationalist
- God places some innate ideas into us
- Broadly platonic, in that we can’t encounter perfection in real life
- so, knowledge of something perfect must be innate

Question 3

What was Locke’s epistemological stance?

Answer 3

Empiricist
- We begin life as a blank slate (Tabula Rasa)
- Internal operations convert sensation into knowledge
- No innate ideas as these would be universally agreed upon

Question 4

What are the three ways Locke proposed that simple ideas become complex ones?

Answer 4

• Combination: combine multiple ideas into one e.g apple is red + round + sweet
• Relation: bringing ideas together without combination e.g. my son is like a vulture when he eats
• Generalisation: Abstracting from events to form general rules without specifics of time or place e.g. I have only seen white swans, so all are white.

Question 5

What are the two kinds of sense experience proposed by Hume?

Answer 5

Impressions: sensations arising from touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste.

Ideas: Impressions recalled later

Question 6

What is bundle theory?

Answer 6

Hume’s theory that the mind is merely a bundle of perceptions without deeper unity or cohesion.

Question 7

What were Leibniz’s views on epistemology

Answer 7

• Tabula Rasa not plausible- senses only offer instances
• No interaction between body and soul- pre-established harmony
• Mind is immaterial - cannot be a thinking machine
• Disagreed with Descartes- not all mental states are conscious and animals do have sensations, feelings and souls

Question 8

What was Kant’s epistemological standpoint

Answer 8

Synthesis:

• Experience must come from the senses (empiricism)
• Mind must have some innate knowledge (nativism/ rationalism)

Noumena: The world as it is
Phenomena: The experience of the world

• The mind mediates noumena into phenomena which guides our experience of the world

Question 9

What are analytic and synthetic statements and which is related to empirical knowledge and which is related to rational knowledge?

Answer 9

• Analytic statements are tautological, they contain their own proof (rational)
• Synthetic statements provide new knowledge (empirical)

Question 10

What is Physiognomy and phrenology?

Answer 10

Physiognomy: belief that somebodies character can be read from their faces

Phrenology: belief that somebodies character can be read from their skull

Question 11

What are some of the key concepts involved in psychophysics?

Answer 11

• Two point threshold
• Just noticeable difference
  -Pyschophysical laws