Rationalism

Question 1

What are the three different ways for Rationalists to have A priori knowledge?

Answer 1

• Intuition
• Deduction
• Innatism

Question 2

Define ‘intuition’

Answer 2

An immediate apprehension of a self-evident truth

For example, “the shortest distance between two points is a straight line” is not something we need to experience every time

Question 3

Define ‘deduction’

Answer 3

Logically demonstrating something without reference to sense experience

e.g. Mathematics

Question 4

List the premises of Descartes’ Trademark Argument

Answer 4

1. The cause of anything must be as great as it’s affect
2. My ideas must have a cause
3. I am imperfect
4. I have an idea of God who is perfect

Therefore, God must have caused the idea and he must exist

Question 5

Outline two criticisms of Descartes

Answer 5

1. Avalanches can be caused by small sounds, so Descartes says a cause must be as great as it’s effect is not always true

Reply
-The small sound would not be the “total and efficient cause”, as gravity and snow buildup are also a factor

Question 6

Explain Leibniz’ Law of Non-Contradiction

Answer 6

You CAN have knowledge that you are not conscious of as most young children wouldn’t be able to explain the Law of Non-Contradiction yet would not try to both open and close a door simultaneously

Question 7

Briefly explain Chomsky’s argument for Innatism

Answer 7

• Children are fluent in their native language by age 4 without explicit teaching
• This includes forming sentences they have never heard before
• Supported by the “Wug test”

Question 8

Outline an objection of Chomsky’s Innatism

Answer 8

Locke:
If you were to ask a child about the rules of the grammar they were using, they probably wouldn’t be able to explain them. For Locke this doesn’t count as knowledge

Question 9

Explain what is meant by ‘Plato’s Forms’

Answer 9

• Plato believed that our mind’s image of a triangle is an “ideal triangle” is something we grasp through ‘reason’ as we have never experienced such a triangle (This also applies to numbers)
• He named these ideal concepts as FORMS
• This helps solve the ‘problem of universals’, meaning our concepts of beauty and justice are not copies of sense impressions
• Slave Boy example

Question 10

Outline a criticism of Plato’s Forms (include reply)

Answer 10

1. Forms are metaphysical and we exist in the physical world. Plato is relying on a non-natural kind of thing to explain our knowledge, which empiricists would argue cannot be properly justified

Reply
The two distinct realms of the physical and non-physical world are connected by our rationality, much like we can use rationality to connect with non-physical mathematical truths

Question 11

Define ‘conceptual scheme’

Answer 11

A set of concepts used to organise our experience of the world

Question 12

Explain Kant’s Conceptual Schemes

Answer 12

• Our minds are not blank slates at birth but rather contain conceptual schemes to categorize information information
• Kant believes experience would be meaningless if it was just stored as a jumble of colours, sounds etc…
• These innate concepts include: space/time/causation
• Kant rejects Hume’s idea that all a priori knowledge is analytic, and believes there can be synthetic a priori knowledge (e.g. every event has a cause)

Question 13

Outline a criticism of Kant’s Conceptual Schemes

Answer 13

The “sapir-whorf” argument:

• There are not universal conceptual schemes, but rather different cultures use different categories
• For example: American Hopi Indians developed their own sense of time, past and future