Rationalism/ Innatism Flashcards
Who is a rationalist
Plato
Descartes
What does Plato think
Recollection not discovery
Slave boy
Ideas in the mind at birth can be drawn to the surface with guest ironing
Draws maths out of slave boy
Who uses slave boy
Plato
Criticisms of slave boy
A baby couldn’t have done the same thing
Boy needed priori maths knowledge
Used prompts (teaching)
What can’t a concept or form do
Change
Form argument
Everything has a form
We use forms to recognise objects
Form can’t come from experience
Concepts/forms are innate
What are Descartes 3 arguments
Error/illusion
Dreaming
Deception
Deception
Brain in a vat
Everything deceived
Can’t doubt doubt
I think therefore I am - cogito
Has to exist to be deceived
Dreaming
How do I know I’m not asleep
All senses deceived
Everything dreamt was first experienced
Can’t doubt a priori knowledge
Understood when juxtaposed with waking
Error
Our senses deceive us all the time, why do we still trust them.
Generally reliable - Descartes (weak)
Other senses rectify - modern
What is rationalism
We have at least some innate ideas
Reason is more reliable than experience
What has to be innate
Sameness and difference
Thought this experience
Cogito ergo sum
Wax
All the properties change
We know it’s the same
Don’t know via experience but through reason
