UNIT THREE

Question 1

Identify three types of knowledge and give one example of each.

Answer 1

Acquaintance Knowledge: ‘S’ knows “y’
exp: I know my friend, Jayden, very well.

Competence or Skill Knowledge: ‘S’ knows how to ‘Y’
exp. I know how to speak Romanian.

Propositional or Descriptive knowledge: ‘S’ knows that ‘Y’
exp. I know Victoria is the capital of British Columbia.

Question 2

Explain the difference between ‘a priori’ and ‘a posterior’. Give 3 statements that are true or false of both.

Answer 2

A priori is what comes before experience.
A posteriori is what comes after experience. (based on observations and empirical investigations of the world)

A PRIORI - STATEMENTS
all triangles have three sides. (true)
all mothers are human. (true)
headaches are painless (false)

A POSTERIORI - STATEMENTS
the sun will rise tomorrow. (true)
humans breath oxygen (true)
the earth is flat (false)

Question 3

What is a proposition, give three examples of non-propositions.

Answer 3

A proposition is a sentence that has truth-values (knowledge that’s either true or false)

examples of non-propositions:
- close the door
- is it hot outside?
- is that dog black?

Question 4

What do cave (den), the sun and the ‘journey upwards’ represent in Platos allegory?

Answer 4

Cave (den):
A symbol representing how humans live in the world.

Sun:
truth and ultimate knowledge

The Journey Upwards:
Represents the soul intellectual of the world.

Question 5

Why do you think Descartes wrote ‘Mediations on First Philosophy?

Answer 5

• to give us a firm foundation of science
• to demonstrate the existence of God and immorality of the soul.
• to suspend judgement about any belief that is slightly doubtful

Question 6

Describe the environment Descartes reveals by his senses in Meditation 1. Does he doubt the authenticity of what he perceives?

Answer 6

Yes.
He doubts his senses because they can be deceived and that sensory information is not as reliable as pure reason.

Question 7

What is the most desirable quality in a ruler and what is the only life that looks down upon political ambition?

Answer 7

• are philosopher kings
• someone who shows big ideas and guides other to have a legacy.
• curios and kind

Question 8

How does Descartes invoke the idea of dreaming to illustrate his doubt?

Answer 8

By formally speaking about consciousness and how painted representations in sleep could not be formed without likeliness off realities.

Question 9

Does Descartes doubt extend to arithmetic and geometry? why or why not?

Answer 9

Yes his thought does suggest that it is coherent to doubt basic arithmetic and geometrical claims as it’s to doubt one being awake or that matter exists.

Question 10

Compare how Plato and Descartes use the idea of dreaming to illustrate the uncertainty of sensory perceptions.

Answer 10

• Plato’s explorations of dreams blurs reality and illusions, probing deep desires and truth from our waking self.
• Descartes uses dream to motivate sensory-based beliefs about the external world and his bodily existence.

Question 11

How does Philonous contest Hylas assertion that he, is skeptic because he denies the existence of matter?

Answer 11

Philonous contest Hylas assertion that he, is skeptic because he denies the existence of matter because he did not begin with a false materialist premise. In fact Pilonous, explains that he is not a skeptic.

Question 12

What does Hylas mean by “sensible things”

Answer 12

That only those perceived by sense and in truth of the senses perceive nothing.

*they make no inferences.

Question 13

Define rationalism and empiricism.

Answer 13

Rationalism is the philosophical position that emphasizes the role of reason and innate ideas or principles as the primary sources of knowledge.

Empiricism is the philosophical position that emphasizes the role of sensory experience and observation as the primary sources of knowledge.

*Rationalism and empiricism represent contrasting approaches to understanding the acquisition and nature of knowledge, one emphasizing reason and innate ideas, and the other sensory experience and observation.

Question 14

What is Plato’s view of “sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking”?

Answer 14

• views them as lower pleasures because they satisfy physical desires without intellectual or moral growth.
• prioritizes the development of the soul where reason should govern over bodily appetites to achieve intellectual and mental excellence.

Question 15

Compare and contrast the views of Plato and Descartes regarding the trustworthiness of the senses and the status of reason in knowledge acquisition. Why are both philosophers considered rationalists?

Answer 15

*Plato was skeptical of the senses and their ability to provide true knowledge.
*Descartes’ skepticism towards the senses serving a methodological tool to establish a firm foundation for knowledge based on reason alone.
^ doubts the reliability of the senses, arguing that they can sometimes deceive us.
* Plato’s rationalism focuses on the discovery of eternal truths while Descartes’ rationalism emphasizes the methodical doubt.

Plato and Descartes are rationalists because they prioritize reason over sensory experience in the acquisition of knowledge.

Question 16

List all the disciplines that Plato believes important in the education of a future ruler, and explain their significance. Which disciplines are excluded and why?

Answer 16

Music: could shape the soul positivity.
^potential to cultivate a virtuous character in future rulers.

Mathematics: develops logical thinking.

Philosophy: fosters wisdom and critical thinking.

NOT INCLUDED:
Rhetoric, Commerce or Business Skill and Technical Skills.

Question 17

According to Hylas, “An intense degree of cold is a pain; for to feel a very great cold, is to perceive a great uneasiness: it cannot therefore exist without the mind; but a lesser degree of cold may, as well as a lesser degree of heat.” Explain.

Answer 17

Philonous tries to link pain with intense heat. He tells us what it means to feel intense heat is to feel pain and that since pain can only exist in a sentient being, the same is true if intense heat. Like sight and touch, both cannot exist without the mind.

Question 18

How does Philonous argue that secondary qualities exist only in the mind?

Answer 18

Secondary qualities are all the sensible qualities that aren’t primary.

*these are merely sensations or ideas existing nowhere but in the mind.

Question 19

How does Philonous argue that primary qualities exist only in the mind?

Answer 19

Primary qualities are extendedness, shape, solidity, gravity, motion, and rest. They hold that these really exist in bodies.

Question 20

Hylas asks, “I wonder, Philonous, if what you say be true, why those philosophers who deny the Secondary Qualities any real existence should yet attribute it to the Primary. If there is no difference between them, how can this be accounted for?” What is Philonous’ answer?

Answer 20

Philonous argues that both primary and secondary qualities are not inherent in objects but dependent on perception.

Therefore, attributing reality to primary qualities while denying it to secondary is inconsistent.

*both are subjective perceptions of the mind.

Question 21

Hylas remarks, “It is just come into my head that the ground of all our mistake lies in your treating of each quality by itself. Now, I grant that each quality cannot singly subsist without the mind […] But, as the several qualities united or blended together form entire sensible things, nothing hinders why such things may not be supposed to exist without the mind.” What is Philonous’ reply?

Answer 21

responds to Hylas by challenging the idea that sensible things, formed by several qualities, can exist independently of the mind.

He argues that the mistake lies in assuming that qualities can exist apart from perception

Question 22

How does Philonous treat Hylas’s suggestion that “there are two kinds of objects:—the one perceived immediately, which are likewise called IDEAS; the other are real things or external objects, perceived by the mediation of ideas, which are their images and representations”?

Answer 22

Philonous challenges distinction and presents an idealist perspective, where all objects are considered ideas or perceptions existing within the mind.

Rejects idea of external objects independent of perception.

All objects as ideas: Believes everything perceived (ideas or external) exists within the mind.

Critique of representation: Objects perceived are themselves ideas; no separate category of external objects.

Question 23

George Berkeley succinctly formulated his basic position thus: Esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived). Put this in the context of what you have read in “The First Dialogue.”

Answer 23

In “The First Dialogue” of “Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous,” George Berkeley’s foundational position, “Esse est percipi” (to be is to be perceived): asserts that the existence of objects depends entirely on perception.

*argues against Hylas’s belief in a material world independent of perception (bundles of perception are in the mind)

*challenges traditional views by proposing that reality is fundamentally mental