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| the philosophical investigation of the nature, constitution, and structure of reality meaning of life, free will, nature of mind |
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| the study of the nature of knowledge and justification Seeks to establish a framework that we can use to construct genuine and accurate understanding. |
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(Epistemology)
belief that genuine knowledge can never be achieved and it is futile to try |
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(Epistemology)
knowledge is possible, achievable through the faculty of reason, a priori knowledge is the basis, incl. logic, mathematics |
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(Epistemology)
knowledge is achievable through experience and the senses (observation), a posteriori knowledge emphasized |
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Took a rational approach to finding what is real and true.
Constructive skepticism
Tear down the bricks of my previous house of knowledge, start building again from the foundation
What if everything I have been taught in my life has been inaccurate and unreliable?
Our senses are incomplete, subjective, and inaccurate
What then can we rely upon to know what is real? |
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What if there were an evil genius who worked to deceive my senses?
Reality then may be nothing like I perceive |
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| Reason as the basis of knowledge (Descartes) |
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If I cannot rely on my senses, then I must turn to reason/ my rational capacity
I am a thing that “doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, and feels” |
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| Perception and Reality (Descartes wax candle) |
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Wax - melted and unmelted state: different perceptions
Is it the same substance, even though my perceptions of it differ radically?
My senses say No, but reason tells me Yes |
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| Radical Doubt (Descartes) |
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To truly know reality, we must approach it through reason, and start from a position of skepticism (but not remain there)
Material things, our bodies and senses exist, & physical laws exist
Results in Dualism, both material and non-material things exist in the world |
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A philosophical skeptic, doubt first then find answers primarily through empirical evidence
Outraged that while so many arguments depend on the existence of a certain type of God, there is no empirical or rational evidence for such a being
As a result, we have no good reason to believe in an external world or the laws of science
Perceptions are of two types: Impressions, ideas
we can always tell them apart |
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All human knowledge divided into 2 categories:
Relations of Ideas– discoverable by mere operation of thought, does not depend on existence elsewhere in universe, contradictions impossible (like deductive truth)
Matters of Fact – based on experience, contradictions are possible (like inductive truth) |
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both the rationalists and empiricists are wrong in their approaches
Rationalists do not fully appreciate importance of sensory input
Empiricists do not sufficiently take reason into account |
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| Transcendental Idealism(Kant) |
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Both reason and sense are required to know
truths about the world are both necessary and universal
Instead of trying to connect distinct mind to distinct world, considers mind and world already integrated
The human mind constructs a knowable world |
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| Mind as an Active Agent(Kant) |
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Unlike Empiricists, who view that mind is a passive receptor for senses
We don’t merely receive and record impressions, we actively select, organize, order, structure, and interpret them
"- we are not merely passive agents (as if in a theatre) but active agents (by selecting, organizing, interpreting) sense data thereby constructing reality" |
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| Synthetic A Priori Knowledge(Kant) |
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Necessary and true, a priori, AND synthetic in the sense that it provides us with genuine info regarding our experience of the world
Kant outlines several categories of synthetic a priori knowledge
Cause and effect
Induction, Objects
Space and Time |
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| Phenomenal reality (Kant) |
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| refers to the world constituted and experienced within human reach, also known as knowable reality. (how things appear in the world by their true nature)no gap |
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| refers to the world beyond human perceptions, also known as ultimate reality. Concepts such as God, soul, immorality, cosmic justice, and personal freedom are within this reality. (what can never be known) a gap |
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| transcendental ideas (Kant) |
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Self
Cosmos
God
They are regulative ideas that help us constitute our epistemological framework, but they can never be empirically verified (noumenal) |
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| Divine Command Theory (Augustine) |
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The view that we act morally when we do what God commands us to do.
Divine commands are not intended to be questioned, analyzed, or negotiated.
It is the foundation of moral character" sin can be avoided if our corrupted nature be healed by God's grace" |
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The ethical theory based on the view that universal moral values can be discovered in nature by the faculty of reason.Individuals who are fully morally developed are able through reflection and reason to discover ethical truths
God commands are consistent with ethical truths, but it is b/c they are true regardless of his commanding
natural law that contains universal moral principles by which a society could be judged. |
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| Cosmological arguments for the Existence of God |
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| God must exist in order to explain the origins of the universe |
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| Kant’s Copernican Revolution |
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. Kant is compared to Copernicus because both revolutionized society’s view on the world; what Copernicus did for astronomy, Kant did for epistemology.
the mind is not a “blank slate” receiving knowledge from the outside world, but rather the mind itself is programmed such that it structures experiences in order to make them meaningful and make knowledge possible. |
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| highlights that rationalists do not fully appreciate the importance of sensory input and empiricists do not sufficiently take reason into account. |
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| is personal memory recall, it is sometimes paired with pronouns such as “I” or “me”. This memory only extends to a single individual’s lifetime. |
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| is situations that can be shared through space and time, it is sometimes paired with pronouns such as “we”, “us”, and “our”. This memory involves two or more witnesses, which lends itself to empathy but also opens up the bias of multiple perceptions. |
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| is fact-based memory. It reaches us through historical records. is a recall from the past; it is an extant memory found in libraries. Also known as dead memory that is brought back to life through books, historical records, and other objects from the past. |
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| Historical consciousness (Zeitgeist) |
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| is known as cultural history and spirit of the times; meaning while the perspectives may change, outlooks prevail and are passed on through generations |
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| Philosophical consciousness (Aufheben) |
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is thinking about thinking about an idea by charting the intriguing variety of ways in
which ideas in one domain tend to migrate into other domains.
Aufheben-refers to the inner truth of an idea and its context while at the same time revolutionizing it. the element of culture passed on |
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is a thinking tool that reaches to the past (remote past) to discover ways that bind
people together “as culture-makers in a common social and temporal space” |
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| (across time)is the methodology of that focuses on the evolution of an idea |
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| (at one point in time)is the methodology of interdisciplinary studies, viz., integrating insights from several disciplines while focusing on one time and place |
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His argument is that church is not needed and religion is a dream or projection of the human mind.. A dream of human hopes,fears, and ideals or response to a transcendent reality
mankind needs a redeemer, savior, a protecting spirit because man by nature is wicked and corrupt, so man created the concept of God.
To enrich God, man must become poor;that god may be all, man must be nothing. Feuerbach believed in the concept of existential estrangement(I exist and I am estrange by my self) |
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| Anthropomorphism (Feuerbach) |
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is the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.
mankind creates a perfect being so as to be "free from limits and defects" |
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| Homo homini deus est(Feuerbach) |
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| man is god to man/"love of man to man" |
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| Divine Trinity in Man (Feuerbach) |
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| New Eden of Progess (reason, will, love) |
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| Opposes pantheism (Feuerbach) |
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| "what is above us is nothing to us" Quod supra nos nihil ad nos |
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| Descartes:Can reality be known |
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the pursuit of Reason; method: cogito,Omnipotent God invalidates the Evil Genius, and certainty of mathematics
Reality has been mathematized; it exists and the mind is engaged in mathematics |
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| Nishitani: Religion and Nothingness |
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