Phil 301 true false midterm
[From Crash Course in History] For most of human history, people expected to live healthier or more prosperous lives than previous generations.
False
What does Galileo conclude about the feather being moved over different parts of the body? What is the relevance of this observation to his theory of secondary qualities (hotness, sourness, roughness, white...)?
The intensity of the sensation produced varies depending on where the feather touches the body. If this were a quality innate to the feather, then it shouldn't vary in this way - it should remain constant. "if the living body were removed, nothing should remain of the titiallation but an empty name".
Galileo believes that his opponents have misinterpreted the Bible.
True
Galileo believes that we live in an orderly universe, ruled by an omnipotent and provident deity.
True
What is the task that Descartes set himself to accomplish?
"Doubting many things that other people regard as certain". DM III
What is the cause of heat, according to Galileo?
"Motion is the cause of heat" Different particles of different sizes colliding at various speeds produce the phenomenon of heat. " "fire" consists of a multitude of tiny particles of such and such a shape, and having such and such a velocity. These when they encounter our body, penetrate it by means of their extreme subtlety; and it is their contact, felt by us in their passage through our substance, which is the affection we call "heat"".
What is the underlying cause of bitterness, shrillness and heat, according to Galileo?
"Thus our tastes are caused, pleasant or harsh in accordance with variations in the contact of diversely shaped particles, and depending upon whether they are few or many, and whether they have high or low velocity" "I cannot believe that there exists in external bodies anything, other than their size, shape, or motion (slow or rapid), which could excite in us our tastes sounds and odors" Secondary qualities are reduced to primary qualities that produce these effects in sensing bodies.
Where are these qualities (such as redness and bitterness) located, according to Galileo?
"so far as their objective existence is concerned, are nothing but mere names for something which resides exclusively in our sensitive body (corpo sensitive)". It's not clear whether Galileo here means consciousness or the brain. Clearly, he thinks they exist in the perceiving agent, not the object perceived.
Describe Bacon's inductive method.
1st step: start from reliable sense experience; father large & representative samples of evidence (aided by technical instruments). 2nd step: attempt to falsify your hypothesis with an experimental check (think of control groups). Final step: gradually ascend from (corrected) sense perception of particular samples to generalizations. "or at present the matter is so managed, that from the senses and particular objects they immediately fly to the greatest generalities, as the axes round which their disputes may revolve: all the rest is deduced from them intermediately, by a short way we allow, but an abrupt one, and impassable to nature, though easy and well suited to dispute. But, by our method, axioms are raised up in gradual succession, so that we only at last arrive at generalities" (p. 339). "If, however, we have in any matter given too easy credit, or slumbered and been too inadvertent, or have mistaken our road, and broken off inquiry, yet we exhibit things plainly and openly, so that our errors can be noted and separated before they corrupt any further the mass of sciences, and the continuation of our labours is rendered easy and unembarrassed" (pp. 336-337).
According to Crash Course, what constitutes a skeptic?
A skeptic is a person who questions whether anything can be known with certainty.
What are appearance beliefs? Offer examples. Are they basic beliefs? Explain why, or why not.
Appearance beliefs are beliefs about the current contents of our own mind. Since they don't imply anything about the external world, they are thus considered indubitable and therefore basic.
How does one produce accurate beliefs, according to Descartes?
By following this rigorous method: 1.accept nothing as true that is not self-evident "to include nothing more in my judgments than what presents itself to my mind so clearly and so distinctly that I had no occasion to call it in doubt" 2.divide problems into their simplest parts "divide each of the difficulties I would examine into as many parts as possible and as was required in order better to resolve them" 3.solve problems by proceeding orderly (anchor them to the basic beliefs) "to conduct my thoughts in an orderly fashion" "I delighted most of all in mathematics because of the certainty and the evidence of its reasonings" (DM I) 4.recheck the reasoning and test for completeness "to make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that I was assured of having omitted nothing"
How do errors in reasoning and false beliefs arise, according to Descartes? Are the logical faculties highly varied among cognizers, according to Descartes?
Descartes argues that the main reason why some people come to accurate conclusions about reality, whereas others come to false ones, is not a difference in reasoning abilities, but a difference in the method they use to obtain knowledge. According to Descartes, "the power of judging and distinguishing the true from the false (which is properly speaking what people call "good sense" or "reason") is naturally equal to all men" (DM I). How about women? Additional information: This line of thinking is probably a result of Descartes' belief that god constructed us perfect. That is, with the light of reason shining in every one of us and capable of identifying errors in judgment. "I acknowledge that it is impossible for God ever to deceive me, for trickery or deception are always indicative of some imperfection" (Med. 4). Judgment errors are a particular challenge for Descartes who would like to prove the existence of an omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipotent god.
What kind of beliefs are undermined by Descartes' dreaming argument? Which opinions are exempt? Do you agree with Descartes? Be careful here to distinguish what beliefs Descartes throws out of the "apple basket" with the dreaming argument and which ones get thrown out with the evil demon argument.
Doubts - The existence and nature of all physical things: "This class of things appears to include corporal nature in general, together with extension; the shape of extended things; their quality, that is, their size and number; as well as the pace where they exist; the time through which they endure, and the like" (MI). Doubts - All the sciences that derive their findings through observation of corporeal bodies: "physics, astronomy, medicine, and all the other disciplines that are dependent upon the consideration of composite things are doubtful". Exempts: "arithmetic, geometry, and other such disciplines, which treat of nothing but the simplest and most general things and which are indifferent as to whether these things do or do not in fact exist, contain something certain and indubitable. For whether I am awake or asleep, 2 plus 3 make 5, and a square does not have more than 4 sides." Fundamental truths of mathematics and logic are undermined (later) in the following passage by the evil demon argument. "How do I know that he did not bring it about that there is no earth at all, no heavens, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place [...] may I not, in like fashion, be deceived every time I add 2 and 3 or count the sides of a square" (M I).
The three figures that pioneered today's abstract "scientific method" were Galileo Bacon St. Anselm
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According to Bacon, our mind is pure and designed to grasp reality as it is. Only the senses are prone to distortions.
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According to Bacon, the most accurate truths of reality are to be found by reflecting inwards and observing the narrow cells of human wit (or the mind). That is, the most accurate beliefs about physical reality are formed via introspecting into the human mind.
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According to Descartes, errors in reasoning are caused by faulty cognitive abilities on the part of the cognizer.
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According to Descartes, the power of judging well is naturally highly varied in men.
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According to Descartes, the truths of geometry depend on the existence of corporeal bodies (such as hands, chairs, tennis balls...).
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According to Feldman, Cartesian Foundationalism maintains that all beliefs are justified basic beliefs.
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At the end of Meditation I, Descartes concludes that he knows he has a body.
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Bacon thought human senses should not be aided by technical instruments (think Galileo's telescope).
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Descartes advises us to use his radical method of doubt in matters of life.
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Descartes goes on to conclude in Meditation I that while the senses sometimes deceive us, they are an essential part of knowledge production. [I don't mean in practical life, I mean in the mode of the philosophical search for truth].
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Descartes sets himself out to prove that he is in fact dreaming.
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Descartes would have been a fan of Wikipedia - building content through crowd sourcing.
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Feldman agrees with Descartes that the inability by S to doubt proposition p renders p justified for S.
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For Bacon, improving wellbeing meant understanding the natural world and living in harmony with nature through non-interference.
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For most of human history, people expected to live healthier or more prosperous lives than previous generations.
False
Galileo argues that the final arbiter of truth (with regard to natural philosophy) is authority.
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Galileo believes that his astronomical discoveries show parts of the Bible to be false.
False
Galileo observes with his senses that corporeal substances is necessarily of a certain size, shape, in a particular place and time, as touching or not touching other things, or being few or many.
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Galileo predicted that in the absence of resistance from the medium through which two objects are falling, the heavier object should hit the ground first.
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Galileo proposed a new scientific method that deduces laws of nature from first principles or axioms derived from Aristotle's natural philosophy.
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Heat is a real quality that things possess in themselves, according to Galileo.
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In 1633 the Inquisition condemned Galileo to death for defending Copernicanism as truth, rather than as a mere thought example. Note: You may assume the stated date to be correct.
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In the Assayer, Galileo argues that the true essence of corporeal substance (its extendedness in space) is grasped through sense perception, rather than rational intuition.
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In the end, Bacon concludes that since the senses deceive us and since we are born with false idols imprinted upon our mind, we are utterly epistemically defective and can never attain knowledge.
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In the passage about the bees, ants and spiders, Bacon most admires those researchers that work like ants, since they are the most hard-working.
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The following proposition is an indubitable appearance belief: i) I have a hand.
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The method through which to distinguish mere opinion from knowledge that Descartes describes is Bacon's inductive method.
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The method through which to distinguish mere opinion from knowledge that Descartes describes is Bacon's inductive method.
False No. It's introspection, not induction. "it is nearly impossible for our judgments to be as pure or as solid as they would have been if we had had the full use of our reason from the moment of our birth and if we had always been guided by it alone" (DM II). "And resolving to search for no knowledge other than what could be found within myself, or else in the great books of the world*" (DM II).
How does Galileo come to find out about these primary and necessary properties of corporeal objects?
He rationally reconstructs these objects in his mind: "when I conceive...". You could call it 'introspection' or describe it as a rational inward looking into his own mind.
What are the Idols of the Mind, according to Bacon?
Idols of the mind are errors in reasoning, humans are prone to. Bacon identifies four Idols of the Mind: Idols of the Tribe - The Idols of the Tribe have their origin in the production of false concepts due to human nature, because the structure of human understanding is like a crooked mirror, which causes distorted reflections (of things in the external world). Examples: wishful thinking & hasty generalizing. Idols of the Cave - The Idols of the Cave consist of conceptions or doctrines which are dear to the individual who cherishes them, without possessing any evidence of their truth. These idols are due to the preconditioned system of every individual, comprising education, custom, or accidental or contingent experiences. Examples: biased thinking, socio-culturally tainted thinking. Idols of the Market Place - These idols are based on false conceptions which are derived from public human communication. They enter our minds quietly by a combination of words and names, so that it comes to pass that not only does reason govern words, but words react on our understanding. Examples: vague, misleading language & referring to things that do not exist. Idols of the Theatre - According to the insight that the world is a stage, the Idols of the Theatre are prejudices stemming from received or traditional philosophical systems. These systems resemble plays in so far as they render fictional worlds, which were never exposed to an experimental check or to a test by experience. The idols of the theatre thus have their origin in dogmatic philosophy or in wrong laws of demonstration. Example: Scholastic philosophy.
Galileo draws a distinction between on the one hand qualities such as: size, shape, number, place contact and motion. He contrasts these with qualities such as: color, smell, sound, taste.
True
Which properties can he not imagine to be necessarily conjoined with corporeal substance? Explain why, or why not. What would happen to the qualities such as red, white, bitter, sweet, pleasant or unpleasant odor, if the perceiver disappears, according to Galileo? Explain.
Relevant passages; "red or white, bitter or sweet, having sound or being mute, or possessing a pleasant or unpleasant fragrance" "...and by no stretch of imagination can I conceive of bodies as necessarily conjoined with such further conditions as being red or white, bitter or sweet, having sound or being mute, or possessing a pleasant or unpleasant fragrance." "if the perceiving creatures were removed, all of these qualities would be annihilated and abolished from existence" These are secondary properties. If the perceiver disappears, so do the secondary qualities.
How ought we reform the body of the sciences, according to Descartes?
Rid ourselves of all opinions that do not withstand the test of his method.
What are the essential properties of corporeal substance, according to Galileo?
These are the primary and necessary properties of physical objects: Size Shape Motion Place Contact Number
From Feldman] What is the role of the justified basic beliefs? Explain.
They serve as epistemic anchors for all non-basic beliefs. All non-basic beliefs are ultimately justified because of these foundational beliefs. The entirety of our web of knowledge is to be deduced from these basic beliefs with the help of logical deduction. Example (this wasn't in the reading): For Descartes the belief that I have a body is justified by a long chain of inferences leading back to 'I think, I exist', 'God exists', 'God is no deceiver', 'God gave me impeccable reasoning skills' (that I must learn to use correctly) [...] 'I have a hand'. We will discuss what goes in the gap in the following weeks. It's a rather long deduction.
According to Descartes, free will can give us the power to withhold assent from dubious things and thus prevent us from falling into error.
True
According to Galileo (secondary) qualities such as color, smell, taste are nothing other than mere names, which inhere only in the sentient body (or perceiving agent).
True
According to Galileo, the Milky Way is a collection of Stars.
True
Appearance beliefs such as 'I am in pain right now' constitute basic beliefs.
True
Bacon and Descartes both agree that scientific knowledge needs a new foundation.
True
Bacon argues that the natural philosophy inherited by the Ancient Greeks is an impediment to scientific progress.
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Bacon proposed a new approach to science: practical, instrumental and supported by the state.
True
Both Bacon and Galileo agree that authority is not the final arbiter of truth.
True
Descartes argues that he can doubt the existence of his body.
True
Descartes begins Meditation I by realizing that his beliefs that he held most firmly had been received from the senses or through the senses.
True
Descartes contends that we are at risk of error when we make judgements on the basis of what is obscure and confused: as long as we still to the clear and distinct we cannot fail.
True
Descartes models his knowledge production method on that of mathematics.
True
Descartes set himself the task to doubt the beliefs other people regard as certain.
True
During the Early Modern Period, a set of basic principles starts to emerge as the foundation for today's scientific method(s): Rationality, Experimentation & Ruthless Self-Examination
True
Galileo observes that corporeal substances is necessarily of a certain size, shape, in a particular place and time, as touching or not touching other things, or being few or many.
True
Heat, according to Galileo, is produced by particles in motion colliding.
True
In 1616, the Church added Copernicus' text De Rev, to its official list of banned books. Note: You may assume the stated date to be correct.
True
Science is the uncovering of God's work, according to Galileo.
True
[Crash Course] A skeptic is a person who questions whether anything can be known with certainty
True
[Review] Descartes believed that our justification chain for any given knowledge claim must terminate in a foundational or basic belief.
True
What objections does Feldman raise against Descartes?
We are not infallible about our own mental states (sometimes we think we are in pain when we are not). The starting point for our beliefs is ordinarily observations of the world, not introspection. Much of what we know cannot be deduced from what is basic. Not all beliefs about one's own mental states are basic (acquired via introspection).
What is the conclusion of the ants, bees and spider passage?
We should reason like bees. That is, not take sense perception at face value (like the ants), but also not rationally intuit truths through meditation or introspection (without using the external senses at all).
Descartes would have been a fan of Wikipedia - building content through crowd sourcing.
false "the opinions of many different persons, does not draw nearly so close to the truth as the simple reasonings that a man of good sense can naturally make about the things he encounters" (DMII).
What is Bacon's proposal for improving knowledge acquisition?
group: Moving away from specific observations to a more general theory. The analogy of the ant, the spider, and the bee, as presented in Bacon's Novum Organon. Bacon proposes that we follow the example of the bee. Whereas the ant solely collects items, and the spider produces everything needed for its web itself, the bee collects items and then transforms them using its own resources. Humans, similarly, tend to either solely collect information from the outside world (men of experiment), or solely rationalize/philosophize (men of dogma) about the outside world (representing the ant and spider, respectively), but Bacon proposes that we act as the bee and collect information, then rationalize it to produce the best knowledge acquisition. c. Pick one Idol of the Mind. Explain what kind of error in reasoning it is. Find a current example for this error in reasoning. [10 minutes] For Idols of the Cave, individuals believe in conceptions or doctrine which are dear to them without possessing any evidence of their truth. Errors in reasoning comes from when the beliefs contradict with known facts of the world (E.O. Wilson). For example, religion often falls under this Idol of the Mind. People blindly follow teachings of the Christian church as they advent followers of God. This could also extend to other religions. In addition, this could extend to politics in the sense that people can become so engrossed in their side being right that they deny clear truths presented before them.
What according to Bacon contributes to the great injury of learning?
in group: In The Great Instauration, Bacon states,"However, the opinions of others, and good manners, this admired moderation tends to the great injury of learning: for it is seldom in our power both to admire and surpass our author, but, like water, we rise not higher than the springhead whence we have descended" (4). These factors contribute to the great injury of learning because we don't try to surpass or improve what is already done; whatever is accepted as "knowledge" is not challenged. During that time, a majority of people trusted in the works of previous generations, such as Aristotle's teachings, and they believed that those teachings were the truth and anything that went against them was false. Bacon wanted to move away from this blind acceptance of past philosopher's teachings, so we could expand our knowledge. Furthering this, Bacon's critique that the original conception of specific ideas, shouldn't be validated merely on the premise of originality, but through the various means that any particular idea of science should be continuously tested in order to proven to be useful and that when it isn't, it decays our capacity to understand knowledge with reference to the broader sciences.
