Philosophy: Final Exam

Locke's understanding of Substance

Dualist, can't prove it but there is material stuff

The 4 branches of philosophy and what they investigate?

Epistemology: what is knowledge Metaphysics: conditions for reality, causes, first principles, study of knowledge

cogito ergo sum? deus sive natura? tabula rasa? esse est percipi?

Era of writing in Latin: I think therefore I am (Descartes), God or nature (Spinoza), Blank slate, To be is to be perceived (Berkeley)

Descartes?

Father of modern philosophy, rationalist, dualist

Primary vs secondary qualities

Primary: objective, measure, height, width hardest ones to get to Secondary: subjective, must go through first to find objective (primary)

Ancient Skeptic?

Pyrrho, pyrronianism

What set is the evil genius supposed to undermine?

Mathematical beliefs

Apple basket metaphor?

Mind is the basket, apples that look good are good beliefs, rotten apple is a bad belief, must dump whole basket to find the rotten apple and replace good apples one by one

How do we know what categories are transcendental categories according to class lecture?

Necessary features of experience, thought experiment to come to the necessary features of experience without sensation; Kant believes we enter the world with the idea of space and time

Deduction follows with necessity i.e. it is impossible to be otherwise

Necessary: impossible to be otherwise

Locke?

No innate ideas, you are born blank, first empiricist, dualist, material world, physical and mental substance

Spinoza?

Not a dualist, makes his own system, a monist, since everything is one substance God and nature are the same, everything is determined no free will, pantheist monist

The name of Locke's major epistemological writing?

an Essay concerning human understanding

What does the Latin phrase tabula rasa mean?

blank slate

Immanuel Kant is best said to be?

both an empiricist and a rationalist

According to class lecture, Leibniz believes innate ideas are said to be?

both implicit and explicit

Hume: impressions and ideas

calls everything perceptions (concepts) and impressions (ideas)

According to David Hume, what unwarranted claim do people make when seeing a constant conjunction between two occurrences?

cause and effect

What specific definition is given to the word 'necessary' in modern philosophy?

impossible to be otherwise

According to Immanuel Kant, 'analytic' propositions (as opposed to 'synthetic' propositions) are said to coincide with?

relations of ideas

According to Kant, for there to be 'experience' at all, you must have both?

sensation and intellect

In the cookie press analogy offered in class, the 'unstructured blob' is supposed to represent what feature of Kant's understanding of how we obtain experience?

sensation without the structural features of the mind

Synthetic a priori knowledge?

we can have a synthetic, a priori knowledge; this exists even on two different sides of the list; cause and effect, mathematics, time and space, self identity, the world

a priori vs a posteriori

A priori: Deduction, Analytic, Relations of Ideas, Necessary, eyes closed and uses the mind, world of the necessary, favored more my rationalist but they want BOTH A Posteriori: Induction, Synthetic, Matters of Fact, Contingent, eyes open

Leibniz and innate ideas?

Both explicit and implicit

What philosophical school does Kant best fit into?

Both rationalist and empiricist

Kant?

Both, rationalist and empiricist, time and space, a treaty concerning human and understanding

Analytic vs synthetic

Analytic: relations of ideas Synthetic: matters of fact, a priori

Pyrrho?

Ancient skeptic, more radical than Hume

Floating Man Thought Experiment?

Arabic Philosopher, Ibnsina; If you were born with zero sensations floating in air, would you have awareness of self? Yes.

Axiom

Assumption, starting belief, self evident assumption you never prove

Radical Idealism?

Berkeley, you create the world, selopcism, called himself an immaterialist

Mostly blind man with glasses and cookie press analogies What does the blindness represent? What do the glasses represent?

Blindness: blob of pure sensation Glasses: framework of the mind

Cookie Press Analogy: What does the unstructured blob of dough represent? What does the cookie press represent?

Blob: pure sensation Cookie press: conceptual framework of the mind

Method of Doubt?

Descartes, looking for certainty and a foundation for science, doubts methodologies, needs a single reason to doubt and whole system is thrown out

Berkeley?

Cant assume a material world, only God's ideas

Locke's three processes of the mind?

Compounding, relating, abstracting to form into complex ideas, does not help in the end

continental rationalists vs British empiricists

Continental rationist: Descartes, Spinoza, Liebniz, Kant British Empericist: Hume, Berkeley, Locke, Kant

Thomas Reid?

Critic of Hume from his own era and place

Berkeley on Primary and Secondary Qualities

He doesn't like them, primary and secondary are one in the same, formally collapses idea

Resemblance, contiguity, cause and effect

Hume's 3 categories

Thomas Reid critiques?

Hume, a Common Sense philosopher

What is the certain truth Descartes reaches?

I think, therefore I am; I can doubt whether I exist or not

What is the cause of ideas according to Locke, what is the cause of ideas according to Berkeley

Locke: a material world Berkeley: God

Induction follows with probability/contingency; it is possible to otherwise without contradiction

Induction: probability

Leibniz?

Innate ideas and recall, part of psychological makeup

According to Kant, how do you know when a category is a 'transcendental structure' of the mind?

It is impossible to think about experience without it

Categories of transcendental structures of the mind?

Kant; what has to be in place to understand experience: thought and meditation, we don't experience space, we only see objects in space, can't imagine an object without space, mediate on the necessary features of experience which are time ad space

How is knowledge viewed by each school?

Rationist: a priori, more primary source, but embrace both Empiricist: a posteriori

Relations of ideas vs matters of fact

Relations: A priori Matters of Fact: a posteriori

Kant's understanding of experience: sensation vs structural features of the mind

Sensation: blob Structural framework of the mind: outline, needed to understand world around you

Hume's position on knowledge?

Skeptic

Hume?

Skeptic, if you can't see with your senses you have no founding, ideas not found on impressions are useless and empty, no grounding without impressions and sensation, never seen causation only effects, we are conditioned to assume causes, writes in English, Ideas not based on impressions are useless and empty

What philosophical positions is Berkeley contending against?

Skeptics, atheists, and materialists

Descartes' major written work?

The Mediations of First Philosophy

3 fundamental sets of beliefs according to Descartes?

Ways of confirming the world: outside world (shadows on wall), shadows of own self (own shadows), mathematical beliefs

This branch of philosophy asks the question, what is knowledge?

epistemology