Academic Skills Chapters 1 and 2
• 2 approaches to knowledge since antiquity
• Rationalism
• Plato
• We have to move beyond perception
• Empiricism
• Aristotle
• Only perception
Platos rationalism
• Rely more on rationality because senses cannot be trusted
• Reality vs. Perception
• The world as it appears is not the world as it is
• Knowledge should not come through perception
• Perception is misleading
• Heraclitus:
• The essence of reality is change
• Everything in reality is constantly changing
• Becoming is the reality
• Being is not reality
• Only a temporary state
• Paramenides:
• Reality is unchanging but appears as changing to our senses
• example: if you chop a tree the wood does not disappear but in a different form
• Nothing appears or disappears from or into nowhere
• Appearance vs. Reality
• If truth is in the eye of the beholder there cannot be such a thing as truth
• Everything would be subjective
• Plato does not want to discuss things as they are perceived but as the really are
• Truth is only found in a supernatural realm containing the eternal and perfect forms or ideas
• We do not have access to this because of our senses
• For example: all triangles are less than perfect manifestations of the form Triangle
• Only exists as an idea or concept
• Reality that we perceive is an imperfect version of the truth from the supernatural realm
• Plato’s cave allegory
• Prisoners can only see the shadows of the real objects
• Indirect version of the ideal shapes which are carried behind our back
• Language is one step away from reality
• Closest approximation of the world of forms
• Shadow/subjective perception
• 2 steps from reality
• Copy of the shadow
• 3 steps from reality
• According to Plato this is what artists do
• They are not helping the advancement of knowledge
• Copying in a less than perfect way
• Empirical investigation cannot bring true knowledge
• Only reveals a world of becoming and passing away
• Human reason constituted source of knowledge = rationalism
• Humans possess inborn ideas
• Our immortal soul comes from the world of forms
• We can access them somehow
• Meditation, work…
• All of these ideas are forgotten at birth
• Reason helps us understand theses ideas
• Theory about perfect universe and interpret and adapt your observations to that theory
Aristotles empiricism
• Empiricism: derided from or guided by reason and experiment
, • Source of knowledge is our sensory experience
• Senses bring us into immediate contact with the world
• Only the world we inhabit truly exists
• No world of forms
• Essences are part of this world and accessible by empirical enquiry
• Thomas Aquinas
• When we are born our mind is an empty sheet of paper tabula rasa filled with impressions
from reality
• Gather lots of observations and build your theory on their basis
• Syllogism: a way to find the cause of things
• example: 1. All human beings are mortal (premise 1, universal law)
2. Socrates is a human being (premise 2, the law applies to Socrates)
3. Hence, Socrates is mortal (conclusion from 1 and 2)
• Problem: the cause of Socrates immortality is found through deductive reasoning
• Premise 1 is a universal law
• Aristotle’s problem: how do we know premise 1 to be true
• To be based on empiricism we must have observed every human to be mortal
• Aristotle would rather observe first
• It is impossible to base premise 1 on observation
• To establish truth of premise 1 induction is not enough
• Only a first step
• Nous: infallible capacity, strong intuition that allows us to produce the insight that all humans
are mortal
• Aristotle pulls back from being purely empiricist
• Theoretical principles depend on observation but also on a direct and intuitive grasp from the
intellect
Induction and deduction
• Induction: an advance from observation of particular phenomena to universal laws
• Deduction: resining from universal laws (primary premises) to concrete observations
• For hard cord empiricists, universal laws should always come from observation (i.e. induction)
Francis Bacon
• Alive during the scientific revolution
• Outlines a scientific method
• Knowledge should be based on observation and experiments
• Should not follow books (i.e. bible)
• Should not follow faith, theology, tradition
• Medieval universe
• Geocentric universe
• Aristotle and ptolemy came up with geocentric view of the universe
• Thomas Aquinas made it fit with Christianity
• Copernicus: earth orbits the sun
• Theology vs. Science
• Authority vs. Observation
• Some people today still believe the earth is flat or disagree with the theory of evolution
• Finding truth requires observation
• Warned not to put blind faith into human perception
• The 4 idols
• Idols of the tribe: as humans our senses can deceive unmake us jump to conclusions that we
cherish
• Idols of the cave: as individuals out character may predispose us to cherish either tradition or
novelty
• Idols of the marketplace: we use a lot of words that do not refer to reality
• Idols of the theatre: we may be caught up in dogmas and methods of thought
• We are less tabula rasa than empiricism requires
• Aristotle was not sufficiently empiricist with his syllogisms
• Premises were not sufficiently grounded in observation
• Universal statements can never be the starting point of scientific inquiry
• Bacon wants true and perfect induction
• 2 approaches to knowledge since antiquity
• Rationalism
• Plato
• We have to move beyond perception
• Empiricism
• Aristotle
• Only perception
Platos rationalism
• Rely more on rationality because senses cannot be trusted
• Reality vs. Perception
• The world as it appears is not the world as it is
• Knowledge should not come through perception
• Perception is misleading
• Heraclitus:
• The essence of reality is change
• Everything in reality is constantly changing
• Becoming is the reality
• Being is not reality
• Only a temporary state
• Paramenides:
• Reality is unchanging but appears as changing to our senses
• example: if you chop a tree the wood does not disappear but in a different form
• Nothing appears or disappears from or into nowhere
• Appearance vs. Reality
• If truth is in the eye of the beholder there cannot be such a thing as truth
• Everything would be subjective
• Plato does not want to discuss things as they are perceived but as the really are
• Truth is only found in a supernatural realm containing the eternal and perfect forms or ideas
• We do not have access to this because of our senses
• For example: all triangles are less than perfect manifestations of the form Triangle
• Only exists as an idea or concept
• Reality that we perceive is an imperfect version of the truth from the supernatural realm
• Plato’s cave allegory
• Prisoners can only see the shadows of the real objects
• Indirect version of the ideal shapes which are carried behind our back
• Language is one step away from reality
• Closest approximation of the world of forms
• Shadow/subjective perception
• 2 steps from reality
• Copy of the shadow
• 3 steps from reality
• According to Plato this is what artists do
• They are not helping the advancement of knowledge
• Copying in a less than perfect way
• Empirical investigation cannot bring true knowledge
• Only reveals a world of becoming and passing away
• Human reason constituted source of knowledge = rationalism
• Humans possess inborn ideas
• Our immortal soul comes from the world of forms
• We can access them somehow
• Meditation, work…
• All of these ideas are forgotten at birth
• Reason helps us understand theses ideas
• Theory about perfect universe and interpret and adapt your observations to that theory
Aristotles empiricism
• Empiricism: derided from or guided by reason and experiment
, • Source of knowledge is our sensory experience
• Senses bring us into immediate contact with the world
• Only the world we inhabit truly exists
• No world of forms
• Essences are part of this world and accessible by empirical enquiry
• Thomas Aquinas
• When we are born our mind is an empty sheet of paper tabula rasa filled with impressions
from reality
• Gather lots of observations and build your theory on their basis
• Syllogism: a way to find the cause of things
• example: 1. All human beings are mortal (premise 1, universal law)
2. Socrates is a human being (premise 2, the law applies to Socrates)
3. Hence, Socrates is mortal (conclusion from 1 and 2)
• Problem: the cause of Socrates immortality is found through deductive reasoning
• Premise 1 is a universal law
• Aristotle’s problem: how do we know premise 1 to be true
• To be based on empiricism we must have observed every human to be mortal
• Aristotle would rather observe first
• It is impossible to base premise 1 on observation
• To establish truth of premise 1 induction is not enough
• Only a first step
• Nous: infallible capacity, strong intuition that allows us to produce the insight that all humans
are mortal
• Aristotle pulls back from being purely empiricist
• Theoretical principles depend on observation but also on a direct and intuitive grasp from the
intellect
Induction and deduction
• Induction: an advance from observation of particular phenomena to universal laws
• Deduction: resining from universal laws (primary premises) to concrete observations
• For hard cord empiricists, universal laws should always come from observation (i.e. induction)
Francis Bacon
• Alive during the scientific revolution
• Outlines a scientific method
• Knowledge should be based on observation and experiments
• Should not follow books (i.e. bible)
• Should not follow faith, theology, tradition
• Medieval universe
• Geocentric universe
• Aristotle and ptolemy came up with geocentric view of the universe
• Thomas Aquinas made it fit with Christianity
• Copernicus: earth orbits the sun
• Theology vs. Science
• Authority vs. Observation
• Some people today still believe the earth is flat or disagree with the theory of evolution
• Finding truth requires observation
• Warned not to put blind faith into human perception
• The 4 idols
• Idols of the tribe: as humans our senses can deceive unmake us jump to conclusions that we
cherish
• Idols of the cave: as individuals out character may predispose us to cherish either tradition or
novelty
• Idols of the marketplace: we use a lot of words that do not refer to reality
• Idols of the theatre: we may be caught up in dogmas and methods of thought
• We are less tabula rasa than empiricism requires
• Aristotle was not sufficiently empiricist with his syllogisms
• Premises were not sufficiently grounded in observation
• Universal statements can never be the starting point of scientific inquiry
• Bacon wants true and perfect induction
