Summary Intuition and deduction (AS PHILOSOPHY A* NOTES AQA)

REASON AS A SOURCE OF
KNOWLEDGE – INTUITION AND
DEDUCTION

, Notes:




Descartes argues that we can learn things about the world through reason alone; we can
gain synthetic a priori knowledge
Deductive reasoning, applied by the rationalist is systematic
If all premises are true then the conclusion must be true

CLAIMS TO KNOW THREE THINGS: HE EXISTS, EXTERNAL WORLD EXISTS, AND GOD EXISTS

Intuition = non-sensory, rational
- In which the mind can grasp or understand certain propositions
- A priori ( no experience )
- Can see and understand truth by merely thinking about it
- Analytic truths = reached by intuition
- Rational intuition = capacity to discover the truth of a claim just by thinking
about it using reason
o E. g I am a man and all men are mortal
- Immediate insight into a truth, intellectual capacity to see the truth through
reason
o It is immediate certainty directly indubitable
 Indubitable = free from doubt
Deduction =
- If we accept premises to be true, then conclusion must be valid
- If premises are false then the conclusion is false
- Deals in certainty
- Can use deduction from analytic truths to reach synthetic propositions
o NOT INDUCTIVE = INFERENCE/ PROBABILITY
- E.g anything that is a man is mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is a
mortal