PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE & REALITY - Javy Galindo · 2016-02-19 · KANT’S REVOLUTIONARY IDEA • The mind does not passively conform to its objects. • On the contrary, the objects

W E E K 7 - D A Y 2 ( T / T H ) : E P I S T E M O L O G Y – E M P I R I C I S M , R A T I O N A L I S M , M I D T E R M D I S C U S S I O N

PHILOSOPHY OF

KNOWLEDGE & REALITY

REVIEW: EPISTEMOLOGY

How do We Know Anything?

Three Major Theories of Justification:

Skepticism RationalismEmpiricism

REVIEW: EMPIRICISTS

“We Can Know Through Experience/Perception!”

But Our Perceptions Are not Always Trustworthy

1 Problems of Perception

REVIEW: EMPIRICISTS

“We Can Tell You…

- John’s brain has brain cells.”

But They Can’t Tell Us…

- All brain’s have brain cells.

2. Problems of Induction

REVIEW: EMPIRICISTS

“We Can Tell You…

- Pool stick hit cue ball, cue ball hit, 8 ball, 8 ball goes into corner pocket.”

But They Can’t Tell Us…

- One thing “caused” the other to happen.

3. Problems of Causation

REVIEW: RATIONALISM

What do the rationalists say about these problems?

WE DON’T HAVE THESE PROBLEMS.

REAL KNOWLEDGE ONLY COMES FROM REASON!!

REVIEW: RATIONALISM

Using Our Intellect (reason/logic)

Example #2If one plank is 2 in. long…

How long are two planks together?

What’s the empirical approach to this question?

Example #1If know sum of angles = 180 degrees, angle C = ?

What’s the empirical approach to thisquestion?

REVIEW: RATIONALISM

Necessary Truths Exist

(Truth is not Contingent on Experience)

A bachelor is an unmarried male.

2+1 = 3

A sister is a female sibling.

Two is more than one.

REVIEW - RATIONALISM:

USE OF DEDUCTION

Use of Reason to Expand Knowledge

Ex ample1:If John is a bachelor.Then John does not have a wife.

Example 2:If 2 + x = 3Then X = 1

Example 3:If Mary has a female sibling,Then Mary has a sister.

Example 4:If Juan has 2 cars, and Jen has 1 car,Then Juan has more cars than Jen.

CRITIQUE OF RATIONALISM

So is rationalism the only path to true knowledge?

1. Wait a minute. Let’s look at those necessary truths again.

• They are all truths by definition.

• They don’t tell us anything about the world.

• Can that really be knowledge?

A bachelor is an unmarried male.

2+1 = 3

A sister is a female sibling.

Two is more than one.

CRITIQUE OF RATIONALISM

So is rationalism the only path to true knowledge?

2. Let’s take a look at that deductions again.

• To know anything about the world, you needed to have used empiricism before you use deduction.

If John is a bachelor.Then John does not have a wife.

If Mary has a female sibling,Then Mary has a sister.

If Juan has 2 cars, and Jen has 1 car,Then Juan has more cars than Jen.

DISCUSSION

• Describe three issues (perception, induction, causation) with empiricism. How might you defend it against its critics?

• Why do some find rationalism more appealing than empiricism as a justification for knowledge?

• Do we ever really “know” anything a priori? If so provide examples. If not explain why.

KANT’S EPISTEMOLOGY

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

German Philosopher

• Changed epistemology forever with…

• 1) Kant’s Compromise

• 2) Kant’s Copernican Revolution

KANT’S COMPROMISE

• “Yes, empiricists, there are contingent truths known by experience. But the mind does not passively take in sensory information. We are not blank slates.”

• “Yes, rationalists, there are necessary truths known through reason. But knowledge is not gained by reason alone.”

Let’s make a compromise!!

KANT’S COMPROMISE

We need to change the way we look at knowledge and say there are different types of truths.

• Distinction #1:

• a priori (before experience)

• a posteriori (after experience)

• Distinction #2: Let’s make another distinction:

• Analytic = true by definition, not new info.

• Synthetic = truth beyond definition alone, provides new info

KANT’S COMPROMISE

4 CLASSIFICATIONS OF JUDGMENTS

a priori knowledge

• The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

• The velocity of a body remains unchanged unless acted on by an outside force.

• Every event has a cause

• All bachelors are unmarried.

• All triangles have three angles.

• A red ball has color.

a posteriori knowledge

• John is under 12 ft tall.

• Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth

• There are more people in San Francisco than Milpitas.

Synthetic

Analytic

This comes from experience.

Where does this come from?

This comes from definition.

See! Reason does give us knowledge!

KANT’S REVOLUTIONARY IDEA

• The mind does not passively conform to its objects.

• On the contrary, the objects of consciousness conform to the inherent, a priori structures & categories of the mind itself.

• Two big ways the mind structures & categorizes reality:

Time and Space

KANT’S REVOLUTIONARY IDEA

What does this mean?

Rationalist and Empiricist Knowledge Isn’t Noumena

You Can’t Know Anything About How

Reality “Actually” Is!

Not about evil demons or dreams, but about how your mind works.

KANT’S COPERNICAN REVOLUTION1. IMPACT ON RATIONAL TRUTHS OF THE WORLD (SYNTHETIC A PRIORI)

Example #1:

Every event has a cause (or even simply “causation exists”).

• Our mind understands objects as existing in time.

• This truth is true because of how the mind structures reality as existing sequentially, in the flow of time.

KANT’S COPERNICAN REVOLUTION1. IMPACT ON RATIONAL TRUTHS OF THE WORLD (SYNTHETIC A PRIORI)

Example #2

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

• Our mind understands objects as existing in space.

• This truth is true because of how the mind structures reality as existing WITHIN space. (you actually can’t see straightness)

1 2

KANT’S COPERNICAN REVOLUTION:2. IMPACT ON EMPIRICAL TRUTHS (SYNTHETIC A POSTERIORI TRUTHS)

All sense experience is then filtered and shaped by our minds.


D

Which segment is longest: AB, AD, DB, DC, BC?










KANT’S COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

Therefore:Our truths are never about reality. Our truths are about how our mind best makes sense of reality.

Therefore: We never know reality as it is (Noumena).We can only know it as shaped by our mind (Phenomena).

All rational understanding and perception of reality is filtered and shaped by our biology and mind.

NEW THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE


Leonard Susskind Raphael Bousso

What?!!!


Holographic Universe?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16WIlRJxnrY&index=30&list=PLCF863678A8B511B8

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PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE & REALITY - Javy Galindo · 2016-02-19 · KANT’S REVOLUTIONARY IDEA • The mind does not passively conform to its objects. • On the contrary, the objects