AI

Question 1

What is the main idea of Plato’s rationalism?

Answer 1

Reason as a source of knowledge

Question 2

What does the allegory of the cave symbolize?

Answer 2

• People being prisoners and seeing only shadows
• The struggle to enlighten others to pursue higher truth

Question 3

What is the main idea of Aristotle’s empiricism?

Answer 3

Sense as a source of knowledge

Question 4

What are the aspects of the Scientific Revolution?

Answer 4

• Rejection of authority
• Acceptance of observation over faulty reasoning
• Use of induction and experimentation
• Rediscovery of mathematics as a tool

Question 5

What were Isaac Newton’s major contributions to science?

Answer 5

• 3 laws of motion
• Law of gravity
• Law of mechanics

Question 6

What did Francis Bacon criticize in his philosophy?

Answer 6

Dogmas and philosophy authority of the pasts

Question 7

What concept did Bacon introduce to defend empiricism?

Answer 7

Total reconstruction of science on solid foundation

Question 8

What are the two ways of doing science according to Bacon?

Answer 8

• Deductive Way: From the most general axioms to the less general axioms and to theorems
• Inductive Way: Generalizing from sensory perceptions ultimately to the most general axioms

Question 9

What are the four idols according to Bacon?

Answer 9

• Idols of the Tribe: False ideas of our mind, influenced by our human nature
• Idols of the Cave: False ideas resulting from our education and personal biases
• Idols of the Market: False ideas caused by the language we use, such as words with multiple meanings
• Idols of the Theatre: False ideas from accepting dogmas and philosophical views without critical thinking

Question 10

What is the main idea of skepticism?

Answer 10

Reality is not perceived directly, but through the representations of our mind. Everything could be an illusion.

Question 11

What was Descartes’ response to skepticism?

Answer 11

Reason as the source of knowledge, doubting everything to find certainty

Question 12

What is Descartes’ famous quote?

Answer 12

Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)

Question 13

What concept did John Locke introduce?

Answer 13

Rejecting inborn ideas and claiming that knowledge comes from experience

Question 14

What are the two types of qualities according to Locke?

Answer 14

• Primary qualities: Objective qualities (e.g., temperature)
• Secondary qualities: How we experience the primary qualities subjectively (e.g., feeling hot or cold)

Question 15

According to George Berkeley, what is the role of perception in the existence of things?

Answer 15

Things exist through our perception

Without secondary qualities and perception, things do not exist

Question 16

Who sustains the universe, according to George Berkeley?

Answer 16

God

God is the one who observes things and makes them exist when we are not perceiving them

Question 17

What concept did David Hume criticize in relation to science?

Answer 17

Causality

Question 18

State one critique that David Hume had about causality

Answer 18

• Billiard balls problem
• Contiguity, priority, and Constant Conjunction
• We cannot be sure that what we have seen in the past will happen again the same way
• Causality is just a conjecture
• We draw conclusions through imagination

Question 19

According to David Hume, what is the best guess we have in science?

Answer 19

Informed guess

Question 20

What is the Copy Principle proposed by David Hume?

Answer 20

All our ideas are nothing but copies of our impressions

This is the first principle in the science of human nature

Question 21

What concept did Immanuel Kant shift the understanding of reality from?

Answer 21

Outer world to the mind and its cognitive structure

According to Kant, knowledge is not in the world but in how our mind organizes the information

Question 22

What are the categories that Kant proposes for organizing the world?

Answer 22

• Causality
• Synthetic a priori
• Synthetic a posteriori

These are some of the cognitive structures (categories) that Kant proposes

Question 23

What is hermeneutics?

Answer 23

The art of interpretation

In the context of human sciences, hermeneutics focuses on understanding in terms of reasons, rather than explaining in terms of natural causes

Question 24

What is the Verstehen method in social sciences?

Answer 24

All human actions are part of a historical process and can be understood by imagining their specific point of view.

The Verstehen method involves determining the mental state expressed in a meaningful action and considering the concept of ‘Erleben’ as the sum of all the perspectives of personal experience in a precise moment.

Question 25

What is the hermeneutic circle?

Answer 25

To understand a meaningful expression, one needs to understand the context, but understanding the context is achieved through its meaningful expressions.

Question 26

What is the critique of the Verstehen method?

Answer 26

Putting oneself in someone's shoes is ultimately a subjective practice, leading to the threat of relativism and subjectivism. ## Footnote This would result in an absence of scientific objectivity, which is essential for science.

Question 27

How does Hempel define Verstehen in positivism?

Answer 27

Hempel defines Verstehen as merely a heuristic, a practical mental shortcut. ## Footnote Positivism emphasizes the need for laws and conditions to deduce explanations in science.

Question 28

What are the two features of the scientific world-conception described by the Circle of Vienna?

Answer 28

* Empiricism: a focus on knowledge from experience, setting the limits of what is considered legitimate science. * Logical analysis: applying a certain method to empirical material in pursuit of unified science.

Question 29

What does the Circle of Vienna reject in contrast to Kant?

Answer 29

The synthetic a priori statements that provide knowledge, such as 'The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.'

Question 30

What does Wittgenstein suggest in understanding science?

Answer 30

To understand science, one must first understand language and sentences.

Question 31

How does Wittgenstein classify formal statements in philosophy?

Answer 31

Formal statements are logical/rational statements that are independent of the empirical world. ## Footnote They refer to a priori sources of knowledge.

Question 32

How does Wittgenstein classify factual statements in philosophy?

Answer 32

Factual statements expand our knowledge by referring to a posteriori sources of knowledge and being tested through empirical testing.

Question 33

What does Wittgenstein consider as non-scientific statements?

Answer 33

Fictional statements that cannot be verified and are cognitively meaningless. ## Footnote An example is the statement 'God exists'.

Question 34

What is the verification principle?

Answer 34

A cognitive meaningful statement must be verifiable by empirical facts. ## Footnote Scientific hypotheses, particularly those stating 'all a's are b's', are considered scientific only if they can be verified by empirical facts.

Question 35

What is the rule of Bayes used for?

Answer 35

The rule of Bayes is used to update probabilities of truthfulness based on new information, starting from subjective probability. ## Footnote While it is good for making informed guesses, it does not provide certainty and is not considered logical positivism.