Lecture 1: Rationalism & Empiricism in Antiquity

Question 1

What is epistemology?

Answer 1

The theory of knowledge

Question 2

What does epistemology answer?

Answer 2

1. What is (true) knowledge?
2. How can we justify (defend) this knowledge?
3. What is the source of knowledge?

Question 3

What is socrates question?

Answer 3

What is knowledge?

Question 4

What are the answers?

Answer 4

• Rationalism: The source of knowledge is (our) reason (ratio), Plato
• Empiricism: Our senses are the source of knowledge (experience), Aristotle

Question 5

Who is Plato?

Answer 5

• rationalist
• Socrates’ pupil

Question 6

Who is he influenced by?

Answer 6

• Heraclitus: change is at the heart of existence = panta rei (photo of yourself)
  → Plato’s: If we base our knowledge on perception truth may become subjectivistic (‘this water feels warm
  to me, but cold to you’)
  Our senses cannot be the source of knowledge, for knowledge is objective (eternal) truth
• Parmenides: appearances or senses are deceptive & there is a permanent and unchanging reality (temperature)

Question 7

What is knowledge according to Plato?

Answer 7

Knowledge is a true justified belief. It means that for a belief to constitute knowledge, it must be a true belief and a justified belief. A belief is true if it corresponds to the facts, and a belief is justified if there are good epistemic reasons or grounds to think the belief is true .

Question 8

Why would Plato classify the belief that the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees as knowledge?

Answer 8

Given the self-evident premises of Euclidian geometry (the axioms), it follows that the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees. So, it is a true belief that the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees. Plato is a rationalist, and it is through reasoning that we
provide the grounds (or reasons) for thinking that the belief is true. It is thus a justified true belief.

Question 9

What were Plato’s ideas?

Answer 9

‘behind the world of ‘appearances’ lies a higher, true world’
vb. a drawn triangle and a perfect triangle
- It is our reason that may detect the unchangeable
essences behind the veil of changing appearances, and thus be the source of
knowledge.

Question 10

What is the allegory of the Cave?

Answer 10

In the Allegory of the Cave, prisoners are held captive in such a way that they can only see the shadows of objects (lighted by a fire) on the wall of the cave. These prisoners mistakenly take the shadows to be the things themselves. One of the prisoners frees himself from the shackles, notices the objects and the fire, and when leaving the cave behind him sees the Sun lighting the Real World. Enlightened, he reenters the cave to convince the other prisoners of what he discovered, but they find it hard to take him seriously and stick to what they observe and experience

Question 11

Explain how this is used to become sensitive to empiricism.

Answer 11

The allegory tries to make the reader sensitive to the idea that what we observe might not be the real world

Question 12

What is Plato’s opinion about innate ideas?

Answer 12

Innate ideas are inborn ideas. No new knowledge → to learn is to remember
vb. Meno

Question 13

So what are Plato’s ideas in short?

Answer 13

• essences exist independently of nature; they cannot be perceived by the senses, but only known by our reason
• (1) the real and transcendent world is hidden from us, (2) our senses only have access to a fake world, (3) knowledge of the real world can only be gained by reason

Question 14

Who is Aristotle?

Answer 14

• Empiricist: everything we know, comes to us through the senses

Question 15

What are his ideas?

Answer 15

• Our senses is the source of our knowledge
• empirical research leads to knowledge: research that is based on observation and measurement of phenomena
  –> essences
  can be found in
  nature (the here and
  now) and we can
  find them by doing
  empirical research

vb. semen of hairy animals: The semen of hairy animals is sticky, but that of others is not. In all animals it is white. Herodotus is mistaken when he writes that the Ethiopians emit black semen”

Question 16

What is his criticism to Plato?

Answer 16

there is no ‘higher’ or transcendent world
→ Aristotle rejects Plato’s two-world theory: there is just one world and we have access to this world via the senses
→ By using our senses our mind ‘absorbs’ the essences (forma) of natural objects
vb. Peripatetic Axiom: nothing in the mind that was not first in the senses

Question 17

What does Aristotle say about cause?

Answer 17

argued that we can only have scientific knowledge if an object if we grasp its cause: Aristotle’s four causes are a philosophical framework he developed to understand and explain the nature and existence of things in the world. They provide a way of looking at the world and understanding why things are the way they are:
4 causes
1. The Formal cause: the apollo shape
2. The Material cause: the marble
3. The Efficient cause: primary source of change or its absence
4. The Final cause: the end goal may be aesthetics

Question 18

What are his thoughts about deduction?

Answer 18

Aristotle proponent of this way of thinking
Deduction is a form of logical reasoning where specific conclusions are drawn from
general principles or premises. A syllogism is a specific form of deductive argument
that consists of two premises and a conclusion. For example:
Major Premise: All humans are mortal.
Minor Premise: Socrates is a human.
Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

Question 19

What are his thoughts on induction?

Answer 19

Induction is not exclusive observational → Nous:
Aristotles believes that not only knowledge is gained with senses, Means that when we use induction (observations) to make generalizations, we’re not solely relying on what we directly see or experience. We also use our intellect and reasoning abilities. Nous is intellectual understanding, nous helps us to understand induction and go beyond just what we see and allows us to make broader conclusions based on patterns and concepts

Question 20

What are his thoughts in short?

Answer 20

• essences can be found in nature (the here and now) and we can find them by doing empirical research
• (1) there is but one world, (2) that world is immanent and not transcendent, (3) we need our senses to get to know that world (empiricism), (4) we discover essences by using our reason (not a radical empiricism)

Question 21

What do we mean by rationalism in epistemology?

Answer 21

Rationalism in epistemology is the doctrine that reason or ratio is the only source of knowledge for human beings

Question 22

What do we mean by empiricism in epistemology?

Answer 22

Empiricism is the epistemology doctrine that our senses are the only source of human knowledge

Question 23

To which epistemological position does the Peripatetic Principle refer? In your answer, explain the principle.

Answer 23

The Peripatetic Principle refers to empiricism. Empiricism holds that the senses are the only source of reliable information about the world, and The Peripatetic Principle says that there is nothing in the mind that was not first in the senses

Question 24

What does it mean to say that Aristotle’s metaphysics is this-worldly rather than other-worldly?

Answer 24

• Aristotle dismissed Plato’s view that there are two worlds, viz. the supersensory world of the Forms and the natural world in which we live.
• Aristotle argued that we only need to assume that there is one natural and observable world to understand how we know and what we know of that natural world

Question 25

In what sense is the Peripatetic Axiom an empiricist principle?

Answer 25

Peripatetic Axiom: there is nothing in the mind that was not first in the senses. It says that there are no innate ideas and this is taken to be a tenet of empiricism. The rejection of innate ideas is a consequence of a (radical) empiricist point of view saying that the only source of knowledge are our senses. Therefore, the Axiom is an empiricist principle.

Question 26

How does Plato use Heraclites’ panta rei to argue for his idea that we cannot appeal to the evidence of observation to get to knowledge? In your answer refer to Plato’s definition of knowledge

Answer 26

- According to Plato, knowledge is justified true belief - Heraclites argues that everything changes continuously - We notice this when we experience the same water as both hold and cold (1 point), or when we conclude that your experience of the same thing is different from mine (1 point). Therefore, our sensory experiences do not give us access to the world as it really is, but only as it seems to us

Question 27

How would Aristotle argue against the use or usefulness of doing experiments in trying to get to the essences of the world?

Answer 27

According to Aristotle, everything has its natural place. If we manipulate things, we run the risk of obstructing the striving of the thing for its natural place. We will observe an unnatural movement (2 points). This will not tell us about the real world or the essences. It will tell us something about an artificial or unnatural world. Experimenting is manipulating things into an unnatural/artificial context/situation (2 points), therefore it is not the way to get to understand the world as it naturally is (1 point)