Rationalism

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  • Created by: tasmin
  • Created on: 19-11-12 14:13
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  • Rationalism
    • Plato
      • Innate capacity to reason for example mathematics.
        • The boy uses reason to work out the problem, however he has no education, so the ability to reason must be innate.
    • A priori - before experience.
    • Deductive arguments - Socrates example.
      • Good - cannot doubt the logic of the conclusion.
      • Bad - doesn't give us any new information.
      • Analytic - true by definition - "an unmarried man is a bachelor" - becomes a tautology.
    • The ultimate source of knowledge is reason.
      • Maths is  commonly used in Rationalism.
    • We can distrust our senses, so how can they be used as a foundation of knowledge?
    • Innate  ideas can be a source of knowledge, these ideas are present in the mind from birth and give us knowledge about the world.
      • Like a spider - generating knowledge from within, as it spins its web with no external material.
    • Descartes - Cogito Ergo Sum - I think therefore I am.
      • Although it is solid, it cannot prove anything else exists.
      • Says nothing about what 'I' is, apart from a  thinking thing.
    • Innate idea of God and Morality.
    • Necessary truths
      • True in all possible worlds, or all possible situations. We cannot imagine it being otherwise. 2 +2 = 4 will always be.
  • Innate capacity to reason for example mathematics.
    • The boy uses reason to work out the problem, however he has no education, so the ability to reason must be innate.

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