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Urgent notices
- Philosophy team - don't bother me about timetables.
Philosophy
1Phil2b
Knowledge of the external world
Peter Millican lecture on perception
Reason and experience
ESSAY TO BE SUBMITTED MON 20 FEB
To what extent does knowledge of reality depend on our conceptual scheme?
Guidance -
This is an essay that is designed to get you to think about Kant and those who followed him: the linguistic relativists. Kant argued that we could not know reality as it but only as our mind made it appear. Kant’s predecessors thought that reality is ‘out there’ to be known. Whether we can know it or not depends on how powerful you think the mind is. Rationalists thought the mind was equipped with innate ideas and a faculty of reason able to grasp truths about reality: in particular, what exists. Locke argued that all knowledge of existence is a posteriori. Knowledge of what exists is possible but limited. We may never know the 'hidden natures' of things. Berkeley and Hume in different ways argued that we cannot know anything beyond our ideas: either because the very idea is senseless (Berkeley) or because we cannot reason our way to the causes of the ideas in our minds (Hume).
Kant argues that experience is only possible if our minds organise the raw data into something structured and coherent. The structure is the scheme of concepts or conceptual scheme. The result is thoughts and experiences with content. Kant’s successors argued he was on the right track but did not go far enough. There was not one scheme but many. Your language and culture determines your scheme.
You need to assess whether this thought is a good one. Does what we know depend upon the language we speak? Do speakers of different realities know different worlds? Think of what we said about how we can translate between languages. Think about the problem of translating the word right into Chinese that was discussed in the video.
Think too about whether Kant was right to say our minds shaped the world as one in space and time. Think about whether Kant ends up saying no more than Hume and Berkeley: that, if the mind shapes the world, what we see is not the world but a creation of our mind.
WEDS 11 JAN - THE BAD NEWS: I SHALL NOT BE IN COLLEGE FOR OUR CLASS. THE GOOD NEWS: HERE IS WORK TO BE COMPLETED FOR OUR CLASS ON MON 16 JAN.
1. Read the Cottingham handouts on Hume and chapter 9 of the Reason and Experience booklet.
2. Explain the Humean challenge to the rationalist claim that we have a priori knowledge of reality.
3. What, according to Hume, do we know?
Reason and experience
- Work to be completed for our class on 5 Dec
Making use of pp.44-53 the Reason and Experience booklet and the handout on Leibniz, prepare answers to the following.
1. Explain why Locke denies that we have innate ideas.
2. How does Leibniz respond?
3. What are the 'raw materials' of our knowledge?
4. According to Locke, what do we know?
5. What is the status of scientific claims about nature?
6. Explain the sceptical problem faced by Locke.
7. Explain the objection Berkeley has to Locke's account of general ideas.
Half term homework
- Read the rest of ch. 4 and ch.5. Make notes.
- Prepare for the following essay which you will you will be writing under timed conditions (45mins)in class on 2 Nov. You may use a plan.
Explain and illustrate why Descartes thinks reason is the source of knowledge. Do you agree? Why?
Mark Steel lecture on Descartes 1
- Homework for Mon 17 Oct
(1) Read Meditation 1.
(2) Then read Ch4 to the top of p.27 and answer questions 1 and 2 on p.30.
- Homework for 5 Oct
(1) Read chapter 2, Reason and Experience Guidebook.
(2) Explain and illustrate two arguments from Plato to support the view that reason not experience must be the source of knowledge about reality. Hand in on Weds 5 Oct
- Plato and the cave[1]
Critical Thinking
Homework
- Intensive AS/A2
IB TOK
Homework
TOK year 2
My Fri class (second years) -
- NOTICE - THE BAD NEWS FRI 21 OCT I AM NOT IN COLLEGE IN THE AFTERNOON. THE GOOD NEWS - I SET WORK IN OUR LAST CLASS. IT IS TO BE SUBMITTED IN THE FIRST CLASS AFTER AFTER HALF-TERM.
- The work - 'Emotion is the enemy of reason.' Discuss.
- Mathematical knowledge - a useful link
TOK year 1
Making use of the presentation and the article, 'Knowledge itself is power', do the following essay.
- ‘If knowledge is power and ignorance is bliss, then we should prefer ignorance.’ Discuss.
- Deadline: submit in our class in the week commencing 10 Oct.
IB Philosophy
Homework
Tutees
We meet on Tuesdays at 12.35 a.m. in room 2D39.
PERSONAL STATEMENTS - email me your draft in advance of review day - paul.sheehy@rutc.ac.uk
Contact
Room 2E7 - 020 8607 8339 - email me
