Unit 2 Descartes, Hume, and Leibniz

PHIL 100

rationalism

knowledge doesn’t comes from experience. It comes from the intellect alone, it is innate

empiricism

knowledge come from experience, and rejects innate

epistemology

The nature of knowledge.Looks at how we know what the truth is and whether there are limits to this knowledge

metaphysics

Through reason we can discover the ultimate causes, God or other worldy. Seeks to understand the nature of reality and existence

substance for Leibniz

the single monad: simple substance/ the mind/God. Makes up the universe but lack spatial extension and hence are immaterial.

Apperection

consiousness; self awareness not all mind have conscious, levels of this seperates monads

Pre establish harmony Leibniz

causality or everything has a cause, no two substance effect each other relates to parellaism

parellalism for Leibniz

mind and body operates on their own rules and does not have any causal interaction between them

David Hume’s 3rd species of philosophy/ the philosophy of human nature

Empiricism, Naturalism, Skeptcism. Explanation comes from nature (anti-metaphysical)

Descartes methodological doubt/ skepticism

“i think therefore i am” cannot doubt a thinking thing. He doubted everything that was not clear and distinct- the doubt experience. The result is that the mind can be separated from the body, but thought/ mind cannot be separated from the body

Descartes Meditation 3- 1st Argument from the infinite

God must exist, because I have an innate idea of an infinite substance. It couldn’t have come from any other source except an actual (formally real) infinite substance.

Therefore, God necessarily exists, and is an infinite substance.

primary qualities

mathematical in nature, exist in the object the intellect. Substance, extension, motion, figure, breadth and depth, exist within extended material obejcts

secondary qualities

sensory in nature, related to the body or the faculty of mind. Color, sound, taste, smell, texture these quality only exist in our mind not through the object

Descartes Meditation 3- 2nd Argument from perfection

God must exist because I have a notion of perfection, through which I understand my own imperfection and, by extension, my dependence upon God as the creator (and preserver) of my existence.

Therefore, God necessarily exists, and is an infinite perfect substance.

Descartes mind and body dualism

The mind and body are two separate substances. The mind can prove its existence by thinking, but can doubt the existence of the body.

Descartes Mediation V The Ontological Argument

certain ideas that are well constituted and their essense is inseparable from their notion. A triangle and its shape is well constituted and cannot be separated.

God must exist, by virtue of his essence an infinite and perfect substance, i.e., existence is part of God’s essence, like three sides is part of a triangle’s essence

Descartes argument of God

because God is perfect he does not deceive human beings, and therefore because God leads humans to believe that the material world exist, it does exist

Leibniz seven principles or primary truth

principle of the best

principle of identity or contradiction

principle of sufficient reason

principle in notion principle

principle of the identity of indiscernibles

principle reciprocity of unity and being

principle of continuity

who is a rationalist philosopher

Leibniz believed that actions should have a reason

The best of all possible worlds Leibniz argument

God always does what is best. (Principle of the Best)

If God made this world, but could have done better, then he would not be perfect, and would not have done what was best.

representationalism, indirect realism

ideas are present and immediate to the mind instead of things, which are not present to the mind

innate ideas

people have knowledge because they were born it. Knowledge does not come experience

Hume’s copy principle

each of our ideas is either copied from a simple impression, or is built up entirely from simple ideas that are so copied. If our minds could not reproduce our simple impressions, then we could not form any ideas at all.

Leibniz complete individual concept

one of the basic features of a substance. properties included are those of the past, present, and future.

what idealism generally and for Leibniz

nothing exists in the world but minds and their ideas. “There is nothing in the world but simple substances and in them perception and appetite”

formal reality

the kind of reality the thing possesses in virtue of its being an actual or an existent thing

the sun possess this reality

objective reality

consists in the reality something possesses whenever there is an idea of it

mechanistic worldview

presents events within the phenomenon’s causal history

teleology

explanation presents the function or benefit of the phenomenon, the purpose or ultimate cause.

Hume’s relations of ideas

reasoning as it concerns mathematics, geometry, and logic, broadly speaking. The discipline of Logic. This type of reasoning is grounded in the principle of contradiction

Hume’s relations of matters of fact

all reasoning that concerns experience. Probable, not necessary for an event to occur, a car starting

Humes impression

immediate sense of perception

external impression- color,smell,texture,taste,sounds

internal impression: joy, sadness, etc

Humes ideas

the perception of the human mind, all mental content. Copies of impression, dull and freeble, bottle level of cognitive memory and interpertation

Hume’s analysis of Causation/ constant conjunction

experience does not tell us much. Of two events, A and B, we say that A causes B when the two always occur together, that is, are constantly conjoined. Whenever we find A, we also find B, and we have a certainty that this conjunction will continue to happen.

Humes necessary connection

cause and effect is produced when repeated observation of the conjunction of two events determines the mind to consider one upon the appearance of the other.