Epistemology

Tabula Rasa

blank slate at birth, no innate ideas, all knowledge builds from experience

What are primary qualities?

Objective traits like shape, motion

What are secondary qualities?

Subjective traits like color, taste, sound.

two sources of ideas:

sensation and reflection

Sensation

Ideas from the external world (hard, cold, sweet).

Reflection

The mind reflecting on its own operations (remembering, thinking).

Simple Ideas

basic components (shape, color, number).

Complex ideas

combinations of simple ones (table = shapes + structure).

Impressions

vivid immediate sensations (touching hot stove)

ideas

weaker copies (remembering touching a hot stove)

relations of ideas

logical truths (2+2=4)

matters of fact

about the world, always uncertain

Induction

when you assume something will happen because it has in the past

problem with induction

we cant justify cause and effect because its not rational, just because something has happened doesnt mean it will

why are children better philosophers?

they have fewer habit and assumptions

esse es percipi

to be is to be percieved

how do objects stay in existence

god is always percieving them

cogito ergo sum

i think therefore i am

method of doubt

reject anything that can be doubted, seek only what is certain

the cogito

even if everything is fake, thinking proves existencee

the wax arguement

senses dont tell you its the same, only reasons proves it

proof of external world

senses are involuntary, god would not decieve us about basic reality

foundationalism

knowledge rests on: God exists and CES

causation

we dont see cause and effect, we think it to exist

Phenomenal world

the world as we expect, shaped my human mental things (time, space)

Noumenal world

the world “as is”, impossible to experience directly

a priori

before experiencing, logic, math

a posteriori

after experiencing knowledge from observation

analytic

known only through thought “all bachelors are unmarried”

synthetic

add new info: “the book is on the desk”