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Define innate knowledge
All knowledge is derived from birth and requires no sense experience to justify truths , belief held by rationalists . Most important type of knowledge as unchanging + eternal
Define rationalists
Believes we have some synthetic a priori knowledge . Justify truths without experience
What are the 4 premises + conclusion for Plato’s case for innate knowledge
P1 Slave boy no prior teaching about geometry + squares
P2 Socrates asks boy questions
P3 Slave boy grasps eternal truth about geometry + squares
P4 Truth not derived from previous experience as slave nor Socrates questioning
C Eternal truth must have existed innately
A - What is Meno’s paradox
Impossible to learn anything , anything you learn , you already knew about it or you didn’t . already know then learning is unnecessary , don’t know you won’t know how to go about learning it
C- Criticism of Plato’s argument , the boy is taught
Unclear how this is proof of forgotten knowledge . Boy use principle of his faculty of reason . Use experience to figure it out through questioning
D- How would a defender of Plato respond - forms
forms , eternal truths that are certain such as maths and geometry . souls exist in transcendent realm before in our bodies imprinted . Birth cause us to temporarily forget , stored within us
J - What 2 issues are there with the defence of forms+ Plato’s argument ?
Ockhams razor
problematic regress
A - Leibnz argument for innate knowledge premise + coclusion ?
P1. Senses can only give us particular instances
