REVIEW 2-21-2025 SLIDE SHOW NOTES

Page 1

• PHIL 001 – BIG QUESTIONS

• Date: 2/21/25

Page 2

• Class Plan

  • Discussion

  • Mid-Semester ?

  • Unit Review

  • Questions

  • Feedback

Page 3

• Discussion Questions

  • What are the potential problems with starting knowledge projects from marginalized perspectives?

  • Do you think standpoint theory (despite claiming it doesn’t) falls into essentialism or relativism?

  • Do you agree with Narayan’s critique? Discuss why or why not

Page 4

• Plato

  • The Republic

    • Addresses the question of justice through the discussion of a “just” city.

  • Allegory of the Cave

    • Represents the process of education and accessing truth through reason.

Page 5

• Descartes

  • The “Cartesian Project”

    • An attempt to build a system of knowledge on unshakeable grounds.

  • Meditations on First Philosophy

    • Uses a method of doubt (global skepticism): doubt everything!

  • Rationalism

    • View that reason is the foundation and source of knowledge.

Page 6

• Meditation I

  • Begins with “doubting from the foundation.”

  • Struggles to doubt senses; proposes Dream Hypothesis: everything might be a dream.

  • A priori vs a posteriori knowledge

  • Evil Genius Hypothesis

    • Suggests a false world created by an evil genius.

Page 7

• Meditation II

  • The only indubitable assertion is “I exist”; if there is doubt, there must be a doubter.

  • The Wax Example

    • Demonstrates true understanding of the wax through reason, rather than senses.

Page 8

• Hume

  • Known for empiricism: theory that knowledge comes from sense experience.

  • Indirect Realism

    • We perceive a world based on experience; beliefs about the world are inferred from appearances.

Page 9

• Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

  • Differentiates between Impressions (immediate, lively perceptions) and Ideas (mediated, fainter perceptions).

  • Ideas develop through reflection and connections: resemblance, contiguity, cause/effect.

  • Association of Ideas: example of the missing shade of blue.

Page 10

• Skeptical Doubts about Understanding

  • Relations of Ideas vs Matters of Fact

    • Relations of Ideas: truths independent of the world (A PRIORI).

    • Matters of Fact: truths dependent on the world (A POSTERIORI).

    • Reasoning about Matters of Fact relies on Cause and Effect, grounded in Inductive Reasoning.

  • Problem of Induction: assumes the future will resemble the past.

Page 11

• Harding

  • Standpoint Theory: knowledge is socially situated, with marginalized perspectives offering unique insights.

    • Key Points:

      1. All knowledge and knowers are socially situated.

      2. Marginalized lives provide the best starting point for knowledge projects.

    • Strong Objectivity: maximizing objectivity through critical self-reflexivity.

Page 12

• Narayan

  • Agrees with standpoint theory that all knowledge is socially situated.

    • Complicates western feminist standpoint theory as a nonwestern feminist.

    • Key Arguments:

      1. Some criticized concepts in western feminism are not dominant in nonwestern feminism.

      2. Some criticized concepts are, in fact, useful to nonwestern feminists.

      3. The “epistemic advantage” comes with personal conflict, and some oppressions limit knowledge.