Reason as a source of knowledge
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1. What is in- The claim that we are born with some innate knowledge
natism? which doesn't require experience to be known. Rather, it is
often revealed through reason. This knowledge is a priori.
2. What is rational- The claim that there are significant truths about the world
ism? that we can determine via means other than experience
or empirical evidence. This is because our senses are too
deceptive and fallible to be meaningful sources of knowl-
edge. Rather, we can acquire knowledge purely through
reason, intuition and deduction (i.e. we can acquire knowl-
edge purely by thinking rather than through perceptual
experience.)
3. What is a priori Knowledge that can be acquired without experience of the
knowledge? external world, through thought alone. e.g. mathematical
truths like 2 + 3 = 5
4. What is a posteri- Knowledge that can only be acquired from experience of
ori knowledge? the external world. E.G. Any knowledge we gain via our
senses (via empirical evidence), such as 'that apple is
mouldy'.
5. How did Plato Plato uses the example of Meno's slave. In this example,
prove his theory? Socrates calls over a slave, who, despite never being
taught geometry, knows a geometry proof that a square
with an area of 2A will have sides equal to the diagonal of
a square with an area of 1A. Socrates only asks questions;
he does not teach the boy about squares. However, even
though the boy has no prior experience of geometry, he
is able to correctly answer Socrates' questions (or at least
correct his mistakes).
6. What was Pla- The boy was not learning from Socrates' words, but rather
to trying to say the questioning was helping the boy to recall knowledge
about knowledge that was in him 'innately'. All learning is a form of recalling
in the example knowledge from before we are born - we are born with
of Meno's slave innate knowledge but we just need to remember it. Since
boy? Meno's slave had no experience of geometry, his correct
, Reason as a source of knowledge
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knowledge (i.e. eternal truth) must have existed innately in
him to begin with.
7. What is an issue This example does not show that knowledge exists in us
with Plato's ar- as a type of forgotten memory. Perhaps the slave boy
gument from the is simply using reason to work out what must be the
'slave boy'? case given certain features of lines and shapes. It is not
necessary to posit innate knowledge to explain how the
boy can reason his way to the discovery of geometric truth.
8. What is Plato's Plato was puzzled by the problem of universals: of the
theory of forms? relationship between a concept and individual instances of
that concept. For example, we seem to have a concept of
beauty, but never witness beauty in its pure form, only im-
perfectly in different people and objects. Plato claimed that
in a prior existence, we apprehended perfect concepts or
'forms' in their pure state. We have forgotten most of these
forms, but they are in us innately. Through reasoning we
can achieve a perfect understanding/apprehension once
again.
9. How does Plato's Innate ideas are 'in' us, although we might not be aware
theory of forms of them (like a forgotten memory is 'in' us). We can realise
show features of these innate ideas through reason. Innate ideas prove
innatism? timeless truths.
10. What counts as Mathematical objects, such as numbers and shapes. Ab-
innate ideas for stract concepts such as justice and beauty.
Plato?
11. What was Leib- He believed that the human mind could gain knowledge
niz's argument of the world through reason alone (though prompted by
about innatism? the senses). According to his theory, it is our knowledge
of necessary truths that must be innate.
12. Explain the A necessary truth is what must always be the case, where-
difference be- as a contingent truth is what is the case. Whilst a neces-
tween necessary sary truth is true in every possible world, contingent truth
and contingent could have been false in some other possible world. For
truths. example, "Paris is the capital of France" is a contingent
, Reason as a source of knowledge
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truth because they could have chosen to make Lyon or
some other city the capital instead. Whereas, "2+2=4"
is a necessary truth because there is no possible world
where "2+2" equals 7 or some other number than 4. The
'necessity' of this truth cannot be revealed by the senses,
but only by reason - which is the application of principles
that innately inside us.
13. What is Leibniz's Leibniz argues that our knowledge of necessary truths
argument from must be innate. He claims that the senses only reveal
the necessity of instances of general truths. A collection of instances can
truth? never reveal the necessity of a general truth. However, our
minds can grasp the necessity of some general truths. The
'necessity' of a truth cannot be revealed by the senses, but
only by reason - which is the application of principles that
are innately inside us.
14. Example for Leib- "2+2=4" is a necessary truth because there is no possible
niz's argument world where "2+2" equals 7 or some other number than
from the necessi- 4. A posteriori experience can tell us that adding these
ty of truth. 2 apples to these 2 two apples gives us 4 apples. But
no amount of experience can tell us how things must be
(because even if you add apples 100000 times, you never
know what will happen the 100001st time). And yet we
do know that it must always be true that "2+2=4". We
know that there will never be an instance where you add 2
apples to 2 apples and get 5 apples because "2+2=4" is a
necessary truth. This knowledge can't come from experi-
ence, though, because experience only tells us how things
are, not how they must be. In other words, experience can
only tell us what is true, not what is necessarily true.
15. What counts as truths of mathematics; logical principles such as the law of
innate ideas for non-contradiction; the concept of identity. Also, concepts
Leibniz? derived from our awareness of ourselves, such as unity,
change, pleasure.
16. What is Leibniz's Leibniz did not claim that innate principles exist within us
analogy of the fully formed from birth. Our mind is like a block of marble
block of marble? which has veins running through it in such a way that it
