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Samenvatting Exploring Humans - Philosophy of the social sciences (3801PSQPVY)
- Instelling
- Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
- Boek
- Exploring Humans
a summary of all lectures and readings
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PSS SUMMARYWeek 1 (PLATO & ARISTOTLE)
Lecture 1 PLATO (EH-intro)
Philosophy-> love of wisdom
Four subfields of philosophy
1. epistemology
The study of the nature and the scope of knowledge
2. ethics
The study of morality
3. logic
The study of argumentation
4. metaphysics
The study of reality or being
- Science-> systematic endeavor to gain knowledge about the world
- Philosophy of science-> comes from epistemology and metaphysics,
how science can live up to the promise of building knowledge about
the real world
- Social sciences-> sciences that study societies and the relationships
between individuals within these societies
- Social ontology-> ontology is the study of being, studies the
existence of social entities (groups/societies)
Philosophy of the social sciences
- Inquiry into the conditions under which scientists can generate
knowledge about the social world.
- Positivism- social scientists should rely on methods derived from the
natural sciences
- Hermeneutics- methods derived from the arts/humanoria
PLATO’S EPISTEMOLOGY
- 429-347 BCE, Athenian philosopher ‘father western philosophy’
- Student but also a critic of Socrates. Socrates is a central character
in Plato’s dialogues, which are often centred around ‘Aporia”-> a
state of perplexity/puzzlement when you experience what you
thought was right to be wrong-> the starting point of philosophy.
Plato’s rationalism-> true knowledge concerns eternal truths about the
universe that are independent from observation. We cannot rely on our
sense data to gain actual knowledge
1. world of appearances
the world in which we exist which is constantly changing, and our
senses are unreliable guides.
Appearances-> reflections (imperfect representation of perfect thing)
2. the world of ideas
Idea-> The perfect form of a thing
, Knowledge about a thing does not concern the imperfect thing we see
but the ‘Idea’ of a thing.
The Cave Allegory
It is a philosopher’s job to go beyond the world of appearances and gain
knowledge about ‘Ideas’. -> we do that through our ratio, by thinking
rationally we can determine that the corners of a triangle sum up to 180
degrees even if we have an imperfect triangle in front of us.
The job description of a philosopher is metaphorically compared to the
cave allegory
- group of people is chained inside a cave, they look at shadows being
projected on the side of the cave (world of appearances)
- when they are released they see that the shadows are mere
projections caused by a fire
- but the fire itself is an imperfect version of the sun (the source of
true knowledge)
philosophy is the art of escaping from being stuck in the cave of
appearances and finding the source of true knowledge
Theory of the forms
The real world is not the ever-changing world of appearances, but a
supernatural world containing eternal and perfect forms (ideas) of
everything, these are the ultimate realities grounding true knowledge.
Knowledge about real-world entities does not come from the observation
of imperfect natural objections, but universals in the supernatural, super-
sensory realm. Humans who are content with the sensory experiences of
the world are mistaking appearance for reality, trapping their souls.
Innate knowledge
We are born possessing all knowledge within ourselves.
Anamnesis-> we use our reason to recollect knowledge (this is what
learning is). Plato believed in a theory of reincarnation, arguing that our
immortal souls belong to the world of forms, and have seen and known all
forms, but this true knowledge is forgotten once souls are born into
bodies.
Rationalist philosophy
Plato criticized empiricism, according to which knowledge is perception
and we only know something is true once we have experienced it. this
leads to relativism as each individual’s subjective experiences are unique,
and objective truth will never be attained.
The world of the senses is constantly flowing, this means that genuine
knowledge will be impossible to attain, and everyone will be sceptical.
Plato argued that truth should reflect how the world really is, not how
each person subjectively experiences it.
- Episteme-> true knowledge
- Doxa-> knowledge resulting from the use of the senses
Knowledge as justified true belief
, Beliefs must correspond to real facts, and must be held because there is
good logical reasoning behind them
Political philosophy
Philosopher-kings should rule. Rulers should be intelligent enough to have
a fixed rule of life, but not so much that they no longer care about
material matters in the real world. Rulers should not desire ruling and
should have virtue and knowledge.
The purpose of the state is to ensure citizens serve the state for the
common good.
PARMENIDES-> objections to Plato’s forms
- using the theory of the forms to try and explain predicates does not
work. If the idea of greatness is great, then is it not partaking in
itself?
- The idea/form of a table is shared by many versions of a table, but
how many different imperfect things can partake in one unchanging
‘Idea’?
- If the forms are eternal and unchanging then how can they change?
Theory of forms works very well for mathematical problems, but
when studying anything else it fails
LECTURE 2: ARISTOTLE (EH-CH 1)
ARISTOTLE’S EPISTEMOLOGY
- 384-322 BCE, studied under Plato
- 335-> set up his own school, Lyceum
his ideas come from Plato and Parmenides’ ideas. He REJECTED Plato's
view of two worlds.
‘we gain our knowledge through our senses’-> we are born with an empty
mind and gain knowledge through experience.
We gain knowledge when we understand a thing’s causes
1. Formal cause (a thing’s shape/design)
2. Material cause (what a thing is made out of)
3. Efficient cause (what made a thing into what it is)
4. Final cause (telos-> the purpose of the thing)
These are not enough, we need knowledge of first causes/principles.
Induction
- We never observe general principles, only instances
Induction-> from observation to principles. From the particular to the
general.
Problem
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