Little Consensus on the Theory of Knowledge
analytical Essay
816 words
Little Consensus on the Theory of Knowledge
Descartes’ meditations deal largely with the issues of knowledge; namely can we have any, if so of what sort, and of course with what support? This essay will ask a single question of a rather different nature: Why? This stated more clearly is to ask: Why bother with knowledge or any theory thereof? In response to this, Descartes will offer several arguments; these include a simple human interest, concerns over free will, and understanding of human motivation, and a question of moral values.
One of the primary arguments posed for the motivation of humanity to pursue knowledge is an affirmation of simple human interest. Most people, whether they are philosophers or otherwise, can agree that humans have an innate curiosity. Take for example the debate of creationism versus evolution theories. In reality, it matters little how humanity came about. If there is no god, than there are still plenty of very convincing reasons for humans to live a moral life. If there is no afterlife, its lack of existence will make no difference in our feelings when we are dead regardless of anything. Knowledge of an afterlife or of a god serves little practical purpose for everyday life. The counter to this, of course, is that I am absolutely right and that the true purpose of the pursuit of knowledge in this case is that of human curiosity. Simply put, people will always care about knowledge regardless of whether or not it makes a difference in their lives practically (Pojman, p. 29).
Another argument for the pursuit of knowledge is the consideration of free will (Pojman, p. 24). The argument goes that if we are not living with free will we should know...
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...ne theory more likely than another? The answer for the skeptic is nothing, and so that is what the skeptic believes. So, why not skepticism?
The discussions above show that there is little consensus on the theory of knowledge today. Each possible belief comes complete with its own following. If anything can be shown from the discussions above, it is that one of the most important causes for divide in epistemology is opinion. Opinions are values. Some people value belief and faith in knowledge, these people pursue knowledge. Others are more interested in certainty and so are uncertain of everything, these are the skeptics. It is a sure belief that no one is certain of anything, they may believe they are, but it is belief only.
Source
Pojman, Louis P. The Theory of Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Readings 3rd Ed. United States: 2003
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how descartes' meditations deal largely with the issues of knowledge; namely, can we have any, if so of what sort, and of course with what support?
- Argues that the true purpose of the pursuit of knowledge in this case is that of human curiosity.
- Explains that free will is another argument for the pursuit of knowledge. if we aren't living with freewill, we should know so that something might be done about it.
- Argues that free will is required in order to commit any of the actions that would be necessary to achieve freedom. it's better to live in ignorance than to watch it destroy you.
- Argues that the pursuit of knowledge relates to a human interest in the motivations behind our actions.
- Explains that there is little consensus on the theory of knowledge today. each possible belief comes complete with its own following. opinions are values.
Related
- analytical
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- If A Tree Falls in the Philosophical Forest, Someone Managed to Undermine Descartes Ambitions for Epistemologyanalytical essaySecond, I examine Descartes intentions, method and product, The Meditations. Following this review, I assert that it is impossible to find a true foundation for knowledge due to the unknown origin of human creation, the element of subjectivity and solipsism and the limitations of knowledge being indubitable. Furthermore, I critically assess that the Cartesian circle and Descartes presumption of God in h...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how rené descartes and his work, the meditations, provide a deep exploration of knowledge and all its facets.
- Argues that epistemology is the study of all that encompasses knowledge. they also support the tradition of justified true belief by arguing that this model is largely relied on in the expectations of empirical data.
- Analyzes descartes intentions, method, and product, the meditations. they assert that it is impossible to find a true foundation for knowledge due to the unknown origin of human creation, the element of subjectivity and solipsism.
- Explains that epistemology studies every aspect that encompasses knowledge. belief forms a foundation in light of one's subjective and personal basis of behaviour and understanding.
- Opines that many aspects of knowledge are considered in the interest of epistemology, such as simply defining knowledge. however, how one comes to possess knowledge is also important.
- Analyzes how rené descartes demonstrates an epistemological endeavor in such that he seeks to confirm indubitable and fundamental principles that would further support claims of knowledge.
- Analyzes how descartes employs meditations to accomplish his epistemological intentions. he establishes indubitable knowledge by deducting from scientific laws and mathematical theorems, to find the principles that make them viable.
- Analyzes how descartes sets out his epistemological quest with a skeptic method of doubting, which he claims is free of presumptions. he then moves on to meditations that support human existence, the mind, god and the physical world.
- Explains that doubt is central to descartes process in establishing the foundation for all knowledge, a foundation that he derives as indubitable.
- Analyzes how descartes addresses the madman hypothesis. he raises the question of madness and knowing whether or not he is like those who are considered impaired by insanity.
- Explains that the dream doubt proves vital in establishing truth in later meditations for descartes. he points out the difficulty of determining the difference between being awake and dreaming.
- Analyzes how descartes uses the deceiving god hypothesis to reveal the vulnerability of mathematical truths and the understanding of human faculties. he follows up this arguable assumption by proposing the defective origin hypo
- Analyzes how descartes reminds himself of these doubts by proposing that there is a powerful evil mind that intends to deceive him all the time.
- Analyzes how descartes establishes the cogitio, which is the infamous understanding of "i think therefore i am".
- Opines that a true foundation for knowledge is admirable and ambitious, but the debate of creationism versus evolution will continue to convolute the search for an indubitable foundation.
- Opines that descartes' meditations were not without criticism. the idea that there is an indubitable foundation for all knowledge is what scholars will support or debate.
- Analyzes how descartes defines rationality in terms of its opposite, irrationality, which limits thinking to either one or the other, leaving no room for degrees of truthfulness.
- Analyzes how descartes' presumption of god is a burden to his work as he has to justify and combat the separate entity of those who do not believe in god.
- Concludes that descartes' work is thoughtful but not without flaws and criticism. his goal and ambition is admirable in that he sought to support what his previous achievements, and those of many others, were fatefully rest upon.
2267 wordsRead More - The Importance Of Rene Descartes's Approach To Knowledgeanalytical essayThis paper will investigate significance of Descartes’ approach to knowledge especially as one of the main historical starting points of the modern world view. This paper will investigate Descartes’s approach to knowledge and it importance by first looking at the following questions:
In this essay, the author
- Explains that rene descartes is believed to be the father of modern philosophy. his contributions lead to mathematics and physics.
- Explains that epistemology is the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.
- Explains that rene descartes was a french mathematician, scientist, and philosopher born in indre-et-loire in 1596. his break with scholastic philosophy was dual.
- Explains descartes' methodical emphasis on doubt, rather than on certainty, marks an epistemological origination.
- Explains that rene descartes's meditations on fist philosophy are still viewed as the standard text most university philosophy department. this is evidence of his contribution to the modern world view.
- Analyzes how they were able to see and reflect on how rene descartes contributed into the philosophical world and how he used certainty and doubting in coming up with true knowledge.
893 wordsRead More - Problems with Descartes' Philosophyanalytical essayRené Descartes is responsible for the predominance of the problem of human knowledge in modern philosophy. Many of the systems of philosophy and theories of knowledge which have arisen in the last three centuries can trace their lineage directly to the influence of the questions Descartes raised and the method he employed in answering them. He promulgated the principle of "science without presuppositions" and thereby introduced a new epoch in science and philosophy. It will, therefore, not be amiss to analyze his fundamental ideas and evaluate his method.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that since we now only design to apply ourselves to the investigation of truth, we will doubt, first, whether of all the things that have fallen under our senses, or which we have ever imagined, any one really exists.
- Analyzes descartes' attempt to prove god's existence a posteriori, through an argument from causality.
- Analyzes how descartes shows that god is the creator of man. the infinitely perfect god cannot be a deceiver, and man's faculties are thus shown to be trustworthy.
- Analyzes how descartes' effort to find his way back to certitude through the roundabout detour of the existence and veracity of god, shows the desperate plight in which he had placed himself by his universal doubt.
- Opines that there must be an essential flaw in a theory which, if consistently carried out to its logical conclusions, ends in the absurdity of skepticism.
- Cites "the principles of philosophy", "meditations on first philosophy" and "discourse on the method of right conducting the reason."
- Explains that rené descartes is responsible for the predominance of the problem of human knowledge in modern philosophy. he promulgated the principle of "science without presuppositions" and introduced a new epoch in science and philosophy
- Explains that descartes felt convinced that he could deduce all truth from a single fundamental principle and used universal methodic doubt as the instrument of his search for truth.
- Opines that it will be useful to esteem as false the things of which we shall be able to doubt, so that we may with greater clarity discover what possesses most certainty and is easiest to know.
- Explains how descartes applied the method of universal doubt to "all things," attempting to empty the mind completely of all traditional views, preconceived ideas, and spontaneous convictions.
- Opines that an infinitely perfect being must have existence, otherwise it wouldn't be perfect.
- Explains that since this idea represents an infinitely perfect being, we, as finite beings, cannot have originated such an idea in virtue of our own powers.
- Argues that descartes' fundamental purpose was laudable; he desired to defend human knowledge against the attacks of skeptics.
- Concludes that the cartesian universal methodic doubt is not a proper approach to the problem of human knowledge.
2740 wordsRead More - Descartes And Epistemologyexplanatory essayPeople’s knowledge can be usually connected in three meanings. Knowing can be used in the context of having skill, having awareness or object knowledge, and prepositional knowledge. This is the point where Descartes begins to doubt the things that people seem to know as factual knowledge but not always certain in what they know. An example of this idea is, someone could be aske...
In this essay, the author
- Defines epistemology as the theory of the nature and knowledge in reference to its value. descartes' method of doubt became an essential part of it.
- Explains descartes' meditations can be described as doubt. he tries to find something that will last and stay stable.
- Explains that descartes, as well as many other philosophers, have maintained the belief that knowledge and certainty go together. if everything is certain, then a person cannot have knowledge at all.
- Explains that people's knowledge can be connected in three meanings: having skill, having awareness or object knowledge, and prepositional knowledge. descartes doubts factual knowledge but not always certain in what they know.
- Explains that people who believed the world was not flat were persecuted for believing that the earth was flat.
- Explains how aristotle's theory, though physics and astronomy of ptolemy, tried to prove that the earth was the center of the universe.
- Explains that descartes believes that to have certainty, the fundamentals of knowledge are important to undoubted arguments.
- Explains that some philosophers try to rationally justify their beliefs through knowledge, while others base their knowledge through commonsense. philosophers that claim we have no knowledge are defending philosophical skepticism.
- Opines that descartes was not a skeptic because he doubted all knowledge. he did not doubt knowledge to falsify truth.
- Explains that descartes doubted common sense that everyone took as fact. his thinking led to a useful use in epistemology.
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In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how descartes presents three skeptical arguments in his meditations which shows he has reason to doubt all of his sensory beliefs. his quest for certainty is driven from his belief that our belief system is built on a foundation of basic beliefs, that are not justified.
- Explains that descartes' method of doubt suggests that in order to find out which beliefs are stable and which are not, he will withhold assent.
- Explains descartes' third and most powerful argument for skepticism, the dream argument, where he argues if there is a way to distinguish dream from reality.
- Analyzes how descartes suggests that it may be possible that we are being deceived by an evil demon.
- Analyzes how descartes' three skeptical arguments give reason to doubt all beliefs deriving from the senses.
- Explains larkin, w. phil 111: introduction to philosophy.
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In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how zagzebski's definition of knowledge is contingent upon who is asking and prioritizes the essential characteristics offered in the definition.
- Concludes by analyzing the critiques of her definition, and highlighting the analogical relation between virtue-based acts and moral truths, consistent with the same problems of general ethics.
- Analyzes how zagzebski fails to address how we get from intellectual agents to the motivation to act virtuously. we are driven by impulses based in morality and survival instincts.
- Analyzes how zagzebski's definition of knowledge seems to satisfy most desiderata, but it does not explicitly tie the truth value of the proposition to the belief.
- Analyzes how linda zagzebski defines knowledge by expressing the relationship between the subject and the truth proposition.
1062 wordsRead More - Descartesian Epistemology Essayanalytical essayDescartes was born 1596 in France. At eight years old he was already in college. Descartes was a scientist and was also known as the father of modern Western Philosophy. He is famous for his book “The mediations of philosophy,” first published in 1641. He is much like me because he refused to stem off other philosophers thought. Instead, he created his philosophy. He is most famous for his quote “I think therefore I am.” This paper will include Descartes doubt, Descartes the cogito, his knowledge of the material world. The principles of the Cartesian epistemology. The “light of nature.”
In this essay, the author
- Explains that descartes was born 1596 in france and was the father of modern western philosophy. he is famous for his book "the mediations of philosophy."
- Analyzes how descartes epistemology is sensible because he doesn't start his study with the study of the nature of reality, like milesians.
- Analyzes how descartes argues that even the evil genius cannot deceive him or his existence.
- Analyzes how descartes contradicts himself when talking about the knowledge of the material world and god in one. he expresses that we have no reason to believe that all bodies exist exactly as i perceive them by sense.
- Explains descartes' concept of knowledge in conception to doubt. it is based on a person's conscious state of mind, beliefs, desires, and sensory states.
- Explains that descartes believed that the latter principle results from a blind impulse. it is revealed to him by the light of nature which cannot be doubted in any way.
1226 wordsRead More - John Locke Vs Descartes Essayargumentative essayIn this paper I tried to explain the similarities and differences between Locke and Descartes’s philosophies. According to me I found out that the similarities did not have a significant impact on judging their philosophical theories. The differences helped me understand better about their philosophies. Both philosophers present to us a modern theory of knowledge and abandon the older traditions that were skeptic in their approach. To summarise as a whole this paper explains to us about the ideas of self, innate ideas and knowledge. Even though they had two distinct explanations to these theories, they still took into account each other’s perception trying to come to the best conclusion as possible.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that both philosophers believe in the existence of god and agree that man is different from machines and animals.
- Explains the differences between the two philosophers. descartes is a rationalist and locke is an empiricist.
- Compares and contrasts the philosophies of john locke and rene descartes, who enlightened us with their superior work in the seventeenth century.
- Analyzes how locke and descartes' philosophies are related to each other. both philosophers present to us a modern theory of knowledge and abandon the older traditions.
692 wordsRead More - In the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, Descartes offers a preliminary description of his experience with the proper approach to Knowledge. According to him, mathematics has genuinely achieved the certainty for which all rational thinkers yearn, therefore, it has become a matter of instinct to turn to mathematical reasoning as a model for progress in human knowledge. Descartes puts forth an intellectual process similar to the architectural destruction and rebuilding of an entire town. In order to be absolutely certain that we only accept what is completely true, we must first consciously renounce all of the held but questionable beliefs that were previously acquired through either experience or education. Descartes
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how descartes' discourse on the method of rightly conducting the reason offers a preliminary description of his experience with the proper approach to knowledge.
- Argues that descartes' method would never lead one to misperception of truth, or mislead one by sensory knowledge and demonstrative interpretations.
- Analyzes how descartes proposes that significant knowledge can be achieved by following this epistemological method of rationalism by relying on mathematical explanations and eliminating the distraction of sensory information.
- Opines that descartes has put the abstract of our understanding aside. knowledge cannot be proven or reasoned with completely and it is likely that it will remain like that.
- Explains that one cannot believe or do things without really understanding the validity or the proof that indicates the truths to it. the first rule could be both difficult and easy to imply.
- Explains that descartes points out the fact that knowledge can be difficult and reasoning it could be as difficult at times.
- Explains that descartes believes that understanding the simple elements of anything becomes the building block of understanding complex matters.
- Explains descartes' rule of frequently reviewing one's knowledge to retain the whole argument. this rule is the most important and essential in all of his discourse.
- Analyzes how descartes' method uses a system of hypothesis and experiments and holds principles as doubtful until proven certain.
- Analyzes how descartes' argument seems to refuse to admit that anyone would fail without this method, but scientific studies have proved it to be most effective and efficient since it has become one of the main methods of studying and acquiring knowledge
- Analyzes descartes' work in his discourse concerning the provision of a secure foundation for the progress of human knowledge. he argues his principles for his method through the four rules that he believes would lead towards the truth.
1466 wordsRead More - In his first meditation, Descartes proposes an argument unheard of by many, that of which the beliefs that are built upon societal foundations may be false, due to the false perception of our human senses. In this paper, I will explain why Descartes attempts to rebuild the foundations of our beliefs and explain the differences between the reality of Descartes and the socially acceptable reality. First, I will expand on Descartes ' argument against the socially accepted reality in which we do not question. Then, I will show you how Descartes defines what is truly a definitive constant of reality no matter the foundational structures they were built upon and defend it. Finally, I will use examples to show you how Descartes proves existence.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how descartes proposes an argument unheard of by many, that the beliefs built upon societal foundations may be false, due to the false perception of our human senses.
- Analyzes how descartes begins his writing by informing us of the so-called "false opinions" we have accepted without question; these false opinions are the foundational opinions/societal foundations we've assumed to be true.
- Analyzes how descartes suggests that what he has admitted to be true until now has been received or perceived through the senses.
- Analyzes how descartes questions the existence of our senses in dreams, arguing that the physical world, whether it be reality or fallacy, is our bank when adopting characteristics.
- Analyzes how descartes defines what truly is a definitive constant of reality no matter the foundational structures they were built upon or senses that perceive it.
- Analyzes how descartes begins to question existences as a whole in the second meditation, stating that everything is false. disproving existence is not as simple.
- Concludes that descartes' points are used to question the socially accepted reality/existence that is not questioned, explain definitive reality no matter the foundational structures, and describe the proof of our existence.
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