zoom session: Main philosophical schools

24 Março 2020, 12:00 • Adelaide Victória Pereira Grandela Meira Serras

Rationalism

Descartes’s theory of knowledge.t Descartes’ notion of the human ability to reach true knowledge. 

The origin of knowledge, both divine and human. The essential role and power of human reason: "Cogito ergo sum" [I think, therefore I am]. The classification of ideas: innate ideas, adventitious ideas, and  factitious ideas.

The importance of innate or a priori ideas and the relationship between the agent of knowledge and the object of knowledge.

Discourse on Method: the phases of knowledge and the mental operations.

Empiricism.

John Locke’s theory of tabula rasa. The denial of innate ideas. The role of sensations as the first contact between the human agent of knowledge and the object. The role of reason in the organisation and classification of the received data.

Read Anthology, pp.157- 159;

Reference to David Hume’s empiricist approach. his denial of the cause and effect scientific basis. Read Anthology, pp. 159- 161.

Recommended study source:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/.

 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/.