Introduction of Epistemology-Phil 101

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Course for Phil 101

History of Epistemology. I have designed this course for Phil 101 level and divided this into seven sections with a concluding lecture.

This course contains eight sections. The first section discuss about the term epistemology, knowledge. Questions related to knowledge, such as:

What does one mean by the word ‘knowledge’? or let me reframe the question What does one mean when someone says he/she ‘knows’ something?

Does knowing mean, correct?

Does believe and knowing are equivalent?

Different psychological meaning of ‘knowing’?

The Tripartite Definition of Knowledge, Gettier problem, and it's probable responses.

The second section goes deeper to investigate the inquiry regarding the origin of Knowledge. This inquiry for the origin of knowledge is one of the major parts in the history of epistemology from the ancient Greeks to modern era. Here I show how the history of Western Epistemology has been largely divided into two major schools of Debate: Rationalism and Empiricism by analyzing the features and chief arguments of differentiation between Rationalism and Empiricism. Here I also mention how pre-Socratic era is largely dominated by the belief of the fact of real external world and as it appears to human senses and mind. This skeptic movement motivate philosophers to response these queries in various way by addressing these questions: what is "certain knowledge" and on how it is connected with what we ordinarily suppose ourselves to know.

The third section Ancient Greek Epistemology starts with the epistemic position of  pre-Socratic era, Sophists, Socrates. Then I come to Plato's epistemology and discuss how Plato’s epistemology is influenced by his ancestral Greek philosopher from Socratic to Sophists Protagoras to the one and unchanging view of reality from pre-Socratic philosophers. Plato's epistemology involves Socrates arguing that knowledge is not empirical, and that it comes from divine insight. The Forms are also responsible for both knowledge or certainty and are grasped by pure reason. Aristotle's epistemology believes knowledge is always of the universal. Unlike Plato's theory of ideas, Aristotle believes universals stays within substances and all substances are consist of universal/form and matter. From this section we come to know that how epistemology is largely dominated by rationalism and Greek philosophers following Socrates has the tendency to relate knowledge with virtue.

On the contrary, the fourth section that is the Medieval era of epistemology is intrinsically related with theology as a consequence of the worldwide Christian influence. Again, Medieval thought also portrays the metaphysical influence, the doctrine of reality within epistemology as the effect of Neo-Platonism and Neo-Aristotelian philosophy. Here I discuss how St. Augustine discusses the requirement of God's awareness for any human knowledge and how Thomas Aquinas starts the early empiricism.

Section four discusses the Modern Era: Seventeenth-Century Rationalism where philosophers maintain secular position on the contrary of medieval theological influence. In this section I discuss the epistemology of three renowned Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz.  Descartes’s philosophy is immensely influenced both by the rise of modern science and the rediscovery of skepticism where he makes the attempt to derive certain knowledge similar like science by answering legitimate challenges posed by skepticism. Being a mathematician, he aspires to provide knowledge certain truths like mathematics through systematization of knowledge like geometrical form. To obtain this mathematical certainty we need a self-evident truth that will be absolutely certain and that will be the considered as axioms or the starting point from which all other truths can be derived. Spinoza’s epistemology is all about the role and function of knowledge itself. As a rationalist, he emphasizes on the power and inherent capacity of reason that can overcome the uncertainty, confusion of the partial knowledge comes from sense-experience. According to Spinoza, acquiring true knowledge is the only for liberating oneself from the limits and imperfection of an average human existence. Leibniz conceives each thing as simple substance that should have a unity in plurality: each one of them should be capable of reflecting the whole universe from their own respective point of view. For Leibniz, substances are simple, multiple but united in the way that they are, and they should be capable of reflecting the whole universe from their own respective point of view. By the attribution simple yet reflecting, Leibniz indicates that he means the substances should be conscious in nature like soul. Thus, he postulates the existence of a plurality of simple substances that are spiritual in nature, and the universe consists of this infinite number of substances called monads. Leibniz holds that all the properties of a substance are internal to it and thus follow from the nature of the substance. Leibniz was regarded as the most radical rationalists among all since he considers all ideas are innate and refutes any possibilities of knowledge that comes from sense-experience.

On the contrary to this rationalist position the next section is dedicated to discuss the role of empiricism. Empiricists hold sense experience is the primary source of our ideas and the source or certainty of true knowledge. In this section, I discuss the epistemology of three renowned empiricists: Locke, Berkeley, Hume. Locke starts his theory of knowledge by refuting innate ideas.  The refutation of innate ideas leads Locke to his famous empirical proposition: Tabula Rasa: the mind at birth is a blank slate or blank piece of paper. Locke argues that the mind at birth contains no ideas, thoughts, or concepts. Berkeley aims to defend common sense and religion against skepticism and atheism. Berkeley conceives that nothing exists except ideas and spirits (minds or souls). His famous finding is the existence of material objects consists only in their being perceived; their esse ist percipi (their existence is to be perceived). Hume also maintains his empiricist position by accepting that sense experience is the only source knowledge and there is no reality in nature beyond our senses. However, Hume claims that there is limitation in our understanding, hence, skepticism is the only unavoidable consequence toward knowledge.

In the seventh section of Critical philosophy, I discuss how Kant attempts to bridge between the two opposite tradition of western epistemology: rationalism and empiricism. His philosophical belief develops in the tradition of post-Leibnizian rationalism; however, he claims that he awakens from his dogmatic slumber after reading Hume’s skeptic philosophy. He develops his critical philosophy in his Critique of Pure Reason. In his critical philosophy, he attempts to draw the boundaries between the proper use of the understanding and the improper use of reason while explaining metaphysical assertions. He creates these boundaries for an attempt to show how our understanding can provide objectively valid knowledge of those things which Hume left to the imagination. Kant also makes the Copernican Revolution in Philosophy since he replaces the subject in the central of knowledge.

In the final section of Concluding remark, I point out that before Kant the epistemic world of philosophy is largely divided by the two dogmatic positions of Rationalism and Empiricism. Kant argues that the epistemological debate between rationalism and empiricism is basically about whether, or to what extent the senses contribute to knowledge. Both are dogmatic in their positions since each of them accepts reason and senses respectively are the only source of knowledge from which we come to know about reality.

This course is structured to be interactive, with the interests spread throughout and multiple-choice quiz after each section. Each slide of this lecture contains animations and some required images that have been combined with the ideas and concepts discussed to help make the material easier to realize and remember. If you are interested, you may wish to explore my another course Introduction to Sartre's Existentialism.

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