RI Rationalism Plato 2023

Sources of knowledgeRationalism: Plato

Overview 1 Intuitive Appeals Rationalism and Empiricism Plato –the first Rationalist and his Theory of Forms 4 3 2 Foundationalism as a response to the Infinite Regress Credit to : https://www.behance.net/diegocarbonell

Responding to the Infinite Regress•Recall: Infinite Regress shows that our knowledge claims do not enjoy sufficient justification•Some possible responses include:•A) Foundationalism–stopping the regress via a self-justifying belief•B) Coherentism–‘biting the bullet’ of the regress, shares the idea with Foundationalism that beliefs are justified via appealing to other beliefs•C) Reliabilism–beliefs are justified via a process that has a tendency toproduce true belief, not other beliefs • Challenge: to recover as much knowledge as possible from the Sceptic•This should include but not limited to knowledge of the external world

Foundationalism•Essence: there are certain beliefs that are simply self-justified and need no further justification•2 broad categories: Rationalists and Empiricists•Note: the topic of Reason vs Experienceis botha Structures of Knowledge(i.e. dealing with justification) issue anda Sources of Knowledge (i.e. from where do we obtain our knowledge) issue

Intuitive Appeal of Foundationalism•If we were to think of people who were wise and had knowledge, we could possibly think of 2 extremes•The Wise Hermit and the Wise Traveller

Aside: Why Intuitive Appeals?•Philosophy is supposed to give us knowledge and help us to understand the world, not bamboozle us.•Hence, there is a place for intuition in philosophy. •Consider how intuition is often used in thought experiments like the Trolley TE.•Note: this is distinct from the Faculty of Intuition that Rationalists refer to: Appealing to intuition: appeal to what makes sense/appears commonsensical to you/the readerAppealing to the Faculty of Intuition: an immediate apprehension by the mind of the truth of a certain proposition; the mental analogue of empirical perception

Rationalism and Empiricism•Rationalism: the ultimate source of knowledge is reason•i.e. Reason alonejustifies what we can be said to know•Empiricism: the ultimate source of knowledge is experience•i.e. Experience alonejustifies what we can be said to know•The difference between Rationalism and Empiricism lies in what they view to be the foundational building blocks of knowledge

Rationalism and Empiricism•A Priori (before experience) vs A Posteriori (after experience)•Note: Rationalism and Empiricism are extreme positions•Few, if any, are purely rationalist or purely empiricist•Think of the two as poles on a spectrum

Plato –the first Rationalist•Plato (and Socrates) believed that knowledge is to be gained a priori, i.e. before experience.•For Plato, knowledge is only of a certain type of things, mental things, a.k.a. the Forms•The rest are only opinions –e.g. Imagination and Conjecture, Empirical Claims

PLATO'S DIVIDED LINEFaculty (within the soul)Object (out th