Theories of Knowledge 4/16/02

Dream Argument
Arch Deceiver Argument
(part of Descartes' "skeptical" method)
*senses unreliable*

Foundation of Knowledge which can't be doubted: "I exist"... Even if doubting, there is a doubter, deception, there is the deceived, thinking, a thinker... and so on.

**If you're wondering whether you exist, you proved your existence by simply wondering."

Cogito ergo sun
"I think, therefore I am."
(I existed, at least as a conscious entity.)

Hume's criticism: (empiricist)
There is no "i" ... or self. The "self" is just a bundle of perceptions. -no thinking thing or substance.
Hume says:
You can't go from states of consciousness to conscious entity or being. "The mind is a theater where perceptions perform."

Berkely says: (empiricist)
"Will or intention proves thinking things exist."

Hume:
You need to ask of every idea "from what sense impression is the supposed idea derived?"

Perceptions:
Ideas are faint copies of impressions...
Sense impressions are lively and vivacious.