Theories of Knowledge-MWF 10/9

Descartes
Be ultraconservative with what you believe, that you won't end up with false beliefs
=restrict beliefs to what's absolutely certain "clear and distinct"
=certainty carries over
Withold judgement unless you're certain

2 Goals in Regard to Belief
1) believing as many true things as possible
2)avoiding believing as many false things as possible

Conservative: (not meant politically)
-hinder progress? Progress requires speculation
-miss out on benefits of some true beliefs?
ex: religous faith
pioneering medical issues (growth hormone
example)
-need to live life now, based on present beliefs, if wait until absolutely certain about everything, spend whole life waiting)
-working against goal 1 to achieve goal 2

Liberal: (not meant politically)
-opposite of conservative
-would be able to deal with probability
-could be scammed or decieved easily, gullible
-paralysis from too many beliefs conflicting

If we were to place Descartes' theory on a line between Liberal and Conservative, it would lie somewhere between the middle tending towards conservative

What's more important-to have more truths or to avoid falacies?
Descartes-avoid what's false
Summary of Descartes
-Rationalism=knowledge primarily comes from reason (not the senses), from the mind, from logic
-Intuition and Deduction
Intuition (2+2=4)
-All truths can be proved through a priori deductions
1643-Descartes' meditations were written
Done with Descartes


John Locke
(Locke's work done in 1704, as well as some done in 1680)
Empiricism=knowledge comes primarily through the senses, reason plays a secondary role in organizing, refining data

Attack on CONCEPT of Innate Ideas (not the innate ideas themselves)
Innate ideas being those you're born
with
ex: belief in the mind/soul
God
basic logical beliefs
(ex: a contradiction can't be true)
morality/value beliefs
Locke's attack=
"Idiots"
Small children

continue with explaining attack on Fri.