| Elements of Epistemology |
Classic
protagonists of
epistemology
Rene
'Cartesius' Descartes (1596-1650)
Je Pense, Donc Je Suis The search for knowledge is fraught with difficulties.
Rene Descartes is best known for his unique strategy to conquer some problems
of epistemology. This strategy is, initially, to withhold belief from anything
that is not entirely certain. On close scrutiny, practically everything is open
to doubt. In the process of examining his beliefs, Descartes imagined that a
demon who, while actively trying to deceive him, calls into question the validity of reason
and doubts that he, Descartes, exists at all.
Descartes replies that "dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum."
Here Descartes builds upon Aristotle's argument in Nicomachean Ethic:
When we perceive, we are conscious that we perceive, and when we think, we are conscious that we think. To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious that we exist.
This argument was elaborated by Kierkegaard (1813-1855) as
|
"X" thinks. |
However, behind elaborate reasoning in Descartes' writings is hiding his assertion of the epistemological principle that scientific reasoning is based on the self-evidence of its principal postulates. A prototype of this type of reasoning is the axiomatic model of geometry by Euclid, which Descartes elaborated by introducing the notion of Cartesian coordinates, a system of coordinates for locating a point on a Cartesian plane by its distance from each of two intersecting lines, or in space by its distance from each of three Cartesian planes intersecting at a point.
John Locke, M.D. (1632-1704)
Tabula Rasa Let us suppose
that the mind is like a blank tablet and that our knowledge comes from
experiences which the mind compares and unites to new complex ideas. The
comparing of ideas one with another and by abstraction such as when when we call
the color of snow and chalk by the same name, the mind constructs the reality.
Even large and abstract ideas such as of space, time and infinity, are derived
from sensation or reflection. Perceptions are produced by exterior causes
affecting our senses. However, the ideas that originated outside the realm of
physical perceptions cannot be corrected by our senses that bear witness to the
truth or falsity of our thinking. Locke's philosophy influenced Voltaire and
French Encyclopedists. Predictably, he was forced to flee England, in 1683, for
the Netherlands, where he stayed over five years. In his Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (1690) he coined the term semiotics, from the
Greek σημειωτικός, interpreting signs in search for meaning. Among his better
known sayings is that "actions are the best interpreters of thoughts."
The inscription on his tombstone reads "Siste viator, hic juxta situs est
Johannes Locke. Literis innutritus eo usque tantum profecit, ut veritati unice
litaret, hoc ex scriptis illius disce." (... a scholar who devoted his
learning to the cause of truth, which you can learn from his writings.)
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
Esse
est Percipi A variation of the ontological
proof of Gods existence was presented by the Bishop George Berkeley, best known
for the main campus of the University of California renamed in 1866 after him,
and for the expression esse est
percipi, (to be is to be perceived).
David Hume (1711-1776)
Will
the Sun Rise Tomorrow? Central to David Hume's theory of knowledge is the
classification of knowledge into a priori and a posteriori
categories. A priori knowledge is knowledge attainable prior to experience by
reason alone. A posteriori knowledge is based upon experience. In the course of
deductive reasoning one may attain positive, certain knowledge by building
super-ordinate structures according to the laws of logic from a subordinate set
of a priori truths. A classic example of a super-ordinate structure build by
deduction from a set of postulates is Euclidian geometry. A posteriori
knowledge is derived from experience by induction. While deductive reasoning
seeks positive, certain truth, inductive reasoning makes conclusions that are
only true with some degree of probability. Hume, one of the modern skeptics,
successfully defended the contention that the statement 'the sun will rise
tomorrow' is a statement of probability and not an absolute truth. About a
century after Hume, the procedures of inductive reasoning were formalized by
the theory of inferential statistics. Hume's essays On the Immortality of the
Soul, and Dialogues concerning Natural Religion were not published
until after his death, and bore neither author's nor publisher's name.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Phenomena
and Noumena
Immanuel Kant is best remembered for his 'zwei Dinge erfllen das
Gemt mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht, je fter und
anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschftigt:
der gestirnte Himmel uber mir
und das moralische Gesetz in mir.'
(the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.) Kant claimed that only objects of experience, phenomena, may be known, whereas things lying beyond experience, noumena, are unknowable, and thus in some cases we assume a priori knowledge of them. The existence of such unknowable 'things-in-themselves' cannot be verified by science, yet they are mandatory, as morality requires their existence. A good example of the moral turpitude is the recent pool of the Fox News whether torture should be sanctioned. You do not pool Torture: Agree- Disagree. The acceptance or rejection of torture is not subject to a pool. The rejection of torture is the Kantian categorical imperative.
Postscript
Whenever a religious group or an ideology-based group gains secular power, it attempts to coerce its beliefs by legal means (the iron law of beliefs coercion.) In his book Prisoner for Blasphemy (1886) George Foote writes (excerpted): Blasphemy is only our old friend heresy in disguise. Codified by De Heretico Comburendo, under which heresy and blasphemy were punishable by burning alive, the comburendo trials were based on statutes enacting that any person who shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or speaking shall deny the Christian doctrine to be true, or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of divine authority, shall upon conviction be sentenced to death. In 1697, Thomas Ainkenhead was indicted that he
"repeatedly maintained, in conversation, that theology was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the moral doctrines of philosophers, and partly of poetical fictions and extravagant chimeras: That he ridiculed the holy scriptures, calling the Old Testament Ezra's fables, that he railed on Christ, saying, he had learned magic in Egypt, which enabled him to perform those pranks which were called miracles, and that the Holy Scriptures were stuffed with such madness, nonsense, and contradictions, that he admired the stupidity of the world in being so long deluded by them: That he rejected the mystery of the Trinity as unworthy of refutation; and scoffed at the incarnation of Christ".
Thomas Ainkenhead was sentenced to death end executed.
Recently, attempts at beliefs coercion increase (cf., Reidy, P. (2009)
Who asked for Ireland's blasphemy law? Guardian, July 9.
