Bristihs
Páginas: 4 (957 palabras)
Publicado: 26 de febrero de 2013
TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE – PART 2
SKEPTICS OF THE RATIONALIST APPROACH
Skeptics of the rationalist approach disagree that there is a realm beyond ordinary experience which they believe is acompletely unfounded assumption.
They also point out that Rationalists cannot agree on what they believe to be true, instead they advocate their own theories of the world to be correct, whilst dismissingeach others.
Theories that challenge the Rationalist approach include:
• Empiricism
• Relativism
• Cognitive Relativism
EMPERICISM
Two important philosophers and skeptics of theRationalist theory were British philosophers John Locke (1632 – 1704) and David Hume (1711 -1776) who became known for their work shortly after Descartes.
Both philosophers were looking to establisha new way of thinking that was in line with the methods of the new natural sciences, which was characterised by it’s reliance on empirical methods, on observation and experiment.
This newinfluential approach to philosophy became known as the Empiricist approach and claimed that despite what Rationalists say, we do acquire truth primarily through the senses and it is reason that plays thesecondary role in finding the truth about the world.
Empiricists argue that acquiring knowledge about the world is to rely on ordinary experience and observation about what is happening, methodicallyformulating and testing likely explanations in the light of that experience.
They also argue that expecting absolute certainty of knowledge is unrealistic. A reasonable amount of certainty is enough.According to Falzon, in his book Philosophy goes to the Movies (2002) “Empiricism sounds like a more sensible, down to earth way of thinking about knowledge than the rationalist approach” but hethen goes on to explore the concept further bringing to our attention the views that challenged this way of thinking.
CRITICS OF THE EMPERICIST APPROACH
Critics of the empiricist approach...
SKEPTICS OF THE RATIONALIST APPROACH
Skeptics of the rationalist approach disagree that there is a realm beyond ordinary experience which they believe is acompletely unfounded assumption.
They also point out that Rationalists cannot agree on what they believe to be true, instead they advocate their own theories of the world to be correct, whilst dismissingeach others.
Theories that challenge the Rationalist approach include:
• Empiricism
• Relativism
• Cognitive Relativism
EMPERICISM
Two important philosophers and skeptics of theRationalist theory were British philosophers John Locke (1632 – 1704) and David Hume (1711 -1776) who became known for their work shortly after Descartes.
Both philosophers were looking to establisha new way of thinking that was in line with the methods of the new natural sciences, which was characterised by it’s reliance on empirical methods, on observation and experiment.
This newinfluential approach to philosophy became known as the Empiricist approach and claimed that despite what Rationalists say, we do acquire truth primarily through the senses and it is reason that plays thesecondary role in finding the truth about the world.
Empiricists argue that acquiring knowledge about the world is to rely on ordinary experience and observation about what is happening, methodicallyformulating and testing likely explanations in the light of that experience.
They also argue that expecting absolute certainty of knowledge is unrealistic. A reasonable amount of certainty is enough.According to Falzon, in his book Philosophy goes to the Movies (2002) “Empiricism sounds like a more sensible, down to earth way of thinking about knowledge than the rationalist approach” but hethen goes on to explore the concept further bringing to our attention the views that challenged this way of thinking.
CRITICS OF THE EMPERICIST APPROACH
Critics of the empiricist approach...
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