(R) = Related to Rationalism

(H) = Related to Humes Fork

Key term
Tabula Rasa
(E)
Innate ideas
(R)

(E) = Related to Empiricism

Definition + Notes
Blank slate ----> foundation of
Empiricism
Being born already equipped with
ideas = being programmed from
birth

The external
world

The world outside the subjective

mind

Empiricism
(E)

The view that all our significant ideas

come from experience

Rationalism
(R)
Solipsism (E)
Scepticism
(R)
A priori (R)
A posteriori
(E)
Idea

Simple idea
Complex
idea
Impression
(E)

Abstract

Concrete
Analytic

Example

The view that all our significant ideas

come from reason ---->
accommodates innate ideas
The view that all that can be known
is what the self (individual)
experiences + no shared ideas
Complete doubt of all knowledge
----> not knowing anything + real
world is unknowable

Private Theatre

Independent of experience

2+2=4

Dependent on experience

Knowledge of colour
requires sight
(blind man argument)

A mental representation of
something that exists in the external
world
Something of basic and solitary
nature that can be directly
experienced by the five senses
Two or more simple ideas put
together
Original sense experience
Cannot easily be traced back to a
original sense experience +
Undetectable via the senses can be
used to support existence of
innateness
An idea that is undisputed referring
to an actual object
True by definition

Properties of an apple:
redness, taste, shape, etc
The apple
Original experience of
snow leading to idea
(copy principle) of
whiteness or coldness

Beauty, Freedom, God

Table
Bachelors are unmarried
men

Synthetic
Analytic a
priori (H)
Synthetic a
priori (R)
Synthetic a
posteriori
Necessary
truth
Contingent
truth
Inductive
argument
(E)
Deductive
argument
(R)
Noumenon
Phenomenon
The given
(E)

True but not by definition

A negation does not result in a
contradiction of definitions
----------------------------------------------------------Innate ideas
---------------------------------------------------------True in all possible universes +
Denial involves a contradiction
(all analytic truths are necessary)
True, but could be otherwise
Probable knowledge
Conclusion follows the premise
ensures certain knowledge

Exams are silly

Bachelors are unmarried
men
Cause and effect
London busses are red
Bachelors are unmarried
men
2+2=4
London busses are red
Night always follows day
Timmy is a cat cats are
mammals Timmy =
Mammal

The world (external) as it truly is

The world as it is through the
structured human mind
The raw, unstructured, unconceptualised content of experience
that forms the hypothetical basis of
knowledge

Arguments for empiricism:

Hume's Copy Principle
Hume's blind/deaf man
Hume's Fork
Locke's attack on innate knowledge (which has counter arguments)
A posteriori conceptual schemes
Arguments against empiricism:
God is innate (Descartes)
Solipsism
A priori knowledge (Locke, can be argued against)
Prepositions
Universal assent
Problem of induction (Hume)
Arguments for rationalism:
Descartes' wax example
Meno and the slave boy (Plato)

Chomsky's language structure (can be argued against)

Descartes' 3 waves of doubt
The missing shade of blue (can be argued against)
Kant's categories/conceptual schemes
The myth of the cave (Plato)
Arguments against rationalism:
Complex ideas