ON RENE DESCARTES’ EPISTEMOLOGY

1a. Discuss the Project and Method of Descartes? 1b. Explain its relevance today?

2. Discuss how Descartes achieved the “indubitable truth” –the Truth that cannot be doubted again in his two meditations? (The “Cogito” or “I think, therefore, I am” in meditation2; and the “God exists” in meditation 3 “? 2(b)What makes him a rationalist?

ON JOHN LOCKE\’S EPISTEMOLOGY

1(a). Discuss Locke’s empiricist view, like “Tabula Rasa” view of the mind? 1(b).What does it mean by knowing through the experience of things we encounter? 1(c) Is knowing always associated with experience?

2. Explain the following in John Locke’s philosophy: first, Locke\’s active role of the objects known; second, Locke’s understanding of “representationalism”? What makes him an empiricist?

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ON DAVID HUME\’S EPISTEMOLOGY

1(a) Discuss Hume’s basis of certitude of knowledge? 1(b)Compare Impression vs Ideas? 1(c)Which one is certain for Hume? Why?

2(a) Discuss Matters of fact and Relation of ideas in establishing reliability? 2(b)Which one for Hume is more objective and reliable? Why? 2(c)What makes Hume a skeptic at the end in his empiricist perspective?

ON GEORGE BERKELEY\’S EPISTEMOLOGY

1(a)Describe Berkeley’s dialogue: MIND VS MATTER represented by Philonous vs Hylas? 1(b)What is the argument about? 1(c)What is Berkeley’s view of existence?

2(a)Explain Berkeley’s epistemological argument: TO BE IS TO BE PERCEIVED? 2(b)Who is the perceiving subject for Berkeley? 2(c)Is this limited to human perceiving subject? Explain?

ON IMMANUEL KANT\’S EPISTEMOLOGY

1(a)Explain Kant’s epistemological goal? 1(b)What kind of knowledge does Kant want to establish?

2(a)Explain the rationalist side of Kant’s philosophy and his empiricist view of knowing? 2(b)What makes Kant’s epistemology as a synthesis of rationalism and empiricism?

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Engagement with Epistemological Philosophers

Descartes’s Epistemology

According to Descartes’s method, ideas should only be accepted as true and justified after proven to be clear and distinct. Secondly, knowledge is derived when complex ideas are divided into | PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW AT writtask.com | is that complex ideas should be arrived by first starting with ideas that are simple to know and lastly, nothing should be left out as the inquiry ought to be complete and | PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW AT writtask.com | method is still applicable today as it is often necessary to begin from known to unknown.

Descartes begun by doubting truth of all beliefs as a way of determining what he believes to be true. What makes him a rationalist is that the existence of God can only be known by intuition and deduction. He also adds that our minds and body exist as distinct | PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW AT writtask.com | the indubitable truth when he sought for a statement which cannot be doubted. He concluded that since he was the one doing the doubting, his existence cannot be in doubt. He contends that as long…