A priori and a posteriori

The idea here is that the existence of the universe demands a cause, reason, or explanation.” (Davis, 1993) It is also known as the first cause argument. The argument states that we can infer the existence of God from the universe. It is an a posteriori argument which starts at experience. Cosmological arguments are made from the viewpoint of observation. The cosmological argument is also inductive by distinction. It argues from an individual occurrence to a general conclusion. The…

regarding the classification of identity statements as either contingent or necessary. (Heide, 26 Feb.) Firstly, he renounces the common habit of speaking of necessary truths, those that could not have possibly have been false, as being equivalent to a priori truths, or those knowable without the aid of sensory experience. (Kripke 130) Secondly, he argues for a theory of identity that drastically diverges from others of the time. Kripke offers an explanation of how some identity statements, in…

Question One Externally, science fiction appears to illustrate futuristic technology and the wonders of robotics. However, science fiction includes this experimenting with technological innovation—creating alternative realities—to gain deeper insights into human nature. Humankind’s response to progress and scientific advancement reflect the society’s norms and values. From space travel to alterative universes, science fiction covers a variety of topics and situations that criticize the society’s…

HernandezBianka HernandezProfessor Sarah JacobPHI2010 W 5:40-8:40 P11/28/2017How do we know and what can we know according to Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason? Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher whom in the late 1700’s questioned both empiricist and rationalist on their views of how humans gain knowledge of the world and sought to synthesize both theories into one, in order to close the gap between the two. His primary goal was to measure the extent in which rationalism could be…

as a function of the a posteriori signal to noise ratio (SNR) and evaluated the performance in cochlear implant devices [29]. However, most of the spectral enhancement techniques assume that the speech signal is orthogonal to the undesired signal, be it a random background noise or reverberation, and ignore any cross-term between the signal components. However, Yang et al. argued that the cross-term was not necessarily zero in all the scenarios and depended on the a priori SNR in practical cases…

premise would receive relates to a branch of epistemology called Rationalism. This philosophy acknowledges knowledge is obtainable through one's intellectual process. Knowledge and truth are products of the mind. Rationalists presume that knowledge is a priori, meaning it comes before. They emphasize that an individual possesses innate knowledge, implying that people already have knowledge instilled in their intellect. Through this assumption, rationalism can be used to criticize "The Problem of…

In their writings, Descartes and Berkeley argue the nature of sensible objects. Sensible objects are what are perceivable to the mind. The nature of how these objects are perceived and if, what the mind perceives exists is the foundation of both Descartes and Berkeley’s arguments. Are sensible objects distinctly external matter that are perceived by the mind, or are they created within the distinct mind and perceived directly. The arguments are related to Descartes and Berkeley’s different…

Hick points out that the experience evoked in the arguments of defining a miracle, as a violation of natural laws, is really a generality created a posteriori to explain what happened. Hick then explains that the scientific response to events that do not conform to the laws of nature is to amend what is already known about the laws of nature, and modify the understanding of them (Hick 38). For Hick,…

Over the years there has been many different views on if there is sufficient evidence to support belief in God. There have been many philosophical thinkers who have looked into this controversy. Is there a God and if there is how can we prove this is true? There were many philosophical thinkers that had an opinion on this topic, some of the most important in stating sufficient evidence proving gods existence were Saint Augustine, Saint Anslem, and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Saint Augustine was…

Brett Dixon Houston Phil 262 12-13-16 Final Exam Essay Hume In section four of Hume’s An Enquiry concerning human understanding Hume sets out to prove that reasoning concerning matters of fact can not exist. He starts out the section by separating the relations of ideas and matters of fact. He says that Relations of ideas are inseparable bonds created between ideas. He uses examples like three times five is half of thirty. Basically,…