A priori

Felicity, Is it subjective or objective? Do people strive to attain happiness by means of their own understanding of the world? Can it be compared to reality, where we try to base our view of what is real and true as much as we are capable of through own perhaps incomplete reasoning? Likewise for happiness do we all devote our time to obtain that happiness as closely as possible, according to our own understanding or is it all just subjective? Have your heard of a cliché statements such as ‘Mind…

synthetic a priori because he was determined that we make these judgments, although there was a constant question of how these judgments are possible. A synthetic judgment, by description, is derived from familiarity but a priori entails independence of understanding. (Stumpf pg. 276) Kant illustrated that in several subjects such as: ethics, physics, mathematics, and metaphysics that we do make decisions including synthetics with a priori. For instance, 8 plus 3 equals 11 as judgment is a…

The Uncertainty of Experience. When Kant justifies the possibility of a priori in sense perception, he uses the notion of time and space to argue that the sense perception already contains a priori and the time and space are underlying the experience. Then, Kant believes the certainty of experience based on the time and space. “Time and space are, therefore, two sources of knowledge, from which, a priori, various synthetical cognitions can be drawn”, and “The sphere of phenomena is the only…

causation necessary in both senses- otherwise no one would be able to navigate the world. However, Kant’s critique of Hume is much more general than causation, Kant through causation is asserting the existence of synthetic a priori judgements. Causation as a synthetic a priori principle asserts the necessity of and in causation as precondition to navigating the world. In his second Analogy, Kant presents the argument for the objective reality of cause and effect. Were one to accept Hume’s…

In the debate between the two schools of epistemology, rationalism and empiricism, I am incline to follow the philosophies of the school of rationalism. The advantage of rationalism is that it relies solely on logic and reason to seek absolute truths. Empiricism’s flaw is that it relies merely on sensory observation to seek conclusions, which are subjective and can be deceptive. Many times I have been mislead by my senses, making me hesitant to trust empirical observations. I trust logic and…

(1. Overview: In your own words, explain what you understand about epistemology. If someone asked you what you studied in this chapter, what could you tell that person? What is still confusing to you? Do you see a distinction between epistemology and metaphysics?) Epistemology is the macrocosm of understanding. It is not simply trying to come to conclusions and make predictable guesses, it is the source of it. It is the “why” to asking questions about the world and about the self, more…

to note the differences between a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge. A posteriori knowledge is knowledge gained via experience, while a priori knowledge is knowledge that is gained without experience. Kant claims that metaphysics “must never be derived from experience ...(and) is therefore a priori cognition, coming from pure understanding and pure reason” (Kant, 266). In other words, Kant believes that metaphysics is comprised of nothing but a priori judgments. To further refine his…

is based on logic is right in the sense he is trying to reveal the truth that he is not corrupting the youth and is only searching for truth within entities. 2. Descartes argument concerning the a existence of God is a based on that knowledge a priori and that one thing he is sure of is that he is a thinking thing and for that he know he exist. In Meditation 3, he argues the idea of God is innate and placed in us by God and he rejected the possibility that the idea of God is invented or…

of morality: “a priori” and “a posteriori”, which means knowledge does not come from experience but rather has an empirical origin. In the field of knowledge, the priori are the ideas of space and time, the soul, God and the world, among others. The priori of the moral sphere are the categorical imperatives that are universally known by the goodness for all in any place and time: “act only on the maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.” The priori knowledge…

JC Mr. Hume I wish to discuss your theory of causation and necessary connection, which have become the subject of much controversy among later thinkers. I would like you to clear up many of the things that these philosophers believe are controversial about your work. But first, in order to do so I think it is only fair that we first clear up what your goals were in writing An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. DH I do agree that in order to best understand my theory it would be…