God, Spirit, Matter - Descartes
Matter: How do we know that things are natural?
Take a typical object: A piece of wax(Taken from a honeycomb).
- Examine it with our five senses: you will soon discover that it is made of a set of qualities, sweet, yellow, solid.
_ Put it next to the fireplace: It will melt.
All the properties you perceived earlier have changed. Is it not the same wax? How do you know? By what means can you judge it with certainty?
Wax Qualities Wax melted
--yellow | | How do I
--fragrant | | know it is
--sphere ------------------- the same wax?
--rough Every quality changed.
Boy changes to man What is the quality that keeps it the same? => RATIONALISM Ratio= reason = source of knowledge.
Contemporary of Descartes
Locke: Empiricism - senses
What is the sources of our ideas [knowledge]?
Principle: At birth the mind is a tabla rosa (a blank tablet)
Some have claimed that some ideas (God logical truths)in here in the mind and they are an integral part of its structure. Is this true? [doctrine of innate ideas]
Thy method he employed as an argument against it. is the empirical method: Experience is the ultimate source of knowledge.
Mind. Its content - idea
Two sources of knowledge= sensation and reflection.
1. Sensation (external sources)
activity of the five senses.
Matter is made of atoms
1st We are made of spirit. first conclusion.
2nd External world.
know it is the sam wax.
Mind is the power by which we know reality.
Men's mind - think(source)
means to establish truth.
How does the mind know?
MATTER = EXTENSION
Test - essay two or three questions.
Show you understand - Feelings ideas, emotion.
develop your style.
Freedom of expression. Use your own language. Ask questions about society.
Mind + Body
|
Thought Matter
Mind and body has an experience.
Locke - All our knowledge is derived from experience (Senses - experiences 5 senses).
God, matter, mind
divine natural human
Descartes- Born with all three
A>B
B>C
A>C
Idea of God changes over years.
Idea of God differ among human beings.
Descartes establishes psychology. i.e. wax
any content of human mind - idea.
2 sources=. sensation and reflection.
To sense is to perceive.
Sensation - senses act on an object.
Transfer from sense to idea.