PHIL 2501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: A Priori And A Posteriori, Empirical Evidence, Empiricism

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 2501
• Professor: Nalini E Ramlakhan

Document Summary

Where does knowledge come from: a priori knowledge, a posteriori knowledge. The dispute between rationalism and empiricism concerns the extent to which we are dependent upon sense experience in our effort to gain knowledge. Rationalists claim that there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience. Empiricists claim that sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge. Ideas or concepts of morality are innate: universality, differences due to the environment. Doctrine of double effect: an action is morally permissible if the harm is unforeseen and not intended, but impermissible if the harm is foreseen and intended. Non-nativism: stimuli is not impoverished, different methods of learning moral norms, power assertion. Love withdrawal: association and conditioning, emotional attitudes, context-dependent. Example: hei(cid:374)z"s (cid:449)ife is dyi(cid:374)g fro(cid:373) (cid:272)a(cid:374)(cid:272)er, a(cid:374)d a (cid:374)e(cid:449) treat(cid:373)e(cid:374)t that (cid:449)ill sa(cid:448)e her life has (cid:271)ee(cid:374) re(cid:272)e(cid:374)tly de(cid:448)eloped.