PHIL 111 Lecture Notes - Atomism, Presupposition, Antinomy

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 111
• Professor: Jon Miller

Document Summary

Descartes argued that knowledge of the external world is ultimately rational knowledge. By contrast, locke held that all knowledge ultimately derives from experience. Berkeley agreed with locke but concluded that the external world is ideational in character. Now we will encounter kant, who wants to show that rationalists and empiricists are both right and wrong. An antinomy is when opposing arguments are placed side-by-side. The effect is to show that one argument is better than the rest, or that all arguments are equally compelling. Kant thought there were antinomies in philosophy. These antinomies resulted because philosophers (both rationalists and empiricists) had failed to understand the limitations of pure reason. The world has a beginning in time and boundary in space. The world doesn"t have a beginning in time and boundary in space. Everything is made of simple parts, and nothing exists where it is not composed of the simple. Kant calls these the antinomies of pure reason .