PHL 552 Lecture 2: Origins of Philosophy + Confirmation
13 Feb 2017
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Lecture 2 - origins of philosophy + confirmation. The origins of philosophy of science: logical empiricism. Empiricists say knowledge being known a posteriori - justified by sensory observation. If we want to know something abt reality, we have to follow a posteriori reasoning. It"s true because of a fact out there - something true about the world. The only way we can know synthetic statements to be true is through observations - a posteriori reasoning. Nuance to a posteriori reasoning is a priori reasoning - we come to know things independent of sensory observing. Empiricists say that a priori reasoning is no good but that is an overstatement. We in fact do know things without sensory experience. The things that we know a priori are analytic statements - they"re not truths about the world, they"re true in virtue of meaning of the words, not facts about reality.
