PHL 708 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Natural Philosophy, Natural Science
12 Jan 2017
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Historically, a movement of the 18th century (france) *voltaire, diderot, rousseau, (britain) and (germany) Equality of all human beings as rational beings (both intellectually and morally- politically) There is a strong concern as to what knowledge is and what we can know. Committed to atomic particles that make up matter and their characteristics in order to describe shape, colour, extension, etc. Concerned with method: attempts to introduce clarity and rigor of mathematics into natural philosophy. First philosophy - the ultimate nature of reality. Becomes convinced that the best way to establish the mechanical philosophy is to give it the right metaphysical foundation. Finding the right metaphysical foundation also requires a new epistemology. Aristotelian philosophers are committed to the slogan empiricism nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses - nothing doesn"t come from experience. Empiricism: all or knowledge is based, ultimately on sensory experience. Rationalism: some of our knowledge is based on reason alone.
