PHI 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: René Descartes, Analytic Geometry, Mathematical Proof

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Jon Charles Miller

Document Summary

2 main theories of knowledge: empiricism, rationalism. Pure reason could grasp truth about the world (unshapeable like geometry) John locke disputed this and said all knowledge from world comes from sense and experiences. From seeing the way they smelled and tasted in the past. From experience, all our knowledge is founded. Distanced the mind from the external world. When we represent the world, we have a proper object of perception that"s nearer to us and that"s. Next major empiricist: barkley our mental image. Felt it proposed a threat to religion. Did not see if our sense perceptions are backed up by other senses in the mind. The other collection of ideas exist in the mind of god. Rationalist would hold that reason can analyze how billiard balls can move without previous experience. Mind can"t create simple ideas on its own. Once the mind has access to simple ideas, they can combine to make endless complex ideas.