PHIL 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Solidity, Empiricism
Document Summary
Knowledge = the content of and relation between ideas. Idea = any object of perception, thought, or understanding. Complex ideas: combinations of simple ideas (active process) Only arise when you are applying reason to simple ideas. Adding two simple ideas together to make a new one. Only understand father when son is compared to. Only know something is a chair because we have an abstract understanding of. Reason would have nothing to reason about without experience. 12 inch ruler, smaller than 24, smaller than 48, etc. You can imagine something you"ve experienced abstract (minus) the imperfections. According to empiricism, there is no complex idea that cannot be traced back to a simple (perceived) idea. You cannot have genuine knowledge of the color of the dress. In reality, we know what a dress is, we could feel the texture and see the shape.
