PHILO-120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Axiology, Empirical Evidence, Tabula Rasa
28 Oct 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Philo 120
Introduction to Philosophy
Class Notes
TOPIC: REALISM.
● For any educational system to be meaningful and effective it has to be based on a clearly
thought out philosophy/world view.
● It has to be based on a set of beliefs about the nature of man and his place in the universe
(metaphysics).
● It must have a system of values for both the individual and the society (axiology).
● It must have a scheme of knowledge considered most valuable (epistemology).
● All the three elements are present in any educational system and they are conceived
differently by different schools of thought.
TENENTS OF REALISM/CHARACTERISTICS.
● Realism refers to the theory (doctrine) that whatever knowledge we receive through the
senses is a true reflection of what really exists.
● The world of reality consists of real tangible matter having an independent existence of its
own which can be discovered by direct scientific inquiry (Barker, 1989:9).
REALIST VIEWS ON METAPHYSICS.
● Realists believe that reality exists independent of the human mind.
● Reality is objective and is composed of matter and form.
● It is fixed and based on natural laws.
● The world exists by itself and as a reality independent of whether there are humans to
perceive it or not.
● The world is not a construct of the human mind.
● Matter in the universe/world is real and independent of the human mind.
● Objects have a reality independent of our knowledge/our desire to know them.
● Aristotle the father of realism believed that in order to understand an object, one must
understand its ultimate form that doesn’t change e.g. a rose exists whether or not a
person is aware of it and it shares properties with all flowers.
● The world is well organised.
● It is not chaotic, there is order in its organisation e.g. the night follows the day.
● The world is real and it is what science tell us it is.
● The basic facts discovered by the sciences about the world are true and real therefore
scientific discoveries must be respected.
REALISTS VIEWS ON EPISTEMOLOGY.
● Realists believe that since the world exist as it is, it is possible to have an objective
knowledge of it.
● Knowledge consists of sensation and abstraction i.e. the process of knowing is that
of the mind responding to impressions that are made upon it from external sources.
● It is an act of grasping and understanding what is presented to the mind from the
outside.
● We can verify whether knowledge is true/not by comparing what our senses tell us
with the actual situation if it corresponds then it is true knowledge.
REALIST VIEWS ON AXIOLGY.
Document Summary
For any educational system to be meaningful and effective it has to be based on a clearly thought out philosophy/world view. It has to be based on a set of beliefs about the nature of man and his place in the universe (metaphysics). It must have a system of values for both the individual and the society (axiology). It must have a scheme of knowledge considered most valuable (epistemology). All the three elements are present in any educational system and they are conceived differently by different schools of thought. Realism refers to the theory (doctrine) that whatever knowledge we receive through the senses is a true reflection of what really exists. The world of reality consists of real tangible matter having an independent existence of its own which can be discovered by direct scientific inquiry (barker, 1989:9). Realists believe that reality exists independent of the human mind. Reality is objective and is composed of matter and form.
