Understanding the World through the Study of Knowledge The study of knowledge, better known as epistemology, is the area of philosophy that investigates the nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge. Epistemology was brought about during the time of the Enlightenment during the 17th-...

John Locke, the foremost English philosopher of the early period of modern post-Cartesian philosophy, published in 1689 his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In this paper I shall look a little at the life of John Locke and the Essay¾ the work for which he is best known. JOHN LOCKE Not a...

A philosopher once said, "Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." Bacon is saying that one's mind tends to cling on to what it wants to listen to, while shunning away other distasteful thoughts opinions and various beliefs. Therefore, a knower's personal point of view...

Reading the Ayn Rand\'s address, I could not help but notice how appropriate is as a first reading assignment in this class. Rand\'s account of being aboard a spaceship when it crashes, surviving, and the questions that ensue seem to be a little like dealing with life from the moment we are born. ...

John Locke's epistemologyJohn Locke was a 17th century empirical philosopher. In his work An Essay concerning Human Understanding, he set out to examine the sources of human knowledge, and to what degree of certainty these sources of knowledge were ultimately capable of achieving.Like Descartes befo...

Introduction Rene Descartes was a famous French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He was arguably the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a serious effort to defeat skepticism. His views about knowledge and certainty, as well as his views about the relationship between mind a...

Descartes meditations are based on the epistemological theory of rationalism: that is if someone truly knows something then they could not possibly be mistaken. He provides solid arguments for what his meditations stand for, and how he obtained a clear and distinct perception of "innate" ideas. In h...

The only real similarity between the views of Lycan and Searle are that they are both materialists. By this they both believe that only physical properties exist and are relevant. However, on the subject of computing machines and artificial intelligence there is little else that the two agree on. ...

In Descartes' meditations, Descartes begins what Bernard Williams has called the project of 'pure enquiry' to discover an indubitable premise or foundation to base his knowledge on, by subjecting everything to a kind of scepticism now known as Cartesian doubt. This is known as foundationalism, where...

Of all the topics that are currently occupying the attention of philosophers, the mind-b`ody problem is at center stage. It is one of the classical metaphysical issues concerning the relationship between that which is mental and that which is physical. The simple question asked is: what are we? Ar...

Nothing has ever progressed without building upon the less advanced that existed before it. Everything needs a step upon which to climb and build the next level, continuing forever an endless staircase. Knowledge is no exception, in that it too requires building upon the fundamentals in order to a...

Philosophy of Mind in ChinaConceptual and Theoretical Matters Historical Developments: The Classical Period Historical Developments: Han Cosmology Historical Developments: The Buddhist Period Historical Developments: The Neo-Confucian Period BibliographyIntroduction: Conceptual and Theoretical Matte...

Descartes and Socrates -- What Knowledge Is Two Approaches to KnowledgeThe concept of knowledge, what it is, what it means, and how it is gained, has been debated for literally centuries. Philosophers, historians, social scientists have questioned the components of knowledge and its acquisition and...

Can You Show That We Don't Know Anything? Most people go through life without ever questioning the idea of knowledge. We all make statements every day such as 'I know X', and 'We all have knowledge of Y', yet when we truly examine what it means to 'know' some...