RATIONALISM & EMPIRICISM

The Great Conversation 7th or 8th edition required

The purpose of this assignment is to assess your familiarity with the central ideas from the Age of Reason. In this comparison/contrast essay, choose ONE to the following questions to answer. Place one of the bold titles at the top of your essay. The prompts under each question are intended to guide your response. Use examples from the text readings to support your points.

DESCARTES & HUME

• compare & contrast them on some of the following;
  • What is Descartes aim in the Meditations and how does this differ for Hume?
  • What does each say about the origin and types of our ideas?
    • In Descartes consider the difference between Innate, Acquired, and Produced).
    • In Hume consider the distinction between impressions & ideas.
    • What does Hume mean by the Association of Ideas ( Resemblance, Contiguity , Cause & Effect)
  • Descartes employs radical doubt, Hume claims to be using experimental method. What is the difference between these two approaches.
  • What serves as Descartes criteria for suspension of ideas, how does Hume employ the Empirical Criterion of meaning for a similar suspension?
  • Explain the theory of Representation used by both and how it impacts what we can know?
  • How do they distinguish reason from experience, and give examples showing how & why this is important for both thinkers?
  • In the second Meditation Descartes arrives at his foundational principle or the cogito, compare this to Hume’s view of the Disappearing Self?
  • Consider Descartes causal proof for the existence of God in Meditation 3 or his ontological proofin Mediation 5? What kind of criticism would Hume give to the causal or ontological proof, and how would this involve Hume’s distinction between a relation of ideas and matters of fact?
  • Compare Descartes and Hume concerning our knowledge of the external world.
  • Explain Hume’s view of causation and his critique of necessary connection? How does this challenge Descartes whole philosophical program that relies and certain causal assumptions?
  • Compare & contrast Descartes to Hume regarding their views of human freedom

• RATIONALISM & EMPIRICISM

  • How do the Rationalist and Empiricist approach to knowledge differ?
  • You must give clear examples from their works.
  • What are some of the key terms associated with the rationalist & empiricists tradition.
    • for rationalist consider; a priori, innate ideas, coherence, necessity
    • for empiricist consider; a posteriori, sensation, correspondence, contingency
    • Choose two of the following to discuss: The Self, the External World, and God?

• Answer preview

• In the study of philosophy, the understanding of the world and its concepts is done by various approaches. This comes in the form of theories coined by multiple philosophers and personalities who lived in the past, and that took the time to research and understand the order of things according to their point of view. This has gone ahead to present the multiple approaches regarding the perception of ideas within society. When it understands of knowledge, there lie various understandings on the source and existence of knowledge for the human population. This is found within epistemology, which is the branch of philosophy that is related to the study of knowledge in accordance with its theories. Epistemology is presented as the study of the nature and justification of knowledge…

(1900 words)