Philosophy and education

• Filosofie
• WO
• Studiejaar 2

Which of these philosophers were empiricists?

1. John Locke
2. Aristotle, Plato
3. Hegel
4. David Hume

Which of the following -isms are related to empiricism?

1. Sensationalism
2. Idealism
3. Phenomenalism
4. Mysticism

Sensationalism: mind only has acces to sensations

- > Role of thought: track & respond to patterns

Phenomenalism: the world is a patterned collection of sensations

Sensationalism: mind only has access to sensations

• Thoughts: track & respond to patterns

Phenomenalism: the world is a patterned collection of sensations

Which ideas or phenomena did logical positivists not appreciate/support?

1. Enlightenment
2. Mathematics
3. Cogito ergo sum
4. English philosophy

Which statements are in line with the philosophy of logical positivism?

1. Prediction as the goal of science
2. The only meaningful philosophical problems are those which can be solved by logical analysis
3. Reason rather than obscure, logic rather than intuition
4. A statement is only meaningful if it is verifiable

Logical positivism

• Aim: distinction between meaningful and meaningless sentences
• Verifiability theory of meaning
• Use the principles of logic to interpret observations
• Prediction as the goal of science

How does skepticism relate to empiricism?

1. It acts as counterargument
2. It points out its weakness
3. It supports its ideas
4. It summarises people's responses

Skepticism: we cannot know anything about the world with certainty

Which of the following sentences is analytic?

1. People who run, move their bodies
2. Some doctors that specialize on eyes are rich
3. All students are poor
4. Philosophy is difficult

Analytic/Synthetic Distinction

Analytic: true/false by definition

• All bachelors are unmarried

Synthetic: true/false by experience

• All bachelors are lonely

Which quote is Quine's?

1. Be a pineapple: stand tall and wear a crown
2. Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion
3. Imagination is more important than knowledge
4. Implication is thus the very texture of our web of belief, and logic is the theory that traces it

Quine

• Critical against logical positivism
  
• Argued for holistic theory of testing
• Web of belief 
• No claim should be immune to revision

Expression of emotion is verifiable

The verifiability principle is verifiable itself

It is necessary to make a distinction between analytic and synthetic sentences

Everything in science needs to be verifiable

Full objectivity is possible with an absolute empirical research methodology

Claims based on free-standing experiences are more reliable than claims based on the existing network of knowledge

How do you discover if something is verifiable?

Can philosophical statements ever be verifiable?

Why do we have reason to think that patterns in past experience will also hold in the future?

Does experience conquer reason?

How objective is science? 

Is empirical science the only way of seeing the world as it really is?

Does experience have to be verifiable in order to gain knowledge from it?