Medieval and Modern Philosophy (Understanding Philosophy)
Joan A Price
Language: English
Pages: 136
ISBN: 0791087409
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Covers the philosophical ideas of the medieval age as well as the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Continental Rationalists. This title helps to learn about the exploration of God's relationship with humankind, the rise of science as an influence in philosophical thought, and the universal debate of Faith versus Reason.
not a dream. Mind-Body Problem Disagreeing with Hobbes, who said that everything is matter, Descartes found that mind and matter are two separate substances, the proof being that he believed he existed as a thinker even when he doubted his physical body and the physical world. Thus, human beings are dual creatures made up of mind, or spiritual substance, and body, the physical substance. In philosophy, calling the mind one kind of substance and the body another kind of substance is known as
position that physical objects, or matter, do not exist. Berkeley’s belief regarding the nature of objects is called “immaterialism.” UP_MMP.indd 71 1/9/08 4:25:01 PM 72 MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY America. After arriving in Rhode Island, he waited three years for the money but it never arrived. Finally, he gave up and returned to Ireland to become the bishop of Cloyne. Berkeley opposed scientific materialism because he saw science as dangerous to the Christian way of life and as a threat
was awakened, claiming that Hume “woke me from my dogmatic slumbers.” The empiricists had argued that the mind conforms to the world it perceives: first from sense impressions, then from ideas that come from these impressions. The mind conforms to the world, which means the mind is passive. Not true, said Kant. The mind takes an active part in knowing the world. The mind does not conform to the world—the world conforms to the mind. Kant also did not agree with the Continental rationalists who
and that two plus four always equals six. These ideas come from the mind. To say that only some objects fall in space or on Tuesdays two plus four equals nine are false statements. Thus, we do have knowledge about universal principles in both science and mathematics. A priori knowledge is always universally true. A posteriori knowledge comes from our sense experience. This type of knowledge applies only to what we observe, and what we observe is always changing. Thus, a posteriori knowledge is
not exist. Now we exist, and then we will die. There must be something that not just possibly exists but necessarily exists as the cause of all “possible beings.” That necessary being is God. 4. Proof from the degrees of perfection. In this world, we view some things as better than others. Some people are less good and less truthful than others. There also are various degrees of beauty. Thus, we must have some standard ideal of the highest Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. We also compare lesser and