Philosophical Approaches: Mayeutica, Empirical-Rational, and More
Philosophical Approaches
Mayeutica: Socrates and Plato
Mayeutica: Socrates and Plato employed wisely directed dialogue under the rules of proper human reasoning. This philosophical approach argues that the truth lies within us from the beginning, but we need a suitable method to bring it to light. It involves essential questions and answers, which are subjected to analysis, exploring the arguments and reasons that underlie them, and rejecting contradictions or falsehoods.
Physical (Empirical)-Rational: Aristotle
Physical (Empirical)-Rational: Aristotle opposed Mayeutica and Plato. He affirmed that the truth is external and must begin its search from external experience, i.e., from physical data collected sensually. Knowledge must come from observation of nature and of sensitive data provided to us by our senses. Reason has to intervene by ordering, unifying, and seeking its explanation and understanding, trying to reconcile the real explanation with the intervention of the senses and reason.
Rationalist: Descartes (17th Century)
Rationalist: Descartes, in the modern age (17th century), emphasized the primacy of reason in the justification of knowledge. Reason uses ideas already developed from the data it receives from the senses, but these ideas need justification and explanation that do not come from the senses but from reason. Reason works with rules that are the basis of deduction. From first truths (axioms), we deduce the others. Applying those rules to human knowledge, we need to find a first truth (apodictic truth) and extract the others from it. Cogito Ergo Sum: I doubt everything but the fact that I am a being who is doubting and thinking. If I think, I have to do with ideas, whether innate or sensitive. The sensitive (private and individual) are unified in other more complex and universal ideas (God, Soul, and World). Therefore, the ultimate foundation of knowledge comes from these innate ideas, and if they are innate, it means they come from reason. Hence the primacy of reason.
Empiricist: Hume (18th Century)
Empiricist: Hume (empiricism, 18th century, modern age) identified two kinds of truth: reason and fact.
- Reason: Proper to logic, based on deduction. They are rational and aim to be correct and infallible, but do not give us information about external reality, i.e., on what happens in nature and human life.
- Fact: Peculiar to the empirical (natural or human social sciences), offering information about what’s happening in the world. Its truth or falsity can only be tested empirically. They are based on induction, which allows us to establish a general rule from individual cases. The problem is that one can only be sure of what is seen or perceived here and now; the rest is based on habit and belief.
Transcendental: Kant
Transcendental: Kant sought to understand how science is possible and what its conditions are, to overcome the skepticism that Hume led to. He started with a critical analysis that reviews the possibilities of rational knowledge itself. His explanation is based on a synthesis of empiricism and rationalism. Not everything comes from reason or the senses; knowledge resides in the subject and their way of knowing, their operations, and their judgments to reach a true conclusion. Experience is absolutely necessary, but these data are applied to human reason categories.