Augustine of Hippo: Faith, Reason, and the City of God
Augustine of Hippo: Historical and Cultural Context
Augustine saw Christianity as a pillar of society, situated within a medieval social and political order based on religion. He believed that temporal political power should be subject to religious spiritual power, arguing that humanity should not strive for the temporal power of the earthly city but must submit to the spiritual power of the City of God. The decline of the Roman Empire, marked by barbarian invasions (Swabians, Vandals, Alans in Hispania;
Read MoreObjective vs. Subjective Knowledge in Philosophy
Unit 1: Science and Philosophy
Objective Knowledge (Universal, Rigorous, Singular)
Objective knowledge encompasses factual, verifiable information and meaningfully verifiable concepts. It is rigorous, precise, unequivocal, and valid. Scientific theories, which are cumulative, exemplify this type of knowledge. Objective knowledge employs contrastable procedures to determine truth or falsity.
Subjective Knowledge (Particular Perspective)
Subjective knowledge involves eidetic and axiological concerns
Read MoreKant’s Philosophy: Knowledge and Reason
Kant’s Philosophy: Structure and Order
Kant’s philosophy can be ordered and structured around three questions posed in his Logica:
- What can I know?
- What should I do?
- What can I hope?
What I can know relates to the theory of knowledge.
Definition of Science
Kant considered scientific knowledge to have these characteristics:
- It is universal knowledge, and scientific statements are true and applicable to all individuals.
- It is, therefore, necessary knowledge; it cannot be otherwise and would deny contradiction.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Unveiling Reality and Knowledge
The philosophy of Plato expressly states that the myth of the cave is used to illustrate issues relating to the theory of knowledge. However, it also has clear implications for ontology, anthropology, politics, and ethics. Plato asks us to imagine ourselves as prisoners inhabiting a cave.
These prisoners are chained and immobile, only able to see the back of the cave. Behind them, on a higher plane, a fire is lit. Between the fire and the prisoners, there is a higher road with a wall along its edge.
Read MoreNatural Law: From Aquinas to Human Rights
Natural law theorists argue that there is a natural right, which is identified with human reason. For natural law, as in Thomas Aquinas, it depends on divine right or eternal law.
- Natural law cannot be attributed directly to God because God has willed that His features are already in human nature.
The rules of natural law, which are almost necessary conditions for any society, are self-evident to man as a social animal endowed with reason.
For Locke, natural law is the sense of a universally binding
Read MoreHume’s Critique of Causality and Metaphysics
Hume on Matters of Fact and Causal Reasoning
Text 4, p. 75: All our reasonings concerning matters of fact seem to be based on the relation of Cause and Effect. By means of that relation alone we can go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses. Factual issues concerning the future are established through causal reasoning. Events happen to others.
The issues of fact in this text refer to judgments about things happening in the world that we perceive through our senses. These judgments are synthetic,