Epistemology: Understanding Knowledge and Truth
Epistemology
Epistemology is concerned with the analysis of knowledge, determining its origin, the methods we follow to obtain it, and the limits of what we can know.
Knowledge, Opinion, and Belief
- Opinion: A subjective assessment that we cannot say we are sure of and that we cannot prove.
- Belief:
- Dubitative use: Expresses that we are not really sure of the truth of what we say.
- Assertive use: We speak of belief when we are sure of something even though we do not have enough evidence to prove it.
- Knowledge:
Augustine of Hippo: Life, Works, and Influence
Augustine of Hippo: Life and Works
Augustine of Hippo was born in Tagaste in 354 AD. His father was a pagan, and his mother was a Christian who taught her son, Augustine. He ceased to be a Christian, but then again, he did not embrace the Christian faith. He was always leaving the Christian faith. He went to Carthage to study rhetoric, read the work of Cicero, *Hortensius*, and became interested in the philosophical problem of evil, thus becoming a Manichean. Manichaeism was based on a Platonic way
Read MoreConstitutional Law & Political Science: Concepts and Evolution
Constitutional Law and Political Science: Concepts and Evolution
Unit I
Right: Right action is the same. Human law has the nature of law as long as it conforms to right reason. The law is the prohibition of unfairness and the realization of justice.
Politics: Etymologically from the Greek “polis,” meaning city or state, it is the formation, organization, and maintenance of the state and human activity as it relates to public life in the city.
In the classical sense, it can be defined as the science
Read MorePhilosophy: Understanding Knowledge, Truth, and Reason
Theoretical and Practical Reason
1. Theoretical reason is oriented towards the contemplation of the world and the knowledge of reality, trying to explain it. Practical reason is the use of reason to guide action. Theoretical philosophy deals with the knowledge of reality, of what is “knowledge that cannot be any other way.” It must try to know the truth and reality with the greatest possible rigor. From this clarification, it addresses the theory of knowledge or gnoseology. Metaphysics tries to understand
Read MoreEthics: Happiness, Duty, Discourse, and Scientific Methods
Ethics of Happiness
1. Being happy is to self-actualize, to achieve those goals specific to a human being. (Aristotle)
Aristotle’s ethics: Considers that being happy is being a human in the fullest sense of the word. If there is an activity that distinguishes us as humans, it is considered exercise to be happy. Every human activity that is pursued is for a good, therefore, an end. According to Aristotle, all human activities tend to an end, and all purposes, in turn, tend to an ultimate goal.
Happiness
Read MoreRationalism: Descartes and the Primacy of Reason
Rationalism
The continuing problem throughout the Middle Ages had been tension between Faith and Reason. For St. Augustine, they were totally together: faith is required to reach the truth, which is God.
Definition and Characteristics
In general, we say that classic rationalism is a philosophical current of the seventeenth century. Descartes belongs to it, in contrast to the current of eighteenth-century empiricism represented by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. We can define rationalism as:
- Self-sufficiency