Philosophy: 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
Aristotle to Modernity: Understanding Knowledge and Truth
Item 2: Philosophical Perspectives on Knowledge and Truth
1. According to Aristotle, What Kinds of Knowledge Exist?
- Theoretical Knowledge: Aimed at purely speculative contemplation of truth, without any practical or technical projection. Based on the theoretical capacity of man, proposing general truths from experience with the help of logic and method.
- Practical Knowledge: Aimed at regulating individual and social action through practical wisdom or prudence. This involves the ability to act properly,
Human Evolution: From Biology to Anthropology
The Biological Nature of Man: Nature and Origin
19th Century Responses: Religious and Scientific
In the 19th century, responses to the question of human nature were primarily religious and scientific. Science eventually took over as the primary means of answering these questions. The scientific search for answers does not mean giving up the search for meaning in human nature.
1.2 Anthropology: Understanding Human Biological and Social Aspects
Anthropology is the science dealing with the biological aspects
Read MoreUnderstanding Reality and Truth: A Philosophical Perspective
Notion of Reality
The notion of reality: all that exists, as manifested, appears as multiple and changing, so certain and definite.
- Naive realism is to believe things exist, that they are independent of language and ideas, that, of course, we are an objective reality, i.e., that things are as they are. Traditional science does not recognize that the reality it treats is determined by the conceptual apparatus or by the measure.
Critique of Naive Realism
Realizing naive realism: it is discovered that
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