...Hello Class, This week I will be answering question number one. The question asks to give at least three reasons why Descartes believed that the senses are not able to provide certain knowledge. Descartes ultimately attempted to prove that the true source of scientific knowledge was in the mind and not due to the senses. In the Meditations, Descartes began to doubt beliefs that originated from the senses. His goal was not to prove that it is impossible to know that things exists, but to demonstrate that knowledge of these things through the senses is subject to doubt. Essentially, if knowledge originates through the senses, how could one be sure that anything external exists? Since it is apparent that external objects do exist, this knowledge cannot originate from the senses, but from the mind....
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...Is the under-thirty generation really the dumbest generation? This question is debated among numerous of sources such as Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation and Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The criteria for intelligence is considerably large, but sources’ arguments mostly align by the idea of common knowledge, necessary life skills, and literacy as the main criteria. To an extent, the claim of the under-thirty generation being the dumbest is true with the inadequacy in some life skills and common knowledge, but it is wrong due to the general rise in literacy and intelligence quotient among the under-thirty generation. According to the older generations, the under-thirty generation lacks to the necessary common knowledge...
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...Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge (Kothari, 2004) What is Knowledge? The Oxford Dictionary defines “Knowledge” as: * The information, understanding and skills that you gain through education and experience; * The state of knowing about a particular fact or situation; What other ways of knowing exist? “There are four ways of knowing” (Gakuu & Kidombo, 2014) Server time Sensory Experience The Oxford Dictionary defines “Sensory” as “Connected to your physical senses” By this definition we can infer that we use our “Sensory Organs” to Know or Gain Knowledge. Our sensory organs include eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin, We use our eyes to see things hence gaining knowledge; we use our ears to hear and gain knowledge…….etc. etc. We should not forget that this information or knowledge is first processed by our brain then and only then do we understand what it is we are seeing, hearing, tasting and so on and therefore understand. Normally we, see, hear, and smell taste touch. We gather a lot of data through our senses. “However, sensory knowledge is undependable and in some cases incomplete. The data we take through our sense do not account for all (or even most) of what we seem to feel is the range of human knowing. For us to obtain reliable knowledge, therefore, we cannot rely on our senses alone, but must check what we think we know with other sources” (Gakuu & Kidombo, 2014) The opinion of other is another source of knowledge...
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...Time and time again we are told how unreliable our senses and memory are. These ways of knowing function simultaneously so people may gain their own knowledge and store that information throughout their lives. Sense perception is defined as the way our bodies perceive and gain knowledge from an external stimuli. Memory is essential in retaining the knowledge gained through our senses. Despite this, studies by psychologists Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer suggest how easy it is to manipulate memories of an individual by simply proposing the idea that false events occurred. While the way people interpret their environment can easily be distorted, as shown with fallacies in sense perception and memory, these two ways of knowing are valuable,...
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...Our mind perceives the world around us by using our five senses; sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. We perceive the world around us through our senses. These perceptions form new thoughts and ideas. A very important question is then raised, how accurate are these senses? While in some ways they are accurate, in some ways they are quite flawed. There are many factors that contribute to these flaws such as sleep and nutrition. We must also consider the role that “nature” vs. “nurture” has on our senses. In the end our senses are only as accurate as circumstances allow them to be. One reason I believe in the inaccuracy of our senses is something called the McGurk effect so named after its discoverer, Harry McGurk. (web Hoskins yale) While studying infants and how they perceive speech Harry McGurk created a video that is quite baffling. In the video a volunteer is visually recorded saying “ga” but the sound “ba” is dubbed over it. (Haskins) When you watch the video however you hear the sound “da”. (Haskins) Our sense of sight is telling us one thing while our sense of hearing is telling us another. Because of the inaccuracy of these senses the information perceived by them, the sound “da”, is also incorrect. Another reason I believe our senses are inaccurate is phantom limb pain. This is a condition that results from the amputation of a limb and is a combination of psychological and neurological factors. This condition can be treated using a number of prescription...
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...average usage of social media by an individual has increased by about seventy-eight percent. Over time, technological advancements have facilitated this growth in not only the popularity of media, but also the authority of media in society. In today’s society, the media stands as the ultimate source of truth to many individuals as news channels successfully influence a person’s beliefs regarding society. Furthermore, when an individual relies upon the media for valid information, he allows only one perspective to influence his beliefs, and this closed-mindedness often results in him inadvertently acting prejudicially towards minority groups. While hatred has always existed in the world, the ever growing authority...
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...Citations and APA Format When writing any kind of paper or essay, it is essential that you give credit to the sources that you use; you do this by appropriately citing these sources in parenthetical citations within your paper and in a reference list at the end of the paper. Failing to appropriately cite sources—either intentionally or unintentionally—is a serious academic violation called plagiarism. You should never represent someone else’s work or ideas as your own. Any time you have taken a statement, a fact, or even an idea from another author, you must cite it. A good rule to go by is that if you are in doubt about whether something must be cited, do it to be safe. Certain types of material always require citation, and others do not. Material That Requires Citation How to Cite: Citations should include the author, date, and page number of the source—(Author’s last name, year, p. #). Direct Quote: Direct quotes always require a citation. • Shame is most simply a sense that one’s self is bad. According to Goldberg, it is a “conviction that in some important way one is flawed and incompetent as a human being” (1991, p. 191). Paraphrase/Summary: A paraphrase takes a short section of text and restates the ideas in different words. A summary does the same but generally involves a larger portion of text. You might paraphrase the idea of a few sentences or a paragraph, and you might summarize the results of an entire study. A paraphrase of the Goldberg quote above might...
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...Research Common sense is defined as sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. In layman’s terms, common sense is the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have. The limitations of this approach can be grouped into three categories: extrinsic limitations (the result of factors extraneous to experience), limitations of common sense as a social practice (ensuing from the way knowledge is shared and communicated) and intrinsic limitations (limited viewpoint). Extrinsic limitations Extrinsic limitations can be bias or dogmatic. Bias limitations is insights based on personal experiences are difficult to distinguish from one's preferences, desires or fears. Dogmatism limitation is when beliefs based on common sense become embedded in a particular cultural framework, they are very difficult to change and often become dogmatic. Limitations of common sense as a social practice Limitations can be intangible or elusiveness in nature. According to this limitation, common sense is based on clues often too complex and subtle to be rationally explained and systematically described. Intrinsic limitations Intrinsic limitations are limited in scope and inaccurate in nature. Limited scope means that common sense is limited one’s own experiences which is not taking into account all aspects of reality. Imprecision limitations mean that common sense relies on ‘rule...
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...CITATIONS AND APA FORMAT When writing any kind of paper or essay, it is essential that you give Plagiarism is a serious credit to the sources that you use; you do this by appropriately citing these sources in parenthetical citations within your paper and in a academic violation. reference list at the end of the paper. Failing to appropriately cite To avoid plagiarism, sources—either intentionally or unintentionally—is a serious academic violation called plagiarism. You should never represent someone else’s use this rule of thumb: work or ideas as your own. Any time you have taken a statement, a When in doubt, cite it. fact, or even an idea from another author, you must cite it. A good rule to go by is that if you are in doubt about whether something must be cited, do it to be safe. Certain types of material always require citation, and others do not. Material That Requires Citation How to Cite: Citations should include the author and date of the source, that is, “(Author’s last name, year).” Direct Quote: Direct quotes always require a citation. A direct quote should also include the page number, that is, “(Author’s last name, year, p. #).” • Shame is most simply a sense that one’s self is bad. According to Goldberg, it is a “conviction that in some important way one is flawed and incompetent as a human being” (1991, p. 191). Paraphrase/Summary: A paraphrase takes a short section of text and restates the ideas in different words. A summary does the same but generally...
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...Institute of Philosophy and Religious studies. Affiliated to The Catholic University of Malawi PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE (Epistemology) Student: OTIENO STEPHEN MBAKA Class Notes INTRODUCTION Fundamental Notions THE "PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE" is that branch of philosophy which tries to determine in a general way what the nature and scope of man's capacity to know are. Precisely what this determi-nation will turn out to be cannot be foreseen at the beginning of our investigation since the very reason for undertaking such a project is to find that out in a methodical and systematic way. Nonetheless, even at this point, we do have a vague sense of what we are after, and, presumably, we have had enough experi-ence of our ignorance and capacity for error to motivate us to take up this arduous task. Our common-sense notion of nature tells us that an investigation into the "nature" of anything means at least that we are ask-ing "what sort of thing is it?" To be sure, this question is none too precise, but it will do for a beginning. Again, our common-sense notion of "scope" tells us that an inquiry into the "scope" of any-thing means at least that we are asking "how far does it extend?" Again, this imprecise query will do for the moment. Notice that we are not asking whether we know anything at all. The reason is, as we shall see in detail later that this question cannot be asked at all, because to have asked it is to have answered...
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...Rubric | |Week 3 | | | | | | | |Criterion |Unsatisfactory |Satisfactory |Exceptional |Score | | Knowledge of Course Concepts (60%) 6 5.8 | |Describe How Personal, Cultural, and|Demonstrates a level of |Demonstrates a level of |Demonstrates a level of knowledge | | |Organizational Values Impact Ethical|knowledge that is below the |knowledge that meets the |that meets or exceeds the requirement| | |Decision Making |requirement |requirement |and is well supported | | | | | |You did a fine job addressing the | | | | | |Personal, cultural and organizational| | | | | ...
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...|Level 7 | Enquiry using sources / Knowledge: | | |We have extensively researched this project and are able to confidently demonstrate our knowledge. We offer a complex | | |analysis of the key features of our chosen topic and are able to compare the story with other events in history and reach | | |substantiated conclusions. It is evident that we have used a variety of sources in researching our story. | | |Organisation & Communication: | | |Our presentation is innovative and of high quality. It uses language and historical terms precisely in a way which clearly | | |communicates complex ideas. It is a team effort. | |Level 6 | Enquiry using sources / Knowledge: | | |We have researched the project in some depth and are able to demonstrate that knowledge. We offer a detailed analysis of | | ...
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...Works: Discourse on method – published in 1634 Meditations – published in 1641 Key Terms: “I think therefore I am” “Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is conceived he is well supplied with it” Important arguments: The argument for universal doubt: All doubt comes from our senses. Everything is open to doubt. * We do not know that external objects exist. * Senses put us with mental images of external objects so perception cant bring us any certainty The dream argument: * Often we have perceptions, which are similar to ones that are in our dreams. * There are no definite signs to distinguish dream experiences from an actual one. * It is possible that we are dreaming now and all our perceptions are false. The deceiving God argument: * God has it in his powers to deceive us about our knowledge. * We think we have a high knowledge of maths that helps us understand the world. * It is possible that we are deceived even in our mathematical knowledge of the basic structure of the world. The evil demon argument: * Instead of assuming that god is the source of our deceptions, we will assume that there exists an evil demon, which is capable of deceiving us in the same way, as god would be able to. * This helps Descartes question his knowledge further as well as re-questioning his existence. The argument for his existence (cogito): * The belief that one can be deceived...
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...Part 1 1. What is Philosophy? Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life’s most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study. Source: http://philosophy.fsu.edu/content/view/full/36588 2. What are the benefits of Studying Philosophy? Studying philosophy improves reasoning and critical skills. Skills gained by philosophy majors are useful in almost any career. * The ability to think logically * The ability to analyze and solve problems * The ability to assess proposed solutions * The ability to write and speak clearly, attending to details Students learn about questions. How to ask good questions and distinguish the worthwhile from the worthless questions. How to divide, prioritize, and simplify questions. Students are affected by learning about questions. * Studying questions liberates us from prejudice * It helps us to think independently, thus, promoting autonomy, self-government, and individuation * It broadens our perspective on life The study of philosophy benefits students intellectually...
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...for a special focus on “developing socially-responsible leaders and engaged alumni.” This goal is central to the full expression and realization of our Catholic, Vincentian and urban mission, which challenges us to maintain vigilant attention to the common good and to the sacred dignity of all people, especially the poor and marginalized. The development of socially responsible leaders in today’s complex, global, and ever-changing world requires a commitment to students’ holistic and integrated learning by a community of faculty, staff and University partners who accompany and mentor students on their developmental path. Moreover, it requires that the University community itself embody what it seeks to develop in its students, thus acting as an effective mentoring community and environment. At DePaul, five broad categories have emerged as central to our understanding of socially responsible leadership: 1. Self-Understanding & Personal Integrity Socially responsible leaders have achieved a sense of self-authorship or personal agency. They critically assess and actively discern how their personal gifts, talents, resources, and abilities might best contribute to the broader human community. They articulate and live with a sense of authenticity, purpose, and ethical integrity. They maintain an appreciation for the transcendent dimension of human life, and seek ongoing personal and spiritual development and growth. They understand their personal values within the context of...
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