Is Reason the Source of Knowledge?: Meno: Platonic Proof of Innate Ideas, The
Plato gives a simple mathematical proof for innate ideas in a dialogue called the Meno. A slave boy, who has had no training in geometry, is asked by Socrates to produce a square double the area of a given square. Socrates will put no thoughts into ...
Plato
The dialogues of Plato are analyzed in this program by world-renowned author and professor Bryan Magee and Cambridge philosophy professor Myles Burnyeat. Seeing Plato’s ideas initially as extensions of those of his teacher, Socrates, Burnyeat expl...
In the Driver's Seat: Appetite vs. Reasons
Two processes in the brain compete for control, the limbic system representing appetite and the cortex representing reason. When people are near something they really want, they may experience motivational myopia and shut down their cognitive functi...
Is Reason the Source of Knowledge?: Theory of Innate Ideas, The
Rationalists believe in innate ideas, ideas that are present in the mind from birth. The concept had a long history beginning with Plato in the 4th century B.C.E. The difficulties and discoveries characteristic of Athens during this period are simil...
Aristotle on Knowledge
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus says that Aristotle believed when people perform in an expert manner, it's because they have a skill to do so, not because they are following principles that are innate or learned.
What is Philosophy?: Plato's Myth of the Cave; Its Relevance Today
Plato's parable of the cave, written in the 4th century B.C.E., portrays how philosophy works. In the parable prisoners sit in the bottom of a cave, their heads chained so they can only see shadows cast by objects moving in front of a fire. We are l...
Descartes and the Greeks (Part One)
Philosopher Stephen Toulmin draws parallels between Descartes and Plato, arguing that both lived in a perilous time during which they tried to demonstrate "... in a quasi-mathematical way that we have a system of ideas which carry a certainty on the...
Descartes and the Greeks (Part Two)
Philosopher Stephen Toulmin talks about the origins of differing branches of philosophy. On the one hand, Professor Toulmin notes, there have been those like Plato and Descartes, who have wanted theoretical certainty above all else. On the other han...
Pragmatism, Language and Reality
Philosopher Richard Rorty explores the link between language and reality, suggesting that no one language is any closer to reality than any other. Whether it's the language of poetry, the language of physics, the language of theology or any other la...
Turning Away From Functionalism
Philosopher Hilary Putnam talks about turning away from his earlier view of functionalism, to another perspective which recognizes the impact and significance of experience and one's social environment on the way one thinks.