Bibliographies...

~Richter, Duncan J. “Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951)” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Aug. 30 2004 <http://www.iep.utm.edu/wittgens/>.

~Wolf, Michael P. “Philosophy of Language” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy May 12, 2009 <http://www.iep.utm.edu/lang-phi/>.

~Mitchell, Helen Buss. Roots of Wisdom. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2011.

~“Karl Popper” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Feb. 9 2009 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/>.

~"The Mind Body Problem." Oregon State University. 23 Sept. 2010 <http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/writing/mind-top.html>

~“ Realism (philosophy)." Build your own broadband and phone package with TalkTalk. 23 Sept. 2010 <http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0011674.html>.

~Cline, By Austin. "What is Idealism? History of Idealism, Idealist Philosophy, Idealist Philosophers."Agnosticism / Atheism - Free Inquiry, Skepticism, Atheism, Religious Philosophy. 23 Sept. 2010 <http://atheism.about.com/od/philosophyschoolssystems/p/idealism.htm>

~“Philosopher of the Week”. PhilosophySlam. September 27, 2010. <http://www.philosophyslam.org/spinoza.html>

~“David Hume”.  OnTruthandReality. September 27, 2010. < http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-David-Hume-Philosopher.htm >

Karl Popper

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Immanuel Kant

He founded criticism.
He said that knowledge starts through senses.
He divided the world into two: 
    >Phenomena (that is what we can perceive of the things)
    >Nóumena (things as they are but we cannot perceive because it is not
      reachable through human knowledge). 

David Hume

He was one of the main representatives of the empiricism.

He said that knowledge come from perception, impression and ideas.

He also said that the phenomenon cause and effect is a product of people’s imagination, you can never be sure that it will exactly be like that for the rest of the time.

“Experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connection, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable.”

Gottfried-Wilhelm Leibniz

He believed that the world was made up of Monads that reflect the whole world, but that at the same time those monads were non-material. God was a Monad who created an infinite number of monads.

Physical Reality can’t be based on physical stuff.

"The ultimate reason of things must lie in a necessary substance, in which the differentiation of the changes only exists eminently as in their source; and this is what we call God.”

Baruch Spinoza

He was the father of pantheism.

He believed that the only substance in the world is God; everything in the world is a change of the God substance.                   

There are three steps of knowledge: Opinions (what we get to know through our senses), Intuitive (Perception of things) and Rational (use reason to analyze our  senses.

He also said that social security and stability are better with freedom of thought, and that freedom was taken off by church leaders.

“If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good or evil.”

Renné Descartes...

He brought up the mind-body problem: the mind is essentially a thinking thing, while the body is essentially an extended thing - something which occupies space. Descartes held that there is two way causal interaction between these two quite different kinds of substances. So, the body effects the mind in perception, and the mind effects the body in action. 

His system is known as methodic doubt: We have to assume that everything we know is false; we have to start from 0 to achieve knowledge.

He believed that everything is made up of reason and matter. He proved the existence of reason by saying: “I think therefore I exist” and the way to prove the existence of the matter is through the existence of God. (God exists because I can think of him and he exists because he wouldn’t be so mean to let me think of him if he wouldn’t exist)

As we are part of God.. if he exists everything exists , everything is truth. 

CARTESIAN PARADOX

William of Ockham...

He believed that the truths of faith are not self- evident, nor are demonstrable, nor even probable; therefore, theology is not considered as a science, for its based faith and lacks coherence.

He thought that there is any intermediary between the perceiver and the world.

Ockham’s razor: denial to create non real beings to explain reality.

He created the Nominalism: theres is a perfect  relation between the name and the object.

Examples:

o   God is not an object so it must not be named.

o   Love has a physical prove so it can be named

Knowledge starts from particular objects. Necessity and universality are mere assumptions.

He believed that REASON obtains knowledge through experience, which can be of 2 types:

Complex and Uncomplex (divided in intuitive, experimental and abstractive) He thought that it was better to look for the simple explanations because it made no sense looking for the complex ones. 

Example: THERE IS A CAT SLEEPING NEXT TO A BABY

Aristotle...

He is considered the father of realism.

He is considered to be a rationalist philosopher even thought he focused a great deal in empiricism (because he believed knowledge could be achieved through reason but with senses).

According to him, knowledge comes from the active reason when perceiving forms: “There is nothing in the understanding that hasn´t come through the senses”

He created the logic.

His method was the teleology: everything has a purpose.

He thought the world is formed by matter and substance. Each object has its substance. Only through REASON can be discovered.

Even though he dismissed the existence of a different world of forms, he believed in Forms themselves that were the existence of an essence underlying within the objects themselves.

He thought objects are made out of matter and forms. 

Plato...

He is considered to be rationalist.

He is considered an idealist philisopher too because he wanted to know more and didn’t conform with what he saw, smelled, heard or touched. He belived in different realities than the one everyone knows.

He had the idea that we all have innate knowledge.to know is to remeber because our soul, before incarnated, was in the world of Forms. (He belived in reincarnation too).

He thought that knowledge is acquired only through REASON. Therefore, through senses (for example love) you cannot achieve total knowledge.

He suggested the existence of a world of forms, opposed to the matter world.  According to Plato forms are intelligible ideas, the ultimate realities from which the world of objects has been patterned. He believed that ideas were the essence of type physical reality.

He created the cave allegory. It explained how we can live in a fake world and not notice what really is real because our senses deceive us.

Epistemology through time

Basic concepts

Rationalism: even though the matter world is real, when it’s perceived in a chaotic way it’s our reason what gives it a meaning through interpretation.

Empiricism: the only way to know the world is through empiric experience, there can’t be innate ideas; everything through senses and experiences.

Criticism: the knowledge we can obtain requires the combination of reason and experience.

Idealism:  Idealism refers to any philosophy that argues that reality is somehow dependent upon the mind rather than independent of it. More extreme versions will deny that the “world” even exists outside of our minds. Narrow versions argue that our understanding of reality reflects the workings of our mind first and foremost — that the properties of objects have no standing independent of minds perceiving them.

Realism: Philosophical theory that emphasizes the existence of some kind of things or objects, in contrast to theories that dispense with the things in question in favour of words, ideas, or logical constructions. In particular, the term stands for the theory that there is a reality quite independent of the mind. In this sense, realism is opposed to idealism, the theory that only minds and their contents exist.

Epistemological questions...¿?

How can I know if what I perceive it’s real or not?

Many theories say that we perceive reality by our senses while other theories say that we perceive it by reason.. whatever what theory its correct I think our reality its relative, what might be good for me , might be bad for others, so if I am comfortable with my reality let’s just keep it because everything its relative and we will never know what is really real or not.

Is it real everything that our senses perceive?

Perhaps because if we cannot see it nor touch it how can we prove that it exists.

Are there objects that we can get to know even though our senses can’t perceive them?

Maybe because we cannot prove that they don’t exist.

Does the rest of the world perceive reality as I perceive it?

No, everybody has a different perspective and way of the seeing the world. As the experiences help us to create mind-sets and perspectives and everybody has been in different situations nobody can actually have the same perspective as the others.

Do our ancestors used to see the world the way I see it?

No, I think they passed through a different era with different stereotypes and mind-sets so we don’t think equal as a man that lived 20, 30 or even 100 years ago. Every generation that passed changes and changes are inevitable.

What is knowledge?

This term refers to being totally conscious familiar and sure what something is.

A statement must meet three criteria in order to be considered knowledge: it must be justified, true, and believed.

Is it possible to have knowledge at all?

Maybe not because how can we assure that what we learned from something is all about it, what of we learn a part of it and we think it is everything but the truth is that there is more to know about it and we don’t even know.

How do we know what we know?

If we are an expert, and have acquired certain skills through experience or education, thus we have theoretical or practical understand a subject, maybe we can say that we know about it because we are totally sure that we ken that certain thing and know about it.  

What is the truth?

Mmm… actually it is a really good question!!! Lol…  I don’t really know… and nobody will ever know so let’s just stop boasting that we know the truth because everybody will find out a different truth.. I think there is not an absolute truth. A little advice: find your truth, keep it and be happy!!!!

Is it necessary to know anything at all?

If you are happy not! Don’t want to sound mediocre but “ignorance is bliss”.

Epistemology branches...

        According to the process through which the knowledge is acquired and the possibility of acquiring    them, the epistemology offers six streams:

    1.       Empiricism è Acquiring process

     2.      Rationalism è Acquiring process

     3.      Skepticism è Acquiring possibility

     4.     Relativism è Acquiring possibility

     5.      Solipsism è Acquiring possibility

     6.     Constructivism è Acquiring process

Epistemology...

It comes from the Greek episteme (knowledge). The epistemology is also known as gnoseology (from Latin gnosis) or as knowledge theory.

It is a branch of philosophy that studies everything that is related to knowledge. It focuses on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification.

Its purpose is to achieve knowledge and discover reality so humans can achieve enlightenment.