PSYC85H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cogito Ergo Sum, Empiricism
Document Summary
Scholars rejected scholarship and religious thought of middle ages, thought nothing original and creative had happened since the fall of rome. Return to classical ideas, secular, man(human)-centred ideas. Rise of skepticism (doubting or questioning something) Questioning of received wisdom re certainty of knowledge. Questioning of church dogma (the church wanted to promote certain things and those started getting questioned) Is there anything that we can know is definitely certain. Must start from certainty in order to understand what else we can know. I know i have doubt, doubt requires thought, thought requires a thinker . Cogito ergo sum - i think , therefore i am. Introspection is a valid way of searching for knowledge. Some ideas have no counterpart in experience. Some things he could not argue so suggested those were innate. Intuition: careful, unbiased, attentive use of mind to arrive idea whose validity can"t be doubted. Had to be able to look at both ways of solving a problem.
