Exploring Philosophical Ideas on Knowledge
What are the key ideas of some famous philosophers regarding knowledge?
Drag the tiles to the correct boxes to complete the pairs. Match the philosophers to their key ideas. Plato Locke Kant Humans have no innate knowledge. Knowledge can be either a priori or a posteriori. Knowledge is innate.
Answer:
Plato ⇒ Knowledge is innate.
According to Plato, humans had innate knowledge which means that they were born aware of certain concepts. He believed that some things humans knew were not gained from experience but were known from birth so had to be innate.
Locke ⇒ Humans have no innate knowledge.
According to John Locke, humans have no innate knowledge because he did not believe it possible for humans to have thoughts that they do not know of. For him, a person had to be taught something or thought of it themselves before they knew it.
Kant ⇒ Knowledge can be either a priori or a posteriori.
Immanuel Kant argued that knowledge could either be priori which meant that the knowledge possessed by a human could have been gained without experience as well as posteriori which meant that the knowledge was acquired from experience.
Detailed Explanation of Philosophical Ideas on Knowledge
Throughout history, various philosophers have put forward different perspectives on the nature of knowledge. Plato, a prominent Greek philosopher, believed in the concept of innate knowledge. According to him, humans possessed certain knowledge from birth, suggesting that some truths are inherent and not derived from experience.
In contrast, John Locke, an influential thinker of the Enlightenment period, argued that humans have no innate knowledge. Locke maintained that all knowledge comes from experience, emphasizing the role of sensory perception and observation in acquiring knowledge. For Locke, the mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth, with all knowledge being acquired through interaction with the environment.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher of the late 18th century, proposed a nuanced view on knowledge. Kant distinguished between a priori knowledge, which is independent of experience and based on reason, and a posteriori knowledge, which is derived from experience. He believed that certain fundamental truths, such as mathematical principles, are known a priori, while empirical knowledge is gained through sensory experience.