Intuition and deduction Thesis

• Decartes, Plato and Leibniz believe that you have a form of innate understanding
• Inductive reasoning


  if the premises are all true, the conclusion is likely to be true
• deductive reasoning


  if the premises are all true, the conlusion must be true
• Inductive reasoning moves from specific cases and applies them to general ones
• deductive reasoning is a type of reasoning that starts with a general statement and then works backwards to a specific conclusion. This ensures certainty within argument.
• deduction and intuition are specific, "God-given", faculties of the mind. They enable one to discover certain truths
• Decartes reasons inductively in order to establish certainty
• intueri


  to consider
• intuition


  the immediate and direct apprehension of truth
• intuition is an intellectual capacity
• cogito


  "i think therefore i am"
• intuition is an immediate insight into truth
• "intuition is the indubitable conception of a pure and attentive mind, which arises from the light of reason alone"
• one knows intuitively that black is not white
• deduction is the ability to follow on from the intuitively acquired truth
• deduction is the way in which a series of intuitions are connected to lead to self-evident truth
• Decartes aims to eliminate doubt from the concept of knowledge
• Decartes believes that God and the faculties of the mind are innate
• Outline the induction and deduction thesis

  1. Theory of how knowledge is gained
  2. Uses reason
  3. How?
• Decartes aims to eliminate doubt so he tries to prove truth with certainty. As a result, his arguments are structured deductively, allowing his conclusions(provided the premises are true) to be certain
• To arrive at certainty, one must rely on reason rather than sensory experiences
• Empiriscists differ with Decartes on the notion that synthetic truths can be certain, as certainty cannot come as a result of sensory experience
• Decartes believes that God and the faculties of the mind are innate
• truths can be derived from intuition and deduction
• Intuition and knowledge are distinct
• Indubitable


  without doubt
• Intuition is the direct apprehension of truth; grasping what is true. Deduction is the ability to follow on from the intuitively acquired truth and connect truths together
• infallaiblism


  must be unmistaken of ones true belief - eliminates doubt through certainty
• infalliablism leads to scepticism
• Truths that Decartes knows

  I exist

  God exists

  The external world exists
• Decartes supports infallablism
• intuition and deduction is a type of knowing that is infallible
• Decartes experiences 3 waves of doubt
• " I must avoid believing things which are not certain and indubitable" - Rene Decartes
• 1st wave of Doubt


  The senses can decieve us( therefore we should not entirely rely on them as a source of truth and certainty) - questions things hard to sense
• 2nd Wave of Doubt


  This could all be a dream - there is no way of telling if one is awake - questioning reality
• 3rd Wave of Doubt

  There could be a decieving demon that spends all his time decieveing me - could implant thoughts into his head - questions undoubtable thoughts
• Clear and distinct ideas

  Indubitable

  Certain self justifying
• If ideas are distinct they cannot be confused with others
• Clear and distinct ideas are known a priori through reason alone