Philosophy. Difficulties associated with rationalism and empiricism.

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Chapter31. Can you think of any way for Locke to defend his claim that substances exist, but we do not know what they are? How would Locke respond to Berkeley’s conclusion that we can only know ideas?   Locke believed that there are substances based on what we know, and these substances have primary and secondary qualities, with primary qualities attached to the body or object unlike secondary qualities. Berkeley believed in subjective idealism where there no material substances and physical objects, but only minds and ideas.2. Descartes reestablishes his system of beliefs because of his famous statement “I am a thing that thinks.” Where is the place of the thing that thinks in Locke’s system? Descartes propose criteria or knowledge and his expression, I am a thinking that thinks illustrates how belief that he was thinking and could not doubt his existence. His thoughts show people can gain knowledge if they use reason, but Locke emphasized experience as being necessary to learn3. Explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning and how it applies to the systems of Descartes and Locke. Inductive reasoning begins with a conclusion where specific instances are used to generalize conclusions. In deductive reasoning conclusion is based on premises made, which are assumed true and Locke supported the validity of deductive inferences. Descartes mainly used deductive reasoning, while Locke also supported rationality.4. How would you characterize skepticism? In what way have the various thinkers considered in this chapter responded to the skeptics’ challenge? How might the skeptic reply in each case?Skepticism in epistemology means that we cannot know everything and there are doubts that we know all what we do to gain genuine knowledge. David Hume argued that human beings cannot reliably know whether ideas of the external world are accurate. On the other hand, Berkeley, Descartes, Lock did not rely on skepticism. 5. Explain the difficulties associated with rationalism and empiricism.Rationalists believe that using logic is the source of knowledge and situation is also involved and there is no need for deductive reasoning since people can use rational abilities.  Rationalists ignore the importance of observation in learning and human beings do not necessarily have same ideas. Empiricists believe that we can gain knowledge through experience of the world highlighting the importance of observation. The concept ignores that people can learn without sense experiences because people have an innate ability to learn.Chapter 41. What are the key differences between necessary and contingent...