Lesson 1.5: Reason and the Senses

About this episode

The episode explores the tension between reason and the senses in the context of knowledge, focusing on Descartes and Locke's philosophical arguments.

If our senses can deceive us and our reasoning can outrun experience, which should we trust as the true foundation of knowledge: reason alone, or the evidence of the world? Topics discussed: * How radical skepticism (including modern versions like simulations) motivates Descartes' turn inward * A reconstruction of René Descartes' Cogito argument as a proposed foundation of certainty * The difficulty of moving from Descartes' foundational truths to knowledge of the external world * Philosophical objections to Descartes' inference from thinking occurs to a unified self exists, including Nagasena's chariot analogy * The role of innate ideas and God in Descartes' attempt to bridge the epistemic gap * John Locke's rejection of innate ideas and the blank slate hypothesis * Locke's empiricism, including simple vs. complex ideas and indirect realism * The tension between reason and the senses as competing sources of knowledge * The emerging dilemma between rationalism and empiricism as rival epistemic frameworks

People in this episode

Host: R. C. M. García

Topics covered

• radical skepticism
• Descartes' Cogito argument
• innate ideas
• empiricism
• rationalism vs empiricism
• knowledge and the senses

Keywords

• knowledge
• reason
• senses
• Descartes
• Locke
• empiricism
• rationalism
• skepticism

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