Allison Simpkin

Phi 100

Professor Gilland

10/14/14

Blog Post 2

The basis for all ideas and concepts have to come from somewhere. It has to come from some experience that people faced or lived. As proven in the dream theory, you are able to dream of ideas that are biased from your own experiences. For example; if you dream about a unicorn the idea of that creature comes from a fact that you understand and know the concept of a horse. All you do is combined the horse and a horn to create a unicorn. This all ties back to the concept of empiricism and all of our ideas come from past experiences.

The concept that ideas and thoughts come from personal experiences and are not innate. You may come up with an idea of some sort out of the blue but it will be logical to why you are thinking of that. There are plenty of times that you wake up from a dream and not understanding and comprehending what just happened. To come up with a valid thought or idea you have to understand the reliable resource of which it is coming from. Therefore the ideas must be concrete and not innate.

In Descartes’ wax example it proves my point. Something can go through such a drastic change and remain the same. In the wax example the wax was solid and then melted into liquid wax. Whichever form the wax is in it all comes to be the same piece of wax just in a different state. This links directly to the idea that ideas originate from past experiences. An experience can remain the same once it has all happened. The only thing that changes is the way you take off of it. An example that proves this is, you go on a trip to a country outside the United States. You climbed the highest mountain that you have been working your entire life for. The fact or idea that you climbed the mountain doesn’t change. The way you perceive that experience a few years later may change. However the backbone to the experience will never change. It is still the same mountain no matter how much it may change. To recap the wax is still the same wax no matter if it is melted or not.

A.    In terms of explanatory breadth empiricism all of the ideas are covered in some was by one experience or another. This idea proves that all ideas have a central source where they are coming from. You can’t have ideas that are out of the blue.

B.     In terms of explanatory depth empiricism is not covered all the way with just one central Esperance. An idea is almost guaranteed to come from more than one experience or source. There is also a guarantee that one source is going to be in deeper depth than the other. An example of this is in history class a war could break out. When that war breaks out there are always more than one cause for it. The bigger end for the result of the war is weighing on the side that is more favored.

C.     In terms of simplicity empiricism there is very little room for error. If our thoughts and ideas come a source they are not created out of the blue. There is a pace to look back on for why someone is thinking the way they do. The end result always comes from experience and there is no way to question what you are thinking or experiencing. The other theory that says only some ideas come from experiences is very questionable.  You can’t determine sat and stone that the thought are true or not. Therefore there is no way you can be one hundred percent someone has just made something up.

D.    In terms of conservatism there is no doubt that it doesn’t go against our common sense. The experiences that we faced is true and will remain constant without any doubt that there is error. The ideas that we come up with are all backed up with experience, in return you can’t doubt if it happened or not.

 

1.      The theory that all ideas are innate and some ideas are innate are most plausible explanations of our lack of experience.

2.      The theory that all ideas are innate are 100% back up, whereas the theory that some ideas are innate are in jeopardy for error.

3.      Therefore, the theory that all ideas are the best expiation for valid ideas.