Things that philosophers thought they knew through pure reason often ended up being wrong🧠
Because perception is not absolute, all of our ideas are somewhat conjectural and inferential. However, the Greek philosophers, or some of them, regarded pure reason as a path to certitude. This has collapsed over the centuries for a variety of reasons, but chiefly because the things philosophers thought they knew this way have often turned out to be simply not true. For instance, Immanuel Kant thought pure reason “knew” intuitively that Euclidean geometry was the true and only geometry. Nowadays, mathematicians have several varieties of non-Euclidean geometry, all of which are equally valid and all of which are as useful as Euclidean geometry, although in different areas.
References
- Wilson, A., Robert (1986). The New Inquisition Chapter 1 Models, Metaphors, and Idols (Page 11 · Location 139). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Philosophy / Epistemology Status:☀️