InnE

Question 1

Innatism

Answer 1

Our mind contains concepts or truths or both from the moment it exists.

Question 2

Concept innatism

Answer 2

We have concepts in our mind from the moment it exists.

Question 3

Knowledge innatism

Answer 3

We have truth/knowledge in our mind from the moment it exists

Question 4

Argument from universality

Answer 4

P1)There are truths/concepts that everyone knows

P2) Innatism explains this better than empiricism does.

MC) Therefore, innatism is true.

Question 5

Objection to the argument from universality

Answer 5

There are no such universally accepted truths; this opposes innatism and supports empiricism

Question 6

Leibniz’ response to the objection to the argument from universality

Answer 6

They can be universally within people’s minds even if not all people are aware of them

Question 7

Counter response to Leibniz’ response to the objection to the argument from universality

Answer 7

It doesn’t make sense to say that something is in your mind but you are not aware of it. It is a near contradiction

Question 8

Reply to the counter response to Leibniz’ response to the objection to the argument from universality

Answer 8

It does make sense to say that something is in your mind but you are not aware of it

e.g I know that Madrid is the capital of Spain but I am not always aware of this. So truths can be in in my mind even though I am not always aware of them. It may even take me a while to remember some of these, but they are still there

Question 9

Leibniz’s argument for innatism based on necessary truths

Answer 9

P1: I have knowledge of necessary truths

P2: This knowledge is either based on experience or it is innate.

P3: It cannot be based on experience because all knowledge from experience is of contingent truths

MC: Therefore it must be innate

Question 9

objection to Leibniz’s argument for innatism based on necessary truths

Answer 9

These claims are not known a posteriori but not innate either

Question 10

Objection to necessary truths maths/geometry/logic

Answer 10

They are analytic truths / “relations of ideas” (a priori but not innate)

Question 11

Response to the objection to necessary truths maths/geometry/logic

Answer 11

The concepts that make up these “relations of ideas” are still innate

Question 12

Objection to claims about objection

Answer 12

We don’t actually know them (they are neither “matters of fact” nor “relations of ideas”

Question 13

Descartes’ ‘trademark’ argument based on the concept of God

Answer 13

P1) I have the concept of God.

P2) This concept is either based on experience or it is innate.

P3) It cannot be based on experience because
-we have not had sensory experiences of God
-the idea didn’t arrive at some point, as other a posteriori concepts do.
-it cannot be a concept that I have created based on other a posteriori concepts that I already have because I can’t add to or take away from the idea
-the cause of it must contain the attributes of the concept itself, and so the cause can’t be my finite experiences

MC) Therefore it must be innate.

Question 14

objection to Descartes’ ‘trademark’ argument based on the concept of God

Answer 14

There is another explanation: our concept of God is a posteriori, not innate.

Our idea of God is just a complex idea of our own creation. It is not innate.

Question 15

Response to the objection to Descartes’ ‘trademark’ argument based on the concept of God

Answer 15

Our concept of God requires a concept of “infinity” which itself must be innate.

We have never seen infinite things, space or time. All of what we have experienced is finite.

Question 16

Counter response to the response to the objection to Descartes’ ‘trademark’ argument based on the concept of God

Answer 16

any concept of infinity we have comes from our experience of adding up plus our feeling that we could keep going.

we have no positive concept of infinity. We only understand infinity negatively as being the absence of an end:

Question 17

Actual / completed infinite series

Answer 17

a complete set of things of some kind which is infinitely big

Question 18

Potentially infinite series

Answer 18

a series that is not yet infinite but has the potential to be

Question 19

Response to the counter response to the response to the objection to Descartes’ ‘trademark’ argument based on the concept of God

Answer 19

This (negative/complex) concept from experience doesn’t match up with the concept of God that we have

Our concept of God is a simple/positive concept so is different to this complex/negative a posteriori concept and so must be innate