Empiricism

Assignment on 2-16

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Gaining Knowledge

from

Observation and Experience

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Empiricism• It derives from a Greek word ‘empiric’, meaning

‘experience’

• It is an epistemology that developed in reaction to Rationalism, that asserted that knowledge is innate or present in our mind at birth. Many Empiricists believe that our mind is a “tabula rasa”, or a blank slate, at birth.

• Empiricism teaches that knowledge comes from our interactions with and sensory observations in the natural,

physical world.

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Empiricism

Ideas and knowledge develop in our minds as a result of our sensory experiences.

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What are your senses?

You use your senses to gather information about the outside world. You can see, hear, taste, smell and touch things. You can also detect pain, pressure, temperature, and the position and movement of your body. All these sensations are changed into electrical signals and carried to your brain which then puts all the information together to produce the whole picture.

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Empiricism as a

Way of Knowing

How we justify or prove knowledge claims

1. Basic sensory experience

2. More complicated life experiences

3. Scientific experiments

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"Tell me, and I will forget.

Show me, and I may remember.

Involve me, and I will understand.”

Confucius around 450 BC

Empirical Cycle

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Reviewing

Each Other’s Homework

1. How would you explain the main proposition put forward in the video “Journey of Man”?

2. What types of evidence were offered to justify or support its claims?

3. What is your response to or evaluation of the arguments in the video?

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Given the statement

In general, men are better leaders than women.

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Justification Methods

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SometimesReason Knowledge and Experience Knowledge

Conflict

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OftentimesReason Knowledge and Experience Knowledge

Work in Tandem

• Clear reasoning, supplemented by lessons from experience

• Experiential knowledge, woven together or extended by reason

Reasonand Logic

Experienceand Science

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Bible:Psalm 93:1 "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved.”Psalm 104:5 "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.”Ecclesiastes 1:5 "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place"

Evidence

Copernicus Mathematical reasoning

Galileo Telescopic observation

TodayMounds of scientific data

The UniverseObservation & Logic

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Superclusters Neighboring the Virgo Cluster

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Empirically speaking,the idea of “the center” is no longer meaningful.

Omega CentauriHubble snapped this view of a colorful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of a giant star cluster. The image reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars. Globular clusters, ancient swarms of stars united by gravity, are the homesteaders of our Milky Way Galaxy. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old

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Empiricism and the Public

• 20% of U.S. adults believed that the sun revolves around the earth. (2006)

• 24% of U.S. adults believed that President Obama definitely or probably was not born in the United States. (USA Today/Gallup, 2011)

• Beliefs about human origins. (1982-2010) (XX)

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% Who Think Climate Change is a Serious Problem

20Pew Research Center, 2013

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Empirical Argumentsa. There are 13 students enrolled in HCOM 301-02 in Spring, 2014.

b. Bill Clinton was the first president of the United States.

c. God is present in all living things.

d. Acting with kindness will increase the chances that a person will receive kindness from others.

e. Men make better leaders than women.

f. The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, and 1.05% other gases.

g. In 1531, on a hilltop outside Mexico City, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to farmer Juan Diego.

h. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq was good for the Iraqi people.

i. Some 150,000 to 200,000 years ago, the human species evolved into being from lower life forms.

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