I have some preliminary questions before I can accurately state my current position (which I may not be able to do, but we'll see.) Please be mindful that I have never taken a philosophy course and all of my philosophical education has come from books I have sought out or information on the internet. So I may ask some questions that might seem "dumb", but I ask them in all earnestness to learn more.
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Originally Posted by Repugnant Abomination
Epistemology is broken into two main branches: Rationalism and Empiricism. In philosophy, empiricism is generally a theory of knowledge focusing on the role of experience, especially experience based on perceptual observations by the senses. Rationalism is the view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification". More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive".
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I suppose my main question here, is about the terms "intellectual and deductive". Are these not, in some way, drawn from sensory and perceptual events themselves? What I mean is, in order to intellectualize or deduce anything, must it not draw from the original senses and perceptions that built the framework which allows for intellectualization and deduction? Is there such a thing as "pure" intellectualizing, "pure" deduction, severed from at least a primary sensory experience?
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Is the only way we can truly know things through sense experience or can we rely on our intellect to come to non-observable truths?
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The Allegory of the Cave automatically casts doubt on sense experience for me, and I tend to be skeptical of the hubris of human interpretation of the universe these days. That being said, we don't really have a choice, except to use human interpretation at this point in history.
Also, can you give me an easy example of a non-observable truth that we can use intellect to deduce? I'm better at understanding concepts with concrete examples (when possible, of course).