The Pre-Enlightenment Period
The principal feature of the enlightenment period is that acquiring knowledge and truth is based on human experience. In the pre-enlightenment period, the sources that contained all truth were the Bible, which is said to be the revelation, and works of the Ancient Greek Philosophers particularly Plato and Aristotle that were based on reason. As such, medieval learning was reckoned as exegesis: the study and interpretation of a text. Medieval philosophy took a theocentric approach that encompasses God and the Bible/religious scriptures as the subject of study. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, used syllogism in his teachings. The most famous syllogism
This approach to learning was completely discarded by the thinkers in the Enlightenment …show more content…
Mathematical ideas are innate and self-evident, which produce their own axioms, whereas metaphysics is a method of analysis and it has to find its own axioms. The Axiom of equality is never in conflict with whatever the senses reveal to us. Hence, mathematical truth have nothing to do with the senses. However, metaphysical axioms are always in contradiction with the senses. We are bereft of primary notions for they are the presuppositions that harmonize with the use of our senses which we have readily accepted. We’ve accustomed ourselves to the preconceptions of our senses since our early years, that we cannot apprehend the truth. Descartes believed that the true starting point in philosophy is indifference, which is eliminating any reliance on empirical ideas. Metaphysics involves us to discredit beliefs based on senses and withdraw our minds from corporeal matters. Descartes proposed a cognitive process no less unsettling than demolishing and rebuilding a premise. In order to be sure that we acknowledge only what is unequivocal, we should deliberately repudiate all preconceived beliefs, including sensory prejudices that we have acquired through education or experience. Thus, analysis is a demonstration designed to bring the attention to the point where all prejudices have been removed and the relevant primary notions can be
This approach to learning was completely discarded by the thinkers in the Enlightenment …show more content…
Mathematical ideas are innate and self-evident, which produce their own axioms, whereas metaphysics is a method of analysis and it has to find its own axioms. The Axiom of equality is never in conflict with whatever the senses reveal to us. Hence, mathematical truth have nothing to do with the senses. However, metaphysical axioms are always in contradiction with the senses. We are bereft of primary notions for they are the presuppositions that harmonize with the use of our senses which we have readily accepted. We’ve accustomed ourselves to the preconceptions of our senses since our early years, that we cannot apprehend the truth. Descartes believed that the true starting point in philosophy is indifference, which is eliminating any reliance on empirical ideas. Metaphysics involves us to discredit beliefs based on senses and withdraw our minds from corporeal matters. Descartes proposed a cognitive process no less unsettling than demolishing and rebuilding a premise. In order to be sure that we acknowledge only what is unequivocal, we should deliberately repudiate all preconceived beliefs, including sensory prejudices that we have acquired through education or experience. Thus, analysis is a demonstration designed to bring the attention to the point where all prejudices have been removed and the relevant primary notions can be