Reflections after seminar 1
The theme of week one was theory of knowledge and theory of science which considered reading two text by Kant and Plato. The hardest thing regarding the reading phase was to understand Kant’s critique of pure reason. I had a hard time trying to understand the philosophic terms and the way Kant wrote which forced me to take notes in order to get a deeper understanding and overview. I was a bit concerned after finishing reading, but the two lectures by Johan made everything more clear.
Even though i thought i understood the concept about knowledge and in what way you should perceive it, the both lectures showed me the truth from another perspective. For example, Johan explained the difference between Analytic judgement, which is a priori and synthetic judgement (a posteriori). The latter says that in order to find out if something is true, we have to examine its truth, for example “some bodies are big”. Analytic judgement means that we can be sure of a knowledge independent of knowing the world, for example “all bodies have extensions”.
Our seminar had its mainly focus on Kant’s text because the majority of the group found it most hard to understand. We and Johan talked about the different concepts of the text which further lead us into a really interesting discussion about knowledge and how an infant can perceive knowledge. We speculated and discussed if the newborn child even grasps what’s going on or if he/she starts to perceive things as soon as he’s born. I think the parents have a huge part in this case since they supply the infant with their already “approved” knowledge that the children then embraces. When an infant is crying, is it because it knows the sense of hunger or just because it feels pain?
To conclude the week i would say i have really improved my way to see things from a new perspective and that the “philosophic concepts” can be quite interesting and thoughtful as well. I will take with me Kant’s 12 categories of understanding time and space and the transcendental idealism which basically means that “the world is out there, in order to gain knowledge about it, study it as it is”.
Very interesting reflection with the newborn child. As you pointed out, one can ask if the baby cries for a cause or if it is because of no reason.
SvaraRaderaHi Mikael,
SvaraRaderaI really liked you reflections and just like you (and probably most of us), I had a hard time understanding Kant. Also, I didn't understand Kant's text before the seminar.
I liked your example with the newborn baby. Do you think that they have a clue what's going on? We sort of discussed this in my seminar too and I sort of feel like that we are born with basic instincts (or knowledge, is it the same?), such as hunger. But I don't know what to make out of the crying part. Is that coherent in hunger or does the baby learn that hunger + crying = parents get me and I get some food.
Anyhow, keep up the good work!
Sofia
Hello, very good reflection you have there and I can see that after Lecture and seminar you expand your knowledge on the subject. This topic is not easy, particularly I think it is very subjective and depends on the perspective of each person. The topic discussed in your seminar I find quite interesting in this context, I consider that a newborn begins to acquire knowledge from the moment they are born, because they can feel different sensations and experiences. And all conduct that are demonstrated to them, can influence their thoughts and feelings. But if they actually can process this information and transformer into knowledge it is something that I am not sure and I can imagine there are a lot of people researching about this topic.
SvaraRaderaIsaac Rondon