Philosophical Perspectives on Reality: From Realism to Phenomenology

Posted on Jan 27, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Reality in Philosophical History

Realism

Realism posits that the mind is like a mirror, reflecting reality as it truly is.

Idealism

Idealism suggests that the mind possesses inherent principles or categories that structure reality during the cognitive process.

Rationalism

Rationalism asserts that reason is the source of all true knowledge.

Empiricism

Empiricism claims that experience is the source of all true knowledge.

Rationalist Perspectives on Reality

  • The real is that which meets the criterion of clarity and distinction.
  • Doubt is a method to reach the first indubitable truth.
  • The first indubitable reality: “I think, therefore I am.”
  • Three types of ideas in the human mind:
    • Innate ideas
    • Adventitious ideas
    • Factitious ideas

Ratio-Vitalism’s Solution to Reality

  • The primary reality is life.
  • The categories of this reality, which is life, are freedom, circumstances, and life experience.
  • The method of true knowledge, provided by vital and historical reason, is perspectivism.

Empiricist Solution to the Problem of Reality

  • Sensible reality is what we perceive through the senses.
  • The origin of knowledge: perceptions and ideas.
  • Knowledge is explained by the principle of association between ideas.
  • Chance is the cognitive principle governing the scope of the factual.
  • The conclusion must be understood as safe and secure knowledge or belief.

Consciousness

  • Psychological perspective: Awareness of awareness.
  • Moral perspective: Will or practical reason.
  • Epistemological perspective: Reason.

Kantian Characteristics of Idealism

  • Transcendental method: Returning to the conditions of possibility.
  • Difference between the innate and the a priori.
  • What is properly called transcendental is a priori knowledge.

Consciousness as Pure Reason

  • The a priori is whatever precedes experience.
  • Pure reason is the source of all elements of a priori knowledge (sensitivity, understanding, reason).

Kantian Theory of Judgments

  • Analytical judgments are explanatory, universal, and necessary but do not advance knowledge.
  • Synthetic judgments are extensive judgments (a posteriori, a priori).

Space and Time as A Priori Forms

  • Space is the a priori form of sensibility in which all external phenomena are structured.
  • Time is the a priori form of sensibility in which all internal and external phenomena are structured.

Phenomenological Method

  • Epoché: Starting off from every piece of knowledge we have.
  • Eidetic reduction: Conversion of mundane facts into essences.
  • Transcendental reduction: Transformation of essences into intentional contents of consciousness.
  • Eidetic intuition: Disinterested contemplation of essences as part of consciousness.

Three kinds of ideas in the human mind: innate, adventitious, and factitious.

Empiricist Solution to Reality

  • The real is sensitive to what we perceive through the senses.
  • The origin of knowledge: perceptions and ideas; every idea is a copy or a print of an image.
  • Knowledge is explained by the principle of association between ideas.
  • The categories of that reality, which is life, are:
    1. Freedom, possibility, project.
    2. Circumstance.
    3. Life experience.
  • The manner of true knowledge, which provides the vital and historical reason, is perspectivism.