Combining Texts

Ideas for 'The Really Hard Problem', 'Zettel' and 'Phenomenology of Spirit'

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2 ideas

13. Knowledge Criteria / A. Justification Problems / 3. Internal or External / a. Pro-internalism
Consciousness derives its criterion of knowledge from direct knowledge of its own being [Hegel]
     Full Idea: In what consciousness affirms from within itself as being-in-itself or the True we have the standard which consciousness itself sets up by which to measure what it knows.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], p.053), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 03 'The Method'
     A reaction: This seems to be a very close relation of Descartes' 'clear and distinct conceptions'. This certainly places Hegel in the Rationalist camp.
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 2. Causal Justification
Causes of beliefs are irrelevant to their contents [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: The causes of our belief in a proposition are indeed irrelevant to the question of what we believe.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Zettel [1950], i.437)
     A reaction: This should have nipped the causal theory of knowledge in the bud before it got started. Everyone has a different cause for their belief that 'it sometimes rains'. Cause is not justification.