Welcome, dear students, to Class 11 Logic and Philosophy Chapter 12 Question Answer | Theories of Origin of Knowledge | English Medium | ASSEB. This chapter takes us into the heart of epistemology, the branch of philosophy that asks how human knowledge is possible, where it comes from and what its limits are. From the Greek thinkers Plato and Aristotle through the modern philosophers Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant and Bergson, and across the Indian schools that classified the means of valid knowledge into different pramanas, every age has tried to answer the great question: what is the origin of knowledge? In this chapter you will study the four main Western answers, namely Rationalism, Empiricism, Criticism (the synthesis offered by Kant) and Intuitionism, together with the Indian theories of pramana that complete the picture.
This article is prepared strictly according to the ASSEB (Assam State School Education Board) syllabus and the prescribed textbook for Higher Secondary First Year (Class 11) Logic and Philosophy. It includes a clear summary, a complete textbook question-answer set, additional important questions for examination preparation, a glossary of technical terms, and reference tables comparing the major theories so that the differences and similarities can be revised at a glance.
Summary of Chapter 12: Theories of Origin of Knowledge
Epistemology, the theory of knowledge, is one of the oldest and most central branches of philosophy. The classical definition of knowledge, traceable to Plato’s dialogue Theaetetus, is that knowledge is justified true belief (JTB): to know something is to believe it, for that belief to be true, and for the believer to have adequate justification or evidence for it. Once knowledge is so defined, the next question naturally arises, namely from where does knowledge come? This question of origin is the central question of epistemology, and the different answers that philosophers have given are called the theories of the origin of knowledge.
The first great theory is Rationalism. Its principal exponents are the Continental philosophers Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The rationalist holds that reason, not sense experience, is the chief source and final test of all genuine knowledge. According to Descartes, the mind possesses certain innate ideas which are clear and distinct, such as the idea of God, the idea of substance, the ideas of the self, of perfection, and the basic principles of mathematics. The famous Cartesian proposition cogito ergo sum — “I think, therefore I am” — is the starting point of his philosophy and is itself an a priori truth known by pure reason. Spinoza developed a complete deductive system of philosophy on the model of geometry, and Leibniz held that the mind is a “block of veined marble” in which the veins represent innate truths waiting to be brought to the surface. Rationalism uses the deductive method, moving from self-evident first principles to particular truths.
The second great theory is Empiricism. Its leading representatives are the British philosophers John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume. The empiricist denies innate ideas and holds that sense experience is the sole source of knowledge. According to Locke, the human mind at birth is a tabula rasa, a blank slate, on which experience writes through two channels: sensation, by which we receive ideas from external objects, and reflection, by which we observe the operations of our own mind. Locke distinguished between primary qualities (extension, figure, motion, number, solidity), which belong to the object itself, and secondary qualities (colour, sound, taste, smell, temperature), which exist only in the perceiving subject. Berkeley rejected this distinction and reduced all qualities to ideas in the mind, summed up in the formula esse est percipi — to be is to be perceived. Hume carried empiricism to its logical conclusion, dividing all mental contents into impressions and ideas, denying any necessary connection between cause and effect (raising the famous problem of induction), and analysing the self into a mere bundle of perceptions. Empirical knowledge is a posteriori — that is, it follows from experience — and the empiricist’s preferred method is induction.
The third great theory is Criticism, the celebrated synthesis offered by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant argued that both rationalism and empiricism are partly right and partly wrong: rationalism is right in saying that some knowledge is universal and necessary, but wrong in claiming that reason alone, without experience, can give us knowledge of the world; empiricism is right in insisting that all knowledge begins with experience, but wrong in supposing that experience alone, without the contribution of the mind, is sufficient. Kant’s famous formula is that “percepts without concepts are blind, concepts without percepts are empty”. He showed that mathematical and scientific propositions are synthetic a priori judgements: synthetic because they tell us something new about the world, a priori because they are universal and necessary and so cannot come from experience alone. The mind contributes the forms of intuition (space and time) and the twelve categories of the understanding, arranged in four groups of three (Quantity: unity, plurality, totality; Quality: reality, negation, limitation; Relation: substance, causality, community; Modality: possibility, existence, necessity). Knowledge, therefore, is the joint product of sensibility and understanding. Kant distinguished between phenomena (things as they appear to us under the forms and categories of the mind) and noumena or things-in-themselves (things as they are in themselves, beyond the reach of human knowledge). His position is called transcendental idealism.
The fourth theory is Intuitionism. The French philosopher Henri Bergson held that reality is a continuous flow or duree (duration), driven by a creative life-force he called elan vital, and that this living reality cannot be grasped by the analytical intellect, which freezes and fragments it. Only intuition, an immediate, sympathetic identification with the object, can give us knowledge of reality as it really is. In Indian philosophy a similar emphasis on direct, non-discursive knowledge is found in the doctrine of anubhuti, the immediate experience of truth that the seer attains in spiritual realisation.
The Indian theories of the origin of knowledge are organised around the concept of pramana, the means of valid knowledge or prama. The Indian schools accept different numbers of pramanas. The Charvakas accept only one (perception), the Buddhists and Vaisesikas accept two (perception and inference), the Samkhya accepts three (perception, inference and verbal testimony), the Naiyayikas accept four (the previous three plus comparison), the Mimamsakas of Prabhakara accept five (the previous four plus postulation), and the Mimamsakas of Bhatta and the Advaita Vedantins accept six (the previous five plus non-apprehension). The six pramanas are pratyaksa (perception), anumana (inference), upamana (comparison), shabda (verbal testimony), arthapatti (postulation) and anupalabdhi (non-apprehension). Together these schools have produced a rich and rigorous theory of knowledge that runs parallel to and often anticipates Western developments.
Textbook Questions and Answers
A. Very Short Answer Questions (1 mark)
1. What is epistemology?
Answer: Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, scope and validity of human knowledge.
2. What is the classical definition of knowledge?
Answer: The classical definition, given by Plato in the dialogue Theaetetus, is that knowledge is justified true belief (JTB).
3. What is rationalism?
Answer: Rationalism is the theory which holds that reason, independent of sense experience, is the chief source and final test of all genuine knowledge.
4. Who is the father of modern Western philosophy and the founder of rationalism?
Answer: Rene Descartes is regarded as the father of modern Western philosophy and the founder of modern rationalism.
5. Name the three principal rationalist philosophers.
Answer: The three principal rationalist philosophers are Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
6. What does the Latin formula cogito ergo sum mean?
Answer: It means “I think, therefore I am” and was used by Descartes as the first indubitable certainty of his philosophy.
7. What are innate ideas?
Answer: Innate ideas are ideas that are inborn in the mind and are not derived from sense experience, such as the ideas of God, self, substance and the basic truths of mathematics.
8. What is meant by a priori knowledge?
Answer: A priori knowledge is knowledge that is independent of sense experience and is universal and necessary in character, like the truths of mathematics and logic.
9. What is empiricism?
Answer: Empiricism is the theory which holds that sense experience, and not reason, is the sole source of all human knowledge.
10. Name the three principal empiricist philosophers.
Answer: The three principal empiricist philosophers are John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume.
11. What is meant by tabula rasa?
Answer: Tabula rasa is a Latin expression meaning “blank slate” or “clean tablet”. John Locke used it to describe the human mind at birth, as having no innate ideas and being entirely written upon by experience.
12. What are the two sources of ideas according to Locke?
Answer: According to Locke the two sources of ideas are sensation, by which we receive ideas from external objects, and reflection, by which we are aware of the operations of our own mind.
13. What is meant by a posteriori knowledge?
Answer: A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that is derived from sense experience and is therefore particular and contingent in character.
14. Who said esse est percipi?
Answer: George Berkeley said esse est percipi, which means “to be is to be perceived”.
15. What is Hume’s bundle theory of the self?
Answer: Hume’s bundle theory holds that the self is not a permanent substance but only a bundle or collection of different perceptions following one another in rapid succession.
16. What is the problem of induction?
Answer: The problem of induction, raised by Hume, is the difficulty of justifying our belief that the future will resemble the past, since induction itself cannot be proved without using induction.
17. Who is the founder of the Critical Philosophy?
Answer: Immanuel Kant of Germany is the founder of the Critical Philosophy.
18. What are synthetic a priori judgements?
Answer: Synthetic a priori judgements are propositions which are synthetic (their predicate adds new information not contained in the subject) and at the same time a priori (universal and necessary, independent of experience). Mathematical and scientific laws are of this kind, according to Kant.
19. How many categories of understanding did Kant recognise?
Answer: Kant recognised twelve categories of understanding, arranged in four groups of three each: Quantity, Quality, Relation and Modality.
20. What is the difference between phenomena and noumena?
Answer: Phenomena are things as they appear to us through the forms of intuition (space and time) and the categories of the understanding. Noumena, or things-in-themselves, are things as they are in themselves, beyond the reach of human knowledge.
21. What is intuitionism?
Answer: Intuitionism is the theory which holds that knowledge of reality is gained not by reason or sense experience but by intuition, which is an immediate and direct grasp of the object.
22. Who is the founder of modern intuitionism?
Answer: Henri Bergson, the French philosopher, is regarded as the founder of modern intuitionism.
23. What is meant by duree?
Answer: Duree, or duration, is Bergson’s term for the inner, lived experience of time as a continuous, qualitative flow that cannot be measured by the spatialised time of the clock.
24. What is elan vital?
Answer: Elan vital is Bergson’s term for the creative vital impulse or life-force that drives the evolution of life and reality.
25. What is pramana?
Answer: Pramana, in Indian epistemology, is the means or instrument of valid knowledge (prama).
26. How many pramanas are accepted in the Nyaya school?
Answer: The Nyaya school accepts four pramanas: pratyaksa (perception), anumana (inference), upamana (comparison) and shabda (verbal testimony).
27. What is anubhuti?
Answer: Anubhuti, in Indian philosophy, means immediate experience or direct realisation of truth, especially the spiritual realisation of the seer.
B. Short Answer Questions (2-3 marks)
28. State three characteristics of rationalism.
Answer: (i) Reason is regarded as the chief source and ultimate test of knowledge. (ii) The mind possesses certain innate ideas which are not derived from sense experience. (iii) Genuine knowledge is a priori, universal and necessary, and is obtained by the deductive method.
29. State three characteristics of empiricism.
Answer: (i) Sense experience is the sole source of all knowledge. (ii) The mind at birth is a blank slate (tabula rasa); there are no innate ideas. (iii) All real knowledge is a posteriori and is obtained by the inductive method from particular observations.
30. Distinguish between sensation and reflection according to Locke.
Answer: Sensation, according to Locke, is the source of ideas that come to the mind through the five external senses, such as colour, sound, taste, smell and touch. Reflection is the source of ideas that come from the mind’s awareness of its own operations, such as perceiving, thinking, doubting, believing, willing and remembering. Sensation looks outward, reflection looks inward.
31. What is the difference between primary and secondary qualities according to Locke?
Answer: Primary qualities are qualities that genuinely belong to the object itself and are inseparable from it, such as extension, figure, motion, number and solidity. Secondary qualities are qualities that are not in the object itself but are produced in the perceiver by the action of the primary qualities, such as colour, sound, taste, smell and temperature. Primary qualities are objective; secondary qualities are subjective.
32. What is meant by Berkeley’s principle esse est percipi?
Answer: The Latin formula esse est percipi means “to be is to be perceived”. By it Berkeley meant that the existence of any sensible thing consists entirely in its being perceived. Material objects have no independent existence apart from minds; they are merely collections of ideas, and these ideas exist only in some perceiving mind, finite or infinite.
33. Distinguish between impressions and ideas according to Hume.
Answer: According to Hume, impressions are the original, vivid and forceful perceptions that arise immediately from sensation or reflection, such as the actual seeing of a colour or feeling of pain. Ideas are the faint copies of impressions that occur in thinking and remembering. Every simple idea is derived from a corresponding simple impression; without an original impression there can be no genuine idea.
34. What is the central question of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason?
Answer: The central question of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is “How are synthetic a priori judgements possible?” Kant believed that mathematical, physical and metaphysical propositions are of this kind, and that explaining how they are possible would settle the disputes between rationalists and empiricists.
35. List Kant’s twelve categories of understanding.
Answer: Kant arranged the twelve categories in four groups of three each: (i) Quantity — unity, plurality, totality; (ii) Quality — reality, negation, limitation; (iii) Relation — substance and accident, cause and effect, reciprocity (community); (iv) Modality — possibility-impossibility, existence-non-existence, necessity-contingency.
36. What is transcendental idealism?
Answer: Transcendental idealism is the doctrine, formulated by Kant, that the objects of human knowledge are not things-in-themselves but only appearances or phenomena, structured by the a priori forms of intuition (space and time) and the a priori categories of the understanding which the mind itself contributes to experience.
37. What does Bergson mean by saying that intellect spatialises reality?
Answer: Bergson holds that the intellect, in order to handle reality practically, breaks the continuous flow of duration into static, side-by-side units like the points on a line. This habit of treating time as if it were a kind of space is what he calls the spatialisation of reality. As a result the intellect can never grasp the living, flowing nature of duration; only intuition can do that.
38. State the six pramanas of Indian philosophy.
Answer: The six pramanas accepted in Indian philosophy are: (i) pratyaksa — perception; (ii) anumana — inference; (iii) upamana — comparison; (iv) shabda — verbal testimony; (v) arthapatti — postulation or presumption; (vi) anupalabdhi — non-apprehension.
39. Define pratyaksa.
Answer: Pratyaksa is direct perception, the immediate cognition of an object that arises from the contact of a sense organ with that object. It is regarded by all Indian schools as the most fundamental pramana.
40. Define anumana.
Answer: Anumana is inference, the means of valid knowledge by which an unperceived object is cognised on the basis of an invariable concomitance (vyapti) with a perceived sign or mark, as when one infers fire on a hill from the perception of smoke on it.
41. Define upamana.
Answer: Upamana is knowledge by comparison or analogy. From the description that “a wild ox (gavaya) is like a cow”, a person who later sees a wild ox in the forest comes to know that this animal is what is called gavaya. The knowledge of the relation between the name and the new object is the result of upamana.
42. Define shabda.
Answer: Shabda is verbal testimony, the means of valid knowledge derived from the words of a trustworthy and competent person (apta). Scriptural authority and reliable instruction are typical examples.
43. Define arthapatti.
Answer: Arthapatti is postulation or presumption. When a known fact cannot be explained without supposing some other fact, the second fact is established by arthapatti. The classical example is: Devadatta is fat but does not eat by day; we postulate that he must eat by night.
44. Define anupalabdhi.
Answer: Anupalabdhi is non-apprehension or non-perception, the means by which we obtain knowledge of the absence of an object, as when on entering a room we know “there is no jar here” simply because we do not perceive any jar there.
C. Long Answer Questions (5-8 marks)
45. What is rationalism? Discuss its main features. Mention the names of any three rationalist philosophers.
Answer: Rationalism is the epistemological theory according to which reason, independent of sense experience, is the chief source and ultimate test of all genuine human knowledge. The word comes from the Latin ratio, meaning reason. Continental philosophers of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries developed rationalism in opposition to scepticism on one side and to crude empiricism on the other.
The main features of rationalism are the following:
- Primacy of reason — Reason is regarded as the only faculty capable of giving us certain, universal and necessary knowledge. The senses can deceive us; reason alone is reliable.
- Innate ideas — The mind possesses certain ideas inborn in it, such as the idea of God, the idea of substance, the idea of the self and the basic principles of mathematics and logic. These ideas are not derived from sense experience.
- A priori knowledge — Genuine knowledge is a priori, that is, prior to and independent of sense experience. It is universal (applying to all cases) and necessary (could not have been otherwise).
- Deductive method — The rationalist preferred method is deduction. From self-evident first principles, conclusions are drawn step by step on the model of geometry.
- Mathematics as the ideal — Mathematical knowledge, with its certainty and universality, is regarded as the model of all knowledge.
- Mind-body dualism — Most rationalists, especially Descartes, held that mind and matter are two distinct kinds of substance and that the truths of pure thought are independent of the body.
The three principal rationalist philosophers are Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of modern rationalism and author of the famous cogito ergo sum; Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), who built a complete deductive system of philosophy in his Ethics; and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), who held that the mind is a “block of veined marble” containing innate truths waiting to be discovered.
46. What is empiricism? Discuss its main features. Mention three empiricist philosophers.
Answer: Empiricism is the epistemological theory which holds that sense experience is the sole source of all human knowledge. The word comes from the Greek empeiria, meaning experience. The British philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries developed empiricism in opposition to Continental rationalism.
The main features of empiricism are the following:
- Sense experience as the only source — All ideas, however complex or abstract, are ultimately traced back to sensation, that is, to data given by the five external senses, or to reflection on the operations of the mind.
- Denial of innate ideas — There are no inborn ideas. The mind at birth is a tabula rasa, a blank slate on which experience writes everything.
- A posteriori knowledge — All knowledge of fact is a posteriori, that is, it follows from experience and is therefore contingent and particular.
- Inductive method — The empiricist’s preferred method is induction. From particular observations general laws are inferred.
- Natural science as the model — Empirical natural science, especially physics as developed by Galileo and Newton, is taken as the model of genuine knowledge.
- Probabilism — Since induction can never give absolute certainty, empirical knowledge is at best highly probable, never demonstrably certain (as Hume emphasised).
The three principal empiricist philosophers are John Locke (1632-1704), who in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding argued that the mind is a tabula rasa and distinguished primary from secondary qualities; George Berkeley (1685-1753), who held that to be is to be perceived; and David Hume (1711-1776), who pushed empiricism to its logical conclusion in scepticism, denying necessary connection in causation and analysing the self into a bundle of perceptions.
47. Discuss Locke’s theory of knowledge. Distinguish between primary and secondary qualities.
Answer: John Locke’s theory of knowledge is the foundation of modern British empiricism. In his great work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) he argued that the human mind at birth is a tabula rasa, a blank slate on which experience writes everything we ever come to know. He vigorously rejected the rationalist doctrine of innate ideas, arguing that if the mind were really furnished with innate ideas, children and idiots would have to know them, which they plainly do not.
According to Locke, all our ideas come from two and only two sources:
- Sensation — the awareness of external objects through the five external senses. Through sensation we get ideas of colour, sound, taste, smell, hardness, motion and so on.
- Reflection — the inner sense by which the mind observes its own operations such as perceiving, thinking, doubting, believing, willing and remembering.
From these simple ideas of sensation and reflection the mind, by combining, comparing and abstracting, builds up all its complex ideas. Knowledge itself, Locke says, is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas.
Locke also drew the famous distinction between primary and secondary qualities:
- Primary qualities are qualities which really belong to the object itself and are inseparable from it. They are extension, figure (shape), solidity, motion or rest, and number. The ideas we have of primary qualities resemble the qualities themselves; they are objective.
- Secondary qualities are qualities which are not in the object itself but are powers in the object, by virtue of its primary qualities, to produce certain sensations in us. They are colour, sound, taste, smell, heat and cold. The ideas we have of secondary qualities do not resemble anything in the object; they are subjective.
This distinction was meant to give a scientific account of perception consistent with the corpuscular physics of Locke’s day. However, Berkeley criticised it sharply, arguing that primary qualities are no more in the object than secondary qualities, since both are equally ideas in the mind.
48. State and explain Berkeley’s principle esse est percipi. What is the central thesis of his idealism?
Answer: The Latin maxim esse est percipi, meaning “to be is to be perceived”, is the central principle of Bishop George Berkeley’s philosophy. Berkeley argued that the existence of any sensible thing consists entirely in its being perceived by some mind. There can be no existence outside or independent of perception.
Berkeley reached this conclusion by pressing Locke’s empiricism to a more radical conclusion. Locke had said that we know objects only through ideas in the mind, but had retained the belief in a material substratum existing independently of perception, distinguished by its primary qualities. Berkeley argued that this is a contradiction: if all we ever know are ideas, then any “matter” lying behind the ideas is unknowable and unintelligible. Furthermore, Berkeley argued, primary qualities are no more in the object than secondary qualities. Extension, motion and figure are perceived only as related to a perceiver and are equally subjective.
The central thesis of Berkeley’s idealism, then, is that what we call the physical world is in fact a system of ideas in minds. There are only two kinds of beings: spirits (perceiving minds) and ideas (the objects perceived by them). Trees, stones, mountains and chairs are all collections of ideas. They continue to exist when not perceived by any finite mind because they are continuously perceived by an infinite mind, namely God. In this way Berkeley defended common sense (that things exist) and religion (that God is the unceasing perceiver and source of order in the world) against the threat of materialism and atheism.
49. State Hume’s bundle theory of self and his analysis of cause and effect. Why is Hume regarded as a sceptic?
Answer: David Hume is the third great British empiricist and is often called the most consistent of the three. He divides all the perceptions of the mind into impressions (vivid, original perceptions of sensation or feeling) and ideas (faint copies of impressions in thinking and memory). His basic empiricist principle is that every simple idea must be derived from a corresponding simple impression; if no such impression can be found, the supposed idea is meaningless.
Applying this principle, Hume offered the famous bundle theory of the self. When he turned inward and tried to catch the impression of a permanent “I”, he found nothing but a series of particular impressions — heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pleasure or pain. He concluded that the self is not a substance at all but only a “bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement”. The mind is, as he put it, a kind of theatre where perceptions appear and pass away.
Hume’s analysis of cause and effect is equally sceptical. We never observe any necessary connection between cause and effect; we only observe constant conjunction — that events of one kind have always in the past been followed by events of another kind. The idea of necessary connection arises not from anything in the objects but from a habit or custom of expectation produced in our minds by repeated experience. Hence the famous problem of induction: we cannot prove that the future will resemble the past, since any such proof would itself depend on induction.
Hume is regarded as a sceptic because his strict application of empiricist principles leads to the conclusion that we can have no rational certainty about the existence of substance, the self, the external world, the necessity of causation, or even the regularity of nature. This sceptical conclusion was what awakened Kant from his “dogmatic slumber” and led him to construct the Critical Philosophy.
50. What is Kant’s Critical Philosophy? Explain how Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and empiricism.
Answer: The Critical Philosophy is the name given to the philosophical system of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), set out chiefly in his three Critiques: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, and Critique of Judgement. It is called “critical” because Kant set himself the task of investigating the powers and limits of human reason itself before using reason to investigate the world.
Before Kant, modern Western philosophy was divided between two opposed schools. The rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) said reason alone gives us knowledge; the empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) said all knowledge comes from sense experience. Each one-sided view led to difficulties: rationalism produced metaphysical systems that could not be empirically verified; empiricism, in Hume’s hands, ended in scepticism.
Kant’s solution was a brilliant synthesis. He agreed with the empiricists that “all our knowledge begins with experience”; but he insisted, against them, that “it does not follow that all knowledge arises out of experience”. Some knowledge is contributed by the mind itself. He agreed with the rationalists that some knowledge is universal and necessary; but he denied that pure reason can give us such knowledge of reality without any contribution from sense experience.
The key concept in Kant’s solution is the synthetic a priori judgement — a proposition that is at once synthetic (its predicate adds something new to the subject) and a priori (universal and necessary, hence not derived from experience alone). Mathematical truths (7 + 5 = 12), the principles of pure physics (every event has a cause) and the basic laws of metaphysics are, according to Kant, all of this kind.
How are synthetic a priori judgements possible? Kant’s answer is that the mind is not a passive receiver but an active organiser of experience. It contributes:
- The two forms of intuition — space and time — which structure all sensation. Whatever we perceive is perceived in space and time, because space and time are the very forms in which the mind receives sensations.
- The twelve categories of the understanding — pure concepts under which the mind organises sense data into objective experience. These include unity, plurality, substance, causality and so on.
Knowledge, then, is the joint product of two factors: the matter of sensation, given a posteriori by experience, and the form of cognition, contributed a priori by the mind. As Kant says, “Percepts without concepts are blind, concepts without percepts are empty”. In this way both rationalism and empiricism are partly justified and partly corrected.
Kant’s position is called transcendental idealism. It implies that human knowledge is limited to the world of phenomena, that is, things as they appear to us under the conditions of our cognitive faculties. Things-in-themselves, or noumena, lie beyond the reach of human knowledge.
51. Explain Kant’s twelve categories of understanding.
Answer: Kant’s twelve categories of the understanding are the pure a priori concepts by which the mind organises the manifold of sensation into objective experience. He arrived at them by examining the twelve traditional logical forms of judgement and arranged them in four groups of three each:
- Quantity — (i) Unity (the one), (ii) Plurality (the many), (iii) Totality (the all). These categories enable us to form judgements about how much or how many.
- Quality — (i) Reality (something is), (ii) Negation (something is not), (iii) Limitation (something is not entirely so). These categories concern the affirmation, denial or limitation of features.
- Relation — (i) Substance and Accident (the relation between a thing and its properties), (ii) Cause and Effect (the relation by which one event makes another happen), (iii) Reciprocity or Community (the mutual interaction of two substances). These categories make the world a connected, interactive system.
- Modality — (i) Possibility / Impossibility, (ii) Existence / Non-existence, (iii) Necessity / Contingency. These categories concern the way in which a proposition relates to actuality.
Without these categories there would be no objective experience at all, only a chaos of unconnected sensations. The categories are not features of the world in itself but conditions of any possible experience for a mind like ours.
52. Distinguish between phenomena and noumena.
Answer: The distinction between phenomena and noumena is one of the central doctrines of Kant’s Critical Philosophy.
- Phenomena are things as they appear to us. They are the objects we know in space and time and under the categories of the understanding. The whole world studied by science — the world of physical bodies, motion, causation, history and human action — is a world of phenomena.
- Noumena, sometimes called things-in-themselves, are things as they are in themselves, independently of any conditions of human cognition. They lie outside space, time and the categories.
Kant insists that human knowledge is restricted to the phenomenal world. The noumenon is necessarily implied as the limit of the phenomenon — there must be something that appears to us — but it is not itself an object of knowledge. Speculative metaphysics, which tried to know the soul, the world as a totality and God, oversteps these limits and falls into illusion. However, Kant believed that the noumenal realm is required by morality, since freedom, immortality and God can be objects of rational faith even though not of theoretical knowledge.
53. What is intuitionism? Explain Bergson’s views on intuition.
Answer: Intuitionism is the epistemological theory which holds that the most basic and certain form of knowledge is gained by intuition, that is, by an immediate, direct apprehension of an object without the mediation of sense or discursive reasoning. Many philosophers, both Eastern and Western, have appealed to intuition, but in the modern West intuitionism is most fully developed by the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941).
Bergson argued that the human mind has two distinct ways of knowing reality:
- Intellect — analytic, conceptual, mathematical, oriented towards practical action. The intellect is excellent at handling solid bodies in space and is the basis of natural science. But because it spatialises everything, it can never grasp the living, flowing reality of time.
- Intuition — immediate, sympathetic, qualitative. Intuition enters into the object and grasps its inner reality from within.
Reality, Bergson held, is fundamentally duree (duration), a continuous, qualitative flow of consciousness and life that cannot be cut into separate, side-by-side instants. The driving force of this flowing reality is elan vital, the creative life-impulse responsible for the evolution of new species, new forms and new ideas. Only intuition can grasp duration and elan vital; the intellect inevitably distorts them. Hence, for Bergson, intuition is the highest source of metaphysical knowledge.
A similar emphasis on direct, non-conceptual knowledge is found in Indian philosophy in the doctrine of anubhuti, the immediate spiritual realisation of truth that the seer attains in the deepest stages of meditation, beyond the play of reason and the senses.
54. Discuss the Indian theory of pramana. Mention the six pramanas accepted in Advaita Vedanta.
Answer: Indian epistemology is built around the concept of prama (valid knowledge) and pramana (the means of valid knowledge). A piece of cognition is regarded as prama only when it is true, novel and gives reliable guidance in life. The pramana is the cause that produces such valid knowledge.
The Indian schools differ as to how many pramanas they accept:
- The Charvakas accept only one — pratyaksa.
- The Vaisesikas and Buddhists accept two — pratyaksa and anumana.
- The Samkhya school accepts three — pratyaksa, anumana and shabda.
- The Nyaya school accepts four — pratyaksa, anumana, upamana and shabda.
- The Prabhakara Mimamsakas accept five — the previous four plus arthapatti.
- The Bhatta Mimamsakas and the Advaita Vedantins accept six — the previous five plus anupalabdhi.
The six pramanas of Advaita Vedanta are:
- Pratyaksa (perception) — direct cognition arising from sense-object contact, e.g. seeing a pot in front of one.
- Anumana (inference) — knowledge of an unperceived object from the perception of its mark, governed by an invariable concomitance (vyapti), e.g. inferring fire from smoke.
- Upamana (comparison) — knowledge of the relation between an unfamiliar object and its name, gained on the basis of a similarity to a familiar object, e.g. learning what a “gavaya” is by comparison with a cow.
- Shabda (verbal testimony) — knowledge derived from the word of a trustworthy person (apta) or from the Vedas, e.g. knowing that Mount Kailasa is in the Himalayas because a reliable source says so.
- Arthapatti (postulation) — knowledge of an unperceived fact required to explain a perceived one, e.g. postulating that a fat Devadatta who never eats by day must eat by night.
- Anupalabdhi (non-apprehension) — knowledge of the absence (abhava) of an object through the simple non-perception of it, e.g. knowing “there is no jar on the floor” because no jar is seen.
The Indian theory of pramana thus offers a comprehensive classification of all the means by which valid knowledge is produced, in many ways anticipating the discussions of Western epistemology.
Additional Important Questions
A. Multiple Choice Questions
1. The branch of philosophy that deals with the theory of knowledge is called
(a) Ethics (b) Metaphysics (c) Epistemology (d) Aesthetics
Answer: (c) Epistemology.
2. The classical definition of knowledge is given in
(a) Plato’s Republic (b) Plato’s Theaetetus (c) Aristotle’s Metaphysics (d) Descartes’ Meditations
Answer: (b) Plato’s Theaetetus.
3. Knowledge as defined by Plato is
(a) True belief (b) Justified belief (c) Justified true belief (d) Sensory experience
Answer: (c) Justified true belief.
4. The founder of modern rationalism is
(a) John Locke (b) Rene Descartes (c) Immanuel Kant (d) David Hume
Answer: (b) Rene Descartes.
5. Cogito ergo sum means
(a) I am, therefore I think (b) I think, therefore I am (c) I doubt, therefore I am (d) I exist, therefore I think
Answer: (b) I think, therefore I am.
6. Innate ideas are admitted by
(a) Locke (b) Berkeley (c) Hume (d) Descartes
Answer: (d) Descartes.
7. The Latin term tabula rasa means
(a) Active mind (b) Blank slate (c) Innate idea (d) Pure reason
Answer: (b) Blank slate.
8. The doctrine that the mind is a tabula rasa is associated with
(a) Descartes (b) Spinoza (c) Locke (d) Kant
Answer: (c) Locke.
9. The principal work of John Locke on epistemology is
(a) Meditations (b) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (c) Treatise of Human Nature (d) Critique of Pure Reason
Answer: (b) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
10. Sensation and reflection are the two sources of ideas according to
(a) Descartes (b) Locke (c) Hume (d) Kant
Answer: (b) Locke.
11. The distinction between primary and secondary qualities was made by
(a) Berkeley (b) Hume (c) Locke (d) Kant
Answer: (c) Locke.
12. Which of the following is a primary quality?
(a) Colour (b) Sound (c) Extension (d) Smell
Answer: (c) Extension.
13. Which of the following is a secondary quality?
(a) Figure (b) Motion (c) Solidity (d) Colour
Answer: (d) Colour.
14. Esse est percipi is the principle of
(a) Locke (b) Berkeley (c) Hume (d) Kant
Answer: (b) Berkeley.
15. Berkeley is famous for his
(a) Materialism (b) Idealism (c) Realism (d) Naturalism
Answer: (b) Idealism.
16. The bundle theory of self was given by
(a) Locke (b) Berkeley (c) Hume (d) Kant
Answer: (c) Hume.
17. The problem of induction was first raised by
(a) Locke (b) Berkeley (c) Hume (d) Mill
Answer: (c) Hume.
18. Hume divides perceptions into
(a) Primary and secondary (b) Phenomena and noumena (c) Impressions and ideas (d) Innate and acquired
Answer: (c) Impressions and ideas.
19. The author of the Critique of Pure Reason is
(a) Hume (b) Kant (c) Hegel (d) Bergson
Answer: (b) Kant.
20. According to Kant, the two forms of intuition are
(a) Substance and causality (b) Reason and understanding (c) Space and time (d) Quantity and quality
Answer: (c) Space and time.
21. The number of categories of the understanding according to Kant is
(a) 4 (b) 8 (c) 10 (d) 12
Answer: (d) 12.
22. Kant’s twelve categories are arranged in
(a) Two groups of six (b) Three groups of four (c) Four groups of three (d) Six groups of two
Answer: (c) Four groups of three.
23. Cause and effect, in Kant’s table, falls under
(a) Quantity (b) Quality (c) Relation (d) Modality
Answer: (c) Relation.
24. According to Kant, things as they are in themselves are called
(a) Phenomena (b) Noumena (c) Categories (d) Intuitions
Answer: (b) Noumena.
25. “Percepts without concepts are blind, concepts without percepts are empty” is said by
(a) Locke (b) Hume (c) Kant (d) Bergson
Answer: (c) Kant.
26. Kant’s theory of knowledge is known as
(a) Empirical idealism (b) Subjective idealism (c) Transcendental idealism (d) Absolute idealism
Answer: (c) Transcendental idealism.
27. The philosopher of duree and elan vital is
(a) Kant (b) Hegel (c) Bergson (d) James
Answer: (c) Bergson.
28. Bergson holds that the highest source of knowledge is
(a) Reason (b) Sense experience (c) Intuition (d) Authority
Answer: (c) Intuition.
29. The Indian term for valid knowledge is
(a) Pramana (b) Prama (c) Pramatr (d) Prameya
Answer: (b) Prama.
30. The Indian term for the means of valid knowledge is
(a) Prama (b) Pramana (c) Pramatr (d) Prameya
Answer: (b) Pramana.
31. The school of Indian philosophy that admits only perception as a pramana is
(a) Nyaya (b) Samkhya (c) Charvaka (d) Mimamsa
Answer: (c) Charvaka.
32. The Nyaya school accepts the following number of pramanas:
(a) 2 (b) 3 (c) 4 (d) 6
Answer: (c) 4.
33. The Advaita Vedanta accepts the following number of pramanas:
(a) 3 (b) 4 (c) 5 (d) 6
Answer: (d) 6.
34. Anumana is the Indian word for
(a) Perception (b) Inference (c) Comparison (d) Verbal testimony
Answer: (b) Inference.
35. Shabda pramana refers to
(a) Inference (b) Comparison (c) Verbal testimony (d) Postulation
Answer: (c) Verbal testimony.
36. Knowledge of the absence of an object is obtained through
(a) Pratyaksa (b) Anumana (c) Anupalabdhi (d) Arthapatti
Answer: (c) Anupalabdhi.
B. Fill in the Blanks
1. Knowledge, according to Plato, is _____ true belief.
Answer: justified.
2. Rationalism holds that _____ is the chief source of knowledge.
Answer: reason.
3. Empiricism holds that _____ is the sole source of knowledge.
Answer: sense experience.
4. The Latin formula cogito ergo sum was used by _____.
Answer: Descartes.
5. Locke described the human mind at birth as a _____.
Answer: tabula rasa.
6. The two sources of ideas according to Locke are sensation and _____.
Answer: reflection.
7. Extension and figure are examples of _____ qualities.
Answer: primary.
8. Colour and sound are examples of _____ qualities.
Answer: secondary.
9. The principle esse est percipi is associated with _____.
Answer: Berkeley.
10. The bundle theory of self is given by _____.
Answer: Hume.
11. The author of the Critique of Pure Reason is _____.
Answer: Immanuel Kant.
12. Synthetic _____ judgements are at the centre of Kant’s epistemology.
Answer: a priori.
13. Kant’s two forms of intuition are space and _____.
Answer: time.
14. Kant’s categories are divided into _____ groups of three each.
Answer: four.
15. Things-in-themselves, according to Kant, are called _____.
Answer: noumena.
16. The philosopher who emphasised duree and elan vital is _____.
Answer: Bergson.
17. In Indian philosophy, the means of valid knowledge is called _____.
Answer: pramana.
18. The Charvakas accept only _____ as a valid pramana.
Answer: pratyaksa (perception).
19. Inferring fire from smoke is an example of _____.
Answer: anumana.
20. Knowledge of the absence of an object is obtained through _____.
Answer: anupalabdhi.
C. True or False
1. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with God.
Answer: False (it deals with knowledge).
2. Descartes is the founder of modern rationalism.
Answer: True.
3. Locke believed in innate ideas.
Answer: False (he denied innate ideas).
4. Berkeley is a materialist.
Answer: False (he is an idealist).
5. Hume’s empiricism leads to scepticism.
Answer: True.
6. Kant agreed completely with the rationalists.
Answer: False (he tried to synthesise rationalism and empiricism).
7. According to Kant, all knowledge begins with experience.
Answer: True.
8. Kant accepted twelve categories of understanding.
Answer: True.
9. Phenomena, in Kant’s philosophy, mean things-in-themselves.
Answer: False (phenomena are appearances; noumena are things-in-themselves).
10. Bergson regards intuition as superior to intellect for knowing reality.
Answer: True.
11. The Nyaya school accepts six pramanas.
Answer: False (it accepts four).
12. Anumana means perception.
Answer: False (it means inference).
13. Anupalabdhi gives knowledge of absence.
Answer: True.
14. Anubhuti is a key concept of Indian intuitionism.
Answer: True.
D. Short Answer Questions
1. Why is Descartes called the father of modern philosophy?
Answer: Descartes is called the father of modern philosophy because he broke with the medieval reliance on authority and tradition, demanded that all beliefs be subjected to the test of methodical doubt, founded modern philosophy on the indubitable certainty of the thinking self (cogito ergo sum), and developed a rigorous deductive method based on clear and distinct ideas.
2. Mention any two criticisms of rationalism.
Answer: (i) Rationalism cannot explain how purely rational thought, without any contact with sense experience, can give us knowledge about the actual world. (ii) The doctrine of innate ideas is hard to maintain because children, idiots and uneducated people show no awareness of such supposedly innate ideas.
3. Mention any two criticisms of empiricism.
Answer: (i) Empiricism cannot account for the universal and necessary character of mathematical and logical truths, since experience can only show what is the case here and now, not what must be the case. (ii) Hume’s consistent empiricism leads to scepticism about the self, the external world and necessary connection in causation, which is very far from common sense.
4. Why are mathematical truths said to be a priori?
Answer: Mathematical truths are said to be a priori because they are universal and necessary — for example, 7 + 5 = 12 is true everywhere and at all times — and they cannot be falsified by any experience. Their certainty does not depend on observation but on the logical structure of the mind, hence they precede experience.
5. State Kant’s famous remark on the relation of percepts and concepts.
Answer: Kant said, “Percepts without concepts are blind, concepts without percepts are empty.” By this he meant that sense data without organising concepts give no objective knowledge (they are blind), and concepts without sensory content have no application to anything real (they are empty). Genuine knowledge requires the joint working of both.
6. What is meant by the Copernican Revolution in philosophy?
Answer: Kant compared his own discovery to the Copernican Revolution in astronomy. Just as Copernicus showed that the apparent motion of the heavens is to be explained by the motion of the observer (the earth), so Kant showed that the structure of the world of experience is to be explained by the structure of the human mind. Objects must conform to our cognitive faculties, not the other way round.
7. State two points of similarity between rationalism and empiricism.
Answer: (i) Both are theories of the origin of knowledge and aim at giving a complete account of how human knowledge arises. (ii) Both consider the question of knowledge to be central to philosophy and reject mere appeal to authority or tradition as a source of truth.
8. State two points of difference between rationalism and empiricism.
Answer: (i) Rationalism holds that reason is the chief source of knowledge, whereas empiricism holds that sense experience is the sole source. (ii) Rationalism admits innate ideas and a priori knowledge, whereas empiricism denies innate ideas and treats all knowledge as a posteriori.
9. State two characteristics of intuitive knowledge according to Bergson.
Answer: (i) Intuitive knowledge is immediate and direct; it does not pass through concepts or symbols but enters into the object from within. (ii) Intuitive knowledge grasps the qualitative, flowing character of duration and life; the analytic intellect can never reach it.
10. State two reasons why Indian philosophy gives a high place to shabda pramana.
Answer: (i) Many truths, especially those concerning religion, ethics and the past, lie beyond the reach of perception and ordinary inference and can be known only through reliable testimony. (ii) The Vedas, regarded by orthodox Hindu thought as apauruseya (impersonal and authorless), are taken as a particularly authoritative form of shabda, providing knowledge of dharma and the supreme reality.
E. Long Answer Questions
1. Compare and contrast rationalism and empiricism. Discuss whether either one is fully adequate as a theory of knowledge.
Answer: Rationalism and empiricism are the two great rival theories that dominated modern Western epistemology before Kant. They agree on certain basic points but differ sharply on most others.
Points of agreement. Both are theories of the origin of knowledge and assume that the question of origin is central to philosophy. Both are sceptical of mere appeal to authority and tradition. Both regard the human being as a knowing subject capable of reaching truth by careful inquiry.
Points of difference.
- Source of knowledge — Rationalism: reason. Empiricism: sense experience.
- Innate ideas — Rationalism: yes. Empiricism: no; the mind is a blank slate.
- Type of knowledge — Rationalism: a priori, universal, necessary. Empiricism: a posteriori, particular, contingent.
- Method — Rationalism: deduction. Empiricism: induction.
- Model science — Rationalism: mathematics. Empiricism: experimental natural science.
- Conception of mind — Rationalism: active, organising, possessor of innate truths. Empiricism: passive, receptive, blank slate.
Adequacy. Neither view is fully adequate by itself. Pure rationalism cannot explain how thought alone, without contact with experience, can give us information about the actual world; it ends in dogmatic metaphysics. Pure empiricism cannot account for the universality and necessity of mathematical and logical truths or for the basic concepts (substance, cause, self) that science presupposes; it ends, as in Hume’s hands, in scepticism. The truth seems to lie in some kind of synthesis, of which Kant’s Critical Philosophy is the classical example: knowledge begins with experience but is shaped by the a priori structures of the mind.
2. Examine Kant’s solution to the dispute between rationalism and empiricism. State the merits and demerits of Kant’s theory.
Answer: Kant’s solution begins with the recognition that both rationalism and empiricism contain important partial truths but are also subject to fatal objections when taken alone. He famously remarked that he had been “awakened from his dogmatic slumber” by Hume’s sceptical empiricism but was unwilling to accept that scepticism as the last word. His own approach was to investigate the structure and limits of human reason itself before applying it to the world.
Kant’s solution can be summarised in three steps:
- The synthetic a priori. Kant identified a distinctive class of judgements that are at once synthetic (they tell us something new) and a priori (universal and necessary). Mathematics, the principles of pure science (such as “every event has a cause”) and basic metaphysics belong to this class. Empiricism cannot explain such knowledge, but it certainly exists.
- The active mind. The mind is not a passive recipient but an active organiser of experience. It contributes the forms of intuition (space and time) and the twelve categories of the understanding. Without these contributions, the manifold of sensation would be a chaos.
- Limits of knowledge. Knowledge is therefore valid only of the world of phenomena, the world as it appears under the conditions of our cognitive faculties. The world of noumena, things in themselves, is beyond knowledge though not beyond rational faith.
Merits.
- Kant ends the deadlock between rationalism and empiricism by showing how each is partly right.
- He explains the universal and necessary character of mathematical and scientific truths.
- He shows the role of the mind in constituting experience, paving the way for modern philosophy and psychology.
- He saves science from Hume’s scepticism while preserving moral and religious belief in the noumenal realm.
Demerits.
- The doctrine of the unknowable thing-in-itself is itself problematic: how can Kant assert that it exists if it is unknowable?
- The fixed table of twelve categories is too rigid; later philosophers and psychologists have shown that thought is more flexible.
- The sharp opposition between phenomena and noumena re-introduces a dualism that idealists (Hegel) sought to overcome.
- Kant’s belief in the universal necessity of Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry has been undermined by later developments (Einstein’s relativity, non-Euclidean geometries).
In spite of these objections, Kant’s synthesis remains one of the great achievements of philosophical thought.
3. Discuss the Indian theory of knowledge with special reference to the six pramanas.
Answer: Indian epistemology, developed over centuries in the writings of the orthodox (astika) and unorthodox (nastika) schools, is built around the central notion of pramana. Prama is true cognition that is not contradicted by later experience and that yields novel and reliable information; pramana is the means by which such valid knowledge arises. Different schools recognise different numbers of pramanas. The fullest list, accepted by the Bhatta Mimamsakas and the Advaita Vedantins, contains six.
- Pratyaksa (Perception). The most fundamental pramana. It is the cognition that arises from the contact of a sense organ with its object. Indian thinkers distinguish between nirvikalpaka (indeterminate, pre-conceptual) perception, where the object is grasped without any conceptual articulation, and savikalpaka (determinate, conceptual) perception, where the object is qualified by concepts of class, quality and so on. Some schools also recognise extraordinary perceptions like yogic perception.
- Anumana (Inference). The means of knowing an unperceived object through its perceived sign or mark, governed by the relation of vyapti (invariable concomitance). The classical example is “The hill is on fire (sadhya), because there is smoke on it (hetu); wherever there is smoke there is fire, as in the kitchen (vyapti and example); this hill has smoke (application); therefore this hill is on fire (conclusion).” Anumana is mediate knowledge, contrasted with the direct knowledge of perception.
- Upamana (Comparison). The means by which we acquire the knowledge of the relation between an unfamiliar object and its name on the basis of its similarity to a familiar object. A villager is told that a wild ox (gavaya) resembles a cow. When he later sees a wild animal in the forest resembling a cow, he recognises it as a gavaya. The knowledge that “this animal is what is called gavaya” is the result of upamana.
- Shabda (Verbal testimony). Knowledge derived from the meaningful utterance of a trustworthy person (apta) who knows the truth and intends to communicate it without deception. Shabda has two divisions: laukika (ordinary testimony of trustworthy human beings) and vaidika or alaukika (the impersonal, authorless testimony of the Vedas). For most orthodox systems, scriptural testimony is the highest source of knowledge of dharma and the supreme reality.
- Arthapatti (Postulation). The means by which an unperceived fact is established because, without it, a known fact remains unintelligible. The classical example is: Devadatta is fat but does not eat by day; this is intelligible only if we postulate that he eats by night. The postulated fact is known by arthapatti.
- Anupalabdhi (Non-apprehension). The means by which we know the absence (abhava) of an object. Entering an empty room one knows “there is no jar here” merely from the non-perception of any jar in conditions where, if the jar were present, it would surely be perceived. Anupalabdhi is necessary because abhava cannot be perceived by ordinary perception (since there is nothing to make contact with the senses) and yet is genuinely known.
Different Indian schools accept different combinations of these pramanas: Charvakas (1), Vaisesika and Buddhists (2), Samkhya (3), Nyaya (4), Prabhakara Mimamsa (5), Bhatta Mimamsa and Advaita Vedanta (6). In addition, some schools refer to anubhuti, the immediate spiritual realisation of the highest truth, which transcends all the ordinary pramanas. Together these doctrines make up a sophisticated theory of knowledge whose categories run parallel to those of Western epistemology in many respects.
Comparison Tables
Table 1: Rationalism vs Empiricism
| Point of Comparison | Rationalism | Empiricism |
|---|---|---|
| Source of knowledge | Reason | Sense experience |
| Innate ideas | Accepted | Rejected (mind is a tabula rasa) |
| Type of knowledge | A priori, universal, necessary | A posteriori, particular, contingent |
| Method | Deduction | Induction |
| Model science | Mathematics, geometry | Experimental natural science |
| Conception of mind | Active, possessor of innate truths | Passive, blank slate |
| Principal philosophers | Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz | Locke, Berkeley, Hume |
| Place of origin | Continental Europe | British Isles |
| Period | Seventeenth century | Seventeenth-eighteenth century |
| Typical danger | Dogmatic metaphysics | Scepticism (Hume) |
Table 2: Locke, Berkeley and Hume Compared
| Question | Locke | Berkeley | Hume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source of ideas | Sensation and reflection | Sensation only (in spirits) | Impressions and ideas |
| Innate ideas | Denied | Denied | Denied |
| Material substance | Accepted as substratum | Rejected | Rejected as meaningless |
| Mental substance | Accepted | Accepted (spirits) | Rejected (bundle of perceptions) |
| Primary/secondary qualities | Distinguished | Both reduced to ideas | Both reduced to impressions |
| External world | Real, material | Real but mental (esse est percipi) | Inference unjustified |
| Causation | Real necessary connection | God’s regular willing | Mere constant conjunction; problem of induction |
| Position | Representative realism | Subjective idealism | Sceptical empiricism |
Table 3: Kant’s Twelve Categories of Understanding
| Group | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quantity | Unity | Plurality | Totality |
| Quality | Reality | Negation | Limitation |
| Relation | Substance and Accident | Cause and Effect | Reciprocity (Community) |
| Modality | Possibility / Impossibility | Existence / Non-existence | Necessity / Contingency |
Table 4: The Four Theories of the Origin of Knowledge
| Theory | Source of Knowledge | Method | Chief Exponents | Key Concepts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rationalism | Reason | Deduction | Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz | Innate ideas, a priori, cogito |
| Empiricism | Sense experience | Induction | Locke, Berkeley, Hume | Tabula rasa, primary/secondary qualities, bundle theory |
| Criticism | Reason and experience together | Critical method | Kant | Synthetic a priori, twelve categories, phenomena and noumena |
| Intuitionism | Intuition | Sympathetic identification | Bergson; Indian rishis | Duree, elan vital, anubhuti |
Table 5: The Six Pramanas of Indian Philosophy
| Pramana | English Equivalent | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pratyaksa | Perception | Cognition arising from sense-object contact | Seeing a pot in front of one |
| Anumana | Inference | Cognition based on a perceived mark and its invariable concomitance with the inferred object | Inferring fire on a hill from the smoke seen on it |
| Upamana | Comparison | Knowledge of the relation between an unfamiliar object and its name through similarity to a familiar object | Recognising a wild ox as a gavaya from its similarity to a cow |
| Shabda | Verbal testimony | Knowledge from the words of a trustworthy person or scripture | Knowing that there is a city called Delhi from the report of a reliable witness |
| Arthapatti | Postulation | Postulating an unperceived fact to make a known fact intelligible | Devadatta, fat but eating no food by day, must eat by night |
| Anupalabdhi | Non-apprehension | Knowledge of the absence of an object through its non-perception | Knowing that there is no jar in the room because no jar is seen |
Table 6: Pramanas Accepted by Different Indian Schools
| School | Number of Pramanas | Pramanas Accepted |
|---|---|---|
| Charvaka | 1 | Pratyaksa |
| Vaisesika and Buddhist | 2 | Pratyaksa, Anumana |
| Samkhya and Yoga | 3 | Pratyaksa, Anumana, Shabda |
| Nyaya | 4 | Pratyaksa, Anumana, Upamana, Shabda |
| Prabhakara Mimamsa | 5 | Pratyaksa, Anumana, Upamana, Shabda, Arthapatti |
| Bhatta Mimamsa and Advaita Vedanta | 6 | All six (the previous five plus Anupalabdhi) |
Glossary of Important Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Epistemology | The branch of philosophy that investigates the nature, sources, scope and validity of human knowledge. |
| Knowledge (JTB) | Justified true belief, the classical Platonic definition of knowledge. |
| Rationalism | The theory that reason, independent of sense experience, is the chief source of knowledge. |
| Empiricism | The theory that sense experience is the sole source of knowledge. |
| Criticism | Kant’s name for his own philosophy, which investigates the powers and limits of reason itself. |
| Intuitionism | The theory that knowledge of reality is gained chiefly by intuition, an immediate, direct grasp of the object. |
| Innate idea | An idea regarded as inborn in the mind and not derived from sense experience. |
| Tabula rasa | “Blank slate”; Locke’s name for the human mind at birth. |
| A priori | Knowledge that is independent of sense experience and is universal and necessary. |
| A posteriori | Knowledge that is derived from sense experience and is particular and contingent. |
| Cogito ergo sum | “I think, therefore I am”; Descartes’ first indubitable certainty. |
| Sensation | Locke’s term for the source of ideas obtained through the five external senses. |
| Reflection | Locke’s term for the source of ideas obtained from the mind’s awareness of its own operations. |
| Primary qualities | Qualities such as extension, figure, motion, number, solidity, regarded by Locke as objective. |
| Secondary qualities | Qualities such as colour, sound, taste, smell, temperature, regarded by Locke as subjective. |
| Esse est percipi | “To be is to be perceived”; Berkeley’s principle reducing material existence to perception. |
| Idealism | The view that reality is mental in character or that material objects depend on minds for their existence. |
| Impression | Hume’s term for the original, vivid perception arising from sensation or reflection. |
| Idea | Hume’s term for the faint copy of an impression in thinking and memory. |
| Bundle theory of self | Hume’s view that the self is a bundle or collection of perceptions, not a permanent substance. |
| Problem of induction | The Humean problem of justifying our belief that the future will resemble the past. |
| Synthetic a priori | A judgement that is at once synthetic (informative) and a priori (universal and necessary); the centrepiece of Kant’s epistemology. |
| Forms of intuition | Space and time, the a priori conditions under which the mind receives sensations, according to Kant. |
| Categories of understanding | The twelve a priori concepts (in four groups of three) under which the mind organises experience, according to Kant. |
| Phenomena | Things as they appear to us under the conditions of human cognition. |
| Noumena | Things-in-themselves; reality as it is independently of human cognition. |
| Transcendental idealism | Kant’s doctrine that the objects of human knowledge are appearances structured by the a priori contributions of the mind. |
| Duree | Bergson’s term for duration, the inner, qualitative flow of time. |
| Elan vital | Bergson’s term for the vital, creative impulse driving the evolution of life. |
| Anubhuti | Indian term for direct, immediate experience or spiritual realisation of truth. |
| Prama | Valid knowledge, in Indian epistemology. |
| Pramana | The means or instrument of valid knowledge. |
| Pratyaksa | Perception; the cognition arising from sense-object contact. |
| Anumana | Inference; mediate knowledge based on an invariable concomitance with a perceived mark. |
| Upamana | Comparison; knowledge through analogy or similarity. |
| Shabda | Verbal testimony; knowledge from a trustworthy person or scripture. |
| Arthapatti | Postulation; the assumption of an unperceived fact required to explain a known fact. |
| Anupalabdhi | Non-apprehension; knowledge of the absence of an object through non-perception. |
| Vyapti | The relation of invariable concomitance, the logical ground of inference. |
| Apta | A trustworthy and competent person, the source of valid verbal testimony. |
Quick Revision Notes
- Knowledge = justified true belief (Plato, Theaetetus).
- Four Western theories: Rationalism, Empiricism, Criticism, Intuitionism.
- Rationalism — reason, innate ideas, a priori, deduction; Descartes (cogito), Spinoza, Leibniz.
- Empiricism — sense experience, tabula rasa, a posteriori, induction; Locke, Berkeley, Hume.
- Locke — sensation and reflection; primary vs secondary qualities.
- Berkeley — esse est percipi; subjective idealism.
- Hume — impressions and ideas; bundle theory of self; problem of induction; scepticism.
- Kant — synthetic a priori; forms of intuition (space, time); twelve categories (four groups of three); phenomena vs noumena; transcendental idealism.
- Kant’s slogan: “Percepts without concepts are blind, concepts without percepts are empty.”
- Bergson — duree, elan vital; intuition over intellect.
- Indian theories — pramana = means of valid knowledge; six pramanas: pratyaksa, anumana, upamana, shabda, arthapatti, anupalabdhi.
- School-wise pramanas: Charvaka 1, Vaisesika/Buddhist 2, Samkhya 3, Nyaya 4, Prabhakara 5, Bhatta/Advaita 6.
- Anubhuti — Indian doctrine of immediate spiritual realisation; the Eastern parallel to Bergson’s intuition.
This concludes Class 11 Logic and Philosophy Chapter 12 Question Answer | Theories of Origin of Knowledge | English Medium | ASSEB. By mastering the four major theories of the origin of knowledge — rationalism, empiricism, criticism and intuitionism — and the Indian doctrine of pramana, you have gained a panoramic view of one of philosophy’s deepest questions. Keep revising the comparison tables, learn the chief philosophers and their key terms by heart, and practise the long answer questions for examinations. Best of luck for your ASSEB Higher Secondary First Year examination!