The purpose of education

is to bring out the best in you.

Allan David Bloom:
“Education is the movement from
darkness to light.”
Malcolm S. Forbes:
“Education's purpose is to replace
the empty head with an open one.”
Malcolm S. Forbes:
“Education's purpose is to replace
the empty head with an open one.”
Aristotle
proposed that the mind
at birth is a blank slate,
or tabula rasa.
Tabula rasa
(Latin: blank slate):

An epistemological thesis that individuals are

born without built-in mental content and that
their knowledge comes from experience and
perception.
As a blank slate it contains no knowledge of the
objective, empirical universe, nor of itself.
Objective
(Adj.: Not influenced by personal feelings,
interpretations, or prejudice;
based on facts; unbiased: an objective opinion.)

Albert Einstein
Objectivity is the theory that decides
what we can observe.

* Property of Scientific Measurement

* Testability
* Reproducibility
Process of filling tabula rasa
begins with the acquisition of
empirical knowledge
by means of the experience
of sensation and perception.

Sensation is the function of the low-level biochemical and

neurological events that begin with the impinging of a stimulus
upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ.

Perception is the mental process or perception is a higher brain

function about interpreting events and objects in the world, or
understanding of the real-world cause of the sensory input.
Process of filling tabula rasa
begins with the acquisition of
empirical knowledge
by means of the experience
of sensation and perception.

Sensation is the function of the low-level biochemical and

neurological events that begin with the impinging of a stimulus
upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ.

Perception is the mental process or perception is a higher brain

function about interpreting events and objects in the world, or
understanding of the real-world cause of the sensory input.
The Senses
The traditional five senses are
sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste,
a classification attributed to Aristotle.

Humans are considered to have

at least five additional senses that include:
1. Nociception (pain)
2. Equilibrioception (balance)
3. Proprioception and kinesthesia (joint
motion and acceleration)
4. Sense of time
5. Thermoception (temperature differences)

What about Magnetoception (direction)?

Epistemology
Greek: epistēmē -knowledge, science
+ logos or theory of knowledge

Branch of philosophy
concerned with the nature
and scope (limitations)
of knowledge.

It addresses the questions:

• What is knowledge?
• How is knowledge acquired?
• What do people know?
• How do we know what we know?
Plato:
“A statement must meet
three criteria in order to be
considered knowledge:
it must be justified,
true, and believed. “
Knowledge

(i) Expertise, and skills acquired by a person

through experience or education; the
theoretical or practical understanding of
a subject;

(ii) What is known in a particular field or in

total; facts and information; or

(iii) Awareness or familiarity gained by

experience of a fact or situation.
Acquisition of Knowledge
1. By reason and logic (perhaps in
cooperation with others, using logical
argument).
2. By mathematical proof.
3. By the scientific method.
4. By the trial and error method.
5. By applying an algorithm.
6. By learning from experience.
7. By an argument from authority, which
could be from religious, literary, political,
philosophical or scientific authorities.
8. By listening to the testimony of witnesses.
Acquisition of Knowledge
1. By reason and logic (perhaps in
cooperation with others, using
logical argument).

2. By mathematical proof.

3. By the scientific method.

4. By the trial and error method.

5. By applying an algorithm.
Acquisition of Knowledge
6. By learning from experience.

7. By an argument from authority,

which could be from religious,
literary, political, philosophical or
scientific authorities.

8. By listening to the testimony of

witnesses.

9. By observing the world in its

"natural state"; seeing how the world
operates without performing any
experiments.
Acquisition of Knowledge
10. By acquiring knowledge that is
embedded in one's language, culture,
or traditions.

11. By dialogical enquiry

(conversation).

12. By some claimed form of

enlightenment following a period of
meditation

13. By some claimed form of divine

illumination or revelation from a divine
agency.
Propositional Knowledge

(i) Knowledge generated through

experience is called knowledge "a
posteriori", meaning afterwards or “ex
post facto”.

(ii) The knowledge prior to any experience,

"a priori”, means that there are certain
"assumptions" that one takes for granted.
What is Science?

“The process used everyday to

logically complete thoughts
through inference of facts
determined by calculated
experiments.”
Scientific Knowledge
Scientific method is a method of
inquiry based on gathering
- observable,
- empirical and
- measurable evidence
subject to
specific principles of reasoning.
Reasoning

A cognitive process of looking for

- Reasons,
- Beliefs,
- Conclusions
- Actions
- Feelings
Scientific Method

Scientific method consists of

The collection of data through
- observation
- experimentation and
- formulation & testing of hypotheses
How much do we know?

That is the opportunity. Go for it!

Roger Bacon:
"Of the three ways in which men
think that they acquire
knowledge of things—
authority, reasoning, and
experience—only the last is
effective and able to bring
peace to the intellect.”
 Sir Isaac Newton:
"If I have seen further...
it is by standing on the shoulders of giants".
Francis Bacon:
“Knowledge is Power.”