Philosophy of knowledge

Summary

Dominique Pagani approaches the philosophy of knowledge through Plato's allegory of the cave, which in his view answers the question "what can I know?". On the board he reconstructs the ascent: from doxa, immediate knowledge, to dianoia, discursive knowledge modelled on mathematics but which does not go back up to the unhypothetical principle, then to dialectic and to theoria, silent contemplation1. For him, this ascent is only half the way: the descent back into the cave opens onto the philosophy of action, because knowledge is universal only if it can be shared. With Descartes he discusses dogmatic confidence in the order of the real; with Hume and Planck, the limits of law. He also rejects the idea of a pure origin1. He traces the progression from empiricism, which gives reality without truth, to rationalism, which gives truth without reality, and then to Newtonian determinism. The crisis of this determinism makes freedom a postulate2. With Kant, who limits knowledge to make room for faith, he moves from knowledge to "what ought I to do?"2.

1. 1#3.5 From Ulysses to Daedalus1 Aug 2017
2. 2Pagani without detours21 Sept 2019

Introduction produced automatically from the 3 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.