Purchase Solution

Scholastic Model and the Associationist Viewpoints of Reality

Not what you're looking for?

Ask Custom Question

I am still a little confused on the scholastic model of reality as well as the associationist viewpoints of reality.

Briefly, what is your viewpoint of this statement below and could you briefly explain or summarize this statement. Is there any truth to this statement?

The scholastic model of reality proposes that sensory experience was transformed by the mind into an internal object (representation) or the basic commonsense of the human mind which forms the basis of our own thoughts, ideas, desires, beliefs, and the like. With this, we can combine the viewpoint of association, as this perspective of reality suggests, knowledge is obtained through the building of multiple ideas, each being formed by the other.

Purchase this Solution

Solution Summary

The solution discusses the scholastic model and the associationist viewpoints of reality.

Solution Preview

There is nothing easy about this particular field. Don't worry about it. "Sensory experience" is that which our senses pick up, sights, sounds, etc. In that state they're just really chaos. "Transformed" refers to the process whereby the "agent intellect" takes a number of these sense impressions and draws out (abstracts) what they all have in common. As we become more experienced, we make finer and finer distinctions.

Now, the paragraph as a whole is false. I don't know anyone who would agree with it. It is false for one huge reason: the author stops at the word "representation." This is the wrong word (or a misleading one). Normally, in epistemology, it refers to a phenomenon, or a sense impression. A "representation" is nothing. We can have representations in dreams and fantasies.

Representations need to be processed into abstract categories upon which knowledge is based. Now, these categories might be abstract in form, but they are real. That is, they exist in the objects themselves and do not merely exist in the mind. The associationist, generally speaking, rejects this idea. If essences were built into nature (including human nature) then associations could not be constructed at will. They would have to follow a preconceived pattern laid out in nature. This is the problem with associationism: they assume that all we know is our ...

Purchase this Solution


Free BrainMass Quizzes
The World Health Organization

This quiz assesses the students knowledge about the World Health Organization. Although listed under “Philosophy” it is relevant to health care, political science, pre-med, and social scientist students as well.

Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy

Short quiz relating to Descartes