The History of Conceptual Framework
The history of conceptual frameworks is little different than the history of epistemology, or the theory of knowledge. How our perceptions count as “knowledge” has been at the center of all epistemological and metaphysical debate at least since Plato.
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Plato
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Plato's conceptual framework is central, and foundational for all subsequent philosophy. Objects in nature were unstable. They always changed, never staying the same. Hence, in order for our perceptions to count as “knowledge,” they must never change. The theory of forms is one of the most famous conceptual frameworks in history. For each perceptible object, there exists a “form” of that object. This form is invisible, unchanging, very much a pure spirit understandable only by the mind.
Descartes
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Rene Descartes worried about the same problem as Plato—how do perceptions count as knowledge? For Descartes, the conceptual framework concerned that which was “clear and distinct,” that is, those ideas that are true because, to deny them would involve you in a contradiction. His conceptual operation was to begin from the fact of his own existence, an existence that is conditioned, not extant in and of itself. From here, the conceptual world of the senses and God could be deduced, since the world that he perceived did not come from him, it had to come from somewhere else. The very fact that he existed means that all that he sees around him exists as well, since these are conditions of his existence.
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Kant
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Immanuel Kant refused to accept the conclusions of both Plato and Descartes. For Kant, knowledge was the creation of the conceptual framework of the mind. The mind imposed on the world the two concepts of space and time, and from this, all categories of existence. The conceptual framework that was to frame nature was derived from the human mind. What was actually “out there” could never be known.
Significance
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For all three of these writers, people's conceptual framework framed nature. It could be understood because of the conceptual framework that derived from speculation. For Plato, the forms showed a world of knowledge that was unchanging and could only be approached by mental exertion. This meant that the natural world as it is seen is problematic due to its ever changing state. For objects to be known, they must be rationally, not perceptibly, known. Descartes is the same in that objects in space are known only through deduction, not through the senses. They exist absolutely because a person exists absolutely. A person cannot exist without outside nature, hence, everyone exists. The point here is that objects, to be known, must be stable, sure and outside the senses.
Considerations
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Ultimately, what you consider as knowledge is derived from your conceptual framework. Kant's approach was that this framework existed within the human mind, imposing itself on “nature” in order to make the swirl of perceptions understandable. For all three writers, perceptions, considered in themselves, tell nothing. Concepts, and the framework they create, tell everything. It is reason, logic and deduction that provide nature with understandability.
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