•  
  •  
 

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Sarah Mattice, Chair and Professor

Faculty Mentor Department

Philosophy and Religious Studies

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of the role of doubt and sensations in the development of an understanding of an object. Inspired by Charles Sanders Peirce, Martin Heidegger, and Hans-Georg Gadamer, I begin by arguing that understanding is a circular process that begins with a pre-understanding that is then refuted by the intended or inferred as-structure of an object. The belief found to settle the doubt that comes from such a refutation is one’s understanding of said object as that object. In the second part of this paper, I explore a method to harness this circular process to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of an object as that object.

Included in

Philosophy Commons

Share

COinS