AIOU Solved Assignments Code 8609

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AIOU Solved Assignments 1 Code 8609 Spring 2019
AIOU Solved Assignments Code 8609

Q 3: Evaluate the role of following branches of philosophy in system

of education:

1. Epistemology
2. Axiology:

Answer:

Epistemology: the study of knowledge. In particular, epistemology is the study of the

nature, scope, and limits of human knowledge.

1. Epistemology investigates the origin, structure, methods, and integrity of knowledge.

2. Consider the degree of truth of the statement, “The earth is round.” Does its truth
depend upon the context in which the statement is uttered? For example, this statement
can be successively more accurately translated as …
1. “The earth is spherical”
2. “The earth is an oblate spheroid” (i.e., flattened at the poles).
3. But what about the Himalayas and the Marianas Trench? Even if we surveyed
exactly the shape of the earth, our process of surveying would alter the surface by
the footprints left and the impressions of the survey stakes and instruments. Hence,
the exact shape of the earth cannot be known. Every rain shower changes the
shape.
4. (Note here as well the implications for skepticism and relativism: simply because we
cannot exactly describe the exact shape of the earth, the conclusion does not
logically follow that the earth does not have a shape.)
3. Furthermore, consider two well-known problems in epistemology:
1. Russell’s Five-Minute-World Hypothesis: Suppose the earth were created five
minutes ago, complete with memory images, history books, records, etc., how could
we ever know of it? As Russell wrote in The Analysis of Mind, “There is no logical
impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago,
exactly as it then was, with a population that “remembered” a wholly unreal past.
There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times;
therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the
hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.” For example, an omnipotent God
could create the world with all the memories, historical records, and so forth five
minutes ago. Any evidence to the contrary would be evidence created by God five
minutes ago. (Q.v., the Omphalos hypothesis.)
 2. Suppose everything in the universe (including all spatial relations) were to expand
uniformly a thousand times larger. How could we ever know it? A moment’s thought
reveals that the mass of objects increases by the cube whereas the distance among
them increases linearly. Hence, if such an expansion were possible, changes in the
measurement of gravity and the speed of light would be evident, if, indeed, life would
be possible.
3. Russell’s Five-Minute-World Hypothesis is a philosophical problem; the impossibility
of the objects in the universe expanding is a scientific problem since the latter
problem can, in fact, be answered by principles of elementary physics.

ii) Axiology:

The Main Branches of Philosophy are divided as to the nature of the questions asked
in each area. The integrity of these divisions cannot be rigidly maintained, for one area
overlaps into the others.

1. Axiology: the study of value; the investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical
status. More often than not, the term “value theory” is used instead of “axiology” in
contemporary discussions even though the term “theory of value” is used with respect to
the value or price of goods and services in economics.
1. Some significant questions in axiology include the following:
1. Nature of value: is value a fulfillment of desire, a pleasure, a preference, a
behavioral disposition, or simply a human interest of some kind?
2. Criteria of value: de gustibus non (est) disputandum(i.e., (“there’s no accounting
for tastes”) or do objective standards apply?
3. Status of value: how are values related to (scientific) facts? What ultimate worth,
if any, do human values have?
2. Axiology is usually divided into two main parts.
1. Ethics: the study of values in human behavior or the study of moral
problems: e.g., (1) the rightness and wrongness of actions, (2) the kinds of things
which are good or desirable, and (3) whether actions are blameworthy or
praiseworthy.
1. Consider this example analyzed by J. O. Urmson in his well-known
essay, “Saints and Heroes”:

“We may imagine a squad of soldiers to be practicing the throwing of live

hand grenades; a grenade slips from the hand of one of them and rolls on the
ground near the squad; one of them sacrifices his life by throwing himself on
the grenade and protecting his comrades with his own body. It is quite
unreasonable to suppose that such a man must be impelled by the sort of
emotion that he might be impelled by if his best friend were in the squad.”
2. Did the soldier who threw himself on the grenade do the right thing? If he did
not cover the grenade, several soldiers might be injured or be killed. His
action probably saved lives; certainly an action which saves lives is a morally
correct action. One might even be inclined to conclude that saving lives is a
duty. But if this were so, wouldn’t each of the soldiers have the moral
 obligation or duty to save his comrades? Would we thereby expect each of
the soldiers to vie for the opportunity to cover the grenade?

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AIOU Solved Assignments 2 Code 8609 Spring 2019
AIOU Solved Assignments 1 & 2 Spring 2019 Code 8609
AIOU Solved Assignments Code 8609

Q 5: Describe the different sources of knowledge.

Answer:

Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and the supreme, blissful
state are the seven planes of knowledge. There are four sources of knowledge: instinct,
reason, intuition, and direct knowledge of Brahman (God) or Brahma-Jnana (knowledge
of God).

Instinct
When an ant crawls on your right arm, the left hand automatically moves towards the
right arm to drive the ant away. The mind does not reason here. When you see a
scorpion near your leg, you withdraw the leg automatically. This is called instinctive or
automatic movement. As you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to
save yourself from the cars! There is no thought during such kind of mechanical
movement. Instinct is found in animals and birds also. In birds, the ego does not
interfere with the free, divine flow and play. Hence the work done by them through their
instinct is more perfect than that done by human beings. Have you ever noticed the
intricate and exquisite work done by birds in the building of their beautiful nests ?

Reason
Reason is higher than instinct and is found only in human beings. It collects facts,
generalizes, reasons out from cause to effect, from effect to cause, from premises to
conclusions, from propositions to proofs. It concludes, decides and comes to final
judgment. It takes you safely to the door of intuition and leaves you there. Belief,
reason, knowledge and faith are the four important psychic processes. First you have
belief in a doctor. You go to him for diagnosis and treatment. The doctor makes a
thorough examination of you and prescribes certain medicines. You take them. You
reason out: “Such and such is the disease. The doctor has given me some iron and
iodide. Iron will improve my blood. The iodide will stimulate the lymphatics and absorb
the exudation and growth in the liver. So I should take it.” Then, by a regular and
systematic course of these drugs, the disease is cured in a month. You then get
knowledge and have perfect faith in the efficacy of the medicine and the proficiency of
the doctor. You recommend this doctor and his drugs to your friends so that they too
might benefit from his treatment.

Intuition
Intuition is personal spiritual experience. The knowledge obtained through the
functioning of the causal body (Karana Sarira) is intuition. Sri Aurobindo calls it the
Supermind or Supramental Consciousness. There is direct perception of truth, or
immediate knowledge through Samadhi or the Superconscious State. You know things
in a flash. Professor Bergson preached about intuition in France to make the people
understand that there was a higher source of knowledge than the intellect. In intuition
there is no reasoning process at all. It is direct perception. Intuition transcends reason
but does not contradict it. Intellect takes a man to the door of intuition and returns.
Intuition is Divya Drishti (divine vision); it is the eye of wisdom. Spiritual flashes and
glimpses of truth, inspiration, revelation and spiritual insight come through intuition. The
mind has to be pure for one to know that it is the intuition that is functioning at a
particular moment. Brahma-Jnana (knowledge of God) is above intuition. It transcends
the causal body and is the highest form of knowledge. It is the only Reality.