Epistemology, Modern Science, and Skepticism

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering René Descartes' foundationalism and skepticism, empiricism and Francis Bacon's scientific method, Émilie du Châtelet's hypotheses, David Hume's critique of causation, and modern scientific reliability.

René Descartes

French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist ($1596$-$1650$) who died in Sweden and sought a secure foundation for the sciences through systematic doubt.

First Philosophy

The philosophical study that examines foundational questions in metaphysics and epistemology.

Methodological Skepticism

A philosophical method of employing doubt systematically in an investigation of one's beliefs to discover which are indubitably true or certain.

Dream Skepticism

A skeptical challenge asking how one can separate the waking world from dreams, effectively casting doubt on all beliefs derived from sense-perception.

Evil Demon Skepticism

A radical skeptical hypothesis positing an all-powerful, deceptive being ruling the universe, calling all mathematical and arithmetic beliefs into question.

Theological Voluntarism

The doctrinal position that divine will takes precedence over reason when understanding God's creative relationship with the world.

Cogito Ergo Sum

Latin for 'I think, therefore I am'; the fundamental truth Descartes establishes on Day 2 of his Meditations as an indubitable foundation for knowledge.

Res Cogitans vs. Res Extensa

The Cartesian metaphysical division between thinking things ($\text{res cogitans}$) and extended physical matter ($\text{res extensa}$) understood through mathematics.

Clear and Distinct Ideas

The Cartesian criteria for certain knowledge: a clear idea has features readily discerned by the intellect, and a distinct idea is sharply differentiated from all other ideas.

Foundationalism

An epistemological model where nonbasic beliefs derive their justification from basic, self-evident foundational beliefs.

Rationalism

The epistemological theory asserting that genuine knowledge is gained independently of the senses and that humans possess innate knowledge.

Empiricism

The philosophical doctrine, historically associated with Aristotle, which holds that all human knowledge originates from sense-experience.

Francis Bacon

English natural philosopher ($1561$-$1626$) who championed the experimental method, natural history, induction, and overcoming intellectual pride.

Bacon's Idols of the Mind

Four categories of human cognitive bias identified by Francis Bacon: Idols of the Tribe, Idols of the Cave, Idols of the Marketplace, and Idols of the Theatre.

Parable of the Ant, Spider, and Bee

Francis Bacon's analogy for natural philosophy: the ant merely collects material (pure empiricists), the spider spins webs from itself (dogmatic rationalists), and the bee collects and transforms nectar (proper experimental science).

Émilie du Châtelet

French natural philosopher and mathematician ($1706$-$1749$) who mastered Newtonian physics and articulated the discovery value and revisability of hypotheses.

Hypothetico-Deductive Method

The modern scientific methodology that formulates hypotheses characterized by probability, revisability, and falsification to guide experimental investigation.

Skepticism

The philosophical view holding that humans cannot attain certain, true knowledge of the world, historically divided into Academic and Pyrrhonian traditions.

David Hume

Scottish philosopher and essayist ($1711$-$1776$) known for his radical empiricism and skeptical critique of causality and human understanding.

Relations of Ideas

In Hume's philosophy, propositions such as mathematics and conceptual definitions that are discoverable a priori and are necessarily true.

Matters of Fact

In Hume's philosophy, propositions derived from sense-experience that are discoverable a posteriori and are contingent rather than logically necessary.

Hume's Fork

The epistemological division of all possible knowledge into relations of ideas or matters of fact, demonstrating that causal connections cannot be justified by either.

Constant Conjunction

David Hume's concept that sense-experience reveals only repeated correlations between sequential events, rather than any observable necessary connection or causation.

Custom and Habit

The psychological mechanism through which humans instinctively expect patterns to persist, which Hume identifies as the basis of causal belief.

Hedgehogs vs. Foxes

Isaiah Berlin's typology contrasting thinkers who view the world through one overarching principle (centripetal hedgehogs) with those who draw on varied, complex viewpoints (centrifugal foxes).

Reproducibility, Replicability, and Robustness

Three essential standards for research validity: reproducing identical results from the original data, replicating findings with new experimental data, and verifying conclusions across different analytical methods.

SCORE Project

An academic initiative evaluating scientific reliability that determined only $49\%$ of sampled social science research was reliable.