epistemology final exam

What is epistemology

The area of philosophy surrounding knowledge. Questions such as: what constitutes justification for knowing something? What does it mean to know? How can we claim to know anything? Can people know the world as it really is? Are there some things we can never know? How do you know that?

Identify and give examples of rationalists and empiricists

Rationalism: reason and intellect are the primary sources of knowledge and that certain truths about the world can be known independently of sensory experience. A Priori knowledge. ex. Plato, Descartes. Empiricism: sensory experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge. According to empiricists, humans are born without any innate ideas, and all knowledge comes from experience. A Posteriori knowledge. Ex. Aristotle, Locke.

What is the link between a priori and a posteriori knowledge

A Priori knowledge: Prior to experience. Does not rely on senses and is independent of experience, relies strictly on mental ability to reason. Math, logic, true by definition. you can see that it is true. A Posteriori knowledge: relies on sensory input / experience / evidence. ex. Science comes after sensory input

What is the difference between knowledge, belief, and opinion

Opinions – often considered unreliable, based on sensory experience which varies from person to person. An opinion cannot be considered true or false. Beliefs – a little more reliable than opinions, belief statements can be classified as true or false. (i.e. I believe my car is parked outside) Knowledge – more powerful than opinions and beliefs, can be proven

What is true belief? Justified true belief

Two conditions must be met for true belief: truth and belief. Plato suggested that true belief wasn’t enough, but knowledge is based on truth, belief, and justification. Edmund Gettier challenged this with two scenarios that showed someone having false justified true beliefs. a fourth condition necessary for knowledge: Belief: The person must believe the proposition. Truth: The proposition must be true. Justification: The person must have justification for believing the proposition. No Defeaters (or Gettier Problems): There must be no defeating evidence or situations.

What is the difference between direct and indirect knowledge

Direct knowledge: a.k.a. simple knowledge or perceptual knowledge, acquired through experience / perceived through senses, does not rely on indirect knowledge, It cannot be judged true or false; knowledge of things as they are. Indirect knowledge: a.k.a. complex knowledge or inferential knowledge

Explain the relationship between foundationalists and anti foundationalists

Foundationalists: Aristotle, Locke, Russell, Descartes. all knowledge is built on a base of certain, secure "foundations." Knowledge consists of human experiences. Direct knowledge is self-evident and therefore doesn’t need justification.  Anti-Foundationalists: Hegel, Pragmatists, Postmodernists. There are no unquestionable foundations for knowledge. Instead, all beliefs are justified in relation to each other.

What is skepticism

Skeptics doubt all assumptions until they are proven. Skepticism is a tool or approach. Some doubt that knowledge is even possible.

Explain the brain in a vat

A brain has been removed from a human body and placed in a vat of life-sustaining fluid. Technology connects this brain to a supercomputer that sends it electrical impulses identical to those the brain would normally receive if it were still inside a body. The computer generates a perfectly realistic simulation of an external world, such that the brain experiences this simulation just as if it were experiencing the real world. Used to explore questions about reality and perception, the external world, justification of our beliefs, responses to skepticism.

What is the basis for knowing

Rationalism relies on reason, logical deduction, and innate knowledge. Some truths are accessible through intellectual insight alone. Empiricism relies on sensory experience and empirical evidence. All knowledge originates from our interactions with the world around us.

What is truth? What is the relationship between truth and perception

Truth is the quality or state of being true. The problem with truth is that philosophers disagree about what truth is. Some people define something as true if it is not false or not a lie. Truth can be what you know or feel and this is based on intuition.

Common Sense Realism

People perceive the world exactly as it is. What you see is what you get.

Sophists

perception is reality, for you. Someone else’s reality will be different.

Representative Theory of Perception

developed by John Locke. Ideas in the mind are merely representations of objects in the real world, like a photograph of an object. The object and the idea in the mind are separate and distinct. “epistemological dualism”

Subjective Idealism

An epistemological theory, developed by George Berkeley, that says that what is perceived as real or true exists only in the mind.

Phenomenalism

Immanuel Kant. people can never know objects in the world as they really are. objects as they are, outside perception (or ‘noumena’) interact with the categories of understanding which are innate. Interaction between reason and senses (phenomena) is the source of knowledge or truth. Phenomenalism is significant because it attempts to strike a compromise between rationalist and empiricist theories.

Correspondence theory

beliefs are true when they correspond, or agree, with reality. Correspondence theory is significant because it represents a common sense approach to truth.

Coherence theory

Hegel. beliefs are true when they cohere, or are consistent, with an existing belief or body of knowledge. Coherence theory is significant because it enables people to determine the truth of things that cannot be perceived by the senses.

Pragmatic theory

: Truth is neither fixed nor absolute. Pragmatists say that people create their own truths on the basis of whether something works, is useful, or is successful. Pragmatic theory is significant because it says truth must be judged according to consequences.

Socrates

Developed the socratic method as a form of teaching and exploring knowledge. Socrates would ask probing questions to help individuals examine their own beliefs and the validity of those beliefs. Equated knowledge with virtue.

Plato

Rationalist. Believed that knowledge gained from the senses was subject to change, therefore argued that this kind of knowledge is unreliable as it only ever generates opinions about objects belonging to the sensory world.True knowledge is acquired through reason, which allows us an understanding of the unseen world of what is real. Knowledge of the forms exist in our minds from birth and are innate. Learning is simply remembering these forms. Knowledge is Justified true belief.People embark on a intellectual journey that involves moving from dreaming, to imagining, to believing, to thinking, and to true knowledge. (remember Allegory of the Cave)The Plato Problem (referring to the Meno Dialogue): How we account for our knowledge when environmental conditions seem to be an insufficient source of information. Truth is permanent, fixed, and independent of individual subjectivity. It is acquired through reason and its meaning endures for all time. Knowledge is objective, real, and independent. Senses are inadequate, reason is necessary (rationalism). Creates separate worlds of forms (knowledge) and senses (perception)

Aristotle

Empiricist. Foundationalist. Agreed that the abstract world of the forms is superior. Reason as the distinguishing characteristic of being human. DID NOT agree that the forms were innate, but reason was to be applied after experience. The physical world is made of matter (that is sensed) and immaterial (the essence of material things, which cannot be sensed) Favours inductive reasoning to generalize about the world. There is an objective, independent truth. Evidence from the senses are how we arrive at the truth

Rene Descartes

Rationalist. Foundationalist. Accepts nothing as true that he did not clearly recognize as so. He didn’t trust the senses. Cogito ergo sum – “I think, therefore I am”. He doubted his own existence.He brought in the option of an evil genius (all sensory input, thoughts and ideas are placed in our minds by an all-powerful evil genius) – reality might be an illusion

He used deductive reasoning to establish this truth, a movement from one true statement to the next in order to arrive at certainty.Denied the existence of the physical world. Our minds make rational inferences to gain an understanding of things that really exist.Focused on the thinking and thinker. From one indisputable truth — I think, therefore I am — people can pursue other unassailable truths.

Reach the truth first by doubting everything then through reason and deduction.

Immanuel Kant

Tries to bridge the gap between rationalists and empiricists. Tries to bridge the gap between rationalists and empiricists.

The human mind binds sensory input and knowledge gained from reason, which is innate (time, space, cause and effect).Epistemological phenomenalism:people can never know objects in the world as they really are. objects as they are, outside perception (or ‘noumena’) interact with the categories of understanding which are innate. Interaction between reason and senses (phenomena) is the source of knowledge or truth. Phenomenalism is significant because it attempts to strike a compromise between rationalist and empiricist theories.

Kongfuzi

a.k.a. Confucius. Implied that a wise person only claims to know what they know and not anything more. Gaining knowledge is a lifelong process.

Noam Chomsky

Focus on linguistics. The deep structure of language is hard-wired in humans.  (e.g. children say “me go night-night” whereas adults say “I’m going to bed”, the child isn’t copying the adult)

John Locke

Empiricist. Foundationalist. Tabula rasa – the blank slate.Sensory input through experience gives us knowledge.Founder of the British empiricist movement Two classifications of ideas according to Locke: Simple ideas: based on simple sensationsComplex ideas: a combination of simple sensations All matter has primary (objective) and secondary (subjective) qualities.

David Hume

SkepticQuestioned Causation and Induction. Against the idea of a priori knowledge, if something cannot be gained/learned/known through sensory knowledge, it must be ignored.

Objects do not exist outside sense perception.Bundle Theory again: objects are perceived as a collection, or bundle, of characteristics: apple=colour, shape, smell, taste. If we remove these characteristics, we cannot conceive of an apple through pure reason.Hume’s theory of knowledge suggests that there are some things humans can never know because it denies the idea of cause and effect. As a result, his theory suggests that humans can never make links between events or know for sure that something will happen as a result of something else. This means that all knowledge derived from scientific investigations may be false.

Thomas Aquinas

Matter and essence are bound up in physical objects (humans are the union of soul and body). Knowledge begins with the senses but then grows with the application of reason.World reflects the nature of God, orderly and intelligible.

Georg WF Hegel

Anti-foundationalist. Coherence theory: beliefs are true when they cohere, or are consistent, with an existing belief or body of knowledge. Coherence theory is significant because it enables people to determine the truth of things that cannot be perceived by the senses.