Philosophy Test 2

Define noetic structure.

An entire set of beliefs that fit together with the logical and explanatory relations among those beliefs (working on)

Describe foundationalism.

(Book); A theory of epistemic justification which holds that beliefs are justified only if they are properly basic or are inferred from properly basic beliefs. 

Define basic beliefs and non-basic beliefs

Non-Basic Beliefs - A belief that is based on and justified by another belief

Basic Belief - A belief that is not based on or justified by another belief but is held independently of other beliefs

Describe Classical Foundationalism. 

beliefs that are self-evidently true, beliefs that cannot be mistaken about, and beliefs about immediate sensory experience are the only beliefs that can be properly basic. Any other beliefs, if they are to be justified, must be based on other beliefs

3 types of foundational beliefs for the classical foundationalism? Define them.

1. Self-evident beliefs - the truth of these beliefs is immediately clear (Notes) A self evident proposition is one whose truth is immediately clear as soon as one grasps its meaning (Book)

2. Incorrigible beliefs - beliefs which are psychologically impossible to be mistaken about (Notes) A proposition is one which it is psychologically impossible for a person to be mistaken about (Book)

3. Evident to the senses - The object of an immediate sensory experience (Notes) If its content is the object of an immediate sensory experience (Book)

Describe Modest Foundationalism.

Allows for more kinds of beliefs to count as properly basic

What are acceptable types of foundational beliefs for the modest foundationalist?

Previous + existence of external world, other minds, memory beliefs.

What is the regress problem?

When arguing for justification, it continues to ask the question “what justifies that”

What are the four options to respond to the regress problem?

1. Regress ends with an unjustified belief 

2. Regress continues infinitely 

3. Regress is circular 

4. Regress ends with a properly basic belief

What are the 2 problems or challenges to foundationalism?

How is a properly basic belief justified and all observations are “theory-laden” is self refuting making it untrustworthy

Describe Coherentism.

(Book); A theory of a epistemic justification that holds that beliefs are justified by the coherence with a persons whole system of beliefs this view rejects the idea of basic beliefs, holding that all the beliefs are non-basic(All beliefs are non-basic and get their justification from other beliefs-notes)

What are the three ways of thinking of the nature of coherence?

Most common position is to define coherence in terms of inference;

Deductive inference - in which the conclusion follows with certainty from its premises

Induction inference - in which the conclusion follows from its premises with a degree of probability

Inference to the best explanation - a conclusion is derived as preferable to competing hypotheses because it best explains the data

List and describe the problems of Coherentism.

The Isolation problem - a person could have a completely coherent system that is isolated form the real world

Alternative coherent systems problem - Two different people could have equally coherent but completely contradictory systems of belief

Regress problem - When coherentism adds a new beliefs to it’s web it faces infinite regress problems  

Describe Contextualism.

(Book); A theory of epistemic justification, which holds that beliefs are justified relative to a specific context.

Define science.

The systematic inquiry into the natural world, which aims to organize, predict, and explains empirical data

List and describe the five presuppositions of science discussed in the book and in class? (Notes Version)

1. Law of reason - which is Law of Identity; Law of excluded middle; Law of no contradiction

2. The general reliability of sense perception - we can generally trust our senses to rightly perceive nature

3. Law of causality - Every effect must have a cause

4. The uniformity of nature - The laws of nature will remain constant throughout time

5. Values - Moral assumptions are made in science (Honesty, topics, etc)

Define Scientific Realism.

Scientific theories properly aim to give a true account of the physical world

Define Scientific Nonrealism.

Science is not ultimately about truth

What are the steps of the Inductive method?

1. Make observations and gather data

2. Make generalizations based on data

3. Form hypothesis based on generalization to explain data

4. Test hypothesis

5. Confirm or falsify hypothesis

What are the 2 problems of induction?

There is no such thing as theory-neutral observations and there is no clear line on how much confirming experimental data is necessary to demonstrate the truth of a theory. These generalizations depend on the assumption that the laws of nature are constant

Describe falsification.

Proposed as an alternative to the inductive method

Know the basics of Instrumentalism.

Journalism is a surrender of the focus on the truth of scientific theories for an emphasis on the practicality of the theories. It seems to be pragmaticism applied to science and scientific theories serve as tools to solve problems; Science theories and concepts become useful fictions. This when used in science, the concept of true or false applies to their practical usefulness

Know Kuhn’s Cycle of paradigm shifts as described in class

1. Pre-science - research done without a guiding paradigm

2. Normal science - working within an accepted paradigm using accepted tools of inquiry

3. Model drift - accumulation of anomalies that don’t fit the paradigm (theories outside that attack your paradigm)

4. Crisis - research done to account for anomalies and begins to challenge the accepted paradigm

5. Revolution - a new model which incorporates the anomalies is proposed to replace the old paradigm

6. Paradigm shift - New model is embraced and becomes the new normal science

What are the objections to Kuhn’s view?

Kuhn’s theory does not fit the common sense view that science is a rational enterprise; it provided no means objection critique of a theory, no way to say which paradigm is superior to another; It cannot account for why scientific revolutions take place if all theories selections is relative to the paradigm a community accepts; Kuhn’s theory is self refuting. If all truth claims are relative to the paradigm and is not objective, then this applies to kuhn’s philosophy of science itself.

Describe Feyerabend’s Anarchism.

Science is not constrained by any clear-cut methodological rules when it comes to a theory, assessment and selection

Define laws of nature

in the philosophy of science, a stated regularity in the relations or orders of phenomenon in the world that holds under a stipulated set of conditions, either universally, or in a stated proportion of instances

Describe the regularity view of the laws of nature.

Regards laws as summary descriptions of how things happen and will continue to happen

Describe the instrumentalist view of the laws of nature.

Is the idea that it is the practical value of a general statement that matters scientific theories can be useful fiction

How do the author’s use the existence of God to argue for natural laws?

(working on)

What is metaphysical naturalism?

Believing that only the physical world exist no supernatural beings

What is methodological naturalism?

Although the supernatural realm exist, science should be practical without any reference to the supernatural. Science, by definition, pertains to the natural world, not other fields of inquiry. They function as if only the physical world exist while doing work. This is also a concept of looking for natural exclamations for natural phenomenon to avoid the problem of God of the gaps

Know the critical reflections on methodological naturalism.

This is essentially theological concept, but the essence of it is to act as if the physical world is all that exist in science; the question arises about why we should follow their load logical naturalism because of the financial exclamations for everything, why do we need God; pathological naturalism is also sells contradictory, since a pro ports not to allow for consideration of the supernatural in the room with science. However, they can avoid supernatural concepts of logic, math, etc.

What is the authors’ proposal of Theistic Science?

that this concept takes theological considerations into account when doing science. They also say that Christian should recognize that we really do know many things about God and the natural world, from scripture and theological inquiry and Christian natural scientist, not pretend not to know these things when they do sign