Epistemology Key Terms

Abduction

An abductive argument (which is often described as inference to the best explanation), is one that proceeds from an effect to argue for the most likely cause.

Anti-realism

If you are a realist about something, then you believe that it exists independently of our minds. If you are an anti-realist about something, you think it is mind-dependent. This is closely connected to non-cognitivism. For example, in epistemology, anti-realists about perception think that material objects exist only for minds and that a mind-independent world is non-existent. (Berkeley summed up this idealist position by saying that to be is to be perceived.) An example of anti-realism in religious language is Wittgenstein's theory that religious terms need to be understood within a religious language game.

Apt belief

For Ernest Sosa, a belief is an apt one if it is a true one, and is a true one because of the cognitive skill of the believer.

Argument

An argument is a series of propositions intended to support a conclusion. The propositions offered in support of the conclusion are termed premises.

Belief

A state of mind or thought which is about the world. It is a mental representation which claims that something is the case, or that a proposition is true. For example, you may have the belief that Westminster is in London or that cod liver oil is good for your health. A belief will have some degree of evidence in support of it, but is normally regarded as weaker than knowledge, either because knowledge cannot turn out to be false, or because it requires stronger evidence.

Belief in ... / Belief that ...

Ordinarily when we talk about beliefs we are talking about beliefs that certain things are true (for example, you might believe that Media Studies As-level is easier than Philosophy As-level). Sometimes we talk about beliefs in certain things (for example, belief in God, or in the new England football manager). To believe in something means not only believing that it exists, but also having a certain confidence in that person or process - we adopt a positive attitude towards that person or process and are committed to it.

Clear and distinct ideas

The basic or self-justifying beliefs that Descartes hopes to use as foundations for his system of knowledge. Clear and distinct ideas, we are told, are those which can be 'intuited' by the mind by what he calls the 'light of reason' In other words, they are truths of reason, truths that car be known with the mind alone.Descartes' examples of clear and distinct ideas are the basic claims of logic, geometry and mathematics. Knowledge of truths of reason, it is claimed, resists any sceptical attack, since we recognise its truth immediately. Our faculty of"intuition' permits us to recognise the truth without allowing any room for doubt or error. For example, it is in vain to ask how I know that triangles have three sides. Such knowledge is given in the very act of understanding the terms involved. There is no further evidence I need appeal to in order to justify such knowledge.

Cogito

Latin for '1 think, and shorthand for Descartes famous argument to prove his own existence. Descartes attempted to doubt he existed, but realised that in order to doubt this, he must exist. So his own existence was indubitable.

Concept

Having a concept of something is what enables one to recognise it, distinguish it from other things and think about it. So if I have the concept of a hedgehog, I can think about hedgehogs, and recognise them when I encounter them, and tell the difference between them and hogs or hedges. Similarly, to have a concept of red is to be able to think about it, recognise it and distinguish it from other colours. According to traditional empiricism, all our concepts are formed as kinds of 'copy of the original sensations.

Conclusion

A statement that comes at the end of an argument and that is supported by the reasons given in the argument. If an argument is sound or valid and all of the premises are true, then the conclusion will also be true.

Deductive argument

(also 'deductively valid' or simply 'valid') An argument where the truth of the conclusion is guaranteed by the truth of the premises. In other words, it is an argument in which the premises entail the conclusion. So if one accepts the truth of the premises, one must, as a matter of logical necessity, accept the conclusion. For example: either you will become a fireman or a doctor. But you can only become; a doctor with a medical degree which you will never get. So you will become a fireman. A deductive argument is in contrast to an inductive argument.

Direct realism

The common-sense view of how perception works. Physical objects have an independent existence in space; they follow the laws of physics and possess certain properties, ranging from size and shape through to colour, smell and texture. When humans are in the presence of such objects under appropriate conditions, they are able to perceive them along with all these properties.

Empiricism

An epistemological position which holds that our beliefs and knowledge must be based on experience. David Hume was one philosopher who rigorously applied his empiricist approach to questions in the philosophy of religion.

Enlightenment

Also known as the Age of Reason. The period of European history in the eighteenth century in which thinkers and writers were optimistic about the progress that humans could make in different fields. It was characterised by critical and analytic thinking, and meant a break with the past, including a break with Christian thinking. Some of this optimism arose from the scientific discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, which led to the belief that similar theories and laws could be developed in other areas of human thought. Famous enlightenment philosophers include Voltaire and Hume.

Epistemology

One of the three main areas of philosophical study and analysis (see also moral philosophy and metaphysics). Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge. looks at questions of what it is possible to know, what grounds our claims to knowledge are based on, what is true, what is the distinction between knowledge and belief. (The term is derived from the ancient Greek words, episteme meaning knowledge, and logos meaning 'account' or rationale".)

Evidence

The reasons for holding a belief.

Evil demon

A device used by Descartes to generate a sceptical argument about the possibility of knowledge of the external world and of basic propositions of arithmetic and geometry. It is conceivable that there exists an extremely powerful spirit or demon bent on deceiving me. If this were the case, then all my perceptions of the world around me could be an illusion produced in my mind by the demon. Even my own body could be a part of the illusion. Moreover, the demon could cause me to make mistakes even about the most simple judgements of maths and geometry, so that I go wrong when adding 2 + 3 or counting the sides of a square.

Evolution

The process, described as natural selection by Charles Darwin, by which organisms gradually change over time according to changes in their environment and genetic mutations. Some mutations lead to traits or characteristics which make an organism better suited to an environment and more successful in having offspring that also survive and reproduce; some environmental changes mean that an organism is less suited to its environment and its offspring are less successful in surviving and reproducing. Over long periods of time, and in environmentally stable conditions, the characteristics of an organism become highly adapted to its environment and have all the appearance of being designed for that environment.

External world

All that exists outside of or independently of the mind; the physical world.

Fact

Something which is the case. For example, it is a fact that the earth revolves around the sun.

Forms

(theory of Plato's theory of forms is a theory about types or classes of thing. The word 'form' is used to translate Plato's use of the Greek word 'idea, with which he refers to the type or class to which a thing belongs. Plato argues that over and above the realm of physical objects there is a realm of' forms' to which individual physical things belong. So in the physical realm there are many tables, but there is also the single form of the table, the ideal or blueprint of the table which we recognise not with our senses, but with the mind.

Foundationalism

A view about the structure of justification which claims that there are two sorts of belief: those which are basic or foundational and which require no justification (or which are self-justifying), and those which are built on top of the foundations and justified in terms of them.

Given

The given is the raw and immediate element of experience prior to any judgement. What is given to us immediately are often termed sense data, and such experience is thought to be known for certain and incorrigibly.

Hypothetical statements

'If ...then' statements which make claims about states of affairs which are not actual, but which would be if certain conditions were satisfied. Hypothetical statements are used to translate physical object language into phenomenal language in linguistic phenomenalism.

Idea

The uses of the word idea are various within the philosophical literature, as well as in ordinary parlance. Here the word is not used in a technical or precise sense, except when in italics, where it refers to Locke's use of the word to mean anything of which the mind is conscious, including sense data, concepts and beliefs.

Idealism

Idealism as discussed here is an anti-realist theory of perception. Put forward by Berkeley, it is the view that matter does not exist independently of the mind and that all that exists are minds and their ideas. Physical objects are no more than collections of sensations appearing in minds. Objects which are not currently being perceived by any creature are sustained in existence by being perceived in the mind of God.

Incorrigible

To call a belief incorrigible is to say that it cannot be corrected or changed. Someone who honestly holds a belief which is incorrigible cannot be mistaken about it. Beliefs about our own sense data are often thought to be incorrigible since there appears to be no way in which I can be mistaken about my own experiences, and there appears to be no further evidence that could be brought to bear to make me change my mind about what I am experiencing. For this reason, such beliefs are often taken to be immune to sceptical attack.

Indirect realism

The view that the immediate objects of perception are sense data or representations and that the physical world is perceived only indirectly via these representations.

Indubitable

Not doubtable. A belief which it is not possible to doubt is indubitable.

Inductive argument

An argument where the truth of the conclusion is not fully guaranteed by the truth of the premises. For example, moving from particular examples (every raven I have seen has been black) to a generalisation (all ravens are black); or moving from our experience of the past (day has always followed night) to a prediction about the future (day will always follow night). Arguments from analogy are also inductive: they compare two things. and move from what these two things are known to have in common to draw a conclusion about other (unknown) things they are supposed to have in common.

Infallibilism

Theory of knowledge which claims that we should only count as knowledge those beliefs that it is impossible to doubt.

Inference

The move in an argument from the premises or reasons to the conclusion. For example, in the argument, 'Moriarty had blood on his hands, therefore he must be the murderer', the inference is the move made from the premise that Moriarty had blood on his hands to the conclusion that he is the murderer.

Infinite regress

A regress is a process of reasoning from effect to cause, or of going backwards in a chain of explanations. An infinite regress is one where the process never stops, where it is repeated endlessly. This is generally considered problematic in a philosophical argument, and al sign that a mistake has been made.

Innate ideas

Ideas that exist in the mind which are not acquired from experience. Plato, for example, argued that all ideas or concepts are innate and that the process of acquiring knowledge is not one of learning in the strict sense, but rather of recollecting what we already implicitly know. So we are all born with innate knowledge of the 'forms', and it is this knowledge which enables us to recognise individual exemplars of the forms in this life. Rationalists traditionally favoured the belief that we possess such ideas. Leibniz, for example, argued that such ideas exist implicitly within the mind and that they are brought to the surface of consciousness through experience. Rationalists often use the doctrine of innate ideas to explain the possibility of a priori knowledge. Descartes argued that knowledge of mathematics is innate and that the discovery of mathematical truths involves the mind looking into itself to uncover them. Knowledge of the existence of God is also possible, according to Descartes, because we can look into our own mind to discover the idea and deduce his existence in an a priori manner, simply through careful mental scrutiny of the idea. Opposed to the doctrine of innate ideas are the empiricists, and in particular John Locke, who devoted the first book of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to their repudiation. Locke argued that all the contents of the mind can be reduced to sensation variously transformed and that the mind at birth is akin to a blank paper.

Insensible/sensible Terms

often used by Locke and Berkeley to mean the same as imperceptible and perceptible. For Locke, the minute corpuscles or atoms which compose material objects are 'insensible' because they are too small for us to perceive; whereas the 'sensible' qualities of objects are those we can perceive. For Berkeley. objects consist of sensible qualities alone, for what is insensible does not exist.

Intuition

A kind of mental seeing by which rational truths can be recognised. For Descartes, the mind deploys the faculty of intuition when it sees by the light of reason' that 2 + 2 \= 4 or that a sphere is bounded by one surface.

Knowledge

There are three sorts of knowledge: practical knowledge, knowledge by acquaintance and factual knowledge. The traditional account of factual knowledge claims that it is justified, true belief.

Lemma

A subsidiary belief or proposition used to justify or prove another belief/proposition.

Material

Made of physical matter. According to Descartes, this involved occupying physical space. In contrast, God is thought of by Christian philosophers as immaterial.

Metaphysics

One of the three main areas of philosophical study and analysis (see also epistemology and moral philosophy). Metaphysics is concerned with determining what sorts of things really exist, what is the ultimate nature of reality, where the world comes from, what is the relationship of our mind to the world. (It is said that the term 'metaphysics' came about because in ancient catalogues of Aristotle's work, his books on the nature of reality came after (in Greek, meta) his books on physics - hence, metaphysics.)

Method of doubt

Descartes' sceptical method used to find certainty. Descartes found that many of his beliefs had turned out to be false, and to remedy this situation he elected to cast doubt upon all his beliefs. If any beliefs showed themselves to be indubitable, and could survive the Rat most radical scepticism, then they would have established themselves as absolutely certain. Once he had discovered such beliefs, Descartes hoped to rebuild a body of knowledge based on them which would be free from error.

Necessary/sufficient condition

A is a necessary condition for B when you have to have A in order to have B. In other words, if you do not have A, you cannot have B. By contrast, A is a sufficient condition for B when if you have A you must have B too. In other words, having A is enough or sufficient to guarantee that you have B.

Ontology

The study of being in general or of what there is. If you have an ontological commitment to something then you believe that it exists independently of you (for example, some moral realists have an ontological commitment to moral values).

Perception

The process by which we become aware of physical objects, including our own body.

Phenomenalism

An anti-realist theory of perception distinguished from idealism in that it claims that physical objects are collections not just of actual sense data, but also of potential sense data. Physical objects continue to exist unperceived since they retain the potential to be perceived.

Predicate

Many propositions can be divided into a subject and a predicate, where the subject is the thing that the sentence is about and the predicate gives us information about the subject. For example, in the sentence, "The balloon is red', the expression is red' is the predicate, the term balloon', the subject. Some philosophers argued that in the sentence 'God exists, 'exists' is a predicate applying to 'God'. However, philosophers from Kant onwards have doubted whether existence is a genuine predicate.

Premise

Any reason given (usually in the form of a statement or claim) to support the conclusion of an argument.

Primary and secondary qualities

According to indirect realism, physical objects have certain primary qualities, such as size and shape, which we are able to perceive. At the same time, we also seem to perceive objects to have a set of secondary qualities, such as colours, sounds and smells. However, these qualities are not actually in the objects themselves, but rather are powers to produce these sensations in us. Such powers are a product of the arrangement of the parts of the object which are too small for us to observe.

Rationalism

The tendency in philosophy to regard reason. as opposed to sense experience, as the primary source of the important knowledge of which we are capable. Rationalists are typically impressed by the systematic nature of mathematical knowledge and the possibility of certainty that it affords. Using mathematics as the ideal of how knowledge should be, rationalists typically attempt to extend this type of knowledge into other areas of human inquiry, such as to knowledge of the physical world, or to ethics. Rationalism is traditionally contrasted with empiricism: the view that most of what we know is acquired through experience.

Realism

If you are a realist about something, then you believe it exists independently of our minds. If you are an anti-realist about something, you think it is mind-dependent. Examples of realist positions from epistemology are direct realism and indirect realism. What they have in common is the conviction that physical objects are real; that is, that they have an existence independently of our perception of them. See also anti-realism.

Reason

The capacity for rational argument and judgement. The process by which we are able to discover the truth of things by pure thought by inferring conclusions from premises. Often contrasted with instinct, emotion or imagination.

Reliabilism

A theory of knowledge which claims that the reliability of the (cognitive) process involved in generating a belief is the key factor in whether we should call it knowledge or not. Reliabilism is the claim that knowledge is a true belief that is produced by a reliable process. Representation In the philosophy of perception, a representation is a sense experience or collection of sense data which appears to picture some aspect of the physical world, such as an object. See also indirect realism.

Representative realism

A realist theory of perception which claims that physical objects impact upon our sense organs, causing us to experience sensations. These sensations are akin to pictures which represent the objects which cause them.

Scepticism

Philosophical scepticism entails raising doubts about our claims to know. Global scepticism directs its doubts at all knowledge claims and argues that we can know nothing, Scepticism can also have a more limited application to some subset of our knowledge claims; for example, concerning the possibility of knowledge of the claims of religion or of ethics. The purpose of scepticism in philosophy is first to test our knowledge claims. If they can survive the sceptic's attack, then they may vindicate themselves as genuine knowledge. Descartes used scepticism in this way so that he could isolate a few certainties which he felt could be used as a foundation to rebuild a body of knowledge free from doubt or error. Scepticism is also used as a tool for distinguishing which types of belief can be treated as known and which cannot, thereby delimiting those areas where knowledge is possible. In this way, philosophers often exclude certain regions of human enquiry as fruitless, since they cannot lead to knowledge. Empiricists, for example, often argue that knowledge of religious claims is impossible since they cannot be verified in terms of experience.

Self

What the word I refers to. The essence of the person and what many philosophers, most notably Descartes, have argued we are directly aware of through introspection.

Sensation

The subjective experience we have as a consequence of perceiving physical objects, including our own bodies, such as the experience of smelling a rose, or of feeling hungry.

Sense data

What one is directly aware of in perception. The subjective elements which constitute experience. For example, when perceiving a banana, what I actually sense is a collection of sense data: the way the banana seems to me, including a distinctive smell, a crescent-shaped yellow expanse, a certain texture and taste. According to sense data theorists, we make judgements about the nature of the physical world on the basis of immediate awareness of these sense data. So, on the basis of my awareness of the sense datum of a yellow expanse, plus that of a banana smell, and so on, I judge that I am in the presence of a banana. In this way, we build up a picture of the physical world, and so all empirical knowledge can rest on the foundation of sense data.

Sense impressions

The colours, noises, tastes, sounds and smells that one is aware of when perceiving the world. Also known as sense data.

Solipsism

The view that all that can be known to exist is my own mind. This is not normally a position defended by Philosophers, but rather a sceptical trap into which certain ways of thinking appear to lead. For example, if it is urged that all that can be truly know is what one is directly aware of oneself, then it follows that one cannot know anything of which one is not directly aware. This might include the minds of other people (which one can only learn about via their behaviour), or, more radically, the very existence of the physical world, including one's own body (which one can only learn about via one's sense experience of it).

Subject

In grammar, the part of a proposition that picks out the main object which is being described or discussed: for example, in "The red balloon popped', the subject is 'the balloon'. In the sentence, 'God is the greatest conceivable being, 'God' is the subject.

Veridical

Truthful or accurate. Perception is veridical if it is faithful to reality, and for indirect realists, this means it provides an accurate representation of the external world Veridical perceptions contrast with hallucinations or illusions where the representation of reality is inaccurate or misleading.

Virtue epistemology

This is a recent approach to the thinking about the concept of knowledge. It claims that we should seek to define knowledge as the true beliefs that have been brought about through sound cognitive processes (for example, epistemic virtues such as careful reasoning or clear vision) and where the beliefs are true ones because of the epistemic virtues that brought them about.