Epistemology: Knowledge Types, Definitions, and Skepticism

What are the 4 key subheadings of Knowledge & Definition?

1. Types of knowledge (acquaintance, ability, propositional) 2. The tripartite/JTB definition 3. Gettier cases and responses 4. Alternative definitions (reliabilism, virtue epistemology)

What are the 3 types of knowledge?

Acquaintance knowledge, ability knowledge, propositional knowledge.

What is the tripartite/JTB definition of knowledge?

Knowledge = Justified True Belief. A person S knows P if: P is true, S believes P, and S is justified in believing P.

What is a Gettier case?

A counterexample to JTB where someone has a justified true belief that most would not count as knowledge due to luck.

What is the no false lemmas response to Gettier cases?

Add a fourth condition: the justification must not rest on any false belief.

What is reliabilism in epistemology?

Knowledge = a true belief formed by a reliable (truth-conducive) process.

What is virtue epistemology?

Knowledge = a true belief arising from an act of intellectual virtue.

What are the 4 key subheadings of Perception?

1. Direct realism 2. Indirect realism 3. Berkeley's idealism 4. Responses and objections across all three.

What is direct realism?

We directly perceive mind-independent physical objects and their properties.

What are the 3 arguments against direct realism?

1. Argument from illusion 2. Perceptual variation 3. Time-lag.

What is indirect realism?

We perceive physical objects indirectly via sense data.

What is Russell's best hypothesis regarding the external world?

We cannot prove the external world exists but positing it is the best explanation for our sense data.

What is Berkeley's idealism?

To be is to be perceived (esse est percipi). Physical objects are collections of ideas in minds.

What are the 3 objections to Berkeley's idealism?

1. Illusions/hallucinations 2. Leads to solipsism 3. Role of God is incoherent.

What are the 4 key subheadings of Reason & Innate Knowledge?

1. Innatism 2. Locke's empiricist objections 3. Descartes' intuition and deduction thesis 4. Hume's Fork.

What is Plato's slave boy argument?

Socrates draws out geometric knowledge from an uneducated slave boy through questioning alone.

What is Locke's no universal assent argument?

If ideas were innate they would be held universally.

What is Locke's transparency of ideas argument?

For an idea to be in the mind, you must have been conscious of it.

What is Descartes' intuition and deduction thesis?

Via pure rational intuition we can grasp clear and distinct ideas.

What is Hume's Fork?

All meaningful propositions are either relations of ideas or matters of fact.

What are the 4 key subheadings of Scepticism?

1. Descartes' three waves of doubt 2. Descartes' response 3. Empiricist responses 4. Reliabilist response.

What are Descartes' three waves of doubt?

1. Senses sometimes deceive 2. Dream argument 3. Evil demon.

What is Descartes' response to scepticism?

Cogito ergo sum — I think therefore I am.

What is the Cartesian Circle problem?

Descartes' argument is circular; it presupposes what it sets out to prove.

What is Russell's response to global scepticism?

The external world is a better explanation for our experience than an evil demon.

What is the reliabilist response to scepticism?

Even if I can't know whether I'm a brain in a vat, my beliefs can still count as knowledge.