Lecture 11: Epistemology 1

What is epistemology?

The study of knowledge & how we come into it

• how do we say we know something to be true?

• methods of justifying truth/knowledge

What is justified true belief, belief, truth, and justification?

• Justified true belief - to know something, you have to believe it

• Belief - to believe something: perception of world to mind to reality → contrast desire: make the world (reality) map to your mind

• Truth - the way the world is

• Justification - relation between truth & belief (the foundation)

What is truth: correspondence?

• A proposition is true if & only if it CORRESPONDS to reality → cat sits on a tree is true if this occurs in reality

Issue: blatant-nism - facts are floating in the world for us to seek → if something true happens in the past, it is no longer in the world currently which makes it false

What is truth: coherence

Must fit supporting web of truths → internal consistency

• conspiracies are the opposite

What is truth: pragmatist?

William James

• truth is a belief with cash value → what verifies beliefs to reality? how can beliefs be used?

• verifies: the impact out beliefs have on reality

What is truth: deflationary?

Denies the property of truth

• yes or no questions → are the statements we make true?

• Snow is white → yes or no?

What is objective knoweldge??

Independent of the mind of any knower

The moon will orbit regardless if humans are here watching it → exists outside of the mind’s perception

• How can moral facts be independent of our minds? does consent exist in nature? (independent of our minds)?

How objective is objective knowledge? (situated)

Knowledge & knowers are situated → have a socio-historical perspective

• 5 blind monks touch different part of elephant → all true different perspectives but can’t go beyond to see the full picture due to blindness

What is standpoint theory?

How marginalized positions & how that status impacts knowers & knowledge → impacts perspectives

• one’s situated knowledge grants unique perspective

How does one’s standpoint give them an Epistemic advantage?

Social position & situation allows for a more fuller perspective

• those in position of privilege won’t have full picture/perspective

• able bodied vs. disabled

What is the reoccurring theme “the outsider within” in standpoint theory?

Being an outsider within a specific group

• Being a black woman while being an academic allows you to become apart of a privileged group

→ standing in a door frame in the middle between both rooms

What is epistemic vantage points?

Women can gauge reality better than men can due to marginalization but not all women are the same

• False universalism: upper class white woman won’t have the same experience as a lower class WOC

What is feminist post-modernism?

Denies that there’s a standpoint → no universal experience for a group

• reality is built by relationships (relational self)

What did Willard Van argue about our observations?

Thinking & reason is a 6th sense

• our observations are not neutral → only willing to notice things we care about

• ex. only memorize some phone numbers

What is feminist empiricism?

Knowledge itself is communal → not an individual pursuit of truth

• knowledge is created by norms → norms that govern knowledge will lead us certain ways