Epistemology, Theories of Truth, and Cartesian Philosophy

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering truth definitions, epistemology, rationalism vs. empiricism, Kantian synthesis, and René Descartes' Meditations and methodology.

Justified True Belief

The tripartite definition of knowledge asserting that for a proposition to count as knowledge, one must believe it, it must be true, and one must possess justification rather than arriving at the truth by mere happenstance.

Warranted Belief

A belief supported by evidence or justification, which gives a person good reason to believe a proposition as fact, even though it may still turn out not to be true.

Type 1 Reasoning Error

A reasoning error that consists of believing a falsehood.

Type 2 Reasoning Error

A reasoning error that consists of rejecting a truth.

Objective Truth

Truth that is absolute and universal, independent of individual opinion or feeling, exemplified by the statement 'The Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon.'

Relative Truth

Truth that depends on context, perspective, or collective interests, exemplified by the statement 'It was in the United States’ best interest to invade Iraq.'

Subjective Truth

Truth that is based on personal preference, feeling, or taste, exemplified by the statement 'Lord of the Rings is a great movie.'

Epistemology

The branch of philosophy that critically evaluates the nature, methodology, limitation, and origin of human knowledge.

Rationalism

The philosophical position held by thinkers such as Plato, St. Augustine, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Descartes, asserting that reason alone, without the aid of sensory information, is capable of arriving at knowledge and undeniable truths.

Empiricism

The philosophical position held by thinkers such as Aristotle, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume, asserting that knowledge has its origins in and derives all of its content from experience and the five senses.

A Priori Knowledge

Non-empirical propositional knowledge whose justification, reason, or warrant does not depend on sensory experience, such as mathematical propositions, geometry, and analytic statements.

A Posteriori Knowledge

Empirical propositional knowledge whose justification, reason, or warrant depends directly on sensory experience, such as observing that Halley’s comet returns to earth every seventy-five years.

Tabula Rasa

A Latin phrase meaning 'blank slate,' used by John Locke to describe the mind before it receives content and knowledge derived entirely from experience.

Transcendental Idealism

Immanuel Kant's epistemological view that the form of our knowledge of reality derives from reason, while its content comes from our senses.

Phenomenal World

In Kantian philosophy, the world constructed by our minds through organizing sense impressions with mental categories, which is the only world we can perceive and know.

Noumenal World

In Kantian philosophy, the world as it might really exist apart from our minds, which human beings can never directly know.

Kant's Copernican Revolution

Immanuel Kant's revolutionary epistemological reversal proposing that instead of the human mind conforming to the world and its order, the experienced world must conform to the organizing categories of the mind.

Analytic Geometry

A branch of mathematics founded by René Descartes (along with Galileo) that bridges geometry and algebra by using geometrical analysis to solve complex algebraic problems, and vice versa.

Hyperbolic Doubt

Descartes' radical and exaggerated philosophical method of systematically testing whether an entire class of knowledge can be doubted, aiming to arrive at beliefs that are indubitably true.

Evil Demon Hypothesis

A thought experiment introduced by Descartes in Meditation I positing an all-powerful deceiver capable of distorting even a priori knowledge and primary qualities, making beliefs like $2 + 2 = 5$ seem true.

The Cogito

The foundational axiom formulated by Descartes as 'Cogito Ergo Sum' ('I think therefore I am'), representing the first indubitable certainty that even if he is deceived, he must exist as a thinking thing.

Thinking Thing

Descartes' definition of the incorporeal self: a thing that doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, imagines, and perceives.

Wax Example

Descartes' demonstration in Meditation II showing that as a piece of wax melts and loses its sensible qualities, it is still known to remain the same wax solely through the intellect and reason, not through the senses.

Descartes' Theory of Error

The doctrine in Meditation IV stating that judgment is a product of understanding (which observes) and will (which assents); error occurs when one misuses free will to assent to matters not clearly and distinctly perceived by understanding.

Mind-Body Distinction (Cartesian Dualism)

Descartes' thesis in Meditation VI asserting that the mind is incorporeal and indivisible, while the body is corporeal and divisible; though distinct, they are united so intimately that the soul is not merely lodged in the body like a pilot in a ship.

Primary Qualities

Qualities that belong to the physical object itself and are treated as objects of mathematics, including quantity, shape, time, and magnitude.

Secondary Qualities

Qualities that do not belong to the object itself but exist only in the mind of an observer as products of the senses, including hardness, heat, light, odour, colour, taste, and sound.

Descartes' Four Rules of Method

The rules from Discourse on the Method: 1) accept as true only what is indubitable; 2) divide each question into manageable parts; 3) ascend step by step from the simplest issues to the complex; 4) review frequently and comprehensively to leave nothing out.

Three Mental Operations (S.V. Keeling)

The three cognitive faculties underpinning Descartes' method: intuition (directly apprehending simple natures), deduction (inferring necessary relations between them), and enumeration (comprehensive review to prevent memory error).