Epistemology Terms

Useful terms for whole unit

a posteriori

Knowledge of propositions that can only be known to be true or false through sense experience.

a priori

Knowledge of propositions that do not require (sense) experience to be known to be true or false.

acquaintance knowledge

Knowing ‘of’ someone or some place.

ability knowledge

Knowing ‘how’ to do something.

propositional knowledge

Knowing ‘that’ a proposition is true or false.

Necessary condition

Something which has to be true for something else to follow, but may not be enough on its own.

Sufficient condition

A condition which once it is achieved, is enough for something else to follow.

Individually necessary

Each part must be present - if even one is missing, the outcome can't happen.

Jointly sufficient

All the parts together guarantee the outcome - nothing else is needed.

Analytic

A proposition that can be found true or false purely in the meanings of the words.

Synthetic

A proposition that is true or false based on how the world is.

Cartesian circle

Refers to the circular reasoning Descartes seems to employ regarding clear and distinct ideas and God: Descartes cannot rely on clear and distinct ideas before proving God exists, but he cannot prove that God exists without relying on clear and distinct ideas.

Clear and distinct ideas

A clear idea is ‘present and accessible to the attentive mind’; a distinct idea is clear and also sharply separated from other ideas so that every part of it is clear (Descartes).

The cogito

a foundational element in Descartes' philosophy, emphasizing self-awareness as proof of existence, summarized by "I think, therefore I am”. “cogito ergo sum”.

Empirical

Relating to or deriving from experience, especially sense experience.

Gettier case

A situation in which we have justified true belief, but not knowledge, because the belief is only accidentally true, given the evidence that justifies it.

Innate

Knowledge or ideas that are in some way built into the structure of the mind, rather than gained from sense experience.

Rationalism

The theory that there can be a priori knowledge of synthetic propositions about the world (outside my mind) gained through rational insight and reasoning.

Scepticism

The view that our usual justifications for claiming our beliefs amount to knowledge are inadequate, so we do not in fact have knowledge.

Solipsism

The view that only oneself, one’s mind, exists. There no mind-independent physical objects and there are no other minds either.

Tabula rasa

Latin for ‘blank slate’. Locke claims that at birth our mind is a tabula rasa, meaning we have no innate knowledge or ideas.