Core

Question 1

Assertion

Answer 1

A linguistic act - either spoken or written - that has a truth value

Question 2

Truth value

Answer 2

The state of being either true, false or indeterminate

Question 3

Belief

Answer 3

Propositional attitude of truth

Question 4

Proposition

Answer 4

The content of the assertion. The underlying meaning of what you’re saying

Question 5

Propositional attitude

Answer 5

Whether or not the individual asserting the proposition has the attitude that it corresponds to reality.

Question 6

Traditional, platonic definition of knowledge

Answer 6

Justified true belief

Question 7

Justification

Answer 7

Evidence, or other support, for your belief

Question 8

Gettier cases

Answer 8

Situations in which one can have justified true belief, but not knowledge

Question 9

Knowledge by acquaintance

Answer 9

First-hand knowledge based on perceptual experience, knowledge of, kennen
This and practical knowledge make experiential knowledge

Question 10

Practical knowledge

Answer 10

Skills-based knowledge, knowledge how

This and knowledge by acquaintance make experiential knowledge

Question 11

Knowledge by description

Answer 11

Second-hand knowledge which comes in the form of language, knowledge that, wissen

Question 12

How are knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description related?

Answer 12

• Description depends on acquaintance. Must be possible to source back to someone who has had first-hand experience
• Acquaintance spills beyond description. Acquaintance can never fully be described
• Description colours acquaintance
• Acquaintance fades with time

Question 13

Empiricism

Answer 13

The belief that all knowledge is ultimately based on sense experience

Question 14

Verbal overshadowing

Answer 14

The tendency of a verbal description to influence and distort perception

Question 15

Informal knowledge

Answer 15

Second-hand stock of cultural and local knowledge, random facts and trivia - not organised into an academic discipline

Question 16

Shared knowledge

Answer 16

The stock of academic knowledge, informal knowledge and practical knowledge which can be communicated verbally or non-verbally to other people

Question 17

Reasonable knowledge is based on

Answer 17

1. Evidence
   
   • Problem of biases
   • Fallacies - arg. ad ignorantium
2. Coherence - does this knowledge fit with the generally agreed upon knowledge

Question 18

Argument ad ignorantiam

Answer 18

Putting the responsibility of disproving a hypothesis on an external party “you can not prove x is false”

Question 19

Personal knowledge

Answer 19

Experiential knowledge plus those parts of academic/formal and informal knowledge which you have made on your own

Question 20

Inert knowledge

Answer 20

Lost knowledge, never accessed by anyone

Question 21

Some criteria to help decide when to trust experts

Answer 21

• Credentials: they have relevant expertise
• Evidence: support position with evidence
• Corroboration: their views are supported
• Track record: their reputation is reliable
• Neutrality: no biases

Question 22

Algorithm

Answer 22

a set of step-by-step rules found in computer programs (and elsewhere) which is designed to achieve a specific task

Question 23

Citizen journalists

Answer 23

ordinary people who actively gather, report and spread news via social media (example: Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011)

Question 24

Agenda settings

Answer 24

the tendency of the news media to influence which stories the public consider important (has to do with selection of stories)

Question 25

Framing

Answer 25

the treatment of stories in a biased way, the use of pictures and language to shape the way a story is presented

Question 26

Sensationalism bias

Answer 26

the news media’s tendency to focus on sensational news stories to the detriment of less dramatic but equally important ones

Question 27

Bad news bias

Answer 27

the tendency of the media to focus on bad news rather than good news

Question 28

National bias

Answer 28

the tendency of the media to present be nationalist

Question 29

Obstacles to personal knowledge

Answer 29

• Ignorance (mostly ignorance of our ignorance resulting in overconfidence)
• Apathy
• Fantasy (wanting something to be true to believing it to true – wishful thinking)
• Bias
• Peer pressure

Question 30

Dangers with shared knowledge

Answer 30

• Authority worship (uncritically accepting something as true because an authority says it is true)
• Groupthink (peer pressure leading to everyone in a group to believe the same)
• Power distortions (vested interest – corporations wanting something to be true. E.g. funding in a particular study)
• Fragmentation (fragmentation of knowledge – no big picture)