Epistemology

Question 1

What are the three types of knowledge?

Answer 1

Acquaintance
Skill or Competence
Propositional

Question 2

What is: Knowledge from things you have experienced before. An example of this is biting your lip and knowing it will hurt.

Answer 2

Knowledge by Acquaintance

Question 3

What is: Things you know how to do. Are developed over time. An example of this is riding a bike.

Answer 3

Knowledge by Skill or Competence

Question 4

What is: The proposed idea is generally considered to be a true belief. Are either true or false. An example of this is Ottawa is the capital of Canada.

Answer 4

Propositional Knowledge

Question 5

When making a argument using critical reasoning, what three thing do you need to identify?

Answer 5

1. The Main Point
2. The Reasons
3. Evaluate The Reasons

Question 6

What is the number 101?

Answer 6

It can either be one-hundred and one or it could be 5 using binary math.

Question 7

What is the Socratic Method?

Answer 7

The information is already within a person and can coxed out by questioning the person.

Question 8

Define: Necessary Truth

Answer 8

Necessary truth is the type of truth which cannot be false. Mathematical truths and semantic truths fall in this category.

Question 9

Define: Empirical Truth

Answer 9

Empirical truth can be imagined to be false. These truths require experience to be true. In philosophy this is known as empiricism. Empiricism holds that rationalism is founded in areas like math and physics but most other truths are subjective and changeable.

Question 10

What Are The Three Theories of Truth?

Answer 10

Correspondence
Coherence
Consensus or Pragmatic

Question 11

What Are The Categories of Truth?

Answer 11

Necessary
Empirical

Question 12

Define: Theories of Truth- Correspondence

Answer 12

Treating truth as a description or reality. A proposition is true if it corresponds to fact. That wall is blue, only if it is perceived to be.

Question 13

Define: Theory of Truth- Coherence

Answer 13

We can build a relationship of thoughts rather than a relationship between thoughts and the outside world. Coherence seeks to build solid arguments where a series of propositions cohere properly and logically with each other. Eggs have protein. Protein is good for me. Therefore, eggs are good for me.

Question 14

Define: Theory of Truth- Consensus or Pragmatic

Answer 14

Pragmatism was proposed by William James. He felt that if something functioned or worked, it is then true. If capital punishment deterred murder, then it was true.

Question 15

Valid Syllogism

Answer 15

The premise is true, but the conclusion is not.
All M are P.
S is M.
Therefore, S is P.

Question 16

Sound Syllogism

Answer 16

For a syllogism to be sound it must be valid. The premises are true and the conclusion is true.

Question 17

What is The Rule of Distributed Middle

Answer 17

It is distributed if it follows:
All M are P.
S is M.
Therefore, S is P.

Question 18

Explain The Quote: “ As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”

Answer 18

People are more comfortable with what they believe than what is true.

Question 19

What Did William James Say About How we Perceive Life?

Answer 19

We are always living in the past and future, never in the present. He called this the specious present.

Question 20

What Are The Three Ways Philosophers Have Tried to Justify Knowledge?

Answer 20

The Supernatural
Powers of The Mind
Experience

Question 21

How Does The Supernatural Justify Knowledge?

Answer 21

People have used the supernatural, things like God, Forms, ect, to prove how and why things work.

Question 22

How Does Powers of The Mind Justify Knowledge?

Answer 22

Some say the mind is the best reason to justify knowledge. The mind’s ability to recollect and rationalize.

Question 23

Why Did Daniel Dennett Say Was Problematic About Using Memory to Justify Knowledge?

Answer 23

Dennett felt that a person’s memory cannot be trusted or used to justify. The brain can edit what we see, it can forget, add or remove details, and the original perception can be false. The perception may be stored faulty or edited.

Question 24

What is Hume’s Fork?

Answer 24

David Hume felt that there were two different worlds, the internal and the external. What is really out there and what we perceive is very different. He came to the conclusion that there were two different types of truth. The truth of reason, 2+2=4, and matters of fact, Ontario has many lakes.

Question 25

What is The Principal of Non-Contradiction?

Answer 25

A statement cannot be simultaneously true and false.

Question 26

What is Inductive Reasoning?

Answer 26

Inductive reasoning involves basing beliefs about things that have not been observed (typically in the future) on things that have been observed in the past. It has uncertainty in the conclusion.

Question 27

What is Deductive Reasoning?

Answer 27

Deductive reasoning is when you deduce the conclusion. The conclusion is known with certainty.

Question 28

What Are The Five Informal Fallacies?

Answer 28

Argument to The Person- You attack the person. Begging The Question- The reason presupposes the conclusion it is supposed to support. Irrelevant Conclusion- The conclusion has nothing to do with the topic. Argument From Ignorance- Saying we do not know it would be helpful. Appeal to Force- Saying a person in power would not support it.

Question 29

What Are Dialects?

Answer 29

Things are constantly changing from one thing to another.

Question 30

What is Scepticism?

Answer 30

This is when a person questions everything. No justification for truth or knowledge can be supported. It doubts everything. The justification would also need to be justified, causing an endless cycle. They conclude that nothing can be justified, ironically as it uses rational thought to take this position.

Question 31

Define: Relativism

Answer 31

Truth can be relative. It just depends on who you are talking to. The world is not black and white, things can both be and not be.

Question 32

Should we Trust Our Senses?

Answer 32

No, they regularly deceive us.

Question 33

Define: Direct Perceptual Realism

Answer 33

Our perception involves gaining direct knowledge by means of the senses.

Question 34

Define: Representative Perceptual Realism

Answer 34

John Locke argued against direct perceptual realism. This theory is still realist because beliefs derived from the senses usually yield knowledge of things in the world. There are three components of perception; the perceiving mind, the ideas or representations of things in the world, which it directly perceives, and things in the world themselves which cause the representations.

Question 35

Define: Empiricism

Answer 35

This is the theory that all knowledge comes from the five senses. The mind at birth is a blank slate and can perceive and understand from their senses. This method does not provide certain knowledge, but it is the only knowledge available to people, and it is generally reliable.

Question 36

Define: Philosophical Idealism

Answer 36

Only minds exist, human and god.

Question 37

Define: Solipsism

Answer 37

Only I exist and everyone and everything else is a figment of my imagination.

Question 38

What is Ockham’s Razor?

Answer 38

Bertrand Russell argued against idealism and solipsism by using one of Berkeley’s principles against him. Berkeley thought that if there are two theories that equally explain the facts they are meant to explain then the simpler one should be preferred. Russell maintained that the simplest explanation for a person’s beliefs about the external world, including other people, is that they exist independently of each person’s perceptions.

Question 39

What is The Difference Between Priori Knowledge And Posterior Knowledge.

Answer 39

Priori Knowledge- Before the senses experience it. Posterior Knowledge- After the senses experience it.

Question 40

Define:Pragmatism

Answer 40

Knowledge is not abstract but a practical tool for solving problems in science and everyday life.

Question 41

What Are The Getter Cases?

Answer 41

A person walks into a classroom and sees their teacher teaching. They assume their teacher is in the classroom. In reality the person they see teaching is the person they perceive to be’s twin. Then the person that they originally perceived the twin to be jumps out of the closet in the classroom. The person was technically not wrong in assuming their teacher was in the classroom.