Epistemology Flashcards
What are the three types of knowledge?
Acquaintance
Skill or Competence
Propositional
What is: Knowledge from things you have experienced before. An example of this is biting your lip and knowing it will hurt.
Knowledge by Acquaintance
What is: Things you know how to do. Are developed over time. An example of this is riding a bike.
Knowledge by Skill or Competence
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.
Propositional Knowledge
When making a argument using critical reasoning, what three thing do you need to identify?
- The Main Point
- The Reasons
- Evaluate The Reasons
What is the number 101?
It can either be one-hundred and one or it could be 5 using binary math.
What is the Socratic Method?
The information is already within a person and can coxed out by questioning the person.
Define: Necessary Truth
Necessary truth is the type of truth which cannot be false. Mathematical truths and semantic truths fall in this category.
Define: Empirical Truth
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.
What Are The Three Theories of Truth?
Correspondence
Coherence
Consensus or Pragmatic
What Are The Categories of Truth?
Necessary
Empirical
Define: Theories of Truth- Correspondence
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.
Define: Theory of Truth- Coherence
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.
Define: Theory of Truth- Consensus or Pragmatic
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.
Valid Syllogism
The premise is true, but the conclusion is not.
All M are P.
S is M.
Therefore, S is P.
Sound Syllogism
For a syllogism to be sound it must be valid. The premises are true and the conclusion is true.
What is The Rule of Distributed Middle
It is distributed if it follows:
All M are P.
S is M.
Therefore, S is P.
Explain The Quote: “ As scarce as the truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”
People are more comfortable with what they believe than what is true.
What Did William James Say About How we Perceive Life?
We are always living in the past and future, never in the present. He called this the specious present.
What Are The Three Ways Philosophers Have Tried to Justify Knowledge?
The Supernatural
Powers of The Mind
Experience
How Does The Supernatural Justify Knowledge?
People have used the supernatural, things like God, Forms, ect, to prove how and why things work.
How Does Powers of The Mind Justify Knowledge?
Some say the mind is the best reason to justify knowledge. The mind’s ability to recollect and rationalize.
Why Did Daniel Dennett Say Was Problematic About Using Memory to Justify Knowledge?
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.
What is Hume’s Fork?
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.
What is The Principal of Non-Contradiction?
A statement cannot be simultaneously true and false.
What is Inductive Reasoning?
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.
What is Deductive Reasoning?
Deductive reasoning is when you deduce the conclusion. The conclusion is known with certainty.
What Are The Five Informal Fallacies?
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.
What Are Dialects?
Things are constantly changing from one thing to another.
What is Scepticism?
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.
Define: Relativism
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.
Should we Trust Our Senses?
No, they regularly deceive us.
Define: Direct Perceptual Realism
Our perception involves gaining direct knowledge by means of the senses.
Define: Representative Perceptual Realism
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.
Define: Empiricism
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.
Define: Philosophical Idealism
Only minds exist, human and god.
Define: Solipsism
Only I exist and everyone and everything else is a figment of my imagination.
What is Ockham’s Razor?
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.
What is The Difference Between Priori Knowledge And Posterior Knowledge.
Priori Knowledge- Before the senses experience it.
Posterior Knowledge- After the senses experience it.
Define:Pragmatism
Knowledge is not abstract but a practical tool for solving problems in science and everyday life.
What Are The Getter Cases?
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.
