Epistemology

Question 1

Justified True Belief

Answer 1

Plato proposed that knowledge consists of some sort of justification (ex: “I know what is in my back because I packed it”)

Question 2

The Gettier Problem

Answer 2

Proposed by Edmund Gettier, it describes such situations as thinking is is 7:30 pm because of a watch which, though not functioning is stopped at the right time. This shows that a belief can be justified and true accidentally which lacks the certainty of knowledge

Question 3

Internalism

Answer 3

One must know that why/how he knows in order to know

Question 4

Externalism

Answer 4

One does not need to know why/how he knows in order to know

Question 5

Reliabilism

Answer 5

A man has knowledge if and only if :
1) Subject believes Predicate
2) Predicate is true
3) Subject believes Predicate by a reliable process

Question 6

Nozick’s Truth Tracking Argument

Answer 6

A man has knowledge if :
1) Subject believes Predicate
2) Predicate is true
3) When Predicate is true, Subject would believe it
4) If Predicate is false, Subject would not believe it

Question 7

Empiricism

Answer 7

“There is nothing in the mind which was not first in the sense.” - St. Thomas Aquinas (though not an empiricist proper). Associated with both Idealism and Materialism in ontology

Question 8

Rationalism

Answer 8

“…except for the mind itself.” - Gottfried von Leibniz. Associated with Idealism and Dualism in ontology

Question 9

Correspondence

Answer 9

Statements are true by accordance with reality

Question 10

Coherence

Answer 10

Statements are true when they are consistent with a certain set of propositions

Question 11

Verificationism

Answer 11

A statement is true only if it can be verified by the senses or is analytically true

Question 12

Pragmatism

Answer 12

Truth indicates useful beliefs

Question 13

Matters of Fact/A Posteriori

Answer 13

Those truths which can only be known by experience

Question 14

Relations of Ideas/ A Priori

Answer 14

Those truths which are known prior to, or to the exclusion of, experience

Question 15

Analytic Truths

Answer 15

That which is true by the meaning of its terms, or a conclusion which contains no more information than its premises (“All unmarried men are bachelors”)

Question 16

Synthetic Truths

Answer 16

That which is not analytic, or a conclusion which contains information not already contained in its premises (Kant: 5 + 7 = 12)

Question 17

Skepticism

Answer 17

Those arguments which call into question the nature of reality and/or our understanding of it, ex: Descartes’ “malin genie”, the “brain-in-a-vat”, “The Matrix”