EPISTEMOLOGY Flashcards
What is the primary aim of philosophy?
To systematically study the most fundamental structures of our entire experience.
Why is philosophy considered an ongoing task?
There are always new problems to face and old problems to be solved in new ways.
What is epistemology?
The theory of knowledge.
What does epistemology seek to answer?
Questions such as ‘What is truth?’ and ‘What is knowledge?’.
What is metaphysics?
The theory of reality.
What are some key questions in metaphysics?
Questions like ‘What is the ultimate reality?’ and ‘Are there other kinds of reality besides the physical world?’.
What is ethics in philosophy?
The theory of what is good.
What are some central questions in ethics?
Questions such as ‘What makes an action right or wrong?’ and ‘Are there any absolute or objective moral principles?’.
What is the focus of logic in philosophy?
The study of the principles of reasoning.
What does social and political philosophy examine?
Questions like ‘What is the ideal state?’ and ‘What makes a government legitimate?’.
What is the philosophy of religion concerned with?
Questions about the existence and nature of God.
According to Plato, how does knowledge differ from belief?
Knowledge is always true, while belief can be either true or false.
What is the principle behind knowledge in Plato’s theory?
To be knowledge, it must be grounded in some sort of rational insight.
What is anamnesis in Plato’s theory of knowledge?
The idea that knowledge is imprinted on the soul and can be recollected.
According to Aristotle, where is the source of knowledge found?
In our immersion in sense experience.
What did Augustine believe about knowledge?
That the mind must interpret and judge sense data through divine illumination.
What is the key difference between Augustine and Plato’s views?
Augustine argues that reason cannot function without faith.
What is Thomas Aquinas’s view on innate knowledge?
He claims there is no innate knowledge and that the mind is like a blank tablet prior to experience.
What is methodic doubt according to Descartes?
To question all beliefs to eliminate false beliefs and build a foundation of certain knowledge.
What does Locke argue about knowledge?
That knowledge does not originate in the mind but through experience.
What is representative realism as proposed by Locke?
The idea that the mind is acquainted only with its own ideas, which represent external objects.
What is Leibniz’s stance on innate ideas?
He argues that there are innate ideas that the mind discovers within itself.
What does Kant argue about knowledge and experience?
All knowledge begins with experience, but it does not arise solely from it.
What does Hegel believe about the rational and reality?
He asserts that the rational is real and ideas have internal laws of change.
What is the dialectical process introduced by Hegel?
The process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
What is Nietzsche’s perspective on knowledge?
He claims that we don’t have any knowledge and that truths are fictions shaped by individual perspectives.
