Epistemology 3 markers

Question 1

DR: What is Direct Realism?

Answer 1

Direct Realism is the belief in an external world of mind independant objects that exists and we percieve this immediatly without mediation.

Question 2

DR) What is the difference between direct realism and idealism?

Answer 2

The direct realist believes we percieve the external world immediately, and therefore the properties of the objects we percieve are mind-independent. Whereas the idealism thinks that all that exists are minds and ideas, so the direct objects of perception are mind dependent

Question 3

DR) What is the difference between direct and indirect realism?

Answer 3

The direct realist believes we percieve the external world immediately, and therefore the properties of the objects we percieve are mind-independent. Whereas the indirect realist thinks our perception of the external world is mediated through something like sense data or secondary qualities, these are mind-dependent.

Question 4

IR) What is the difference between idealism and indirect realism?

Answer 4

The indirect realist thinks our mind dependent perceptions represent and resemble the mind independent external world. Whereas the idealism thinks that all that exists are minds and ideas, so the our perceptions do not represent anything mind independent.

Question 5

IR: What is sense-data?

Answer 5

Sense data constitute what we, as perceiving subjects, are directly aware of in perceptual experience. Sense-data are immaterial and are prior to any further inference about what is represented by sense-data

Question 6

IR: What is Indirect Realism?

Answer 6

Indirect realism is the claim that mind-independent physical objects exist in the external world, but we perceive them via some kind of mediation, sense data, or secondary qualities, which represent and resemble the external world

Question 7

IR: What is the difference between a primary and secondary quality?

Answer 7

Primary qualities are mind-independent, inherent properties of objects.
Secondary qualities are mind-dependent, relational properties which the object only possesses in virtue of its relation to a perceiver

Question 8

WIK: How does Linda Zagzebski define propositional knowledge?

Answer 8

Linda Zagzebski defines propositional knowledge as being in “cognitive contact with reality”. She says knowledge arises out of acts of epistemic virtue.

Question 9

WIK: What does Linda Zagzebski say a good definition should avoid?

Answer 9

Zagzebski says that a good definition should not be circular, ad hoc, more obscure than the term being defined, or negative.

Question 10

WIK: What is (a) propositional knowledge, (b) ability knowledge, (c) acquaintance knowledge?

Answer 10

(a) Propositional knowledge is knowing that some fact is true or false (b) ability knowledge is knowing how to perform an action, and (c) acquaintaince knowledge is knowing of something by experience of it

Question 11

WIK: What is the difference between a necessary and a contingent truth?

Answer 11

A necessary truth is true in all logically possible worlds, its denial of it implies a logical contradiction, whereas a contingent truth’s opposite is possible and its denial does not imply a contradiction

Question 12

WIK) What is the difference between a priori and a prosteriori knowledge?

Answer 12

A priori knowledge is acquired and/or justified through reasoning, whereas a posteriori knowledge is acquired and/or justified via experience

Question 13

WIK) What is the difference between an analytic and synthetic statement?

Answer 13

An analytic statement is true by definition, a synthetic statement cannot be judged to be true just by looking at the definition, but by virtue of how the world is

Question 14

WIK) What is the difference between necessary and sufficiant conditions?

Answer 14

To say X is a necessary condition of Y is to say we cannot have Y without X. To say X is a sufficient condition of Y is to say that if we have X, we also have Y.

Question 15

I) What is Berkeleys idealism?

Answer 15

The claim that all that exists are minds and the ideas they perceive. The immediate objects of our perception are ideas, which are mind-dependant. An idea is a bundle of qualities. Ideas are caused by the mind of God.

Question 16

I) What is solipsism?

Answer 16

The claim/belief that only my mind exists (there are no other minds, nor are there any mind independent objects or properties)

Question 17

INN) What does an innatist about propositional knowledge believe?

Answer 17

An innatist holds to the position that we are born with some innate a-priori propositional knowledge (knowledge of truth-apt statements) which is therefore not given to us or justified by empirical experience.

Question 18

INN) What does tabula rasa mean?

Answer 18

Tabula rasa literally means “blank slate”. It is the empiricist view that the mind has no concepts/knowledge at birth, and experience is required to acquire ideas.

Question 19

INN) What is the distinction between a rationalist and an empiricist?

Answer 19

A rationalist believes that reason is the source of knowledge, while an empiricist believes that knowledge is gained via experience of the world.

Question 20

INN) What is the distinction between an impression and an idea?

Answer 20

Impressions are the result of direct experience (both internal and external). Ideas are copies of impressions (eg a memory or a thought of something we have experienced), and are less forceful and vivid than impressions.

Question 21

INN) What is the distinction between simple and complex ideas?

Answer 21

A simple idea is a copy of an impression. They are clear and vivid whereas a complex idea is made up of other ideas and/or impressions so it is easier to be confused about these. For example the complex idea of a unicorn is made up of the simpler ideas of horse, horn etc.

Question 22

LoK) What are Descartes’ three ‘waves of doubt?

Answer 22

Descartes’ three waves of doubt are sceptical worries that 1) any given experience could be an illusion, 2) at any given time he could be dreaming and 3) that an evil demon could be deceiving him about all his knowledge.

Question 23

LoK) What is philosophical scepticism?

Answer 23

Philosophical scepticism is the position that one or more of our usual methods of justification for claiming that our beliefs amount to knowledge are inadequate, so we do not in fact have knowledge

Question 24

LoK) What is the difference between philosophical scepticism and normal incredulity?

Answer 24

Philosophical scepticism is a theoretical worry about the foundations of our knowledge which cannot be alleviated with evidence, ordinary doubt is a practical worry which can be alleviated with evidence.

Question 25

LoK) What is the distinction between local and global scepticism?

Answer 25

Local scepticism is where justification for a particular belief or class of beliefs is called into question (eg the existence of God, or moral facts), whereas global scepticism is the claim that we cannot know anything at all as none of our beliefs have sufficient justification.”

Question 26

Intuition and deduction thesis) What are the two prongs of Hume’s Fork?

Answer 26

Hume’s fork is a way of categorising knowledge. Knowledge is either a ‘relation of ideas’, which are a priori, necessary and analytic; or a matter of fact, which are a posteriori, synthetic and contingent.

Question 27

Intuition and deduction thesis) What does Descartes mean by ‘clear and distinct Ideas?

Answer 27

An idea is (a) clear and (b) distinct if (a) the truth of it is immediately accessible, it is indubitable and (b) one cannot confuse it with other propositions. They are known a priori.

Question 28

Intuition and deduction thesis) What is Descartes’ cogito?

Answer 28

Descartes’ cogito is his a priori intuition that he exists as a thinking thing: I think therefore I am.

Question 29

Intuition and deduction thesis) What is the distinction between ‘intuition’ and ‘deduction’

Answer 29

An intuition is a truth that is grasped immediately, without further inference (clearly and distinctly). A deduction is a conclusion that cannot be doubted as it is reached following a valid argument with true premises.

Question 30

TTV) What does it mean to say a belief is “reliably formed”?

Answer 30

A belief is reliably formed if it is acquired via a process which produces a high proportion of true beliefs

Question 31

TTV) What is a ‘false lemma’?

Answer 31

A lemma is an assumed premise or claim which influences the development of an argument. In ‘Gettier-style problems’ the justification for the true belief involves an inference from a premise/claim (a ‘lemma’) that is false.

Question 32

TTV) What is knowledge, according to epistemic virtue?

Answer 32

“According to accounts based on epistemic virtue, S knows that p iff (if and only if)
1. p is true
2. S believes that p
3. S’s belief that p is a result of S successfully exercising his/her intellectual virtues

Here an intellectual virtue is an intellectual skill, ability or trait that contributes to getting to the truth. (According to Sosa successfully exercising intellectual virtues entails having an apt belief, which means it is accurate because it was ad rioit; according to Zagzebski exercising intellectual virtues involves successfully forming a true belief because one was rightly motivated and acting as a person with virtue would)”

Question 33

TTV) What is infallibilism?

Answer 33

Infallibilism is the view that a belief only counts as knowledge if the truth of that belief is guaranteed (it is impossible to have any doubt regarding that belief)

Question 34

TTV) What is reliabilism?

Answer 34

“According to reliabilism S can claim to know that p iff (if and only if):
(1) S believes that p
(2) that p is true
(3) S’s true belief that p was produced by a reliable cognitive process”

Question 35

TVV) What is the tripartite view of propositional knowledge?

Answer 35

“S can claim to know that p iff:
(1) S believes that p
(2) that p is true
(3) S has a justification for believing that p is true”