Epistemology Flashcards
What is skepticism
The practice of questioning the reliability of our knowledge
What is epistemology?
The rational study of knowledge
What does cogito ergo sum mean
I think therefore I am
Who was Pythagoras
A man who travelled east to be educated and then became a teacher of mathematics, astronomy, and music
What is Pythagoras’ idea of the transmigration of souls
Basically samsara, we have an endless cycle of deaths and rebirths until we are enlightened
What is anemnesis
The process of recollecting what we already knew before birth
What is rationalism
The belief that we create knowledge within our mind
What is a priori knowledge
Innate knowledge. Knowledge before experience
What did Aristotle believe in regards to platos forms
There is no separation between the form and the actual object
What is empiricism
The belief that we gather knowledge through our sense experiences
What does a posteriori mean
Knowledge from experiences
What three laws of thought did Aristotle introduce
Law of non-contradiction, law of the excluded middle, and the law of identity
What was platos criteria for knowledge
Justified true belief
What happened in Descartes first meditation?
He noticed that his senses are deceptive.
He can’t know for certain if he is awake or asleep
He is dreaming of things that do exist or versions of things that do
Therefore our mind is making rational inferences on things we have seen
What is a tabula rasa and who believed it
Blank slate, British empiricists John Locke and David Hume
How did Locke respond to philosophers claims that the eyes and ears deceive
He created primary and secondary qualities
What is epistemological dualism
It’s the belief that the observer and the object are separate and the observers ideas of the external objects are representations
What is the correspondence theory of truth
The theory that there is an external reality that humans are capable of mirroring accurately in their thoughts and knowledge
What did Berkeley contend regarding lockes primary and secondary qualities
Even primary qualities are interpreted by the observer
What is esse est percipi and who said it
To be is to be perceived, George Berkeley
What is the belief that their is no separation between the observer and the object
Subjective idealism
What did Hume believe with the epistemological gap
That there is a separation between the object and the over server
What term did Hume use to describe things like scientific propositions
Matter of fact/ analytic necessary
What term did Hume use to describe the way our mind derives other propositions with relationships of words or numbers and adhering to grammatical rules
Relations of ideas/ synthetic impressions
Can we be more certain of matter of facts or relations of ideas
Relations of ideas
What are our synthetic a priori concepts
Time, space, motion, solidity, cause and effect
What is the world that we can know with perception and our innate concepts
Phenomenal realm
What is noumenal world
The world that is objective that we can never know
What is the coherence theory of truth
The theory that things can only be proven true through their overall agreement or how they correspond to nature or reality
What is the pragmatic theory of truth
There are limits to what we can assert as true and try acknowledge that we actively construct knowledge rather than passively take in it
What did hillary Putnam say regarding “brains in a vat”
All our language gets meaning from experience if we were plugged into a at we wouldn’t have experiences and everything we saw would be meaningless
What did Wittgenstein contend regarding the brain in a vat
Meanings aren’t in the head
What did Heidegger believe on language
It helps us overcome subject-object duality and moves us from the foundational philosophers to post functional
What did nietczhe believe about language
There is no truth if language is the basis of truth! Metaphors
Who are nominalists
Anti-realists who argue that real things are mediated by our language and culture and are socially constructed
What is foucalts nominalism
Chinese categories of animals.
Who was Michael oakshott
A man who believed that civilized human beings are inheritors of conversation
What is the importance of liberal education according to Plato
This education delivers prisoners from the realm of appearances to grasp the sun or good I’m itself
What are aristotles three divisions of knowledge
Episteme, techne, phronesis
Who believed that school are missing the key distinction between being informed and learning to make critical judgement in context
John Dewey
What is wittgentsteins bustle of life
We understand concepts through their background (bustle of life) within human life
What is Charles Taylor’s apt metaphor
Internalizing rules as well as the background context can gives us meaning
What is bad faith
anyone who blames things other than themselves in a particular situation is exercising bad faith
What is transcendental idealism
Kant’s fusion of rationalism and empiricism
Why is truth saying important according to Socrates
It allows for telling the truth, knowing the truth, having people who tell the truth, how to recognize people that know the truth.
What is Nietzsche view of truth seeking
Something to fight for not readily accept
