Epistemology - Essay

Question 1

a. • What is external world skepticism? •• What is Descartes’ argument for that claim? ••• Present one possible objection to that argument.

Answer 1

•
External skepticism is the concern that none of an agent’s beliefs about the external world are true.
••
If my life were a dream, my senses would always be unreliable
+
It’s compatible with my evidence that my whole life is a dream
=
My senses might always be unreliable
=I’m not justified in believing that my senses are ever reliable
+ That my senses are ever reliable is a basic belief for all of my beliefs about the external world
===
None of my beliefs in the external world are justified
•••
Question rational certainty by using Russell’s criterion for being justified in believing p if it’s highly probable that p

No: One possible objection is the “self undermining” view against his premise that his senses have deceived him in the past: how is he to say we can’t know anything about the external world while knowing that the external world has one true way that has been reported to him wrongly. We could never know what the world was really like so we couldn’t know if our senses deceived us.

Question 2

• What is inference to the best explanation? •• What role does it play in Russell’s response to Descartes’ skeptical argument? ••• Present one possible objection to that argument.

Answer 2

• Russell’s method to choose a best explanation for phenomena. To explain the sense data that he receives, it is best explained by either dream world hypothesis or external world hypothesis. The chosen one is the simplest one, the most intuitive is the simplest
• • Russell’s IBE plays the role of a comparison that both agrees and disagrees with descartes about the dream world hypothesis: while it is logically possible that the whole of life is a dream, we have no reason to believe it.
• •• Objection: begging the question; it is most intuitive because it is the one we already accepted and is hence simplest and best

Question 3

• What is the difference between merely true belief and knowledge? •• What is Plato’s argument in the Meno for claiming that considerations of memory aside, one is as good as the other?
• •• Present one possible objection.

Answer 3

• Knowledge is grounded in evidence and justified whereas true belief is a lucky good guess without evidence

Both are as good as the other because they get you to the same place

•• To get to Larissa, you only need true beliefs, you don’t need knowledge; Given two guides to get you there, one with true belief and one with grounded knowledge, they will both get you where you need to go
Generalized: our aims are equally well achieved regardless of whether we act on true belief or knowledge

••• Objection: Knowledge is better than true belief; true belief is not permanent

Statues of Daedalus will be stolen or walk away because they are so aesthetically beautiful, so unless they are
grounded and tied down, they will be like true belief and be fleeting