Exam 3 Epistemology

Question 1

What is the purpose of Epistemology?

Answer 1

the study of human knowledge, its nature, its sources, its justification

Question 2

Be able to “map out” the process of understanding our knowledge of the world from Plato to Kant (from the
Metaphysics/Epistemology chart: “Dualistic Thought”).

Question 3

What are the two relationships between Metaphysics & Epistemology?

Answer 3

Metaphysics: functions as a test for metaphysical views
Epistemology: is the natural result of the metaphysical inquiry of the Ancients & Medievals

(POTENTIAL ESSAY QUESTION)

Question 4

According to lecture what are the four (4) general approaches to explaining the difference between Knowledge and any merely
“true belief”?

Answer 4

Normative answers: foundationalism & coherentism
Naturalistic answers: causes of beliefs
Skepticism: investigates the apparent inability for us to know
Virtue epistemology: investigates the proper approach and function of the human mind

(POTENTIAL ESSAY QUESTION)

Question 5

According to lecture what are the six (6) Common Points of Rationalism?

Answer 5

1. Reason is the primary or most superior source of knowledge about reality
2. Sense experience is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge
3. The fundamental truths about the world can be known a priori: They are either innate or self-evident to our minds
4. Knowledge is possible
5. Only through reason can knowledge be obtained
6. Beliefs based on reason represent reality

Question 6

According to lecture what are the three (3) Common Points of Empiricism?

Answer 6

1. The only source of genuine knowledge is
   sense experience
2. Reason is an unreliable and inadequate route
   to knowledge unless it is grounded in sense
   experience
3. There is no evidence of innate ideas within the
   mind that are known apart from experience

Question 7

According to Lecture, Empiricists emphasize ________________________, while Rationalists emphasize
____________________________________ .

Answer 7

confidence in sense experience
confidence in reason
(subject to change)

Question 8

According to Descartes, the mark of the Cogito is its _______________________ .

Answer 8

Clarity and distinctness - Descartes thinks he’s found here the criteria of knowledge.

Question 9

What are Primary Qualities for Descartes & Locke?

Answer 9

Locke: properties of the objects themselves (i.e., solidity, extension, shape, motion, rest, and number) which are qualities inherent in the objects

Descartes: things or objects available to mathematics (because math is certain)

Question 10

What are Secondary Qualities Descartes & Locke?

Answer 10

Locke: properties that affect our sense organs
but don’t exist independently of the objects (color, texture, etc.)
* Substance is “we know not what.”

Descartes: Things available to the senses

Question 11

Empiricism

Answer 11

the philosophy that demands that all knowledge, except for certain
logical truths and principles of mathematics come from experience.

Question 12

Rationalism

Answer 12

the philosophy that is characterized by its confidence in reason,
and intuition, in particular, to know reality independently of experience

Question 13

According to Locke our minds begin as a _______________________ and all knowledge comes from
_______________________ .

Question 14

List and describe Locke’s three (3) categories of mental content:

Question 15

What did George Berkeley mean by “to be is to be perceived” (esse est percipi) ?

Question 16

Hume takes _________________ to be the central idea of all reasoning

Question 17

Hume’s fork is the idea that for a belief to be justified it must be either a ______________ or a __________________.

Question 18

What is “Hume’s Fork” and what is it supposed to demonstrate?

Question 19

What is Kant’s solution to “Hume’s Fork”?

Question 20

____________ and ____________ believed that there are no substances.

Question 21

For Descartes, clear and distinct propositions are the criteria for ____________.

Answer 21

knowledge.

Question 22

Empiricism is the philosophical theory that asserts _________________________________.

Question 23

What does the professor believe is the fundamental distinction between Rationalism & Empiricism?

Answer 23

Sadler believes the fundamental distinction between Rationalism & Empiricism is

Question 24

Descartes coined the expression ________.

Question 25

Justified true belief is often advanced as a candidate for a definition of ____________.

Question 26

a posteriori

Question 27

a priori

Question 28

Appearance

Question 29

Causal theory of perception

Question 30

Causation

Question 31

Cause

Question 32

cogito ergo sum

Answer 32

I think, therefore, I am.
I am a thinking being (since doubtful as body)
- The body is divisible, but we cannot conceive of
half a mind
– Certainty lasts only as the thinking
– The Wax inspected by the mind is known as
one substance.

Question 33

Effect

Question 34

Epistemology

Question 35

Idea

Question 36

Idealism

Question 37

Impressions

Question 38

Innate ideas

Question 39

Intuition

Question 40

Justification

Question 41

Perception

Question 42

Memory

Question 43

Necessary Condition

Question 44

Primary qualities

Answer 44

Objects available to mathematics
* Quantity, shape, time, magnitude

Question 45

Quality

Answer 45

Aspect of a thing that gives us knowledge

Question 46

Secondary qualities

Answer 46

Objects available to the senses
* Heat, color, odor, taste, & sound

Question 47

Sensation

Question 48

Skepticism

Question 49

Substance

Question 50

Subjective idealism

Question 51

Sufficient condition

Question 52

Tabula rasa