Introduction to knowledge Flashcards
What is epistemology?
Word comes from two Greek words:
“Episteme” = Knowledge and understanding
“Logia” = Science, study
What is knowledge?
Justified, true belief
How to justify a belief?
With good quality, logical and reasonable evidence
What are the two major branches of epistemology?
Empiricism- True knowledge is primarily focused on input from our senses. Experience and observations.
Rationalism- Emphasises reason over experiences and observations. Rational human mind and logic.
Why is epistemology used in a non philosophical context?
Part of everyday academic work. Impact on scientific endeavours- Discussing limits and possibilities of creating and reporting new knowledge.
What is formal epistemology?
What is knowledge? How may a belief be justified? How do we know if something is true?
Non-philosphical
What is genetic epistemology?
Cognitive development of children. How they learn and interact through:
Sensory-motor schemes (impressions and experiences)
Affects symbolic systems (thoughts and knowledge)
What is social epistemology?
Social context for creating new knowledge.
Sociology, psychology, education
Historical, cultural, access to education
What are three types of knowledge
Ability knowledge- e.g. knowing “how to” something
Acquaintance knowledge- e.g. knowing someone who lives in London or something specific about them
Propositional knowledge- asserts facts in declarative sentence. e.g. “2x2=4”
Why is propositional knowledge called “Knowledge that”
Asserting fact doesn’t mean it is true. Proposition can be true or false.
Why is it a key task to distinguish between different types of propositional knowledge?
It is a broad field and it is important to know if different types are knowable or not. Our knowledge about knowledge (meta-epistemology)
What criteria do we use to distinguish types of propositional knowledge?
Non-empirical knowledge= Independent or prior to experience. Don’t need the experience to acquire it, just reason. ie. Mathematical and logical. Metaphysics was seen as A-priori.
Empirical knowledge= Dependent and subsequent of experiences.
The definition of truth
A belief which is justified and true
The definition of fabillism
The principle that propositions concerning empirical knowledge can be accepted even though they cannot be proved with certainty.
The definition of non-occurrent
Belief is not conceived or thought of.
What are Gettier Cases
1963 paper by Edmund Gettier- necessary and sufficient conditions for something to be knowledge.
Justification is actually not enough to eliminate luck.
Classic example of Gettier Case
- Hyperrealistic screens with barn images
- Belief you are driving next to barns, see barns and therefore it is true
- Barns are fake so belief is false although it is justified
What is a key issue of justification?
Neither Gettier nor previous epistemologists had provided sufficiently clear
and adequate analyses of justification
Counter argument to Gettier Cases
No false lemmas:
Belief must be true and justified but not based on any false belief.
No defeaters that are left undefeated: Hidden truths that makes your knowledge false
Problems with No-False-Lemmas condition
-It is too strict, rules out some cases of knowledge
-e.g. Detective has loads of evidence and witnesses about the culprit but one false witness= false grounds= no knowledge
-Not all Gettier cases are based on inference on a false belief.
E.g. Indian tradition: Traveller hallucinates water but it’s actually in dessert under a rock. He didn’t infer under false belief, was true and justified since realistic hallucination but not knowledge
Problems with No-Deafeter analysis
