Knowledge - Key Concepts

Question 1

The branch of philosophy that addresses questions like: ‘What is knowledge?’, ‘How can we justify our claims to knowledge?’, ‘What can we know?’

Answer 1

Epistemology

Question 2

The branch of epistemology that draws on work in evolutionary science in order better understand human beings as agents capable of knowledge.

Answer 2

Evolutionary Epistemology

Question 3

The view that knowledge about a certain kind of thing is impossible. One can be a skeptic about different things. For instance, one might be skeptic about morality, but not about the external world (or vice versa), or one could be a skeptic about what can be known through perception and reason, but not about one’s own existence.

Answer 3

Skepticism

Question 4

The view that most or all of what we know is derived from reason rather than inferred from experience. In other words, rationalists hold that (most) knowledge is justified a priori rather than a posteriori. Like empiricists, rationalists are foundationalists; but foundationalists who hold that the basic building blocks of thought and reason are innate concepts, ideas, or principles.

Answer 4

Rationalism

Question 5

The view that most or all of what we know is inferred or generalized from experience rather than derived from reason. In other words, empiricists hold that (most) knowledge is justified a posteriori rather than a priori. Like rationalists, empiricists are foundationalists; but foundationalists who hold that the basic building blocks of thought and reason are concepts, ideas, or principles that must be learned from either sensory or introspective experience.

Answer 5

Empiricism

Question 6

The view that all knowledge is either part of some basic or foundational class of beliefs or is something that can be justifiably inferred from those beliefs.

Answer 6

Foundationalism

Question 7

The view that if a declarative sentence is meaningful, then there must be ways to verify or falsify it.

Answer 7

Verificationism

Question 8

The view that the justification condition for knowledge states that a belief is justified only if it is caused in the right sort of way.

Answer 8

Casual Theories of Knowledge

Question 9

The view that “knowledge is true belief produced by a means that is reliable [i.e. objectively truth-tracking] in the circumstances” (70).

Answer 9

Reliabilism

Question 10

The view that justification depends only on what’s internal to a believer’s mind. The traditional accounts of justification, rationalism and empiricism, are both versions of internalism.

Answer 10

Internalism

Question 11

The view that justification depends in part on things that are external to a believer’s mind.

Answer 11

Externalism

Question 12

The view that philosophical inquiry should be largely continuous with scientific inquiry.

Answer 12

Naturalism

Question 13

The philosophical technique of asking questions in order to lead someone to discover the answers themselves.

Answer 13

The Socratic Method

Question 14

Any set of sentences which can all be true at the same time are consistent, two or more sentences that cannot all be true are inconsistent.

Answer 14

Consistent

Question 15

According to the traditional account knowledge is justified true belief. In other words, to know something: (i) you must believe it, (ii) it must be true, and (iii) you must be justified in believing it.

Answer 15

Knowledge

Question 16

One of the necessary condition for knowledge. As discussed in Plato’s Theaetetus, this condition is necessary for distinguishing real knowledge from accidentally arrived at true belief.

Answer 16

Justification Condition

Question 17

Evidence consistent with the falsity of the sentence or claim it supports.

Answer 17

Defeasible Evidence

Question 18

Evidence that provides certainty, i.e. is so good that its truth is inconsistent with the falsity of the sentence or claim it supports.

Answer 18

Indefeasible Evidence

Question 19

“For any two sentences, A and B, if you know A and know B, and if from A and B, together, C follows logically, then if you believe C, you know C” (49).

Answer 19

Deductive Closure Principle

Question 20

“If you take any two sentences, A and B, then, if you are justified in believing both A and B, and if from A and B together, C follows logically, then, if you believe C, you are justified in believing C” (50).

Answer 20

Principle of Deduction for Justification (PDJ)

Question 21

The kind of justification one has when something can be known by reason alone.

Answer 21

a priori

Question 22

The kind of justification one has when something requires more than reason to discover.

Answer 22

a posteriori

Question 23

An adjective that applies to any sentence or claim about what people ought to do, say, or believe, or what should take place.

Answer 23

Prescriptive

Question 24

An adjective that applies to any sentence or claim that describes what is the case and can be true or false.

Answer 24

Descriptive