October Flashcards
Diglossia
When everyone a culture speaks two languages, each performing a different social function
Columbusing
White people who discover something for themselves when another group has known about it for ages
Third place
Somewhere you go that isn’t home or work. A place to bump into people who share your interests. E.g. a playground, a conference, a club. Online: social networks
William Clifford main ideas
The ethics of belief. We have a duty to reason and to be responsive to evidence. We must always seek the truth. Upbringing is no excuse.
William James
The Will to Believe. When reason leaves a question open, we may choose what to believe
Ishmael problem for relativism
That “truth is relative” is supposed to be the only surviving objective truth
Correspondence theory of truth Vs deflationary theory
A statement is true if it corresponds with the facts Vs snow is white off snow is white.
Deflationary account says that truth is transparent - “it is true that..” adds nothing to a judgement. There is no further story to tell about whether a statement is true or not. We must consider each statement individually.
Example: why are these passengers on the plane? Deflationary: each has a different story to tell, there is no one reason. Correspondence: there would be some underlying story that is common to all. (they all want to get from a to b?)
“logos”
The absolute truth that makes things true for the absolutist
How a relativist can avoid charge of self-defeat (i.e. a recoil argument)
By saying that epistemological norms are constructed, and so we have R-norms and R-truth and R-reasons, not absolute A-truth and A-reasons. A relativist can say it is true that relativism is true, because it is true relative to (its own) given set of norms.
Myth of the given
Sellars
sense data == impressions (Locke)
Any conscious impression is the result of sense data combined with prior learning and theory.
We cannot know anything based on impressions alone
