The Limits of Knowledge Flashcards
What is philosophical scepticism?
Believing that we can never be sure of anything, even analytical knowledge.
What is normal incredulity?
normal and ordinary, everyday doubting e.g. whether your friend’s birthday is on the 16th or 17th
What is the brain in the vat example?
Our brains may be in a machine that creates electrical signals interpreted to be your senses, but you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference (if you were a disembodied brain).
What is Descartes’ argument on philosophical scepticism?
Descartes’ 3rd wave of doubt (the evil demon) .
Anything that I believe to be true is implanted by an evil demon, therefore I can doubt everything.
Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if it is the case or not.
What is Descartes’ own response to his 3rd wave of doubt?
He knows he himself is doubting, so he is thinking, and thus, he exists.
Cogito ergo sum.
Through his other argument, he knows that God exists
(INSERT)
If God exists, he wouldn’t trick me and wouldn’t allow for him to be deceived, thus he can trust his perceptions and the existence of the outside world.
If he can trust his perceptions, then he can have knowledge, and he has proven global scepticism false.
What is Russel’s response to philosophical scepticism and the response to it?
Both scenarios are hypotheses.
The existence of the external world is a better explanation (Rayan walking into the wall), thus we should believe that mind-independent objects exist.
Response: But you can’t prove it either way, as there are no grounds to hypothesize otherwise.
What is Locke’s response to Descartes’ philosophical scepticism + Response?
- Perception is forced upon us, so it suggests that there is an external world.
- All my senses are coherent (work together to create reality).
Response:
Locke hasn’t proved that our perceptions accurately represent the external world. The evil demon could be creating all of our perceptions and an evil demon could also create coherent experiences.
What is Berkley’s response to Descartes’ philosophical scepticism?
There are no mind-independent objects
‘To be is to be perceived’ - Berkley
Our perceptions are so complex that we couldn’t have conceived them. Only God could.
Rather than an evil emon creating his perceptions, God creates them.
What is the reliabilism (as a response to Descartes’ philosophical scepticism + Response?
Assuming I’m not being deceived by the evil demon, I must acquire reliable means to justify JTB. But we can never know if there is an evil demon, or whether we are a brain in a vat.
Response: Fake barn country
You have to fight infalablism first.
