truth and knowledge Flashcards
what is truth
a property or a proposition
- must be sentences, can’t just be words
knowledge a priori
(in advance)
- conceptual knowledge
- things you know without experiencing it
knowledge posteriori
(afterwards)
- knowledge you gain afterwards
- after observation/from experience
synthetic claim
a declarative statement that:
- provides us with new knowledge
- doesn’t mean they’re true
- statement can be observed or tested of truth
i.e. children wear hats, that table is round, my computer is on
analytic claim
- derived from concepts
- gives information, without necessarily provideing extra knowledge
- these type of claims are true by definition, by terms of the language
i.e. frozen water is ice, unmarried men are bachelors
two main theories of truth
correspondence theory and coherence theory
correspondence theory
the proposition is true if the proposition responds to a fact
the dilemma: facts or statements are sometimes unrelated to the proposition. the correspondence my be unclear
coherence theory (more plausible?)
- proposition is true if it coheres with other accepted propositions
the dilemma: false propositions allow for more false propositons.
Confounds of method and meaning
what is knowledge? (traditional account)
justified true belief (JTB)
of knowing THAT
conditions:
- belief that …
- …that must be true
- justifed belief
what is the gettier objection?
all conditions met for knowledge, but still no actual knowledge and most would intuitively agree
criteria isn’t sufficient to distinguish knowledge from non-knowledge. Something else is required to make the distinction.
Since Plato formulated his tripartite definition of knowledge, philosophers have generally accepted that knowledge is justified true belief. Gettier’s counterexamples are meant to be cases of justified true belief that one would be hesitant to call knowledge.
types of knowledge
know how –> certain ability
knowing that –> i.e. scientific knowledge, propositional knowledge
phenomenal knowledge –> knowing what it is like
conditions for truth
necessary: conditions necessary for state of affairs, if state of affairs cannot obtain without condition being met
suffient: condition sufficient for state of affairs, if state of affairs has to obtain if condition is met
necessary and sufficient: state of affairs obtains if and only if condition is met
what is reductionism
‘Reductionism’ is a complex of partially related views about the fundamental nature of the world. The central claim of a reductionist of any type is (1) there exists a fundamental level of reality, usually Physics of which other levels can ultimately reduced to or explained in terms of.
Reductive physicalists, unlike non-reductive physicalists, claim that mental states can be explained by reference to
physical states alone.
what is non-reductionism
Antireductionism is the position in science and metaphysics that stands in contrast to reductionism (anti-holism) by advocating that not all properties of a system can be explained in terms of its constituent parts and their interactions.
- does not entail dualism
- understanding a system can only be done as a whole
empirical
on the basis of experience
