Epistemology

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  • Created by: amber
  • Created on: 21-03-19 17:19
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  • Epistemology
    • What is knowledge?
      • Tripartite View
        • Types of Knowledge
          • Acquaintance - knowing of
          • Ability - knowing how
          • Propositional - knowing that
          • John Locke said that everything has a natural essence and it's the role of science to find this
          • Zagzebski said that definitions constantly change, so even though it may be difficult to find a real definition of knowledge, we should still try
        • Propositional knowledge is defined as a justified, true belief
          • Issues
            • The Conditions are not individually necessary
              • We can know things subconsciously without believing we know them
              • Correspondance of truth theory
              • Coherence of truth theory
              • Truth appears to be an external criterion
              • Circular reasoning of being justified and being correct
            • The conditions are not sufficient
              • Gettier's counter examples
                • Brown in Barcelona
                • Smith and Jones
              • Fake Barn Cases
        • Reponses
          • Infallibilism
            • Implies we know little
            • No Gettier counter examples count as knowledge
          • No false lemmas
            • Describes knowledge well
            • Copes with Gettier but doesn't cope with Fake Barn
          • Reliabilism
            • How can we define what a reliable process is
            • Copes with nearly all cases
          • Virtue Epistemology
            • Matches use well
            • Copes with Gettier but not Fake barns as intellectual virtue is used
    • Perception as a source of knowledge
      • Direct Realism
        • The immediate objects of perception are mind-independent objects and their properties
        • Issues
          • Argument from Illusion
            • Response; We are rarely ever fooled by illusions
          • Argument from Hallucination
            • Response: They aren't perceptions at all
          • Argument from Perceptual Variation
            • Response: We can describe the conditions that cause perceptual variation
          • Time Lag Argument
            • Response; We still perceive things directly, just how they were
      • Indirect Realism
        • The immediate objects of perception are mind-dependent objects that are caused by mind-independent objects
        • Primary/ secondary quality distinction
          • Primary qualities are utterly inseparable from the object e.g. extension, size, shape, motion
          • Secondary qualities are nothing but the powers to produce various sensations within us
        • Issues
          • How can we know that mind-independent objects exist
            • Responses
              • Involuntary nature of our experience
              • Coherence of senses
              • External world is the best hypothesis
          • How can we know the nature of mind-independent objects as they cannot be like mind-dependent objects
      • Idealism
        • the immediate objects of perception are mind-dependent objects
        • The Master Argument
        • Berkley says that Locke's distinction is wrong because we cannot perceive some qualities without perceiving all of them
        • Issues
          • Argument from illusion/ hallucination
          • Solipsism
          • Continued existence of things and regularity in the universe
          • Problems with the role played by God
    • Reason as a source of knowledge
      • Innatism
        • Plato
          • Theory Of Forms
          • Argument from the Slave Boy
          • Universal Concepts
        • Leibniz and Necessary Truths
        • Empiricist Responses
          • Locke
            • No ideas are universally held, so none are innate
              • Response: Children and idiot exercise logical concepts without being able to communicate them
            • Transparency of ideas
              • Response; Subconscious
            • How can we distinguish innate ideas from other ideas
              • Response: Innate ideas are necessarily true
          • The mind as tabula rasa with simple and complex ideas
            • Issues
              • Do all simple ideas come from impressions?
              • Do all complex ideas come from impressions?
              • Do some concepts have to exist in the mind before sense impressions can be properly experienced?
              • The mind is born with innate structures
      • Intuition and Deduction Thesis
        • Intuition - an  act of intellect
          • Cogito is an example of an a prior intuition because it is justified by thought alone
            • Responses
              • Different thinkers
              • Just a bundle of thoughts
              • Do thoughts even need a thinker
        • Deduction - inference from things we know necessarily
          • Intuition - an  act of intellect
            • Cogito is an example of an a prior intuition because it is justified by thought alone
              • Responses
                • Different thinkers
                • Just a bundle of thoughts
                • Do thoughts even need a thinker
        • Descartes says we can only be certain of something if we have a clear and distinct idea of it.
        • Descartes' Argument for the existence of God
          • The Trademark Argument
            • Responses
              • Is the causal principle true?
              • Do we have a concept of infinity?
              • The idea of God is incoherent
              • The idea of God is not universal
          • The Contingency Argument
            • Responses
              • Could I not be what creates and preserves me?
          • Ontological Argument
            • Responses
              • The Perfect Island
              • Existence is not a predicate
        • Descartes proof of the external world
          • Sensations come from outside me because they are not subject to my will and they are extended
            • Responses
              • Just because my will is un-extended doesn't mean it could never produce an idea of an extended thing
              • Our dreams are also not subject to our will
          • Sensations origin in material bodies
            • Responses
              • Why couldn't God be the origin of sensation?
              • God is still a deceiver because our senses sometimes deceive us
    • Limits of knowledge
      • Philosophical scepticism and Normal Incredulity
      • Descartes's three waves of doubt
        • General Issues
          • Is he sincere?
          • Can you really doubt all of your beliefs?
          • Do beliefs have to be infalliable?
        • First Wave - Senses
          • Response: We can tell when our senses deceive us because they are sometimes accurate
        • Second Wave - Dreams
          • Resonse: We know when we have had a dream so they are distinguishable
        • Third Wave - Evil Demon
          • Response: If a deman was deceiving us then we wouldn't be able to tell, so it is an empty hypothesis

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