Charting the Terrain of Knowledge-1

Epistemology–

the area of philosophy that deals with questions concerning knowledge and that considers various theories of knowledge

Charting the Terrain of Knowledge-2

Types of knowledge Knowledge by acquaintance Competence knowledge Propositional knowledge

Knowledge as true justified belief

The Issue of Reason and Experience

Analytic statements

Synthetic statements

A priori knowledge

A posteriori knowledge

Three Epistemological Questions

Is it possible to have knowledge at all?

Does reason provide us with knowledge of the world independently of experience?

Does our knowledge represent reality as it really is?

Perspectives on Knowledge Skepticism

Rationalism

Empiricism

Constructivism

Relativism

Early Greek Skeptics

Cratylus

Pyrrho

Carneades

René Descartes

The quest for certainty Methodological skepticism Meditations on First Philosophy

Meditations on First Philosophy

Meditation I Doubting of senses The possibility of a "malicious demon" Radical doubt (methodological skepticism)

Meditation II One point of certainty "I am, I exist” or cogito ergo sum (I think,

therefore, I am)

David Hume Empiricism

Principle of induction

Uniformity of nature

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding-1

Cause and effect questioned constantly conjoined events

Uniformity of nature questioned

Appealing to past experience to justify the principle of induction is circular

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding-2

We cannot know that there is an external world impressions are always internal to our

experience

Hume does not deny that the external world exists

Fundamental beliefs rest on psychological habits, beyond the proof of logic and experience

Three Anchor Points of Rationalism

Reason is the primary or most superior source of knowledge about reality

Sense experience is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge

The fundamental truths about the world can be known a priori: They are either innate or self-evident to our minds

The Rationalist Perspective on Epistemology

Knowledge is possible

Only through reason can knowledge be obtained

Beliefs based on reason represent reality

Socrates on Epistemology

We can distinguish true from false

Standards for distinguishing true from false are based on the soul

Rational knowledge gives us an adequate picture of the world

Plato on Epistemology

Difference between knowledge and opinion must be rationally justified

Agrees with Socrates that reason is able to provide knowledge

Phaedo Discusses perfect Justice, Beauty,

Goodness, and Equality

We have never seen these things, yet we know they exist

Knowledge of perfect things must be innate

Doctrine of recollection

Plato on Universals

Universals or Forms Universals are unchanging;

experiential reality is in flux Phaedo

René Descartes

Methodological doubt One point of certainty: "I am, I exist"

or cogito ergo sum Something cannot arise from

nothing, and there must be at least as much reality in the cause as in the effect

Descartes’ Meditation III

Innate ideas Idea of a perfect God Because Descartes is not perfect, the

source of the idea of God must be God

Three Anchor Points of Empiricism

The only source of genuine knowledge is sense experience

Reason is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge unless it is grounded in sense experience

There is no evidence of innate ideas within the mind that are known apart from experience

John Locke’s Perspective on Epistemology

Knowledge is possible Simple ideas (ideas of sensation, ideas

of reflection) Complex ideas

Reason not sufficient for knowledge of the world

Knowledge represents reality primary qualities (objective) secondary qualities (subjective)

George Berkeley on the Representation of Reality

Berkeley thought Locke's representative realism was dangerous

Berkeley thought that even Locke's primary qualities were subjective

David Hume

Radical empiricist An Enquiry Concerning Human

Understanding Huge gulf between reason and the

world Reason can only tell us about the

relationship between our own ideas