Epistemology: the Study of Knowledge
Definitions, Concepts and Important Publications
A priori: prior to or independently of experience. An adverb used to modify verbs of cognition as “to know a priori.” Propositions are said to be knowable when they are knowable prior to or independently of, any experience of the objects they make assertions about.
A proposition is knowable a priori if it is knowable independently of experience
Abstraction: the formation of an idea apart from concrete things, situations. Also: the idea so formulated (e.g. goodness, anger).
Altruism: consideration of other people without any thought of self as a principle of conduct.
Axiom: a self-evident truth or proposition. We take these without question.
Cogito, ergo sum: “I think therefore I am” –Descartes. He said this to prove his own existence. Problem: thinking is being done but that doesn’t mean he’s doing it-someone might be thinking for him.
Correlation: according to statistics people who drink milk are healthier. This is a correlation. The people are not healthier because they drink milk- it is because they are healthy that they drink milk.
Cosmology: Literally, the study of the order of the world. Refers to the branch of astronomy that investigates the organization and structure of the physical universe, including its origins. In philosophy it is part of Metaphysics.
Deduction: reasoning in which the conclusion follows necessarily from the given premises (truth).
Descartes’ Method of Doubt: Descartes wanted to determine which of his beliefs he could not doubt. He grouped his beliefs by the faculty from which the beliefs were derived (senses, imagination, reason). He then subjected these groups to a sceptical hypothesis. If there were aspects of the group that could not be doubted under his first hypothesis then Descartes came up with a new and more powerful sceptical hypothesis to see if that which could not be doubted on the earlier hypothesis could be called into question by a stronger sceptical hypothesis.
Emotional Theories:
Physiological: outer stimulus leads to physiological changes-changes are perceived-this is emotion
Behavioural: outwardly observable behaviour results as a response to some stimulus-behaviour indicates emotion-some say such responses have survival value
Cognitive: emotional response is determined by a rational assessment of outer stimulus-may be evaluative or beliefs-may be based on social expectations-conscious or unconscious.
Empiricism: the epistemological theory that all human knowledge comes from evidence obtained through the five senses. This implies that we will never know more than the senses allow. We will never know with greater certainty than our senses will allow.
Epistemology: the study of knowledge. How we come to know things and what the limits of our knowledge are. Concerned with the possibility of defending, proving and justifying what we think we know.
Epistemological scepticism: The doctrine that no adequate justification can be given for any of our beliefs about the world. Not even beliefs like “there is a physical world” and “I have a body.” The aim of epistemological scepticism is not to stop us from believing, but to focus our attention on the relationship between our beliefs and their justification.
Ethical Relativism: ethics/morals are subjective to each person/culture. (e.g. our culture believes in monogamous relationships while others in polygamy.)
Ethical Theories:
- Authority: usually religious
- Self interest: no one ever does for anyone but themselves.
- Utilitarianism: the doctrine, expounded by Jeremy Bentham, that the moral and political rightness of an action is defined by its utility (its contribution to the greatest good of the greatest number).
- Categorical imperative: a command that orders us to do something unconditionally regardless if what we want or what our aims are.
- Karma
Ethical Universalism or Absolutism: ethics are objective: there are a general set of ethics which are universal. (all cultures seem to have some limit on how many partners one has).
Ethics: the system of principles by which you decide on morals
Existentialism: the belief that we are free to make our own choices, and have no clear, rational guidelines on which to make them. In ethics, existentialism refers to how we make choices based on morals, or possibly moral duty.
Fallacy: when the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premise.
Idealism: the mind-body theory that everything in the universe is either minds or else ideas in minds. Bodies are merely particular collections of ideas. Ex. A table is simply the interconnected set of all the ideas-concepts, images, feels, and sounds etc that are ideas of a table.
Hawthorne effect: a worker will be more productive if someone is experimenting on them. The fact that the workers are the subjects of an experiment; that someone is taking an interest in what they are doing, has a very positive effect on their level of production.
Induction: the drawing of a general conclusion based on past experiences (probability).
Materialism: the mind-body theory that everything in the universe is matter. According to this theory minds are merely collections of structures and organizations of bodies (e.g. nerve cells in the brain). Perceptions are particular sorts of interactions between bodies. As are thoughts, emotions and feelings of pleasure and pain.
Metaphysics: the study of the most fundamental principles of the nature of things.
Morals: things that you have decided are right or wrong
Natural Law: a rational principle of order (norm) in accordance with which the universe has been organized and created. One major philosophical tradition believes that both the physical universe and the moral order of human society are guided by Natural Law.
natural law is an ethical theory, where, the moral standards that govern human behaviour are, in some sense, objectively derived from the nature of human beings.
Normal Science: research firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievements a particular scientific community acknowledges for a time is supplying a foundation for further practice. (the accepted method of conducting scientific inquiry-the parameters within which scientific inquiry is conducted)
Operationalization: finding a way to measure unusual quantities like emotion or racism.
Paradigm: a model of how our view of the world should be.
Paradigm Shift: when a new piece of knowledge is so fundamentally different from previous ideas that we have to discard the old ideas and build a new paradigm around the discovery. The change is called a paradigm shift.
Percept: a product of perception, a recognizable mental impression of something perceived.
Perception: the act of becoming aware through the senses.
Philosopher Kings: (coined by Plato) an elite of wise men whom Plato believed were the only people fit to run the state. They would govern for the sake of the people but they would not be bound to them. Problem: philosopher kings are hard to come by and once they are in power there is nothing to stop them from becoming tyrants.
Philosophy: the love or pursuit of wisdom. The search for basic principles. Western philosophy has five branches: metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology and logic.
Placebo: an inactive but harmless preparation given to patients. When a drug is tested the manufacturers give half the patients a placebo and the other half the real drug. This is because some people will get better just because of the psychological effect of the drug. If the drug does not work better than the placebo then the manufacturers know that the drug is not very effective.
Premise: a fact, statement or assumption on which an argument is based or from which conclusions are drawn.
Principles of Science: 1) Based on natural law 2) Explanatory by reference to natural law 3) Testable in the empirical world 4) Conclusions are tentative 5) it is falsifiable
Quantum Theory: based on the assumption that energy possessed by a physical system is quantized (it cannot take on a continuous range of values but is restricted to discrete ones that depend on its dimensions masses and charges). See Paradigm Shift.
Rationalism: the epistemological theory that at least some human knowledge comes from reason, unaided by the senses. This implies that we know about things that the senses have not revealed to us. We can know with more certainty than the senses alone will allow
Scepticism or Skepticism: the philosophical view that nothing can be known with certainty.
Science as public knowledge (theoretically): published in moderated scientific journals, peers check strange results and possible mistakes prior to publication, suggest improvements. Once the paper is published competing groups will attempt to reproduce interesting results, or if work is theoretical, attempt to find mistakes in reasoning. If experimental result is not replicated by other groups, they will publish to that effect, in theoretical likewise. We are capable of detecting each other’s fallacies.
Science as a social institution:
1) science is an activity carried on by men and women whose interactions shape who they are and what they believe.
2) science is carried out in established places i.e. labs, research institute…
3) there are certain marks or symbols which participants in the institution of science recognize one another and are recognized by outsiders.
4) it has certain norms and standards of behaviour that are passed on from established to novice
5) character performance, accomplishments, and role of the individual scientist can only be properly understood and evaluated when seen in context if the total social practice.
Judgements on scientific research are ultimately social judgements rather than logical ones.
Scientific Method: 1) Problem/Question 2) Hypothesis 3) Data collection 4) Data Analysis 5) Draw Conclusions
The conclusions may then be disproved. They cannot be proven, only demonstrated.
Socratic Method: using probing questions to show unreflective people their lack of rational understanding of their own principles of thought and action. The aim being to set them on the path to philosophical wisdom. (This technique was developed by Socrates).
Solipsism: literally, the belief that I am the only person in the universe. An extreme form of epistemological scepticism, which refuses to acknowledge the existence of anything other than the believer’s own mind. Some people even say that they can only be certain of their mind in the present because their memories might be lies.
Soundness: a conclusion is sound when the premises are true and the argument is valid.
Syllogism: a logically consistent argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion deduced from them.
Tabula Rasa: (coined by John Locke) blank tablet. Locke claims that we are born with a blank mind. As we gain experience the tablet is “written” on. Locke used this argument against the argument that the mind comes to experience with built in ideas.
Theory of Relativity: formulated by Einstein in 1905. Deals with the question of what may properly be understood by space and time, restricting the analysis to systems at rest or those moving with uniform motion (non-accelerated) in a region free of gravitation. See Paradigm Shift.
Truth Theories:
Correspondence: a claim is true if it corresponds to facts or reality and false if it does not. Problem: Is the correspondence theory itself true? If so, what does it correspond to?
Pragmatic: a proposition is true when acting upon it yields satisfactory practical results. Problem: Sometimes unreasonable beliefs "work". A tribe might believe that human sacrifice brings their crops back each year. The crops do come back after the human sacrifice, but not because of the human sacrifice.
Coherence: a statement is true if it is logically consistent with other beliefs that are held to be true. Problem: a belief can be consistent with all our other beliefs and yet have no independent supporting evidence. For example, many metaphysical beliefs are consistent with all imaginable states of affairs (e.g., "the universe came into existence five minutes ago complete with historical records and memories").
Unity of Consciousness: (coined by Immanuel Kant) describes the fact that the thoughts and perceptions of any given mind are bound together in a “unity”, as a result of being all contained in one consciousness. Kant claimed that there had to be a fundamental mental activity of holding together or “synthesizing” one’s thought and perceptions. This “synthesis” being the only way that unity of consciousness could be explained.
Utilitarianism: the doctrine, expounded by Jeremy Bentham, that the moral and political rightness of an action is defined by its utility (its contribution to the greatest good of the greatest number).
Validity: a conclusion is valid when it necessarily follows from the premises
PUBLICATIONS
Mediations of First Philosophy: Descartes
Discourse on Method: Descartes
Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Locke
A Treatise of Human Nature: Hume
The Monadology: Leibniz
Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge: Berkley
Critique of Pure Reason: Kant
The Republic: Plato
Novum Organum: Bacon
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy: Newton
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: Kuhn