Epistemology
The JTB Account and The Gettier Problem
Apr 21st
Knowledge is traditionally defined in philosophy as Justified True Belief. The truth condition is necessary because it seems impossible to know something false; for instance, I may believe that I am an extraterrestrial, but philosophers don’t want to say that I know it. The belief condition is, of course, necessary because philosophers want to avoid situations where you know something that you’ve never even considered. In fact, the belief condition can be viewed as the means of attaching knowledge to the knower. The justification condition is, probably, the less obvious of the three conditions. However, it is necessary in order to rule More >
The Regress Argument tnemugrA ssergeR ehT
Jan 18th
The regress argument (or the argument of infinite regress) is a philosophical concern held in epistemology. The worry follows from the structure that we use to arrive at justified beliefs, namely that every conclusion requires a premise. In other words, when you ask someone how he/she arrived at a given conclusion you expect them to provide some rationale or evidence supporting it; if he/she tells you that there is absolutely nothing to support that conclusion then you would probably disregard it. This is more succinctly displayed in formal logic, i.e. if p then q, p so q; to merely say More >
Skepticism?
Dec 24th
Skepticism refers to a school of thought categorized by rational doubt. In philosophy, the type of skepticism usually referenced is epistemic skepticism, which is what we will focus on here. This consists in doubting that we have knowledge about the world; in fact, it can even be viewed as asserting that we can’t have knowledge about the world. However, rather than actually believing this doctrine, most philosophers see skeptical arguments as signs that our theory of knowledge must be modified. Thus, skepticism is commonly used as a tool to test epistemological theories. I will presently outline some of the major More >
Empiricisim vs. Rationalism: How did you know that?
Aug 4th
Both ideas deal with the study of epistemology, which is basically the study of knowledge. Empiricism and Rationalism are opposing sides in the argument of how we acquire knowledge throughout life. Allow me to introduce you to these two ideas about how you know what you know.
Empiricism
This idea explains that everything we know is learned through experience. In other words, the evidence we have for what we know lies within our sensory data — taste, smell, touch, sound and sight. Empiricism explains that there are also no “innate ideas,” or there isn’t any knowledge we can acquire without experiencing it.
John Locke More >
“I Think, Therefore I am” Confused: What does this Phrase Mean?
Jul 3rd
We have all heard this phrase in some form or another but even when I, myself, tried typing this little sentence into google to see what would come up, I was surprised to see that no one could give an explanation that wasn’t lengthy or straightforward. So I’m going to try my hand at explaining this classic statement.
Who said it?
Rene Descartes is the man credited to these few words. The quote, originally written in french, comes from The Discourse on Method, but also appears written as the famous Latin, “Cogito ergo sum,” in his Meditations on First Philosophy, which was an attempt to find foundational truths for knowledge. More >
Recent Comments