Epistemology (Partial) – Flashcards

the philosophical study of the nature, scope, and limits of knowledge. The word "epistemology" is derived from the Greek word "episteme", meaning knowledge, and "logos" meaning theory. Thus, epistemology is the study and theory of knowledge

Includes all those theorists that argue that reason, or our thinking processes, allow us to find answers. Some philosophers think that "truths" in our minds are inspired by God, or are "Forms" built into our minds (Plato) - that we are born with "innate" knowledge

Argue that all knowledge comes from sensory perception, experience, and experimentation

An argument that does not rely on evidence presented by the senses. These arguments deal with concepts and reasoning / An argument that is based on our direct experience of the world

Use theories to work with concept of truth to distinguish between reality and fantasy

• Skepticism is used as a tool to find 'truth' • Descartes used skepticism in his search for an absolute truth

• Denies that knowledge is possible • Has never been fully accepted as a philosophical position because it leads to a paradox - to doubt everything you must also doubt skepticism

philosophers who argue that all knowledge comes from direct experience from our senses

philosophers who argue that knowledge can be independent from our experiences (they don't need their senses to help validate something)

o Offers exceptions to Plato's beliefs o Takes Plato's above belief and adds a fourth stipulation: your justification for believing must not depend on a false statement

o Believed that ideas are innate and that we reason and discover ideas through the mind o The mind makes rational inferences to gain an understanding of things that really exist, our ideas of things are indirect representations o Believes that nothing can be known with certainty o By following a process of deductive reasoning he moved from a position of absolute doubt to what he considered to be fundamental, or foundational, propositions o Claimed that the same cannot be aid for perceptual information which can lead to false propositions