Philo11-L3

• Truth lies at the heart of any inquiry
• Knowledge must be truthful to gain validity and acceptance
• The concept of truth is controversial and much discussed among philosophers
• Rooted in ancient Greek philosophy, knowledge is seen as "justified, true belief" which states that something is true because you believe that it’s true, and there’s justification for such belief.
• Correspondence Theory states that something is true if it corresponds to reality or the actual state of affairs
• Examples of Correspondence Theory:

  • "A mammal is an animal which is warm-blooded, has hair, and feeds its young with milk" is considered true
  • "A dog barks" is also true
  • "Pigs can fly" is false since pigs do not have the capability to fly
• Coherence Theory proposes that something is true if it makes sense in a certain situation or context
• Constructivist Theory holds that knowledge is shaped by social forces and influenced by culture and history
• Consensus Theory views knowledge as based on argument, and something is true if almost everyone agrees it is true
• Relativism contends that there are no absolute truths
• Pragmatic Theory holds that something is true if it can be put into practice or is useful in real life
• Verification, related to pragmatic theory, considers that ideas must be verified using the senses of experience
• • Begging the Question: An argument based on unsound reasoning where a claim is made and accepted to be true, but one must accept the premise to be true for the claim to be true (circular reasoning)
  • Cause and Effect: Falsely assuming that one event causes another
  • Fallacy of Composition: Applying attributes of part of an object or class to the entire object or class
  • Fallacy of Division: Reasoning that something true for a whole must also be true for all or some of its parts
• Fallacies in arguments:

  • Ad Hominem: Attacking the person making the argument instead of the argument itself
  • Appeal to Force: Using threat of force or an undesirable event to advance an argument
  • Appeal to Emotion: Using emotions such as pity or sympathy as a form of argument
  • Appeal to the Popular: Presenting an idea as acceptable because many people accept it
  • Appeal to Tradition: Accepting an idea because it has been true for a long time
• Biases in reasoning:

  • Confirmation Bias: Tendency to look for and readily accept information that fits with one's beliefs and reject ideas that go against them
  • Framing: Focusing on a certain aspect of a problem while ignoring other aspects
  • Cultural Bias: Analyzing an event or issue based on one's cultural standards
  • Correspondence Bias: Judging a person's personality by their actions without regard for external factors or influence
• • Hindsight Bias: Seeing past events as predictable or ascribing a pattern to historical events
  • Conflict of Interest: a person or a group is connected to or has a vested interest on the issue being discuss
• Ideas and claims are presented in a form of arguments. These arguments are called fallacies.
• Facts generally established truths, easily verified, and doesn’t easily change from one situation to another
• Opinions aware of bias or personal views of the person presenting it
• Biases are tendencies or influences which affects the views of people