Philosophy exam 2

• epistemology: the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion
• knowledge: justified true belief
• Foundationalism:is a view about thestructure of knowledge
• Knowledge must be grounded in beliefsthat are certain—beyond all doubt.
• Who was descartes? A french philosopher who believed that the mind is a blank slate and that the mind is a tabula rasa
• Descartes wanted to reject all beliefs that were evenslightly doubtful in order to find a belief that wasbeyond all doubt
• Cogito Ergo Sum: I think, therefore I am.
• Inferential Knowledge:Most of the things we know are inferredon the basis of something else we knowor believe
• But without some basic, non-inferentialbeliefs, we would have an infinite regresswith no foundation
• Basic belief: is a justified, non-inferential belief
• Justification without Certainty: modest Foundationalism allows that our basic beliefs don’t have to be indubitable, just reasonable tobelieve unless we have evidence to the contrary
• Introspection: is awareness of the contents of your mind.
• A posteriori arguments are arguments that are based on the senses and experience.
• A priori knowledge is knowledge that is not based on experience or observation, but is based on logic and reason.
• Can both a priori and a posteriori beliefs be basic?

  Yes
• What makes a belief basic?


  If the belief isn't inferred from another belief.
• What does foundationalism assume?

  All of our knowledge can be derived from our basic beliefs
• What does knowledge equal?


  basic beliefs + inferred beliefs, but they must be true.
• What is coherentism?
• Coherentism: The idea that the truth of a proposition is determined by the truth of its premises.
• What does coherentism envision?


  knowledge as a web of mutuallysupporting beliefs.
• Verificationism: The view that the truth of a proposition is determined by the way in which it is verified
• What is the vienna circle?

  Logical positivist philosophers.
• What aims did the Vienna circle have?


  The Vienna Circle aimed to make philosophybetter grounded in empirical observation
• What is a central doctrine?


  a statement is only meaningful if it is empirically verifiable, that is, if it could be translated into a sentence about sense-data
• Who was Quine and what did he believe?

  Philosopher, Epistemology.
• What was Quine critical of?

  he was critical of the view that every meaningful statement could be translated into a statement about sense-data.
• What opinion did Quine have on democracy?

  Support
• What did Quine envision?

  Quine envisioned a web of belief.
• What beliefs lie on the outside of the web of belief?

  Some beliefs closer to the periphery, namely thosethat are most directly drawn from sense experience.
• What beliefs lie in the center of the web of belief?

  Some beliefs lie closer to the center of the web, like truths of arithmetic and logic.
• What justifies a belief?

  A belief is justified if and only if it belongs to a coherent set of beliefs.
• What makes a set of beliefs coherent?

  Consistency and support
• Beliefs are not justified individually but holistically
• What is isolation objection?


  A set of beliefs can be coherent even if it is completely disconnected from reality
• Plurality Objection: There could be two or more coherent setsof beliefs that are incompatible with eachother
• Pragmatism: an approach in philosophy that defends what works
• Epistemic pragmatism: Knowledge is a function of how we use our knowledge
• Criterion of knowledge: Successful prediction or the ability to manipulate the environment.