Epistemology (mine)

• a posteriori


  Knowledge of propositions that can only be known to be true or false through sense experience
• a priori


  Knowledge of propositions that do not require (sense) experience to be known to be true or false
• ability knowledge


  Knowing 'how' to do something, e.g. 'I know how to ride a bike'
• acquaintance knowledge


  Knowing 'of' someone or some place. For example, 'I know the manager of the restaurant', or 'I know Oxford well'
• Analytic


  A proposition that is true (or false) in virtue of the meanings of the words
• Belief


  Affirmation of, or conviction regarding, the truth of a proposition. E.g. 'I believe that the grass is green.'
• Cartesian circle


  Refers to the circular reasoning Descartes seems to employ regarding clear and distinct ideas and God: Descartes cannot rely on clear and distinct ideas before proving God exists, but he cannot prove that God exists without relying on clear and distinct ideas
• clear and distinct ideas


  A clear idea is 'present and accessible to the attentive mind'; a distinct idea is clear and also sharply separated from other ideas so that every part of it is clear (Descartes)
• cogito, the


  I think', Descartes' first certain knowledge
• copy principle, Humean


  All simple ideas are copies of impressions
• direct realism


  Physical objects exist independently of our minds and of our perceptions of them and the immediate objects of perception are mind-independent objects and their properties
• disjunctive theory of perception


  If something looks a certain way, then one of two quite different things is going on: either I directly perceive a mind-independent physical object that is F or it appears to me just as if there is something that is F, but there is nothing that is F
• empirical


  Relating to or deriving from experience, especially sense experience, but also including experimental scientific investigation
• Empiricism


  The theory that there can be no a priori knowledge of synthetic propositions about the world (outside my mind), i.e. all a priori knowledge is of analytic propositions, while all knowledge of synthetic propositions is gained through sense experience
• empiricism, classical


  The theory that all knowledge is gained from experience: All concepts are gained from sense experience or experience of our own minds; and all knowledge of synthetic propositions about the world (outside my mind) is gained through sense experience
• Epistemology


  The study ('-ology') of knowledge ('episteme') and related concepts, including belief, justification, and certainty. It looks at the possibility and sources of knowledge
• external world


  Everything that exists outside of our minds
• Gettier case


  A situation in which we have justified true belief, but not knowledge, because the belief is only accidentally true, given the evidence that justifies it
• Hallucination


  A non-veridical perceptual experience that is not coherently connected with the rest of our perceptual experience
• hallucination, argument from


  Against direct realism: The possibility of hallucinatory experiences that are subjectively indistinguishable from a veridical perception means that we don't immediately perceive physical objects, but sense-data
• Hume's 'fork'


  We can have knowledge of just two sorts of claim: the relations between ideas and matters of fact
• Idea


  An object of perception, thought, or understanding. Locke uses the term to refer to a complete thought, taking the form of a proposition, e.g. 'bananas are yellow'; a sensation or sensory experience, e.g. a visual sensation of yellow; or a concept, e.g. YELLOW
• idea, complex


  An idea that is derived from two or more simple ideas
• idea, simple


  A single, uniform conception, with nothing distinguishable within it
• idealism, Berkeley's


  All that exists are minds and ideas. What we think of as physical objects are, in fact, bundles of ideas. The immediate objects of perception (ordinary objects such as tables, chairs etc.) are ideas, mind-dependent objects. Esse est percipi (aut percipere) – to be is to be perceived (or to perceive)
• identical, numerically


  One and the same thing. Everything is numerically identical to itself, and nothing else
• identical, qualitatively


  Two or more things are qualitatively identical if they share their properties in common, for example, two separate copies of the same picture
• Illusion


  A distortion of the senses such that what we perceive is different from what exists
• illusion, argument from


  Against direct realism: Illusions can be 'subjectively indistinguishable' from veridical perception, (e.g. a crooked stick in water) so we see sense-data, and not physical objects, immediately
• Impression


  What we are immediately and directly aware of, which can either be impressions of 'sensation' or impressions of 'reflection' (Locke, Hume). Impressions of sensation derive from our senses, impressions of reflection derive from our experience of our mind, including emotions
• indirect realism


  We perceive physical objects, which exist independently of the mind, indirectly via sense-data which are caused by and represent physical objects
• Infallibilism


  To be knowledge, a belief must be certain. If we can doubt a belief, then it is not certain, and so it is not knowledge
• Infinite


  Without any bounds or limits. E.g. the natural numbers form an infinite series, the numbers continue in both directions (positive and negative numbers) without any end point
• Innate


  Knowledge or ideas that are in some way built into the structure of the mind, rather than gained from sense experience
• innatism, concept


  The claim that some of our concepts are innate, not derived from experience, but somehow part of the structure of the mind
• innatism, knowledge


  The claim that there is at least some innate knowledge, not derived from experience, but somehow part of the structure of the mind
• Intuition


  Direct non-inferential awareness of abstract objects or truths
• intuition, rational


  The capacity to discover the truth of a claim just by thinking about it using reason
• Justification


  What is offered as grounds for believing an assertion
• Lemma


  A claim made part way through an argument