Introduction to Epistemology Chapter 14 Introduction to Epistemology

Knowledge, Opinion, and Belief When you know something you not only have an opinion, but that opinion is true: That is, it coincides with reality “What is the difference between knowledge and mere opinion?” © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge, Opinion, and Belief It seems intuitively clear that where we believe something which we do not know: That belief could be false, whereas when we truly know something it could not be false Can a person believe something which is false? Sure Can a person know something that is false? © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge and Certainty Knowledge implies being sure, being certain Part of our greater confidence in the truth of what we claim to know arises from: The fact that we have better reasons for believing our information to be true © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge and Certainty Sometimes we deny that a person knows something, though it turns out to be true: Simply because the person’s reasons for believing it were not good enough The human dilemma regarding knowledge is that we cannot easily distinguish: What is true from what we merely think is true © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Epistemology and Psychology Both epistemology and psychology are concerned with human consciousness: And it might at first appear that epistemology is only trying to do what psychology: Is in a position to do better © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Epistemology and Psychology Psychology is an attempt to describe the way the human mind actually operates; Epistemology seeks to establish normative criteria for how we ought to think Epistemology is concerned with discovering a sure guide to truth But what is truth? © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Epistemology and Psychology A defender of a correspondence theory of truth will want you to believe that: All matters of truth must be so decided Epistemology is also important in philosophy because it serves as: A bridge to other philosophical issues © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sources of Knowledge The core belief of rationalism is that a priori knowledge of reality is possible: And provides our deepest insight into the nature of what exists: Where a priori knowledge is knowledge that is not grounded in or derived from sense experience © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sources of Knowledge Plato believed that there are truths we know that are certain and unchanging Much of Aristotle’s work was devoted to acquiring knowledge of the natural world: By critically reflecting on the information provided by sense experience © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.