...As Rorty (1979) has observed epistemology seems to offer a vantage point, one step removed from the actual practice of science itself, which at first sight promises to provide some foundation for scientific knowledge. By seeking to explain ourselves as knowers, by telling us how we ought to arrive at our beliefs, epistemology is pivotal to science since `proper' scientific theorizing can only occur after the development of epistemological theory. It follows that a key question must be how can we develop epistemological theory--a science of science? Almost 60 years ago Neurath (1944) pointed to the paradox that epistemology confronts: a fundamental problem of circularity, from which it cannot escape, in that any theory of knowledge (i.e. any epistemology) presupposes knowledge of the conditions in which knowledge takes place. In effect, this prevents any grounding of epistemology in what purports to be scientific knowledge, psychological or otherwise, because one cannot use science in order to ground the legitimacy of science. For Neurath, such circularity means that we cannot dump philosophy by detaching ourselves from our epistemological commitments so as to assess those commitments objectively--indeed we would depend upon them in order to undertake that reflexive task. It follows that there are no secure foundations from which we can begin any consideration of our knowledge of knowledge--rather what we have are competing philosophical assumptions about knowledge that lead...
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...Epistemology: How do we know what is true? Aleisha Roche 11/9/12 Empirist those of the philosophers who believe that it is not rationalism but your senses that tell us the truth about knowledge. Philosophy could be something no one, not even philosophers, could actually agree on how to view life. Philosophy is divided into multiple branches and Epistemology deals with the “theory of knowledge.” A philosopher’s job is to figure out what is truth, weather relevant or irrelevant and discover how it is that we know something and if it is true. Epistemology of Philosophy shows how truth fits into life. We will be looking into the Western and Asian views on truth from Aristotle to Plato to Kant. This philosopher is known for his study of matter being reality. Plato’s epistemology is that we can have guiene knowledge only on things that are perfect and unchanging. We have knowledge about the forms, but not the material things. Beliefs and opinions are the only thing we can have in a material world. Plato says that before we are born our souls live in a realm of the forms and have complete knowledge of the form but we don’t realize it. We can only recall when in difficulty. Now this philosopher’s theory is the view that all Knowledge originates from experience bases his study on question and answer. Aristotle believes that the object of real existence is the ones that we encounter through our sense perception. Humans, according to Aristotle, do not acquire knowledge all...
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...Emily Simpson Philosophy 2745 11-20-2014 Epistemology For the most part, philosophers agree that knowledge requires truth, justification, and belief. However, the debate lies in whether or not a theory of knowledge accurately and fully satisfies these conditions. The standard account of knowledge has three conditions that need to be met in order for an individual to have knowledge. S must know that p if and only if: (1) S believes that p, (2) p is true and (3) S is justified in believing that p. On the surface, it seems that this account implicates knowledge; however, Edmund Gettier showed through the Gettier cases that you can believe yourself to be justified, but not actually have knowledge. This epistemic setback is known as the Gettier Problem. Since the standard account of knowledge was essentially done away with, philosophers have been in search of the best way to solve the Gettier problem. Alvin Goldman in particular has published many papers detailing his thoughts on the matter. “A Causal Theory of Knowing” was the first in a series of works in which Goldman sought a theory that could handle Gettier’s cases. Unfortunately, Goldman’s own causal theory was undermined by his and Carl Ginet’s fake barn case. The Ginet-Goldman fake barn case first appeared in Goldman’s “Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge”. It describes a boy, Henry, who is traveling through the countryside and sees what he believes to be a barn. Unbeknownst to Henry, the area he is in is actually...
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...somehow reliably deem this proposition as being false. Secondly, I will look at whether one can have a defensible epistemological method which arrives at a belief in a proposition that is untestable[2]. Thus both prongs can assume that the agent is not aware that the proposition is false and may not, in some instances, even have any way of knowing this. Finally, I will explain that the word and notion ‘reason’ can take on two different senses (one of causality and one of rationality) in order to conclude that if one uses an unreliable epistemological method or one which leads to an untestable belief in a proposition, one cannot have very strong (rational) reasons for believing in something although it is false. It is important to set out epistemologies from an axiomatic starting point. There is no better place to...
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...Epistemology Schools Paper Arika Boyd PHL/215 Dixie Hoyt 09/15/09 Epistemology or theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy related to the scope and nature of knowledge. The subject focuses on examining the nature of knowledge, and how it relates to beliefs, justification, and truth. Epistemology contract with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims. The question is what does people Know? The core of this questions and area of study is Skepticism, in which there have been many approaches involved in trying to disprove a particular form of this school. This paper will discuss the Epistemology school of Skepticism, the contributors whom created the school; the evolution of how the school grew out of it’s the original field of Epistemology, and a few examples of real-life applications pertaining to the school. Epistemology arisen either in defense of or in opposition to certain forms of skepticism. Skepticism is an attitude of doubt and uncertainty as expressed in everyday language and an identifiable school of thought in history ideas. It’s most general sense refers to doubt, disbelief, uncertainty, suspension of judgment, and rejection of knowledge. It is the doctrine that true knowledge in a particular area is uncertain and argues that beliefs in something does not justify that an assertion of knowledge on the particular subject. It also is characterized by its opposition to dogmatism in which...
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...Epistemology, at its core, is a study in the theory of knowledge and can be characterized by the investigation into the nature and grounds of knowledge; it seeks to answer questions about what kinds of things we know and how we know them1. The field is broad and relevant to many different areas of society, but there are numerous facets to epistemology that contribute to significant debate between philosophers. Churchland covers a lot of ground in this introductory chapter in epistemology, but I plan to focus on just a couple of key components presented in the chapter. In this paper, I will briefly touch upon the distinction between rational and empirical epistemology, highlighting the key arguments presented by each side. Additionally, I plan...
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...In Western philosophy, epistemology is the most important branch. It reevaluated the previous philosophy branches (mainly metaphysics and moral philosophy) and dominated the following philosophy trends – the trend of introspection. Epistemology has it unique position in all subjects as it tries to tell us about the possibility of the knowledge of ultimate reality. It is unlike the inquiries in science which trying to know about things that are observable, as the question in philosophy are mainly metaphysical, which cannot be proved by empirical studies. In this sense, we need a way to justified our metaphysical beliefs, a method of knowledge. The development of epistemology starts as early as Plato’s age, as he proposed knowledge as ‘justified...
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...Knowledge Claims Knowledge issues emerge from knowledge claims. These are claims about what we know. Researchers examine the knowledge claims about social world (Crotty 2003). They are of an ontological nature (the reality and character of things) and epistemological nature (how the knower discovers the knowledge about the reality). Ontology and epistemology Before researchers embark on their journey to explore social phenomena, they need to clarify what their ontological and epistemological stances are. Just as every project has its start and finish, so does academic research. The first stage of academic research is for inquirers to ask a research question, answers for which will be learnt using proper research methods. Researchers can go about answering the research question quantitatively, qualitatively or utilizing mixed methods. It is believed that while undertaking academic research, ontologies and epistemologies, also called paradigms, must be defined separately from research methods, although these constituents are interlaced and they shape each other (Crotty 2003; Guba and Lincoln 1994; Poetschke 2003; Scotland 2012; Grix 2002). The word ontology is derived from two Greek words meaning being and word. Ontology deals with the world and the question whether the reality exists regardless of our knowledge about it or not. There are two contrasting philosophical traditions: positivism looking at reality as being real, true and concrete and interpretivism looking at the...
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...philein, a word that means “love,” and sophia, a word that means wisdom. When you put the two words together, it means “the love or pursuit of wisdom”. Philosophy can be considered to be many different truths, depending on the person and the ideas they have embraced through time. With the different twist and turns that philosophy can take, there had to be some way of classifying the different approaches. The approaches were broken down into 6 areas to be able to classify what type of research was being done. Philosophers like Bertrand Russell brought to our attention that we are quick to embrace the scientific explanation of the world but the Metaphysics or the idea that there may be an afterlife cannot be proven with a microscope. Epistemology is the study of identifying what we know and why we know it. This is sometimes integrated with Metaphysics but has its own meaning. The main question in this study is what truth is, and what the sources of knowledge are. Ethics is the study of morals, values, and principals. Questions arise for these thinkers like how should we treat others,...
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...My Own Epistemology: In the Making Am I living in an illusion? What will happen to me after I die? Is there really such thing as a God? I have struggled with these three questions throughout my entire life, and I was very intrigued to discover that all of these questions were addressed throughout the many different readings in Libs 201: Exploring the Unknown. Author Chris Frith dissects the idea that the mental world is an illusion created by the brain in his book Making Up The Mind. Antony Flew, a former atheist, argues that there is such thing as a God or an “agent” and backs up his theory using science. Emile Durkheim writes about the foundation of religious thought in primitive people thousands of years ago, and addresses the question of where religious impulse comes from in humans. All of these readings address epistemological questions beyond the scientific domain of research, and I am left with an open mind as I try and retain all of the different concepts and ideas each of these authors has to offer. According to Chris Frith, the mental world is an illusion caused by the brain. In Making up the Mind, Frith addresses the distinction between the mental and the physical world, and claims that there isn’t actually a distinction at all. Frith writes, “Most of our interactions with other people are interactions between minds, not between bodies.” This statement really stood out to me, and I found myself repeating these words over and over again inside of my head. Reading...
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...In the handout from Man is the Measure, Abel discussed nine “good reasons” or sources of knowledge. In a response of 450-500 words, evaluate any two of those sources. Of these, one should be an epistemology that you consider a strong or secure foundation for knowledge and one that you consider relatively weak. Discuss the reasons for your choice and include specific examples. Among the nine epistemologies suggested by Abel in “Man in the Measure”, I consider sense perception to be a strong epistemology. According to the Oxford Dictionary, “sense perception is to perceive by a sense (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch). Long before humans learned how to use language or reason, sense was the primary way to interact with the world, and was the only source for obtaining knowledge. Sense perception is considered to be a framework for many other theories. It also helps people confirm assumptions, as they are very convincing. Two men looking at the ocean might say it is light blue, which cannot be doubted. In addition, acknowledging that it is light blue, it may be deduced that the water in the ocean is clean. However, sense perception also has its weaknesses. Firstly, according to Hermann von Hemholtz, humans construct images by inferring it based on past experience. Furthermore, it means that humans convert pictures into something based on the understanding of the world. This becomes a weakness, as different people would have different perspectives. Secondly, due to...
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...The profiling of two countries is one way to know all about in these countries and to compare to each other. In our subject the Comparative Economics, our professor give a group assignment and that is to search all the profile of one develop country and the Philippines. Our chose develop country is the Japan. Our group leader assigned to me the Political Aspects of these two countries. By the help of internet, books and other source of information, I look for all the political details of the country to know all about the government and political background of these countries for us to compare the political aspects of the two countries. By the profile of the chosen countries, I and my group mates are looking for the advantage of each country and what are the factors that give the two countries improvement or progress. We finish this assignment with the cooperation of all members and at the given time period. During the time of work or the assignment, we share some ideas for us to get the best idea for the format design and the questioner of the group assignment. As the member of the group, I finish all includes to my topic that assigned by our leader and submit to the leader to compile all the profile of the chosen develop country and the Philippines. Philippines The form of government of the Philippines is a Republic Government, which is the Filipino people, elects a representative to lead and to make laws. The government has three branches: the legislative branch, executive...
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...Page 1 of 3 Student Number: 4392-524-3 Date: 04/04/2013 PYC4808 - Assignment 1 Unique Assignment Number: 199603 Table of Contents: Table of contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..Pg. 1 Definition and example of epistemology…………………………………………….………………………....Pg. 2 Definition and example of theory……………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 2 Definition and example of a model…………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 2 Definition and example of a technique………………………………………………………………….……….Pg. 2 Reference list………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 3 Page 2 of 3 Definition Epistemology Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, its pre-suppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity. Epistemology investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge. Epistemology is one of the key defining characteristics of what it means to be human…to become conscious of your ways of knowing, and reinforce your confidence in that knowledge. Theory Theory is a set of statements, or principles devised to explain a group of facts / phenomena especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena. Example Truth itself – How can we know that something is true? Classical Conditioning Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development Model A model is usually a system for representing scientific knowledge concerning psychological aspects. A theory may...
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...The theory of knowledge, or Epistemology, is an important area in philosophy. Many great philosophical debates have developed because of the different views and principle issues dealing with epistemology. Although there are several principle issues in epistemology, my areas of focus are, empiricism, rationalism, Skepticism, and Justification. Empiricism is the theory that experience is the main focus in giving us knowledge of the world. Empiricists believe that knowledge without personal experience is impossible. Some empiricist believe that a new born baby come into the world knowing nothing and everything that they learn is only by experience. The mind is furnished with information from experience. The concept that all knowledge is arrived from the senses, leads me to believe that empiricist think that it is unreasonable to talk about things we have not experienced. Most radical empiricists believe that religions have no concrete evidence and consequently religious beliefs are insignificant. In essence, empiricism requires solid physical evidence to be considered knowledge. In contrast to empiricism, rationalism is the belief that reasoning is the most important aspect of acquiring knowledge. Rationalists believe that we have some instinctive knowledge. Certain things we just know with having personal experience directly disputes the theory that empiricists believe about newborn babies. Rationalists also believe that some truths can be worked out without having...
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...Personal Exploration of Knowledge Darchelle Mitchell University of Phoenix Personal Exploration of Knowledge What is epistemology? Simply put, it is the science or study of knowledge. It is curious that often human beings do not question the origin of knowledge, especially concerning common-sense beliefs and practices, taking on the notion that having been there always, it is tested, established, and proven to be true over practice. If knowledge is socially created and structured by man, it will also be subject to the flaws and fallibility and human thought. Epistemology addresses this by asking questions like - how is knowledge acquired and established, how do we know what we know, what is knowledge? These are basic and intriguing questions about knowledge that is not often addressed by us human beings when confronted with new or ordinary ideas and knowledge systems. They are important to ask however simply because human society's bedrock is knowledge; we live our lives influenced by systems of knowledge that control our ways of thinking, doing, and living from our simplest to most complicated tasks. Epistemology To truly understand epistemology as the philosophy and science of knowledge, it is important to understand what knowledge means. Knowledge is the knowing and familiarity of a skill, a person, an event, of facts, of descriptions, of abstract concepts. Acquiring knowledge...
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