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Charting the Terrain of
Knowledge-1
Epistemology–

the area of philosophy that deals
with questions concerning
knowledge and that considers
various theories of knowledge
Charting the Terrain of
Knowledge-2
Types of knowledge
 Knowledge by acquaintance
 Competence knowledge
 Propositional knowledge
Knowledge as true justified belief
The Issue of Reason and
Experience
Analytic statements
Synthetic statements
A priori knowledge
A posteriori knowledge
Three Epistemological
Questions
Is it possible to have knowledge at
all?
Does reason provide us with
knowledge of the world
independently of experience?
Does our knowledge represent
reality as it really is?
Perspectives on Knowledge
Skepticism
Rationalism
Empiricism
Constructivism
Relativism
Early Greek Skeptics
Cratylus
Pyrrho
Carneades
René Descartes
The quest for certainty
 Methodological skepticism
 Meditations on First Philosophy
Meditations on First
Philosophy
Meditation I
 Doubting of senses
 The possibility of a "malicious demon"
 Radical doubt (methodological
skepticism)
Meditation II
 One point of certainty
 "I am, I exist” or cogito ergo sum (I
think, therefore, I am)
David Hume
Empiricism
Principle of induction
Uniformity of nature
An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding-1
Cause and effect questioned

constantly conjoined events
Uniformity of nature questioned
Appealing to past experience to
justify the principle of induction is
circular
An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding-2
We cannot know that there is an
external world

impressions are always internal to our
experience
Hume does not deny that the
external world exists
Fundamental beliefs rest on
psychological habits, beyond the
proof of logic and experience
Three Anchor Points of
Rationalism
Reason is the primary or most
superior source of knowledge about
reality
Sense experience is an unreliable
and inadequate route to knowledge
The fundamental truths about the
world can be known a priori: They
are either innate or self-evident to
our minds
The Rationalist Perspective
on Epistemology
Knowledge is possible
Only through reason can knowledge
be obtained
Beliefs based on reason represent
reality
Socrates on Epistemology
We can distinguish true from false
 Standards for distinguishing true
from false are based on the soul
 Rational knowledge gives us an
adequate picture of the world
Plato on Epistemology
Difference between knowledge and
opinion must be rationally justified
Agrees with Socrates that reason is
able to provide knowledge
Phaedo
Discusses perfect Justice, Beauty,
Goodness, and Equality
We have never seen these things,
yet we know they exist
Knowledge of perfect things must be
innate
Doctrine of recollection
Plato on Universals
Universals or Forms
Universals are unchanging;
experiential reality is in flux
Phaedo
René Descartes
Methodological doubt
One point of certainty: "I am, I exist"
or cogito ergo sum
Something cannot arise from
nothing, and there must be at least
as much reality in the cause as in the
effect
Descartes’ Meditation III
Innate ideas
Idea of a perfect God
Because Descartes is not perfect,
the source of the idea of God must
be God
Three Anchor Points of
Empiricism
The only source of genuine
knowledge is sense experience
Reason is an unreliable and
inadequate route to knowledge
unless it is grounded in sense
experience
There is no evidence of innate ideas
within the mind that are known apart
from experience
John Locke’s Perspective
on Epistemology
Knowledge is possible
 Simple ideas (ideas of sensation, ideas
of reflection)
 Complex ideas
Reason not sufficient for knowledge of the
world
Knowledge represents reality
 primary qualities (objective)
 secondary qualities (subjective)
George Berkeley on the
Representation of Reality
Berkeley thought Locke's
representative realism was
dangerous
Berkeley thought that even Locke's
primary qualities were subjective
David Hume
Radical empiricist
An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding
 Huge gulf between reason and the
world
 Reason can only tell us about the
relationship between our own
ideas