Questions tagged [epistemology]
Epistemology is the study of knowledge, acquisition thereof, and the justification of belief in a given claim.
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Nozick's Tracking Theory Problems
I have been studying Bonjour's clairvoyant rebuttal to externalist theories and also the New Evil Demon problem by Cohen and Lehrer. I wanted to ask whether Nozick's tracking theory can respond ...
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Emotion and Knowledge [on hold]
I was always curious, how largely do emotions play a part in our decision making using individual knowledge possessed? This question is making me feel confused as this may imply does being completely ...
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1answer
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Why is it obviously false that the distribution of prime numbers can only be a matter of knowledge and never of opinion?
I'm reading "The Routledge Guidebook to Plato's Republic" (3rd edition) and Plato's "Republic".
In the Guidebook (chapter 7, pg 158, the section on Knowledge and Opinion), the 12th fundamental ...
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How does Epistemology show that it's not a language game?
I'm looking for pointers towards texts that treat the issue of "doing philosophy with language" as a foundational problem-- which must be justified in order to go on and make meaningful statements ...
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Is physicalism an unfalsifiable position?
A follow up from this question: is materialism a self refuting position
Does physicalism include epistemological principles that make it impossible to disprove by its own standard ?
If I am a ...
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1answer
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Understanding Hintikka's scandal of deduction (as depicted by D'Agostino)
I am having trouble understanding Hintikka's Scandal of Deduction, as depicted in D'Agostino's article. According to this account, the problem stems from the fact that, while first order logic is ...
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Can other than natural phenomena be facts?
Can other than natural phenomena be facts?
At the moment, I think that no.
The reason is that everything else requires "interpretation" and everything else than "spontaneously created, emerged, ..."...
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Is there any correlation between Quine’s underdetermination and bayesian issues of old evidence and new theories?
Bayesianism has some faults some of them are the problem of old evidence and the issue of new theories. Are these two problems linked to Quine’s underdetermination? Or are they contrasting it? What is ...
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An Argument that Knowledge is a Matter of Choice
I have met someone who argues as follows:
What I know depends on what axioms I take. As these axioms are left unjustified, I have as much justification for them as for their negations, so I could ...
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Why do people assume that good has more existence than evil? [closed]
There is a common metaphor that compares the good to the warmth or the light, and the evil to the cold or the darkness. Physicists tell that the cold is the absense of the heat, and does not exist. By ...
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2answers
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Intention and Means-End Reasoning in Epistemology
In his paper, The logical foundations of means-end reasoning, John Pollock describes a notion of "means-end" reasoning, which is planning with a certain end goal in mind.
Human plan-construction ...
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Quine, subjective probability and QM
I have just read Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist where Quine says:
“Probability? Of events? Restore extensionality (...). Of states of affairs? Treat quotationally, like de dicto. How much ...
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what is a “discursive site”?
I am looking for a definition of "discursive site". I have looked up Foucault's definition of discourse, but can't find anything. Any references or explanations welcome.
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What are some important essays/philosophical views on experiencing things objectively? [closed]
I'm looking for some names/essays/philosophers on the topic of objective reality. Questions like, "Can we experience anything objectively?" and, "Is there an objective reality?"
Anyone have any ...
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How can you argue for a classification without assuming the classification?
Assume population x differs from population y by characteristic z. One group of scholars argues that x and y belong to the same class and that z is incidental and irrelevant to the classification. ...
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2answers
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What specific knowledge is purposefully held back by the universities from their students? [closed]
I read a quote once that this is done as a grocer would hold back the knowledge of the second half of a punnet of strawberries being mouldy. I have my theories but was there a specific knowledge set ...
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1answer
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Is there a way to tell which philosophers are correct in their musings? [closed]
Is quoting an authoritative source a useful or effective way to demonstrate that an assertion is correct?
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1answer
85 views
What justified consciousness is an experience and not an thing? [closed]
No philosophers has justified that consciousnesses can be measured. Many philosophers have tried to describe the mind, but are there any specific scholars who describe justified methods to describe ...
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what does it mean to have philosophical study of something
Because we see there are many philosophical Study at present like
philosophical study of education,
philosophical study of Judgement etc.
Therefore please explain me what does it mean to have ...
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6answers
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Would it be sensible to say “I know Santa does not exist”?
Would it be sensible to say "I know Santa does not exist", and more generaly, what do we really say when we say "I know that [some fact]" ?
It is a well known principle that "absence of evidence is ...
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2answers
263 views
Should truth entail possible truth?
It is a well-accepted axiom of modal logic that truth implies possible truth.
Is there any philosophical argument against this conclusion? In other words, should truth entail possible truth?
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1answer
39 views
In Spinoza's Epistemology what role is played by his concept of 'idea'? How do the idea in 'thought' and the object in extension interrelate?
Depending on which among the diverse variety of depictions of the status and possibility of humans being in possession of 'knowledge', Spinoza's Epistemology has been described in various ways. The ...
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3answers
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Is fallibilism a better option than absolute certainty?
Fallibilism is the epistemological thesis that no belief (theory, view, thesis, and so on) can ever be rationally supported or justified in a conclusive way. Always, there remains a possible doubt as ...
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1answer
117 views
How should “knowledgeability” be defined? Is it merely w.r.t. to best scientific knowledge? [closed]
How should "knowledgeability" be defined?
Is it merely w.r.t. to best scientific knowledge? What about things that science cannot measure?
Or are there other "reasonable" forms of knowledge? Why ...
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Bayesian epistemology and paraconsistent logics
My philosophical background
I read a little on Bayesian epistemology, a while back, and I was both impressed by it and really disappointed that it was not, being a 20th century invention, embedded ...
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4answers
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Is there another state besides existence and nonexistence?
Today I told someone who said that there is no objective truth the next thing: "For example, we, as humans, cannot know if God exists or he does not but we can know for sure that one of these two ...
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Can one know and not know at the same time the same truth?
How to analyse the fact that , at the age of 6,
(1) I knew that : 1 + 1 =2
but, at the same time,
(2) I did not know that 1² + 1² = square root of 4 ?
Can someone know the first thing ...
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1answer
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Questions concerning Hume's argument for the unknowability of ultimate causes
I'm currently reading through Hume's An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, and I'm having trouble understanding one of his big arguments in the section entitled "Skeptical Doubts Concerning the ...
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Epistemology: What role does “ intensionality” play in the knowledge relation? Is “ intension” a third term in the knowledge relation?
How to analyse the fact that , at the same time, my 7 y. old nephew
(1) knows that : 1+1 =2
(2) does not know that : sqrt (1) + 1² = the absolute value of the cube root of -8. ?
Certainly, "...
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1answer
63 views
Questions on Descartes' Certainty? [closed]
1)What is the certainty that Descartes discovers in the Second Meditation?
2)What does Descartes go on to attempt to prove in the Third Meditation and how is this proof related to what was ...
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3answers
114 views
Is it possible to infer the non-existence of a thing?
Is it possible to rationally infer the non-existence of a phenomenon or a thing, because of a lack of evidence?
I've heard of the Null Hypothesis - I heard it says that you can infer that something ...
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Help with epistemology homework related to film Shutter Island
I am really sorry to ask this but I need some help regarding the philosophical interpretation of the movie Shutter Island. Hope someone can help me!
I need to analyze how does Teddy Daniels know who ...
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158 views
Is it possible to track the truth?
Epistemology seems to show that knowledge is always fallible. How can that position be satisfying at all? It seems to me that we are eternally condemned to hope we are going in the right direction and ...
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1answer
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ELI5: what is 'Pragmatic Encroachment'?
questions
what is 'Pragmatic Encroachment'?
what's the limit on what 'Pragmatic Encroachment' counts as a 'pragmatic factor'? does it count just a few things, or just any practical factors?
overview
...
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3answers
198 views
Does the demand for evidence run contrary to faith?
As the title suggests, and in accordance with a recent theme here on philosophy stack exchange, I'm wondering if the demand for evidence runs contrary to faith. My intuitive notion of faith is that it ...
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1answer
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Is there anything in epistemology beyond exploration+reinforcement learning (RL)? [closed]
I am trying to build consciousness in artificial intelligence. The general mechanism is that agent (randomly or based on some preexisting knowledge) performs some actions (gets some knowledge, makes ...
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Through what epistemological means is one's gender identity discoverable?
Though the epistemological means through which one's gender identity is often erroneously directed solely at transgender persons, I think --- as a cisgender person --- that it can uniformly apply to ...
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Is there a rigid model for distinguishing opinion, informed opinion and fact consistently and unambiguously?
Is there a rigid model for distinguishing opinion, informed opinion and fact consistently and unambiguously?
What makes this confusing is that depending on the context, it's possible to deviate from ...
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1answer
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Does Kant’s argument against idealism refute Cartesian epistemology?
While Kant arguably manages to show in section 65 of the Critique of Pure Reason (“Refutation of Idealism”) that the concept of a self existing through time cannot be reconciled with skepticism of the ...
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1answer
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Is there a traditional concept for virtues that inform our ideas of what we can know?
Is there a traditional (singular and delimited) concept for virtues that inform our ideas of what we can and can't know, virtues that mean that their bearers show prudence (I can't know I'll roll a ...
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2answers
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Is beauty a property?
If beauty is not a property, because it is subjective, then why is the color red a property? Seeing a color is subjective, not only it is subjective, but we cannot confirm we see the same color, and ...
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3answers
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What are some of the paradigm shifts in how we think about logic and rationality in the history of philosophy [closed]
I am wondering if there was any shift or big revelations about logic that occurred in the history of philosophy. I am thinking it's highly likely, because if you read some of the thinkers during ...
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2answers
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Seeking literature on whether all beliefs should be justified
This is more or less just a reference request.
Sometimes, when a belief is revealed to be unjustified, we should respond by either giving up that belief or at the very least, yielding a certain ...
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3answers
214 views
Did any philosopher make the claim that mathematics can be as illusory as visual information?
The Greeks postulated that the world we observe may be just an illusion and Kant based some of his philosophy on that very idea. From that idea, came the idea that mathematical truths are more certain ...
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2answers
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Is there any philosophy that associates the absolute truth with monism?
I never know what people mean by absolute truth, it sounds like they're referring to a truth above all truths, but there are many truths.
So I was wondering if there were a lot of philosophy that ...
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1answer
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Why should I trust experts - and what's the place of experts in a democracy?
If we trust experts, do we then elevate them as determiners of the truth? When we trust our surgeon to do a good job in surgery because he is an expert, do I forfeit my right to criticize experts on ...
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What is an event that was a counterexample to Occam's Razor?
I am asking for a set among n competing hypotheses where the simplest one was H_i but the correct one was H_j where i is not the same as j. That is, a time when scientists tested a bunch of hypotheses ...
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How do I keep up with the latest in the cutting edge of philosophy? [duplicate]
I always viewed philosophy to be dead after the arrival of modern science. The last great philosopher in metaphysics was Kant, I believe the others who followed him were made irrelevant by the ...
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Is there an example of an innate idea?
I don't see any justification to argue a person has an idea or knowledge that is not derived from its environment. How come Plato raised this question at all:
How is it that we have certain ideas ...
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Are there writers on the topic of an inherent human bias towards the value of rational thinking?
Some people place humans as 'higher animals' because we are uniquely capable of rational thought, while most other animals are not.
This assumes that the trait of rationality is superior to other ...
