Questions tagged [epistemology]

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, acquisition thereof, and the justification of belief in a given claim.

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How does Quine effectively shift from points he has made about knowledge acquisition to conclusions he makes about knowledge simpliciter?

Quine propagated forward an approach to epistemology wherein there was no need of any sort of justification "beyond observation and the hypothetico-deductive method" (Quine 1981). Quine is going ...
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Do statements always have the same truth value, and that truth value is just revealed, or can they have different truth values at different times?

Example: I state that a coin will come up heads, then flip it. While the coin is flipping, does the statement 'the coin i just flipped will come up heads' have a truth value? Based on my understanding,...
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Dialectical Holonic Dua-Monism: Is this the next stage of dialectics?

So I coined the above concept called Dialectical Holonic Dua-Monism (DHD). The idea is to apply Dialectics to itself as a means to grow the concept and apply it to fields like contemporary political ...
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Does the incomputability of Kolmogorov complexity imply that we will never have a final theory of everything?

The Kolmogorov Complexity is the size of the simplest program that produces a specific output. By the Curry-Howard Correspondence, "programs" are isomorphic to "axiomatic systems" ...
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Should the evidence of OBEs and NDEs increase our epistemic probability of non-physicalist views of consciousness?

Should reports of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs) increase our epistemic probability of non-physicalist views of consciousness? In other words, should we judge non-...
2 votes
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How do I validate my confidence in things? [duplicate]

This is honestly tripping me out the more I delved into it. Of course, I feel more confident that my mother is my real mother than myself being kidnapped tomorrow. But how do I show that this is ...
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Is belief nothing but a feeling of certainty about what something means?

Or to rephrase, can beliefs also be shaped by doubts and intuitions?
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7 answers
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Is something physical if and only if we can perceive it (directly or indirectly) with our bodily senses?

What is the relationship between the physical and our senses? If something is physical, must it necessarily be the case that we should be able to perceive it, at least in principle, directly with our ...
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Exploring Methods for Articulating the Ineffable Nature of Emotions: Philosophical Insights Needed

In the realm of human experience, both emotions and colors possess an ineffable quality, challenging our ability to fully articulate them through language. This resemblance highlights a fundamental ...
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Is non-physicalism reasonable?

My question has two components: Reasonableness. What does it mean for a position to be reasonable? What conditions does a position have to meet to be regarded as reasonable? Physicalism. Wikipedia ...
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Can Philosophy explain itself?

This question is prompted by recent questions: A short, understandable definition of philosophy and Do you need to know what philosophy is to study it? Sciences are usually well defined, and the task ...
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If we keep asking "why" are we guaranteed to end up in one of the three states of the Münchhausen Trilemma?

Could you please explain your reasoning. I thought the whole point of this trilemma was that you can't know anything for certain, yet they propose with certainty that you end up in one of these states,...
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What are examples of non-physicalist approaches to acquiring knowledge?

As a follow-up to my previous question Is non-physicalism reasonable?, I would like to know about non-physicalist ways of acquiring knowledge that philosophers have considered. What sorts of knowledge ...
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Could Occam's Razor ever favor theism?

In principle, could Occam's Razor ever favor theism over rival hypotheses like naturalism? What conditions would have to be met for this to be the case? BONUS: for those interested in naturalism vs. ...
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If philosophy is based on reason and rationality, then why is there so much disagreement?

If philosophy is based on reason and rationality, then why is there so much disagreement? Is it due primarily to operating with different premises absent consensus on their truth, so that dissenters ...
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Are all actually equal? [closed]

”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of ...
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What is the most ultimately natural philosophical question? If not "What is the nature of reality?"

"What is the nature of reality?" is the question that the Stack Exchange Philosophy Metaphysics page explicitly says should be asked. And one presumes, an answer sought. However. When I ...
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topdown bottomup approach in complex systems

In continuation to question Topdown bottom up reductionism emergentism my second question is ; in complex system, like the economy, which are highly complex systems where it is often impossible to ...
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According to Kant, while thinking of empty concepts without intuitions, what do we synthesise?

(This will be my last question on this book, for those of you getting bored of my questions). Very briefly I will describe the method of Transcendental Deduction (TD) in an over-simplistic manner, and ...
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Conspiracy Theories and Epistemology? [closed]

Is it prima facie irrational (Karl Popper’s view) or consistent with vice epistemological traits (Quassim’s view) such as gullibility to believe in conspiracy theories? See new episode of Spotify/...
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How can we prove that the supernatural or paranormal doesn't exist?

Agnostic theists and atheists believe themselves to be hopelessly ignorant concerning the existence of the supernatural or paranormal. To them, gnostic atheism isn't adequately supported by evidence, ...
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Can private experiences justify private belief in supernaturalism?

Is it ever rational or justified to believe in supernaturalism on the basis of private experiences (of the kind for which publicly accesible evidence can hardly be produced)? If someone has private ...
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Is it possible for truth to be set by humans?

Let's say I create a video game. Let's call it V. Then I set a rule in V that you need to find a car in the game and click on it to jump. Now we ask the question of how to jump on V. Someone replies ...
5 votes
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Trying to understand reality lead to understanding useless things?

If one sets his purpose as achieving the truest possible understanding of reality (I know one might die and not achieve it), then doesn't this mean that he needs then to understand all the things that ...
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To what extent are reasoning and arguments essential to bridge the gap from sense perception to the belief in an external world?

Let A denote the set of sense perceptions of a conscious being, and let B represent that conscious being's belief in the existence of an external world. Sense perceptions include sight, hearing, touch,...
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What did Kant mean by "objects" and how do they relate to intuitions and concepts?

I am trying to understand Kant's taxonomy of ideas (or "representations") and I am stuck on his meaning of "intuition", in particular, whether or not the object of an intuition ...
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Can Reformed Epistemology be considered a special variant of mysticism?

First, some definitions (feel free to skip this part if you are already familiar with the concepts): Reformed Epistemology In the philosophy of religion, Reformed epistemology is a school of ...
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Numbers and Time

This is my first post on philosophy stack exchange, so I apologize in advance if this question is not well-defined or if it happens to be a duplicate. If so, feel free to link the corresponding post(s)...
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All we know is that we know nothing? Can we know anything?

Many great philosophers doubted their knowledge. The Paradox of Induction touches on this skepticism Skeptics say that all knowledge and scientific progress is based on inductive logic, which is ...
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Doesn't fallibilism complexify Pascal's wager further?

We can never know whether we have accumulated all the knowledge in the world or not. This is a general statement. For example, a powerful counterargument against the contingency argument might exist ...
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Is "thoughts exist" a synthetic a priori statement?

I'm working off of Kant's conception of analytic/synthetic and a prior/a posteriori judgements. The definition of "thoughts" does not subsume their existence. That is, it is logically ...
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A variant for panpsychism of shapes and matter?

What is the name of the variant of panpsychism that argues that not only matter, but also shapes and objects have conciousness?
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conceptualizing metaphor and analogy with abstraction

Are two concepts metaphor/analogy equivalent to generalization/abstraction. If yes how? Give me some examples
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Are Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems a refutation of Rationalism?

According to Putnam, Gödel's theorems show that the set of truths in Number Theory (i.e., true propositions involving natural numbers and their properties) is not recursively enumerable, whereas all ...
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human life is based on suspicion and assumption, rather than certainty?

A murder occurred, so the police came to the house where the crime took place, and as soon as they entered, they found a person whose clothes were stained with blood and carrying a knife in his hand. ...
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Is it possible to know of the properties of concrete particulars without having a reference to compare with?

After researching for quite some time, all forms of knowledge about properties of concrete particulars I can think of, rely on a comparison with some sort of reference. Some simple examples might be: ...
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Mutually contradictory but simultaneously correct

In continuation of Two competing theories that are logically inconsistent my second question is there can be a theory/framework which can be interpreted in many mutually contradictory but ...
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Did what I do in this game constitute a logical fallacy or not?

Thinking about my previous question, I'm starting to think I didn't ask the right question. I'm making this to determine if I did or not. I don't think this is the typical type of question that goes ...
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Why is the argument from synthetic a priori cognition to the subjectivity of what is cognized independent of the "appearance" premise?

In Paul Guyer's Kant, section "A Life in Work", the author claims this: this argument from synthetic a priori cognition to the subjectivity of what is cognized is independent of the general ...
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Is it possible for everything that exists to have a definition?

Is it possible for everything that exists to have a definition? I actually started out asking this in the linguistics - semantics stack and was directed here. By definition I mean at least in the ...
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What are appropriate limits to good faith?

This is a question about normative theories in the philosophy of science and epistemology, I would like to know how I as a research scientist / mathematician should treat "cranks." I am not ...
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Isn't the fact that we believe our minds are able to reason or find truth an axiom in itself?

I am trying to prove or disprove this, but I seem to have faced a problem: the mere attempt to prove (or disprove) that our mind makes an assumption that we can find truth means I am assuming the very ...
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Are there any conserved properties in causation?

Physical objects do seem to operate on other physical objects while all operating under physical properties, i.e. chemical bonds, momentum, mass, energy, etc. A chemical reacts with other chemicals to ...
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Did i Just found the solution to radical skepticism?

If someone uses the premise that: 1=1 and then arrives at the conclusion that: 1=2 this means that the conclusion has proven the premise wrong; and if the premise is wrong, then the conclusion is ...
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Do descriptions of what exist map to causes recognized by Man? Can we describe coherent models for broad patterns of knowledge? [closed]

EDIT 0 - To clarify, in the table below, the term God would be missing from it's provisional box for humans who map ultimate causes exclusively to non-moral, aka natural, types of cause. Sigmund Freud,...
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Does space behave like a logical operator that applies rules to its elements?

I am asking due to being inspired by the following: Consider a particle system with uniform motion in vacuum not sensitive towards fluctuations, such that classical mechanics applies. Now, consider ...
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Can we know the fundamental nature of space and time?

Can you please point me to an argument by a notable contemporary philosopher arguing why we may know the fundamental (metaphysical) nature of space and time? In a recent answer to a question I wrote ...
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Under what conditions could all of reality be reduced to a formal system?

It would be very convenient if we had, at least non-constructively, a correspondent formal system that could reproduce any causal event within the universe. The strength would be that naturalism would ...
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Are we incapable of loving ourselves, does love only come from the outside?

Love only comes from the outside, it brings you back into attachment to what you cannot control and instigate. Love is an alienated area that advances from the unknown, from a place different from me. ...
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Do atheists bear the burden of proof in showing why/how the reasons presented by theists are unconvincing?

In conversations and debates between atheists and theists, is it enough for the atheist to assert that they are skeptical of theism without providing justification, or does the atheist bear the burden ...

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