Questions tagged [epistemology]
Epistemology is the study of knowledge, acquisition thereof, and the justification of belief in a given claim.
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According to the major theories of concepts, where do meanings come from?
In all our intellectual pursuits, we use concepts like "atoms" for a structure or "ingredients" for a recipe. We all have to use them. For example, consider the concepts 'existence'...
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Could 'cogito ergo sum' possibly be false?
I've heard it postulated by some people that "we can't truly know anything". While that does seem to apply to the vast majority of things, I can't see how 'cogito ergo sum' can possibly be false.
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Was mathematics invented or discovered?
What would it mean to say that mathematics was invented and how would this be different from saying mathematics was discovered?
Is this even a serious philosophical question or just a meaningless/...
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Is the "omniscient-omnipotent-omnipresent" definition of God consistent?
God is commonly defined as an omniscient (infinite knowledge), omnipotent (unlimited power), omnipresent (present everywhere) entity.
Is there any logical inconsistency in this definition?
I have ...
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What are the more complex/interesting examples of synthetic a priori statements?
The usual examples of synthetic a priori statements are – it seems at least since Kant:
"Nothing can be simultaneously red and green all over"
7 + 5 = 12 (or any other basic arithmetic statements).
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Did Kant come to believe that we have access to things-in-themselves after all?
Kant's position on things-in-themselves is often described Socratically, of them we know only one thing, that they are. However, in an old but apparently still popular history of philosophy book I ...
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Is the Münchhausen trilemma really a trilemma?
It claims there are three options of which none of them are satisfying.
Circular argument doesn't prove anything because it's just when the premise is the same as the conclusion.
x ∵ x
Infinite ...
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What is the relationship between philosophy and science?
While philosophy and science as held as separate disciplines (and often taught in completely different colleges within a university [i.e. College of Liberal Arts vs. College of Science]), it is ...
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Is it possible to know anything with certainty?
I have been thinking about objectivism vs relativism recently.
It is easy to prove by contradiction that there exist objective truths. However, is it possible to know anything?
If you assume a human ...
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Philosophical assumptions underlying science
I am a medical student and have been interested lately in the foundations of the scientific research method I have been taught.
I've read that there is in fact no such thing as a unique scientific ...
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How can the physical world be an abstract mathematical structure a la Tegmark?
This is Tegmark's short formulation of the "mathematical universe" (paraphrased by detractors as "reality made of math"), and he goes out of his way to stress that he means the "is" literally:"Whereas ...
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How does one know one is not dreaming?
How does one know one is not dreaming? How could one logically demonstrate to a skeptic that one is "really" there, awake and not just dreaming about the entire situation/world around him?
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Proof for the absence of free will?
EDIT (17/08/2022): I have answered this question with an evolution of the argument. See accepted answer below.
There are a number of arguments which aim to prove the impossibility of free will.
The ...
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How can an uneducated but rational person differentiate between science and religion? [closed]
I recently found myself unable to respond to the statement "But the big bang theory is just another creation myth!" during a science vs. religion argument. I found it very difficult to explain the ...
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What should philosophers know about math and natural sciences?
My question is whether a lack of knowledge about formal mathematics or theoretical science in general would have an impact on a philosopher's ability to think and make judgments.
Why should a ...
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Please explain to a beginner: what is metaphysics?
As I understand it, most or all of philosophy can be put into the three main branches of philosophy: Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Axiology.
A devotee of reason, I have great affinity for, and ...
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What are examples of analytic a posteriori knowledge?
There is the analytic/synthetic distinction and the a priori/a posteriori distinction. These two distinctions form four types of knowledge:
analytic a priori
synthetic a priori
analytic a posteriori
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If everything is theory laden, how can one argue against climate change deniers?
Per Quine's results from "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", the Duhem-Quine thesis, and later results such as those of Kuhn and Feyerabend, all empirical observations are theory laden. Even widely accepted ...
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How did Kant define knowledge?
A recent question about the Plato's formula K=JTB (knowledge is justified true belief) made me curious as to what Kant thought on the matter. In the prefaces and the Introduction to the first Critique ...
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Is there any counterexample given against radical skepticism?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_skepticism
I am thinking that simple statement such as "I am", "I think" are all beliefs that are also knowledge and conditional statements ...
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What are the counterexamples to Kant's argument that existence is not a predicate?
Kant argued that considering existence as a predicate is wrong. A predicate is a feature or characteristic of an object. But logically, existence adds nothing to the characteristics of that object, ...
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Have any philosophers applied the concept of "underdetermination" to non-scientific contexts?
Most resources I've found on underdetermination approach the subject within the context of science. That's definitely a fascinating area of study, but I'd like to explore ways of applying ...
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When is absence of evidence not evidence of absence?
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
I think this statement raises some kind of epistemic problem. Like, how are we supposed to conclude the potential non-existence of something, like ...
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Are there any philosophical arguments to disprove or weaken solipsism?
My philosophy professor once told our class: The only people who believe in solipsism are infants and madmen. I was inclined to agree at the time. Yet years later, I have still not encountered any ...
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Why is the Münchhausen trilemma an unsolved problem?
Why is the Münchhausen trilemma unsolved?
Couldn't anybody find some reasons for proving/disproving it? Or are there other reasons for it being called "unsolved"?
the trilemma
If we ask of ...
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Looking for a book to compliment Zammito and Mohanty in understanding the ethos of post positivistic realism
There are two books which I consider to be indispensable to an understanding of
contemporary western culture’s post-truth/alternative facts (scientific and cultural post modernism/structuralism/...
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What basis do we have for certainty in current scientific theories?
Given there is much past scientific belief that we now know NOT to be true, what basis do we have for the seemingly increasing certainty in our scientific beliefs held today being true?
On the one ...
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To what extent do we choose our beliefs?
Are we free to choose our beliefs? Or is our belief in a proposition something that is thrust upon us by the weight of the evidence we have in favor and against the truth of it?
For example, is it ...
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Was Locke right that analytic knowledge is vacuous?
According to Locke, it is impossible to obtain substantive knowledge from analytic propositions. Statements like "triangle has three sides" are analytic, but one cannot derive the Pythagorean Theorem ...
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Are humans becoming more hive-like? Does this have philosophical implications?
Have any philosophers taken up human hive-like behaviour and its implications?
EO Wilson and others have outlined eusociality, a mode of group selection acting in addition to selection at the ...
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Do we know whether we know something?
Intuitively, it seems pretty obvious that, for a given proposition p, we know whether or not we know p.
I am not sure how to express this more formally (e.g. as a property of the relevant epistemic ...
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Why is Tarski's notion of logical validity preferred to deductive one?
Its flaws are well-known and serious. To recall, an inference from A to B is valid iff all interpretations of "non-logical constants" that make A true also make B true. What are interpretations, a.k.a....
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Can "Gettier problems" be resolved by assuming JTB as the formal definition of truth? [closed]
What problems arise in responding to Gettier problems with an assertion "the formal definition of knowledge, as justified true belief, does not need to exactly correspond to intuitive notions of ...
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How can we differentiate between change and progress in the area of history and natural sciences?
I'm studying a branch of philosophy that is concerned with knowledge.
I'm studying theory of knowledge(epistemology) and I want to use faith, reason, and memory as tools for carrying this ...
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Fundamental idea on proving God's existence with science
I think that proving God's existence or any deity from any culture with the rigors of science is fundamentally absurd.
The popular arguments usually involve space-time and the big bang theory. (I ...
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Can we prove reality?
I heard someone make an assertion that 'We cannot really prove that there is reality.'.
'Reality' here would mean the universe and everything in it. You could look at an apple and think its an apple ...
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Is Skepticism the most rational standpoint?
Is Philosophical Skepticism - the one that advocates true knowledge is impossible, the most rational standpoint?
I am asking this based on the observation that there are very few things whose ...
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Is economics a science?
In class, I made the argument that economics is not science, because it cannot undertake repeatable experiments. Someone rebutted: this would mean that I am ignore an emerging body of work, some by ...
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Are the unexamined lives of others worth examining?
Socrates continually admonished his interlocutors to become more introspective, arguing passionately for self-examination:
The unexamined life is not worth living.
But an examined life is painful, ...
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Is Science about Truth or Adequate Models?
Is it the general view amongst philosophers of science that science isn't about truth but rather adequately predictive models and therefore it doesn't make sense to speak of a scientific theory as ...
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Is God subject to logic?
If someone claims that God is beyond logic then how do we know he is beyond logic ? (as we lose all the methods to know whether the claim is true or not?)
Logic is the use and study of valid reasoning,...
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What does "physical" mean to philosophers?
A childish question (literally) -
My 8 year old asked me this morning: "Dad, what does 'physical' mean?" - and I found myself at loss for an ordinary language answer.
Every answer I could come up ...
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What is the meaning of "There are questions that science can't answer"?
I've recently come across several statements to the effect "there are questions science can't answer", mostly from proponents of religion and mysticism, but also from scientists and secular ...
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What philosopher said that knowledge is about discerning differences?
I have heard that knowledge is discerning differences or to that effect. For example, if all things are the same such that there is no differentiating qualities, we can't really speak of anything ...
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Do machine learning algorithms have knowledge (if not justified true beliefs)?
By "machine learning algorithm" I'm referring to basic, primarily statistical, machine learning algorithms; for concrete examples consider simple classifier algorithms like SVM or Bayesian classifier ...
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How can we justify the use of logic?
I would like to hear some philosophical arguments which justify the use of logic.
Additionally, if a justification of logic takes the form of an inference, is it a problem if this inference itself ...
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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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Why does science carry so much weight in philosophy when it is highly fallacious?
Science works like this:
We observe some phenomenon X.
We form one or more hypothesis about what the relationship between X and something else might be.
We evaluate the predictive power of the ...
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How would you know if nonobservable entities exist?
Nonphysical entities cannot be observed. Therefore such entities cannot be verified by observation. How could statements like "God exists" be even considered true? Why would anyone appeal to the ...
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Is it possible to use Wittgenstein's family resemblance approach to universals to separate high art from commercial art?
In a previous post, I asked whether it is possible to objectively compare the quality and validity of different pieces and forms of art. In the responses I got the overall response is that there is no ...
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