Questions tagged [epistemology]
Epistemology is the study of knowledge, acquisition thereof, and the justification of belief in a given claim.
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Are questions truth-apt; what is the use of assigning questions a truth-value?
Is John black (or white)?
Yes he is black.
No he is not (black).
I don’t see how can the question be truth-apt and what use is there in assigning (or even being able to assign) a truth-value to the ...
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scientific inquiry of theory of evolution [closed]
In the context of scientific inquiry, the term prediction means "The logical consequences of a set of premises". Consider the following premises :
Athena is taller than Zeno.
Zeno is taller ...
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Intersection of the Gettier problem and knowing-what or knowing-how
From what I can tell, it seems like the Gettier problem comes down to Smith not knowing that the man who has ten coins in his pocket is going to get the job. What about Smith knowing what the ...
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Can Kant's objective or universal judgments be subjective (in the ordinary sense)?
What inspired this question is Prolegomena §18, particularly this passage:
All of our judgments are at first mere judgments of perception; they
hold only for us, i.e., for our subject, and only ...
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Epistemic value of multiple eyewitness accounts: single event vs. multiple events given a fixed number of eyewitnesses?
Intuitively speaking, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a single event are more convincing than a single eyewitness account. For example, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a loud ...
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Loops in logic and reasoning
While studying science I have come across many times loops in logic.for example in survival of the fittest who is fit~who survives and who survives~who is fit.
My question is how to deal with these ...
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Is there a way to tell if something is science versus pseudoscience?
Is there a litmus test to know whether something is science or pseudoscience?
There are many things which is quite ambiguous like ayurveda, homeopathy, psychology, biology, etc...
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speculative deductive reasoning
Is hypothetico-deductive reasoning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetico-deductive_model and speculative deductive reasoning same ?
(speculative deductive reasoning- WE arrive at the explanans ...
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Q: Is the argument for the truth of truth-relativism valid? If so, why so? If not, why not?
I need help understanding how the argument for the truth of truth-relativism is valid.
I have attempted to explain how the argument for relativism is valid, and I think I am on the right track, but I ...
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What is the relationship between Kant's idea of the "transcendental grounds of experience" and his " transcendental theory of cognition"
So I understand the former as simply being what must be the case for experience to be possible (the a priori forms), yet I am not so sure of the latter. Does it simply mean that an object always has ...
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Causation vs correlation in the context of physics
How to know whether A and B is causal or correlated? Is it correct to say that physicists have always been concerned about causation? The laws of physics are stated in terms of equations that have ...
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Did it take till the likes of Lakoff and the 20th-21st century to have truly direct naturalized reasons for logic and math?
I’m finding George Lakoff and cohorts unique (but maybe that’s my lack of looking enough) in that they seem among the first to posit a direct, naturalized account of logic and mathematics, as ...
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Is finding data to fit a hypothesis unscientific? [closed]
It seems to me that many people find observations/data in order to fit the hypothesis or to prove the conclusion of their arguments. In one example, one might regard taking a set of lab data and going ...
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Kant's philosophy for analytic philosophers
Can someone explain the role of Kant's philosophy in analytic philosophy?
As an example, is the noumenon/phenomenon-distinction important for analytic philosophers? When we see a green tree, is the ...
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Can we doubt all knowledge?
Can we doubt all knowledge from all sources (perception, reports, and reason)?
Regarding doubting reason, reason can't be proven, it is preceived and judged instantly by our logic, but what if our ...
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Does absence of evidence mean evidence of absence?
I've often heard a phrase used in argumentation, but I'm not sure what it means. Does absence of evidence mean evidence of absence in philosophy?
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Wager calculation for the thirder position (Sleeping Beauty problem)
Here is the problem for those unfamiliar with it:
Sleeping Beauty volunteers to undergo the following experiment and is told all of the following details: On Sunday she will be put to sleep. Once or ...
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Certainty is not possible in science
So I have formulated a set of arguments to argue certainty is not possible in science. Did I make an illogical argument here or like is there anything amiss in my argument?
Opinion: Science can reach ...
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Paradox involving the principle of indifference
The principle of indifference states that:
"in the absence of any relevant evidence, agents should distribute their credence (or 'degrees of belief') equally among all the possible outcomes ...
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What do philosophers call the aspirational ideal of deliberative decision-making / governance?
I'm interested in the oldest and/or most notable articulation of what a potential ideal decision-making / governance approach would aspire to.
More concretely, consider an idealized decision-making ...
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Prior Grounding Requirement and Michael Williams
In his book Problems of Knowledge, Michael Williams talks about the grounding requirement, which, according to the extended standard analysis, is necessary to say that someone knows something. ...
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Could neurodiversity factors affect individuals' ability to understand various specific abstract concepts?
Wittgenstein was a philosopher who arrived at several insightful questions (e.g. the private-language problem) but seemed to range from clueless to superstitious about transfinite set theory. Non-...
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To obtain knowledge must we acquire specific other knowledge first?
It would seem obvious we must acquire some knowledge before other knowledge. I want to emphasize specific prior knowledge though. I don’t want to just say to get to Paris you just travel through an ...
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How could one distinguish crankery from serious work?
Suppose I read a work, and I don't understand it or see its meaning, then it could be that either the information itself is inconsistent/non-sensical or I don't understand it personally. How do I know ...
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How likely is the simplest explanation of something the correct one?
When assuming how something is the way it is, you choose the simplest explanation. But what is the chance of this actually being the explanation? For example, say a cucumber randomly appeared on the ...
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What does Hume mean when he relates association of ideas to languages?
In the Enquiry, section 3 Hume says:
Among different languages, even where we cannot suspect the least
connexion or communication, it is found, that the words, expressive of
ideas, the most ...
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Justification versus mental causation
A justification: "we know A is true because B is true."
A mental causation: "I concluded A because first I believed B and that led me to A."
There is certainly a strong ...
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A question on knowledge as justified true belief
I am not a philosophy student and I have a question on the term "justified" in the definition of knowledge.
Suppose that I have some reasons for justifying a proposition. Is it necessary ...
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Does Kant implicitly commit the paralogism of pure reason when saying that to have a representation it is necessary to accompany it with 'I think'?
In Caygill's Kant Dictionary entry of 'I Think' there is this part:
Kant further claims that 'I think' is the necessary vehicle/form/accompaniment of experience: to have a representation it is ...
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Are mathematical proofs subject to the problem of induction?
When I consider a proof, such as Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes, it can give a sense that something necessarily true has been obtained.
I cannot remember where I got the idea, but a few ...
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Gradations of epistemological categories
For my philosophy discussion group, I am looking for real life examples that would fit the above illustration. What would be some good examples?
Data is a collection of facts, while information puts ...
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How to accomodate hyperintensionality in a Bayesian framework?
Generally, propositions are modelled as sets of possible worlds, and Bayesians define a credence function on the set of those propositions. They then adopt new credence functions in response to new ...
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What approaches are there to resolving the problem of new theories in Bayesian epistemology?
Bayesianism is thought to have a problem accounting for the development of new theories/beliefs. Since Bayesians would like to proceed by updating prior credences in response to new evidence via ...
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Necessary A Posteriori
Saul Kripke’s example is clear to me: I look at a star in the morning and call it(rigidly designate) Hesperus and I see a star in the evening and call it(rigidly designate) Phosphorus.
If I go out and ...
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A "combining logic" moment in Kant
In "Ethical Theories and Moral Guidance", Pekka Väyrynen goes over proposals and arguments concerning the knowability of moral claims. Kant's relevant proposal (in the second Critique) is:
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Russell v. Meinong
Was the crux/essence of Russell's quarrel with Meinong a matter of epistemology or ontology? As I recall, it had primarily to do with fictive objects/non-denoting expressions, and Russell's theory of ...
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Is "there are synthetic a priori truths" a synthetic a priori truth?
Disregarding any modern objections to the division of synthetic/analytic and a priori/a posteriori, how would one argue for or against this claim, using Kant's definitions and assumptions?
Also, is ...
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In Kant, what would happen if singular objects that we perceive in space didn't necessarily have the spatial properties that we perceive them to have?
In Paul Guyer's Kant, section "Space and Time: the pure forms of sensible intuition", Guyer argues that "Kant’s argument for transcendental idealism is incomplete."
For that, he ...
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Is there any good argument that time moves?
We all experience that time moves, and most people just assume that it is the truth.
However, I see no solid ground behind it, since our perception would not change if it does. Our perception of ...
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Kant's Prolegomena Note I - Geometry being an objective representation of nature
I'm trying to understand this part of Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Note I to "How is pure mathematics possible?":
It would be completely different if the senses had to ...
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On Kant's third antinomy (CPR)
The thesis of Kant's third antinomy is based on the fact that, if the antithesis was true (i.e. there is no causality through freedom and thus only causality by natural laws) then, for any given ...
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Kant's Prolegomena §13 - triangle example argument
In Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Kant argues that space (and time) are not qualities of objects, but a priori intuitions that allow the concepts of objects in our minds.
To argue in favor of ...
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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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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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In Kant, are "pure intuition" and "intuition a priori" synonyms?
I'm reading the prolegomena, and in §7, Kant presents both
"pure intuition" (reine Anschauung), mentioned many times, and
"intuition a priori" (Anschauung a priori), mentioned ...
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Finding the laws of logic logically
Consider the statement ''The laws of classical logic compraised of Identity, Excluding middle and Non-contradiction'', In which type of knowledge the above statement comes under? Is it purely ...
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Are there unfalsifiable statements that, in the end, turn out to be true?
changing a little bit the famous black swan example to:
not all swans are white
it seems to be unfalsifiable, but in the end (when we discovered australia), it turned out to be true.
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What do poststructuralists mean by "power legitimates itself"?
"The post-structuralists assert that in any culture power legitimates itself through its connection to the validating mechanism for truth claims."
How is it possible to use truth as an ...
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When and how should a philosophy student start to give his/her own ideas?
I am not a philosphy student, but I am a philosophy enthusiast who loves and studies philosophy on his own. I completely understand what philosophy books are trying to say, but I dont know how and ...
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Second-order skepticism
Let "kS" = "It is known that S." Then kkS or k2S is a common hypothesis in epistemic logic (the full hypothesis can be stated as kS → k2S). So a second-order skeptic [SOS] at least ...
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