Questions tagged [knowledge]
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something, which can include facts, information, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education.
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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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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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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 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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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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What is the relation between 'knowledge-that' and 'knowledge-how'?
Quick bit of definitions for the words:
Knowledge-that is knowledge that answers a question about a thing. It is informative of a thing's nature or kind.
Knowledge-how is knowledge that is expressed ...
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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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What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?
What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?
From Wikipedia:
Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and ...
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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 is the conflict between created by reason and external aspects of knowledge resolved?
Pragmatism is, roughly, the stressing of actions in talking about the content of knowledge.
Externalism is, roughly, the stressing of dependence on the external public world in talking about ...
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What is the difference between knowledge and belief?
Sometimes this image is used to explain what agnosticism is and how it's independent from belief:
It makes some sense but I still have confusion understanding it.
What is the difference between ...
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When given limited information, is the simplest solution that matches that information most likely correct?
Is there any basis in philosophy for the idea that when given limited information, the simplest solution that matches that information should be presumed correct or most likely to be correct?
For ...
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How can I develop my critical thinking skills?
I am a freshman engineering student going to college. I want to learn how to think critically and to become a critical thinker and a sharp arguer. I am interested in philosophy, because I am curious ...
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In what fundamental ways, if any, does Husserl break with Kant?
I've read only slim secondary works on Husserl some time ago, and recently started "The Crisis in the European Sciences." So far, the framework seems faithfully Kantian. Husserl, for example, ...
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Can a non-falsifiable belief ever be justified (besides for tautologies)?
Probably thanks to Popper, a scientific theory would never be taken seriously if it wasn't as least in some way falsifiable. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the many theories of justification,...
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Who/What is the source of knowledge?
This question mostly pertains to physics and math, but I think it fits best on this site. I am not very familiar with philosophy, so I apologize if my question is not very formal.
Essentially, the ...
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We know substances by means of their accidents?
Where does Aristotle or St. Thomas Aquinas say we know substances by means of their accidents?
For example: To know the substance of an apple, I first have to sense its quantity and qualities: shape, ...
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Can knowledge exist without structure?
For reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-how/
https://plato.stanford.edu/...
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How do philosophers respond to global skepticism?
I saw a video of a philosopher (Robert Audi) who said that common sense is the best response we can give to global skepticism. I would agree, but it's not clear to me what the nature of common sense ...
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How is knowledge possible?
I haven't studied Philosophy and I get this is a fundamental question one cannot answer in one line.
But I want to phrase it in this particular way: even in a finite possibilities-predetermined (few) ...
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How do we learn math and science?
I was wondering how we actually learn math and science (physics). Some people say that it is important to "understand" the formulas/equations. However, if anyone were asked what 5 divided by ...
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Does knowledge require consciousness?
Does knowledge require consciousness for the entity that knows? In other words, is it the case that only conscious entities can know things? I was led to ask this question by considering whether or ...
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If we don't know anything for certain, how do we know that?
I think it is the case that we don't know anything for certain. But if that is the case, how can we know that we don't know anything for certain? This is related to Socrates's famous remark that all ...
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What would constitute as justification?
Follow up to this post. The question here is quite short, what would constitute as justification in regards to justified belief theory? Seems something a bit vague to me.
My main motivation to this ...
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How do we know (i.e. justify our belief) that time exists without "proving too much"?
How do we know that time exists?
This is a complex question.
First, we cannot make sense of a question like this without first establishing what we mean by knowledge.
For convenience, let's pick the ...
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When and under whose influence did the JTB conception of knowledge become standard in contemporary philosophy ( i.e. after Kant)?
My question is on the history of the Justified True Belief conception of knowledge.
It is well known that this conception is considered in Plato's Meno, but dismissed.
I think Hobbes comes close ...
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Philosophers who wrote about limits of knowledge?
What if "the truth" about any concept (consciousness, reality, religion,physics, etc.), turns out to be a complex idea such that our brains can't simply process it in a single lifespan.
For example, ...
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Do modern philosophers of mind believe that thinking is a symbolic or visual process by nature?
Do some philosophers regard thinking as a symbolic process only because they don't actually think for themselves -- rather, like most of us, they are "having thoughts", their ...
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Not all knowledge is wisdom
It is clear from Big Internet Search Engine that not all knowledge is considered wisdom but, can some knowledge be foolish?
"Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart ...
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Can we say that "I Think Therefore I Am" was never about "I", or thinking, or "I" doing the thinking?
Strictly speaking, "Cogito ergo sum" simply means:
"The existence of your own mind can never be in doubt."
Item 1) also describes our true knowledge in its entirety.
Or we can ...
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Is the concept of “knowledge” important for philosophy?
I learned the definition of “knowledge” of justified true belief. I wonder whether it is important in any branch of philosophy? If I think about information per se, this boils down to technical ...
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How to distinguish between 'a priori/posteriori' and 'analytic/synthetic'?
What I think I know
A priori knowledge that can be gained by contemplating only the meaning of a statement's words.
A posteriori knowledge can be gained only by comparing a statement's meaning with ...
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What are the critiques of the "we might as well assume it" solution to the problem of induction?
I'm curious whether the following proposed solution to the problem of induction has ever been discussed in the literature:
Either the future resembles the past or it does not resemble the past. If it ...
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What exactly is the persuasive power behind Jackson's "Mary's Room" argument?
The knowledge argument (also known as Mary's room or Mary the super-scientist) is a philosophical thought experiment proposed by Frank Jackson in his article "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (1982) and extended ...
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How can I know that I am not immortal? [closed]
You think that you will die just because everyone dies. And you would like to know if you are immortal. How can you know if you are immortal or not?
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Can I know something but not be able to justify it to anyone else?
Can I know something but not be able to justify it to anyone else? I don't necessarily mean metaphysical puzzles, but everyday examples. If I cannot - and I know I cannot - prove to anyone else, all ...
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Why is belief necessary for justified true belief?
In justified true belief it is said that for a person to know a fact it must be true, she must believe in it and she must be justified in believing it.
My question is: Is belief necessary? Why is the ...
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What consequences has Locke's theory of knowledge had on modern political thought?
According to John Locke's notion of tabula rasa, there are no innate ideas in the mind. All human knowledge comes from sensible experience. Assuming this principle, it follows that there is no innate ...
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Can there be information without a "knower"?
I am trying to wrap my head around the principle of conservation of information as formulated by Leonard Susskind and others, which seems to me at first glance to be incompatible with the 2nd law of ...
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How does a realist account for causation between universals and particulars?
With respect to universals nominalists maintain that there are no universals and only particulars exists. Conversely, realists says that there are universals. Here is a sketch of an argument against ...
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How does Husserl's "bracketing" secure a truly presuppositionless study?
I'm reading from an anthology of essays by and about Husserl (collected by Joseph Kockelmans):
More specifically, Husserl makes a strong argument against some of the internal problems of various ...
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Can a statement about the past be a 'fact'?
There was an annular solar eclipse near where I used to live (about 20 years ago). It is pretty well certain that it did happen, because eclipses can be reckoned precisely and the likelihood of ...
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Did Logical Positivism fail because it simply denied human emotion?
Did the denial of human emotion lead to the death of logical positivism?
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Are there formal theories for grouping different knowledge areas?
What do you know about the boundaries between different bodies of knowledge, e.g. bodies of science. I think it's a common question, e.g. "where's the boundary between mathematics and physics".
But ...
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What is Wittgenstein's "criterial solution" to the problem of other minds?
I'm having difficulty with the language in this article on the Problem of Other Minds. It provides 3 solutions to the epistemological problem of other minds in section 1.1 - "The Epistemological ...
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How could the concept of 'evidence' be defined, and how significant is it?
What is evidence, and how much of it means that a proposition is true? Does a partial / total lack of evidence mean that a proposition should be ignored?
Is the concept evidence more important to ...
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What is the difference between expressivism and representationalism in modern philosophy of language?
Philosophers like Robert Brandom and Huw Price make a fairly sharp distinction between expression and representation (or at least expressivism and representationalism). Price goes so far as to ...
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Does non-empirical knowledge exist?
I think this question might be dismissed very easily, but I'd like to try to provoke a sort of blurring-the-lines idea that may be interesting.
I'll start by putting two definitions here, the first ...
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Do philosophers think beliefs are bearers of truth-value?
In the literature about what sorts of things have a truth-value, the idea that acts of belief bear truth-value seems present, yet uncommon. On the other hand, objects of belief like propositions or ...
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When studying philosophy, is there a prioritization of primary or secondary sources/texts?
How do/did philosophers like Zizek, Cornel West, Derrida, Sartre study philosohy? Did they focus on primary sources or secondary? Both at the same time? I am currently reading a primary source and ...
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