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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How many "degrees" of knowledge is conceivable?
Not sure if this is the right place for this, but there's something I've been pondering about and can't wrap my head around.
Say person A knows something, that person B does not. Let's call that 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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Why don't we approach the problem of knowledge as "that what we do NOT ignore"? [closed]
There is a long tradition trying to approach knowledge as a true and justified belief (The Tripartite Analysis of Knowledge . Recently, Gettier(1963) just showed that we need more than those 3 ...
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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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Is it ever appropriate to say a phenomenon is unexplainable?
Scientific research involves the investigation of difficult problems, and constantly tries to explain the unknown through observations and logical reasoning.
Take a situation like finding a cure for ...
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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 Bayesianism not have a concept of knowledge, given that belief is partial and not categorical?
If Bayesianism replaces the categorical belief of former analyses of knowledge with a quantitative notion of partial belief, does Bayesianism have a concept of 'knowledge' at all?
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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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Examples of "a priori knowledge" in Kant
What are some good examples of a priori knowledge that must exist independent of experience and transcend it? How can we be certain that such is indeed a priori?
The example Kant mentions in the ...
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Assumption about the existence of "knowledge a priori" by Kant
I am just starting to read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason translated by Max Mueller. In the introductory chapter, "General truths, which at the same time, bear the character of an inward ...
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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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Truth vs Knowledge
I'm a little confused when philosophers speak of truth and knowledge. Is there any meaningful difference between truth and knowledge in epistemology? Or are they really the same thing, since false ...
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As humans, do we require a total understanding of information to fully embody it as knowledge?
As humans, do we require a total understanding of information to fully embody it as knowledge?
Is the underlying mechanism of the act of knowledge dependent on a complete understanding of theories, ...
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Information(matter or energy)
What is information? Is information matter or energy or neither but how can neither be possible. If we assume it to be either matter or energy then it must be following the laws of conservation. If ...
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What resemblance is there between Moksha and Nirvana?
Both Moksha and Nirvana are said to free oneself from the cycle of reincarnations/samsara. Other than this soteriological goal, do they have any resemblances?
And how does/can one know in which path (...
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Can knowledge exist that humans are incapable of understanding? [closed]
This question has its origin in a debate/thread about gods, mysterious ways and "gods plan" as in "can god communicate his plan to humans".
This is not a question about a single ...
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Truth/actuality as an operator
Frege claimed that "it is true that" adds nothing to the actual meaning of an assertion, and following him along this line are prosentential theories of truth. However, I wonder if this is ...
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What is the relation between narratives and knowledge?
It feels like narratives and knowledge are two related concepts that would appear in some sort of diagram, but I have never seen such a diagram and I'm not sure exactly what the connection between the ...
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Something similar to The Knowledge Argument which works within Physicalism?
Here is The Knowledge Argument according to SEP (Mary is either monochrome or views the world through monochrome monitor):
(1) Mary has all the physical information concerning human color vision ...
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Philosophy of understanding
Is there any good text of philosophy that describes or investigates how understanding or knowledge happens? Something on the lines of heuristics. I have read a book called How to Solve it by G. Polya ...
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Is Martin Scorsese guilty of no true scotsman?
Genuine Question: When Martin Scorsese criticised the Marvel Cinematic Universe and directly said that they were theme parks not cinema, was that an example of the no true Scotsman fallacy?
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Knowing the laws of the universe but not its total state or ontology, what does philosophy have to say?
Since GR but also in special relativity and QM we can have laws, yet never access to the total physical state of the universe at any time. And that the ontology of science, the physical, is changing ...
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Does the self change iff there is a change in knowledge? [closed]
While still being distinct terms. And is there a term for this? Hope that’s enough to go on!
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How can we know (with absolute certainty) that our logic is correct?
How can we know (with absolute certainty) that our logic is correct?
Even statements like Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” relies on our logic: that I exist is a logical consequence of my ...
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A proposal for the meaning of life [closed]
I propose that the meaning of something is "all of the information related to it", and thus that the meaning of life is "all of the information related to life" - all of the causes ...
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How can we classify and differentiate sources of information for humans?
I was always taught in elementary about the primary, secondary, and tertiary sources of information. However, as I ponder about it I thought in a scenario of the game "pass the message" ...
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Axiom 4 in epistemic logic
In epistemic logic, axiom 4 says that if I know p, then I know that I know p. What is the philosophical value of such an axiom?
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Are there scholarly works on philosophy of language treatment of the Gettier problem?
I found two essays on a kind of response to the Gettier problem. One is a Philosophy Now article, and another is a blog post. On both sources, they argue that Smith's belief (on the original Gettier ...
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According to Logical Positivism, why is it that for a statement to be meaningful, its contradiction must also be meaningful?
I am trying to understand the argument for the supposedly paradoxical nature of the verifiability criterion. The argument goes as follows:
Suppose that the principle of verifiability is itself ...
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Question about knowledge acquisition
Apologies. I'm not sure what I'm asking and I'm not a philosopher.
It's about knowledge acquisition.
If you lack knowledge about a certain subject it's difficult to evaluate the quality of the answers ...
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In Plato's Republic, why would a musical, medical, or knowledgeable man NOT try to get the better of another like man?
Book I, 349e, Socrates confirming the position of Thrasymachus:
"...is any musical man who is tuning a lyre in your opinion willing to
get the better of another musical man in tightening and ...
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Question about Russell's distinction between knowledge of things and knowledge of truths in 'The Problems of Philosophy'
In his book, Russell distinguishes several types of knowledge. He first distinguishes knowledge of truths, and of things.
"the sense in which what we know is true (...) i.e. to what are called ...
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Roles of sensibility, understanding and imagination in Kant's epistemology
According to Kantian epistemology, there are three falcuties of mind; sensibility, understanding and imagination. Unfortunately, the differentiation between these three are not totally sure to me so I ...
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Can bias be a good thing in the quest for knowledge?
When looking for knowledge, you'll often find conflicting information. This is because, in many topics, there'll be a "for" and "against" side. Those sides are biased towards what ...
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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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How does one avoid getting bogged down in minutiae when reading philosophy
There is a lot of content in works of philosophy, yet its unreasonable to say that one must comprehend and memorize every detail and claim in order to understand the work as a whole. I struggle with ...
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Is this a case of JTB that may be true, but not knowledge?
Belief: P != NP
True? Maybe.
Justification: Experimental evidence
Basically the justification for the belief is that despite lots of research nobody has managed to discover an efficient solution for ...
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Does all deductive knowledge stem from inductive observation?
Given the premise that deductive reasoning needs a premise statement to get started, ultimately do these premises come from inductive observation? e.g.
When the sun is out it’s daytime. The sun is out....
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The Benefits of Knowledge in the Advancement of Humantity
The more and the more easily messengers reach everywhere here, everywhere there, then the
more the communication of thoughts is advanced, and no prince, no king will seek to hinder
this who ...
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Where can I find good place to obtain philosophy articles, journals, and books for free?
Where can I find a good place to obtain philosophy articles, journals, and books for free?
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What does "true" mean in "justified true belief"?
What does TRUE mean in JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF?
We define knowledge as "justified true belief".
Now, my question is what does the term TRUE mean in the formal definition? Why not only "...
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When philosophers argue about "definitional questions," what exactly are they arguing about?
By "definitional question," I mean questions like what is knowledge, what is justice, what is love, etc - questions that relate to the definition of certain abstract concepts.
Take the ...
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How would infinitism intersect ethical beliefs?
Assuming that some moral knowledge is to be action-guiding, how could one appeal to an infinite chain of reasons to justify moral beliefs? (This is at least another "proof-of-concept" issue ...
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Which field in the natural sciences always requires accurate and precise scientific instruments? [closed]
I am a high school student that believes as many others that natural sciences is an area of knowledge that is about reliable information. However, I see that scientific instruments play an significant ...
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Question about the IEP’s (Michael Huemer’s) formulation of phenomenal conservatism
(I posted the identical question on the AskPhilosophy subreddit.)
I first learned about phenomenal conservatism under a different name, “the principle of credulity”, from the philosopher of religion ...
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Is there an universal argument for sharing valuable knowledge/skills?
There are many great Questions and Answers on Workplace stackexchange that deal with the question of whether or not to share valuable knowledge/skills with others:
What is wrong with sharing ...
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How reliable are scientific instruments such as spectrometry in the determination of the oldest material “Startdust”? [closed]
After reading one of the latest findings by scientists, Stardust was considered the oldest material on earth. However having not much of an experience with chemistry, I was intrigued upon how ...
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Knowledge and epistemic intuition
Gettier famously argues against the traditional theory of knowledge that justified true belief may not always be knowledge. Basically, his examples can be summarized as whether we can have knowledge ...
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What does it mean for two distinct people to know a fact?
Let there be two people A and B. They both encounter a strange object O. What do they know about each others knowledge about O?
More strictly, we are speaking of a situation where, say, you and me ...
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What is the relation between a priori and tautologies?
I have just started learning Epistemology. I am not sure about the relation between a priori and tautologies.
My textbook has given definitions for a priori and tautology.
A priori: knowledge which is ...
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