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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Do unverifiable statements provide any knowledge?
I believe the following three examples are equally self-contradictory:
A: Nothingness is blue
B: Objects don't exist when we are not looking at them
C: There exists a parallel universe that never ...
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Is it possible to know a priori the statement 'I know mathematical theorem X a priori'?
I'm looking for arguments against the idea that you can have a priori knowledge of a priori knowledge. Perhaps appealing to an internalist account of knowledge and claiming that the justification for ...
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Does Sosa's modal definition of knowledge beg the question?
In his 1999 paper "How to Defeat Opposition to Moore", Ernest Sosa argues that sceptical, Nozickian tracking, relevant-alternative, and contextualist accounts of the sceptical paradox rely on the ...
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Is there any way disputes over a knowledge claim due to different interpretations of data can be resolved?
I'm quite stumped as to how to answer the question because it would be rather difficult to correct the interpretations of others...
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Misrepresented Knowledge in Translation?
I am not sure if this is the right form to ask this question. However, my question comes down to a more basic question of knowledge and thus I believe it is related in some way to Philosophy.
My ...
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What factors could affect the resolvability of disputes over knowledge claims (within a discipline in an area of knowledge)?
I am considering the area of knowledge of History but it has so many disciplines that I don't really understand fully.
As for answering the question, I already thought of one factor: the lack of data ...
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If we forget why do we acquire knowledge which by the way gets outdated?
We learn then we forget. It might seem to be a waste of precious time subtracted from life. Some time ago I started to write every day two things (yes, only two) I learn every day. One column for ...
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Purposelessness and DNA Propagating
Positivist evolutionary biologists claim that living beings are nothing but byproduct of purposeless random evolution. (For example, say, a flower is just a DNA propagating machine.)
I am especially ...
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Historical Knowledge Paradox, how do you characterize the epistemology of it?
I have become aware of what Yuval Noah Harari calls the "Historical Knowledge Paradox", in which the utility of knowing the past is placed in conflict with itself. Can somebody please help me to see ...
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Is there any difference between knowledge and information? [duplicate]
I am confused about find difference between knowledge and information. Give me an example.
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Is knowledge of right and wrong the 'first' knowledge?
Personally, I do not commit to memory a great many useless details but, prefer to remember how to understand, how to act and, how to answer.
For example, if fixing a computer I do not have in my mind ...
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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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Help me understand Earman and Salmon's pragmatic vindication
"Hume showed convincingly that, if nature is uniform, inductive reasoning will work very well, whereas, if nature is not uniform, inductive reasoning will fail. This much is pretty easy to see. [Some ...
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Nozick's truth tracking theory?
I simply just do not understand this concept, everything from the idea of close possible worlds to the counterfactual conditions.
So,
1. P is true.
2. You believe that P
(following the famous "...
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Have philosophers explored the ideas of accuracy and precision when considering the truth of a statement?
I'm a physicist interested in exploring philosophy. As a motivation, let me give a few contradictory statements about gravity:
"Acceleration due to gravity is a constant 9.81m/s^2"
"Gravity follows ...
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Meno's paradox of knowledge - how is knowledge possible?
In Plato's Meno, it is talked about how knowledge is neither gained nor searched for. I am confused on this particular question. What does is entail?
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Does physicalism imply everything can be defined?
Does physicalism imply everything can be defined at least to a certain extent?
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Contingent vs. Necessary Truth in Classical Philosophy
I am reading "Ancient Philosophy" by Anthony Kenny (Vol 1 of his "A New History of Western Philosophy", OUP, ISBN 0–19–875273–3).
I was intrigued by the following statement (p.176):...
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Does the idea of falsification assume the existence of an objective reality?
In order to falsify a hypothesis, an observation must be compared to some statement of fact that would be true if the hypothesis were true. The unspoken assumption seems to be that the observation, ...
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Can any piece of knowledge be produced without depending on another piece of knowledge? [closed]
In the case of sciences, for example, can the birth of a new branch of science be considered as utterly "new"?
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Does the Knowledge argument refute physicalism?
Is there any research that disproves Jackson's three premises?
Is there any research which argues that Mary does not learn all the physical facts whilst in the room, because experience itself ...
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How is experience different for Locke and Hume?
Am I right to say that both Locke and Hume are empiricists? Their ideas are pretty similar but they seem to use human's experience as part as their argument differently but I can't seem to point out ...
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Seeking the Source of an Aristotle quotation
Long ago I came across a statement by Aristotle, 'True knowledge is identical with its object'. I never came across it again and now wonder where I found it.
Is there an Aristotle scholar here who ...
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What is insight and can we develop it?
One person really helped me to develop a subject knowledge and I thank him saying: "Thank you so much for your time and knowledge!". He said, you can be more knowledgeable than me, but what it takes ...
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How to believe physics and treat scientific knowledge?
I am not much familiar with the philosophy of science yet. And I have doubts about science and explanations given there for events. As I am totally inclined towards mathematics and logical reasoning I ...
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Trueness of Knowledge and its value
Is it reasonable to distrust any knowledge we know? Is there any value of knowledge when we deny its trueness?
My thought:
It is impossible for us to know a specific truth or order of universe with ...
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Why that cave dweller is called a misogynist? [closed]
I was reading this article on coindesk.com. The first line of this article says
"For all we know, the first cave-dweller to rub two sticks together
was a misogynist. Or maybe just a mean person.&...
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Referring to a subject
I have a couple of questions to an assignment for my bachelors course in Philosophy. It is regarding Timothy Williamsons book, 'Knowledge and its limits' that we are reading and discussion. I have ...
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The non-existence of Gettier problems in Indo-Tibetan epistemology
Reading the paper Gettier and Factivity in Indo‐Tibetan Epistemology the author claims at some point early in the paper that
There are two initial problems which make it difficult to compare ...
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Can we have moral knowledge without intuition?
Can we have moral knowledge without intuition?
I'm trying to justify my ethical beliefs, but can't do so without appeal to intuition.
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What is the meaning of an explanation
I am a software engineer and recently got involved in a community project that aims to teach underprivileged kids. This got me thinking about the term 'explanation'. What I want to ask is- what in ...
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"Tell me what you know" [closed]
How can you possibly answer a broad question, "Tell me what you know.", without referring to any specific aspect of knowledge.
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A Version of the Liar Paradox in Russell's paper "On the Nature of Knowledge"
I just finished reading Russell's paper "On the Nature of Truth", in which appears a form of the well-known Liar's Paradox. Here is the passage I am interested in:
This argument would be conclusive,...
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What is Nietzsche's source of immediate knowledge in Beyond Good and Evil?
In Beyond Good and Evil, Section 16, Nietzsche uses "immediate certainties" in quotation marks. Who and from where is Nietzsche quoting this, or is he using the quotations marks to speak ironically? ...
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How can I answer to the question: who am I?
Almost always when we try to answer to the question "Who am I?", we say about what we do or what we like, but how should we answering this question? If you can recommend me books or papers to at least ...
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When do descriptions of objects qualify as "known" vs "unknown"?
Forgive the perhaps poor phrasing. This example is lifted from Scott Aaronson's Why Philosophers Should Care About Complexity Theory (pg. 9-10) and it poses an interesting question. Consider the two ...
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If we aren't approaching the final theory, does it mean there's an infinite number of natural laws?
A lot say that with every next step we make in science comes always a set of new questions. I think this means there's an infinite number of questions we can ask about the natural laws. And that means ...
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What do atheists believe in? (in layman terms)
Issue
I travel quite a bit and am often asked about my religious beliefs. I am atheist. I found it hard for some religious (or spiritual) people (whatever religion) to accept the concept of atheism ...
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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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Some clarifications for a sentence from Bertrand Russell's work
I just started reading Russell's "Human Knowledge: Its scope and limits." One of Russell's sentences struck me as particularly interesting. Russell said, I quote
...Inference from a group of events ...
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What is knowledge? It is not matter, nor energy. How can it be defined? [closed]
Perhaps there is an easy answer to this, but I couldn't find it.
How can information be defined? It exists, but it can be multiplied indefinitely without losing anything. So that excludes it as a ...
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Why do we not refer to authors as often in science classes than in philosophy classes?
Looking at science and philosophy courses online there is a striking difference in the style of teaching. In philosophy courses, it is very common - if not systematic - to refer to who first phrased a ...
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Are paradoxes a necessary element of everyone representation of the world?
Introduction
I stumbled upon the quotation
Intelligence is to spot paradoxes. Wisdom is to live by them.
from Raheel Farooq according to goodreads.com.
I am here not so much interested in the ...
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Has knowledge's validity increased?
Essentially, does the proliferation of understanding of the world lead to a higher understanding of the world?
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What is the difference between accuracy, certainty, truth and fact?
I've been reading into epistemology a little bit but struggling to understand the distinction between accuracy, certainty and to find a definition for either. In particular, it seems that accuracy is ...
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How to start Philosophy and find the branches that are related to my questions?
From Wikipedia:
Ontology: philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.
Epistemology: study of the nature ...
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If it can't be measured, how can we know it's not a delusion?
I'm not talking about solipsism, or the evil demon/genius of Descartes.
I'm talking about the McNamara fallacy, which is obviously a fallacy. Can we say that everything that exists is measurable, ...
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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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Should I use "philosophy" as a noun to describe my world view? [closed]
I do this often. I use the word "philosophy" to indicate I am talking about the way I think. I use it to indicate my own personal beliefs and conclusions about the world. It is in a sense a disclaimer ...
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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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