Epistemology: How do we know

1
Epistemology How do we know?

• Excerpted Dallas Roarks Introduction to
  Philosophy, 1982
• By Steve Badger

2
What is knowledge?

• Opinion plus evidence equals knowledge
• Opinion plus probability equals knowledge
• Observation equals knowledge
• Knowledge equals opinions that one has a duty to
  accept
• Knowledge is equated with the right to be sure
• Opinion requires no plus to be knowledge

3
What is knowledge?

• To know means that a person accepts a true
  proposition to be right or correct for the best
  of reasons. (10)
• The man who knows must not be guessing, he must
  not hit on the truth by chance, he must not relly
  on bad reasons if he relied on reasons at all.
  (10)

4
What is knowledge?

• Knowing involves two different kinds of
  experiences (1) direct experience, sometimes
  called the directly evident, and (2) reason
  processes, sometimes called the indirectly
  evident. (10)
• Is knowledge possible?

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Ways to Knowledge

• Testimony (authority)
• The physical senses
• Reason
• Phenomenology (essences)
• Self-revelation
• Intuition
• Apprenticeship (pp.9-22)

6
Verification Principle

• A J Ayer (1910-1970)
• For a statement to be meaningful (true) it must
  be either 1) purely definitional or else 2)
  verifiable by onor of more of the five senses.
  All other statements (ethical, theological,
  metaphysical) are nonsense or meaningless.
• Logical Positivism
• Self-refuting

7
Falsification Principle

• Anthony Flew and Karl Popper
• Any statement or proposition is meaningless
  unless it is subject to falsification (at least
  in principle)
• Flew used it to challenge a belief in God
• Self-refuting
• But Flew recently changed his mind