How do we know

1
How do we know?
2
Ways of knowing

• First we observe a phenomenon or a behavior
• Next we attempt to explain that behavior

3
Ways of Knowing

• Intuition
• just feel it is right we hold these truths to be
  self-evident that all men are created equal

4
Ways of Knowing

• Authority President tells us there are WMDs in
  Iraq we believe him, Our teacher tells us that
  these are the ways we know about the world we
  believe him.

5
Ways of Knowing

• Logic we use reason to deduce the answer

6
Ways of knowing

• Observation we look, measure, repeat.

7
Ways of knowing

• Intuition
• Authority
• Logic
• Observation

8
Ways of explaining

• Metaphysical
• Philosophical
• Empiricical testing

9
Ways of Explaining

• Metaphysical

10
Spiritual

• Animism
• Endowment of parts of animals give strength,
  cunning, etc
• Aristotle characteristics of an animal endow
  person with those trains, eg
• curved toes appearance of bird rude
• small ears monkey large ears ass
• pointed and bony buttocks strong character.

11
Religious and Mythological

• It is an attempt to understand human behavior
• Yin and yang
• Good v. evil
• Inhabited by spirits
• Throwing a virgin into a volcano will keep it
  form exploding
• alignment of planets and stars when born has an
  effect on all subsequent behavior
• Arrangement of furniture affects mood

12
Philosophy

• Relies on logic and reason. Descartes reasoned
  form statues in Versailles that animal spirits
  move in tubes to make us move/behave

13
Scientific Methods

• Deterministic
• Testability
• Falsifiability
• Repeatable