1. Charting the Terrain of Knowledge-1
Epistemology–
the area of philosophy that deals with questions concerning knowledge and that considers various theories of knowledge

2. Charting the Terrain of Knowledge-2
Types of knowledge
Knowledge by acquaintance
Competence knowledge
Propositional knowledge
Knowledge as true justified belief

3. The Issue of Reason and Experience
Analytic statements
Synthetic statements
A priori knowledge
A posteriori knowledge

4. Three Epistemological Questions
Is it possible to have knowledge at all?
Does reason provide us with knowledge of the world independently of experience?
Does our knowledge represent reality as it really is?

5. Perspectives on Knowledge
Skepticism
Rationalism
Empiricism
Constructivism
Relativism

6. Early Greek Skeptics
Cratylus
Pyrrho
Carneades

7. René Descartes The quest for certainty Methodological skepticism
Meditations on First Philosophy

8. Meditations on First Philosophy
Meditation I
Doubting of senses
The possibility of a "malicious demon"
Radical doubt (methodological skepticism)
Meditation II
One point of certainty
"I am, I exist” or cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore, I am)

9. David Hume
Empiricism
Principle of induction
Uniformity of nature

10. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding-1
Cause and effect questioned
constantly conjoined events
Uniformity of nature questioned
Appealing to past experience to justify the principle of induction is circular

11. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding-2
We cannot know that there is an external world
impressions are always internal to our experience
Hume does not deny that the external world exists
Fundamental beliefs rest on psychological habits, beyond the proof of logic and experience

12. Three Anchor Points of Rationalism
Reason is the primary or most superior source of knowledge about reality
Sense experience is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge
The fundamental truths about the world can be known a priori: They are either innate or self-evident to our minds

13. The Rationalist Perspective on Epistemology
Knowledge is possible
Only through reason can knowledge be obtained
Beliefs based on reason represent reality

14. Socrates on Epistemology
We can distinguish true from false
Standards for distinguishing true from false are based on the soul
Rational knowledge gives us an adequate picture of the world

15. Plato on Epistemology
Difference between knowledge and opinion must be rationally justified
Agrees with Socrates that reason is able to provide knowledge

16. Phaedo Discusses perfect Justice, Beauty, Goodness, and Equality
We have never seen these things, yet we know they exist
Knowledge of perfect things must be innate
Doctrine of recollection

17. Plato on Universals Universals or Forms
Universals are unchanging; experiential reality is in flux
Phaedo

18. René Descartes Methodological doubt
One point of certainty: "I am, I exist" or cogito ergo sum
Something cannot arise from nothing, and there must be at least as much reality in the cause as in the effect

19. Descartes’ Meditation III
Innate ideas
Idea of a perfect God
Because Descartes is not perfect, the source of the idea of God must be God

20. Three Anchor Points of Empiricism
The only source of genuine knowledge is sense experience
Reason is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge unless it is grounded in sense experience
There is no evidence of innate ideas within the mind that are known apart from experience

21. John Locke’s Perspective on Epistemology
Knowledge is possible
Simple ideas (ideas of sensation, ideas of reflection)
Complex ideas
Reason not sufficient for knowledge of the world
Knowledge represents reality
primary qualities (objective)
secondary qualities (subjective)

22. George Berkeley on the Representation of Reality
Berkeley thought Locke's representative realism was dangerous
Berkeley thought that even Locke's primary qualities were subjective

23. David Hume Radical empiricist
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Huge gulf between reason and the world
Reason can only tell us about the relationship between our own ideas