Epistemology: Theory of Knowledge Question to consider: What is the most reliable method of knowing?

Epistemolgical Questions  What is knowledge?  Do I learn, or do I already know?  What is the process I use to acquire reliable knowledge?  What are the limitations of knowledge?  What knowledge is valid?  What is “justified true belief?”

Epistemological Criteria Establish  Precise standards of judgment  Basis for comparison and evaluation of judgments Accuracy of knowledge Extent of knowledge  An alternative to trial and error

An Epistemological Continuum

Empiricism: a Posteriori Knowledge  Knowledge comes after experience. Show it to me. Let me experientially and publicly verify your claim. Let my bodily senses come in contact with it. The mind is a tabula rasa. (John Locke)  See Lost Episode, “Tabula Rasa,” 10/6/04

The Tabula Rasa in Lost

Rationalism: a priori Knowledge  Ideas exist prior to knowledge Plato’s Forms, and Kant’s a priori  There are self-evident axioms. Self-evident truths  They are clear and distinct in the mind. “I think, therefore I am.” (Descartes)  But aren’t ideas experiences?

Trees falling: a priori forms?

Scientific Method: Rational/Empirical  Most accurate and orderly: Precisely stated problem. Collecting precise information. Organizing classes of information. Formulating hypotheses. Deductions from hypotheses. Testing and verification of hypotheses.  Does not explain why things are.

Most Reliable Knowledge?

Analytic Philosophy I  Logical Positivism All problems are problems of language.  Empirical Propositions Verifiable by experience  Analytic Propositions True if definitions of words are true.  Logic and math All other problems are nonsense  Metaphysics and Axiology are irrelevant

Analytic Philosophy II: its Method  Philosophy of Science  Ordinary-Language Both clarify concepts (ideas) Both clarify statements (propositions) But does the method forget our need to know the real and the valuable?

Authoritarianism: My Way or…  Culture or tradition  Majority opinion  Prestige or expertise  Charisma  Sometimes unreliable  Sometimes all we have  Always efficient

Intuition: “Just knowing”  Mysticism—knowledge without the use of reason or experience. Spiritual Ineffable Insight “Peak” experience Enlightenment

Revelation: Sudden Awakening  A store of unrecognized knowledge is suddenly revealed. Epiphany Sudden enlightenment  But it is not consistent.  How do we challenge the authority?  How do we compare revelations?

Existentialism: Objectivity Denied  Knowledge claims are unreliable.  Truth is subjective.  No certainty is possible.  All final conviction must be a “leap of faith.”

Zen: Knowledge Denied  There is nothing to know.  So are we then to descend to nonaction in the world?

Skepticism: Ignorance Admitted  Knowledge is Beyond reasonable proof  Suspended judgment Highly uncertain  We can only experience phenomena Impossible  We can know nothing.  What is healthy skepticism?  What is unhealthy skepticism?

Feminism: “We’re different, guys!”  How do we get the knowledge we have?  How do females acquire knowledge differently from men? (Summers)  Cognitive authority is linked to gender, race, class, sexuality, culture, and age. (Frere)  But how do we get a norm?

Postmodernism & Deconstruction  There can be no final agreement on epistemic norms.  There is no one way to judge anything.  Truths are social constructions  Language is unstable.  We use language to get what we want.

Two Kinds of Knowing  Subjectivism The perceiver determines some degree of what is known.  Objectivism Things in themselves exist outside of the perceiver.