Epistemology

True or false: according to reliabilism, for one to acquire knowledge by way of an inductive inference, one must know that induction is a reliable form of reasoning.

False

True or false: mentalism is a form of access internalism.

False

True or false: on a coherentist theory of truth, an individual might have a maximally coherent set of beliefs that are all false.

False

True or false: on an externalist view, a belief is justified only if it is supported by reasons or evidence.

False

True or false: reliabilism is a form of access internalism.

False

True or false: reliabilists accept strong access internalism.

False

True or false: the one and only goal of radical interpretation is to determine the meaning of a speaker's language.

False

True or false: according to the traditional foundationalist, basic or non-inferentially justified beliefs do not need to be supported by evidence.

False.

True or false: non-doxastic awareness involves belief.

False.

Suppose that you know that you have a pain in your back. What would the traditional foundationalist say about the justification of that belief?

The belief is justified by an experience of the pain.

Davidson's argument rests which of the following principles?

The principle of charity.

One problem Vogel discusses in his paper is

The problem of misleading evidence.

True or false: according to the traditional foundationalist, basic or non-inferentially justified beliefs do not need to be supported by other beliefs.

True.

Brewer criticizes a position he refers to as "classical foundationalism." Which of the following best captures this view?

We must infer claims about the external world from claims about our mental states (ideas, experiences, beliefs, etc.).

According to BonJour, how does the coherentist respond to the regress argument?

Chains of justification somehow form a circle.

Which of the following is an objection to internalism that Vahid discusses?

All of the above (What makes one's reasons good, or bad, is not internal to one's perspective. Answers: A. On an internalist view, animals and children could not have knowledge. B. Internalism generates a vicious regress. C. What makes one's reasons good, or bad, is not internal to one's perspective.)

Which of following is an objection that BonJour raises to the coherentist view?

All of the above. (Coherentism has trouble explaining how to accommodate the idea that our knowledge should be based on "input" from the world. It is possible for there to be many equally coherent systems of belief that are competing, or inconsistent with one another. The coherentist must provide some reason for thinking that the coherence of a set of beliefs must make those beliefs likely to be true. )

Which of the following would Davidson accept?

All of the above. Answers: (It is not possible that most of one's beliefs are false. Nothing can count as a reason for holding a belief except another belief. Sensations or experiences do not justify beliefs.)

In his discussion of internalism, Vahid discusses which of the following cases?

An individual who is a reliable clairvoyant.

Doxastic conservatism is the thesis that

Beliefs are to be presumed true unless there is reason to think otherwise.

In his article, Vogel is responding to the "Deceiver Argument." This argument is most like which of the following skeptical arguments?

Descartes's skeptical argument in Meditation I.

Vogel distinguishes domestic and exotic skepticism. The deceiver argument is supposed to support which kind of skepticism?

Domestic

Brewer holds that the content of experience involves

Egocentric spatial content

True or false: according to reliabilism, Percy's belief is justified only if Percy is justified in believing that his visual perception is a reliable process.

False

Imagine a kind of skeptic who argued that we should not trust inference to the best explanation. How would Vogel categorize this form of skepticism?

Exotic skepticism

According to BonJour, what will the coherentist say about the role that experiences play in the structure of knowledge? (And by "experiences" here we mean, non-doxastic mental states.)

Experiences merely cause some of our beliefs. That is, they cause but do not justify our beliefs.

What ultimately is Vogel's response to the deceiver argument?

Explanatory considerations give us reason to think that we are not a brain in a vat.

Now consider a different scenario. Suppose that instead of being in the matrix your whole life, you have been recently inserted into the matrix. That is, you were born into, grew up in, and lived in the "real" world. But then one night some evil scientist abducted you while you were sleeping, and hooked you up to the matrix. Upon waking up in the matrix, you had an experience of seeming to see a waterfall. You then formed a belief that you expressed with the sentence, "that's a waterfall!" True of false: if Davidson's argument is sound, then your belief must be true.

False

Suppose a person is trapped in the Matrix (a kind of virtual reality) for their entire life. True or false: according to Davidson, such a person would have mostly false beliefs about his/her world.

False

Suppose that evidence E does not entail proposition P. True or false: E evidentially underdetermines P.

False

Suppose that you are subject to a very convincing illusion of a tree that is in no way distinguishable from a normal perception of a tree. True or false: according to Brewer you are justified in believing that there is a tree.

False

Suppose that your are a disembodied brain in a vat being fed misleading experiences of being an embodied student at ISU. True or false: according to Brewer you are justified in believing that you have a body with arms and legs.

False

True or false: According to Papineau, for a reason R that is offered in support of P to be a good reason, it must be capable of persuading someone who has doubts about whether P is true.

False

True or false: Davidson accepts the coherence theory of truth.

False

True or false: Davidson would accept that some beliefs are non-inferentially justified, or basic.

False

True or false: Papineau accepts weak access internalism.

False

True or false: Papineau would accept the KK principle

False

True or false: Papineau would say that in order for one to acquire knowledge by way of induction, one must know that nature is uniform.

False

True or false: Papineau would say that in order for one to acquire knowledge by way of inductive reasoning, one must know that induction is reliable.

False

True or false: a mentalist must accept strong access internalism.

False

True or false: according to BonJour, a set of beliefs is coherent merely if they are logically consistent.

False

True or false: according to Brewer, in perception we are only directly aware of our mental states.

False

True or false: according to Davidson, it is sometimes reasonable to interpret someone as having mostly false beliefs.

False

True or false: according to Papineau, his defense of induction should persuade a skeptic about induction, like Hume, to start using induction.

False

True or false: according to access internalism, Percy's belief is justified if Percy's visual perception is a reliable process.

False

The major thesis of Gettier's paper is that

Having a justified true belief is not sufficient for having knowledge.

Suppose that Sam hears the pitter-patter of water hitting his window. Naturally, this gives him reason to believe that it is raining. However, Sam also knows that the sprinkler is on outside. What should we say about Sam's justification for believing that it is raining out?

He has prima facie justification for believing that it is raining, but not ultima facie justification for believing that it is raining.

The regress problem in epistemology is that

If all beliefs are inferentially justified, then either we have an infinite number of beliefs, or circular reasoning is good reasoning.

Why does Vogel reject the Minimal Skeptical Hypothesis (MSH) in favor of the Real World Hypothesis (RWH)?

It has less explanatory power than RWH.

Radical interpretation relies on the principle of charity. Why is this principle necessary?

It is a necessary principle that allows us to decide between competing interpretations.

What is the "meager foundations" objection to foundationalism?

It is hard to see how foundational beliefs could possibly support all the non-foundational beliefs.

Why does Vogel reject the Isomoprhic Skeptical Hypothesis (ISH) in favor of the Real World Hypothesis (RWH)?

It is less simple than RWH.

Suppose that internalism is correct. Then

It is not possble for one be justified in believing a claim without having access to something that supports that claim.

Davidson's argument appeals to an "omniscient interpreter". What best describes the role of this figure in his argument?

It serves to insure that we fallible interpreters must have mostly true beliefs.

If a belief is inferentially justified then it must be

Justified by virtue of its relation to other beliefs.

In the beginning of his article, Papineau offers a defense of the reliabilist account of knowledge. Essential to that argument is an assumption about the value of knowledge. Why is it that we value knowledge according to Papineau?

Knowledge is a means to having true beliefs.

According to Vogel, ISH is inferior to RWH along which of the following dimensions?

Nomological simplicity.

A basic belief is

Non-inferentially justified.

In his article, Gettier assumes

One can be justified in believing something false.

Suppose that one justiifaly believes P on the basis of evidence E. Strong access internalism implies that

One have access to the fact that E supports P.

Which of the following theses represents the position known as "mentalism"?

Only one's psychological states determines what one is justified in believing.

Which of the following theses represents the position known as "access internalism"?

Only those things that one has access to determines what one is justified in believing.

Which of the following distinctions plays an important role in Papineau's response to the problem of induction?

Premise vs. rule circularity

Which of the following concepts plays a role in Davidson's central argument?

Radical interpretation.

Which of the following best captures Papineau's argument on behalf of reliabilism?

Reliabilism provides the best explanation of why we value knowledge.

Who first presented the "myth of the given" objection to foundationalism?

Sellars

Which of the following is a commitment that distinguishes traditional foundationalism from foundationalism proper?

Some beliefs are justified by non-doxastic mental states.

According to the foundationalist, the correct solution to the regress problem is that

Some beliefs are non-inferentially justified.

The coherentist would deny which of the following?

Some beliefs are non-inferentially justified.

Which of the following is a commitment of foundationalism proper. That is, which of the following do all foundationalists accept in virtue of being foundationalists?

Some beliefs are non-inferentially justified.

One of Gettier's examples involves

Someone applying for a job.

According to Gettier, which of the following is possible?

Someone can fail to know P, and yet justifiably believe P.

A Gettier case is a scenario in which

Someone's belief is true by luck.

Suppose that Suzy is justified in believing that a tree came crashing to the ground outside of her house because she heard it happen. Which of the following views holds that Suzy must have access to the fact that her auditory experience supports her belief that a tree crashed to the ground?

Strong access internalism

Take a look at the second and third paragraphs of Brewer's article. (The first two paragraphs of section I.) In these paragraphs Brewer seems to express his commitment to which of the following theses?

Strong access internalism

The Norman the Clairvoyant case provides support for which of the following positions?

Strong access internalism

Which of the following competing views does Brewer accept?

Strong access internalism

What distinguishes a strong access internalist from a weak access internalist?

Strong access internalists hold that that for one's belief to be justified one must be aware of not only factors that support one's belief, but also be aware of the fact that they support one's belief.

A "Gettier case" shows

That have a justified, true, belief is not sufficient for knowledge.

True or false: the simulation hypothesis can be considered a kind of isomorphic skeptical hypothesis.

True

The KK principle states that

To know a proposition P, one must know that one knows P.

Which of the following best describes the goal that Davidson sets himself in his paper?

To show that it is not possible for most of one's beliefs to be false.

Suppose that Percy forms the belief that there is a goldfinch in a tree by way of visual perception. Answer the following five questions.

True

True or false: Brewer accepts a form of foundationalism.

True

True or false: Davidson accepts the coherence theory of justification.

True

True or false: Davidson holds that for a claim to be true, it must "correspond with the facts" and this requires something more than merely cohering well with other believed claims.

True

True or false: Davidson seems to accept some kind of internalist view of justification.

True

True or false: Papineau accepts fallibilism.

True

True or false: Papineau holds that a belief can be justified despite not being based on any evidence.

True

True or false: Papineau holds that rule circular reasoning can be good, knowledge-producing, reasoning.

True

True or false: according to Brewer a direct perception of the external world might be subjectively indistinguishable from a hallucination.

True

True or false: according to Brewer, our basic beliefs are justified by reasons or evidence.

True

True or false: according to Brewer, what basic beliefs we can have about the world depends upon what concepts we have.

True

True or false: according to Davidson, what a speaker assents to underdetermines the meaning of a speaker's language.

True

True or false: according to Vogel, if theory A involves less empirical regularities than theory B, then he would say that theory A has greater nomological simplicity.

True

True or false: according to Vogel, the MSH has less explanatory power than RWH.

True

True or false: according to access internalism, Percy's belief is justified only if Percy is justified in believing that his visual perception is a reliable process.

True

True or false: according to reliabilism, Percy's belief is justified if Percy's visual perception is a reliable process.

True

True or false: if reliabilism is correct, then Norman the clairvoyant has prima facie justification for believing that the President is in New York

True

True or false: illusory experiences are in some sense indistinguishable from normal, veridical experience.

True

True or false: in BonJour's assessment, foundationalism is much more defensible than coherentism.

True

True or false: on an internalist view, a belief is justified only if it is supported by reasons or evidence.

True

True or false: reliabilism is a kind of foundationalism.

True

True or false: the coherentist holds that circularity is not always a bad thing.

True

Internalists and externalists in epistemology disagree about

Whether what justifies a belief must be internal to a person's perspective.

Vogel briefly discusses a variety of responses to the deceiver argument in the first paragraph of section II (page 74). Take a look at that paragraph. Which of those responses best captures Brewer's position?

d