Philosophy Test 2

knowledge is

a belief that is justified and true

British Empirist

Locke, Berbele, Hume

rationalists hold that the best source of knowledge is?

mathematics, a realm of knowledge that is obtained entirely by reason and that we use to understand the universe

Descartes view of Clear and Distinct ideas about the controversy over recovered memories

- says that clarity and distinctness of ideas were indicators of true knowledge - says that as indicators of valid knowledge are applied to recovered memories , they would suggest that such memories are valid.

A ) B

A can't go anywhere without B but B can go anywhere without A

traditional characterization of knowledge

knowledge is 1 a belief that is 2 justified and 3 true

knowledge as justified true belief

-p represents any proposition -must believe that p is the case -to assert that you know p then, then, is to assert at least that you believe p -"I know p implies "" I believe p" -knowledge implies having evidence or justification for what you believe. - a belief is justified when you have adequate evidence or reasons for the belief

How do we require reliable knowledge?(two seminal theories of the source of knowledge)

Reason(Rationalism) and the Senses(Empiricism)

pragmatic theory

says that a belief is true if it works and is useful- for example by letting us make accurate predictions -different from the other theories -claim it is possible we know only our experiences so truth cannot be what corresponds with reality -view the coherence theory as too impracitical -insists that we can define truth only in relation to consequences -pragmatic view of truth holds that a belief is trueif it is useful to believe -

Coherence theory

- a belief is true if it "coheres" with other beliefs that we regard as true -insists that properly speaking truth is a property of a related group of consistent beliefs -Geometry is a good example of this theory in operation

the three traditional theories of truth

-correspondence -coherence -pragmatic

Memory does not provide us with what?

new knowledge, nut preserves knowledge that we acquire from other sources

Perception

refers to the process of seeing,hearing,smelling,touching,and tasting by which we become aware of or apprehend ordinary onjects like a chair, trees.

reason

the ability to synthesize, to relate, and to creatively formulate new conceptual structures

post modernism

- a view that there is no objective truth -people can still go on and live

what do empiricist argue about basic beliefs

- are those that describe what we seem to be experiencing such as "i seem to see red"

What do people use the term scientific to suggest

- people use the term scientific to suggest, reliability, validity, and certainty

three approaches to knowledge

- the rationalist view: that some of our knowledge of reality derives from reason without the aid of the senses -empiricist view: that our knowledge of reality must derive from our sense experience -transcendentalists view- that the fundamental structures of reality can be discovered by reason, whereas the particular contents of reality must be derived from our sense experience

how is the scientific method distinguished from pseudoscience

-based on sense observation and rationality -relies on the inductive method for its low-level laws -it proceeds by formulating hypothesis that can guide research -that are falsifable -and are widley accepted in the community of scientists -and its theories are accurate,consistent, with other accepted theories, broad, simple, and fruitful (chiropractor) insurance- we give blessing, if no insurance not scientific

Does truth matter

-cp\orrespondence theory of truth says truth depends on an objective reality but the other two theories say truth depends on what a group accepts -such relativist theories imply that beliefs accepted by any group are true and as valid as only other belief, no matter how racist supersitions nonhistorical or biased.

Rationalists

Plato, Descartes,

Both in the East and the West, what view emerged?

a view of epistemology emerged that contrasts sharply with the rationalist view of knowledge and that is now called "Empiricism"

is the theory of recovered memories science or pseudoscience

although the theory of recovered memories meets some of the criteria, it fails to meet others and so seems in some respects to be based on pseudoscience

Alfred Tarski developed

an interesting and important version of the corres theory that does not refer to "facts" or "correspondence" -says truth is a property of sentences, a sentence is true when things area as it says things are -Nix est alba is true in latin -if and only if -the snow is white

justification is

another name for the reasons or evidence that make a belief probably

what do the inductionist empiricist say about real science?

- is distinguished from unscientific opinions, superstitions, and bias by its reliance on generalization from particular sensory observations and by repeated confirmation - they say pseudosciences are not solidly based on sense observation, generalization, and repeated confirmation

Rationalism

the view that knowledge can be obtained by relying on reason without the aid of senses. In this view, reason is a key source of knowledge we have about the universe. (some knowledge can be known without some perception)

coherentism holds that

there are no basic beliefs and that all beliefs are justified by other beliefs -with A being justified by B,C,D, then D must also be justified by A describing that our beliefs form an interconnected system or "web"of beliefs -our beliefs "cohere" with eachother to form a "web" consistent and mutually reinforcing beliefs

what do empiricist say about Science giving us knowledge?

-empiricists claim that science is justified because it is based on sense observation

Descartes rationalism of our knowledge of God and the world

- he argues that he could not have produced the idea of a perfect being, God, and neither could he have acquired it through the senses; only God could have put it into his mind, so God must exist. Because God is good, he does not deceive, so we can rely on the powers of knowing he has given us.

Philosophers of the school of Jainism

-hold that every human being carries within his or her mind a complete knowledge of everything in the universe -the mind is not limited by time or space but it present everywhere therefore must know everything -when we get rid of the baggage of our past wrongdoing, and when we are free from our bondage to material things, we will be liberated and will become fully conscious of our Godlike knowledge. - a key to our future liberation is the practice of "ahimsa" the avoidance of all aggression, injury, or harm to other living things.

Justification

-lots of things can be justified justified= warranted - the justification of a belied depends on the kind of belief that is based on obcervation, or a science belief justified by inductive generalization or by inference to the best explanation

Descartes : Doubt and Reason

"methodological point of departure"-- an attitude of doubt of skepticism toward what we think we know -said that he suffered an epistemological "credibility gap" because he always wondered what he could believe and what he could be certain of. -with new scientific discoveries overturning established views, it created uncertainty about what truths were valid -this action caused him to turn to mathematics as a model of reasoning that leads from basic indubitable truths to new ones. -when on a mission to find indubitable foundational truths, Descartes tried to doubt all his beliefs by realizing that everything might be a dream or an illusion of a powerful god, any beliefs that could not be doubted would be basic indubitable truths, -says is there any truth that survives an attempt to cast doubt on absolutely everything, is there any truth that is so certain that it cannot be doubted , this is when he discovered what he felt was an indubitable truth, One was "I think therefore I am" -he says we know because we are thinking therefore that is how we know we exist. When humans aren't thinking then they don't exist. -says our sense perceptions may be illusions or the products of our own dreams or hallucinations

what does rationalist Plato say about innate ideas?

- he believed that we are born with certain ideas fully formed in our minds-for example, the concepts of geometry, but at birth these ideas are hidden away in the depths of the mind or memory, so when the person grows up, these ideas can slowly emerge into the person's awareness.

Berkeleys ingenious efforts resulted in what philosophy?

-Immaterialism -a philosophy that relied on the theory that all we know are ideas in our mind, and so we have no knowledge of external material objects and so cannot claim they exist --Berkeley used the theory of knowledge we now call empiricism- the view that our only source of knowledge are he sense experiences we have but then he drifted from empiricism when it threatened his deepest convictions

Blanshard argued

that we can verify a statement only by using other statements so there is no way of determining the truth of a statement other than by seeing whether it coheres with other accepted statements -coherence theory is right -says each belief was related in some way to every other belief

What is memory?

the ability to bring facts or our past experiences into our present consciousness or activities. -important aspect of knowledge -without memory we wouldn't remember who we are -wouldn't retain any knowledge of the world -without it we wouldn't retain any sort of knowledge -memory is not an independent source of knowledge because any knowledge we have in memory had to be acquired from some other source such as sense experience or reason

what does Leibniz say about innate ideas

- a rationalist who disagreed with Descartes view that the mind has fully formed innate ideas within itself but agreed that we do not acquire our knowledge of the most basic truths about the world by observing the world around us and the those truth must somehow be innate in us. -he claimed innate ideas are only in us as "Tendencies" or "dispositions"

rationalist view about knowledge

that real knowledge is based on logic, the laws, and the methods that reason develops.

Continental Rationalist

Leibniz Spinoza DEscartes

basic beliefs vs nonbasic beliefs

beliefs that need no justification verses beliefs that must be justified to be acceptable

Berkely's idea could have become ..?

solipsism, which means the position that only I exist and that everything and everyone else is just an idea in my subjective consciousness, so that what is real is whatever seems real to me in my own private world of ideas.

Empiricism

the view that knowledge can be attained only through sense experience. Sense experience is the source of all our knowledge of the world that surrounds us. (all knowledge comes from sense perception)

The Problem of Induction

what justification do we have for inferring that what was true of a sample in the past will be true of a whole population in the future? -argued that since inductive generalization has been successful in the past it will be successful in the future is itself an inductive generalization and so assumes that inductive generalization is justified, which is what must be proved.

Berkeley's claim towards God

- He relied on the view that there is am outside source that maintains and is responsible for our ideas about the world around us : God -says things in our world continue to exist for us and others even when I do not perceive them, because God continues to perceive them and makes them available to me when I look around. -what is real is what is real in Gods mind. -he guarantees our knowledge by guaranteeing a stable world that we all perceive in the same way and that is the ultimate criterion of reality and of true knowledge of reality. - God is the primary mind in the sky and keeps things in an order. Reason for the sameness overtime. -avoids solipsism by saying that God exists and that He produces the sensations in my mind and maintains them even when I do not perceive them -unwillingly did "Admit Matter or Reject Spirit" -he was a Christian minister, an Anglican bishop -attack on the idea of an external material reality was motivated by his desire to rid the world of materialism because he though that materialism was the ultimate source of atheism and the greatest obstacle to religion. - believed that if he could convince the world that there is no material reality- that everything is spiritual- either idea or mind- then perhaps the world would no longer be misled by materialism and would turn to God.

Inductionism problems

- carries several problems - one major problem between Hume and the Problem of induction: every generalization has to go beyond the observations on which it is biased but a generalization always goes beyond the observ evidence, so the evidence cannot really prove the generalization -another problem is that a large number of different generalizations are equally confirmed by the observations of the scientist. -what this means is that if there are so many generalizations that are compatible with the observations why should we accept one over the other. -this led inductionist to pointing out the criterion of simplicity as a way of deciding among competing generalizations -the scientists will generally choose the simplest generalization compatible with sensory observation -simplicity is more so a rationalist criterion: it tells us that the world must follow simpler rather than more complex laws, does not seem to be established by sense observation but by reason therefore simplicity forces incorporating rationalism into its procedures

The Gettier example

- founded by Edmund Gettier - example of this is when someone has a justified true belief but does not have knowledge -the notion of justified true belief does not fully capture what knowledge is -it showed that knowledge is more than justified true belief by giving examples in which someones beliefs is true and is justified but the true belief is based on a falsehood. -example is a careful person who had never made a mistake, but said they were buying lowfat milk but by mistake told a friend they were buying whole milk, then later when the person goes to the store planning to buy low fat milk they accidently pick up whole milk, and then if someone where to ask the friend what kind of milk the person bought the friend would say they know they bought whole milk, therefore the friend has a justified true belief, the friends belief was based of falsehood but the statement the person made when they told the friend they were buying whole milk turned out to be true by accident and we are able to say the friends belief is a genuine knowledge even though it is a justified true belief -this is an example of someone who has a justified true belief but does not have the knowledge -(how much of what we think we know happened by accident)-- such as getting an answer on a test correct on accident -Philosophers are still unaware what more knowledge involves -justified= warranted

Platos Meno

- he provides the best example of a person- a slave boy in this case- becoming aware of the innate ideas he had in his mind but did not consciously know he had. -Plato tells us how Socrates once made a slave boy "remember" his knowledge of geometry. -Socrates explains we know in our mind that things such as our house is bigger than a ball because we have a knowledge of some geometry and don't need to go to school to learn because we use logic , our minds -with the example of the slave boy who reveals his knowledge of geometry, Plato argues that we have an innate knowledge of geometry that we do not receive by observing the world around us but that we acquired in a previous existence because before we were born, we existed in another perfect universe.

what does Descartes say about innate ideas?

- he says when we summon up an innate idea, we become aware of it as we were recalling a memory -believes that human beings are born with innate ideas of the three fundamental kinds of things in the universe: God, minds, and material bodies - he say although it takes time for us to become consciously aware of these ideas, Descartes thought that we know how to use these ideas even before we think directly about what their nature is, for example his example of the wax, our mind knew that both images were still the same thing.

Humes view on an External word existing

- he suggests that perhaps the external world does not exist at all. -says that we only know what our sense impressions convey to us, and because our sense impressions provide no basis for saying there is anything beyond them, we cannot say an external world exists - he concludes that we can never know whether or not any of our ideas about the external world are accurate, or even if there is an external world. -unlike the other Locke, Berkeley, and Descartes, he did not rely on God to save him from skepticism - claimed we only have impressions and ideas in our minds and have no access to any other reality because we have no way of knowing that the impressions and ideas in our minds represent any reality outside the mind -Barry Stroud agrees with Humes view that we have no way of knowing whether there is any external world beyond our sensory experience

Inductive Generalizations

-Inductive generalizations are probable arguments whose premises indicate that something is true of a limited sample, and whose conclusion claims that the same is true of the whole population -the limited group of cases in the premises is called the sample -the entire group of cases in the conclusion is called the population -inductive generalizations are strong arguments if its premises make the conclusion very probable -the strength of it depends on how large the sample is and how representative the sample is.

Locke and Empricism

-John Locke says that in the womb mind is a blank slate, Locke says that in the womb the minds is a black slate in Latin a "tabula rose" on which experience makes it mark. when we come into the world and since being in the world we are constantly experiencing and learning -was the first to launch a systematic attack on the rationalist belief that reason alone could provide us with knowledge. - Locke said the only real argument the rationalist could produce for their belief in innate ideas was the one from "universal consent"- that because people everywhere have certain ideas in their minds, such ideas must be innate. -only problem with this is argument is that there are no ideas that all human beings are aware of. -a problem that empiricist like Locke face is that if we know only what our senses show us, then we have no way of knowing whether our sense experiences "match" the world beyond our sense experiences, or even whether there is a world beyond our sense experiences.

What are Mills three features of the scientific method

-accumulations of observation: collection of many observed facts as possible about the subject investigated - Generalizations from the observation: proceeds by inferring general laws from the accumulated particular facts - Repeated confirmation: continues to accumulate more particular facts to see whether the generalization continues to hold true. the more particular instances of a "law" we find, the more confirmation the law has and the higher its probability

George Berkeley towards Lockes view and his claims

-agreed with Locke that all our ideas originate in sensory experience - also he accepted Locke's argument that secondary qualities are SUBJECTIVES and insisted that primary qualities were also subjective - says first need to be perceived and second only minds and their ideas exist which means when trying to catch the fridge without the light on because you know the lights there but you just want to see if it won't be. - he argued that Lockes primary qualities are as mind dependent as Locke had complained secondary qualities are. - he argued that Locke was wrong to claim that the ideas of primary qualities are accurate copies of the qualities of external material bodies. Since as idea can only be like another idea, our ideas of primary qualities must be copies of other ideas. Since ideas can exist only in the mind, primary qualities can exist only in the mind and so are not qualities of external material bodes -Berkeley argued Locke was wrong to claim that we know there are external objects because they must cause our sensations. We have no access to such objects, Berkeley argued, and just as dreams are not caused by external objects, our perceptions need not to be caused by external factors. -both primary and secondary qualities, Berkeley argued, are sensations in us and so are mind-dependent. Besides minds and their sensations and ideas, nothing exist

What did Mill do to improve Bacons views?

-an empiricist who laid out what he called "canons" or methods of induction -these were rules for determining which generalizations were supported by the many particular factors and observations the scientist collected, -claimed that the scientific method is characterized by three features: -accumulations of observation - Generalizations from the observation - Repeated confirmation

Hume and skepticism

-he pushed both Lockes and Berkeleys empiricism to a thorough skepticism- meaning to a denial of the possibility that we can have certain knowledge about much of what we all take for granted. -says there is no knowledge we can know without absolute certainty. -ultimate skeptic -believes all knowledge is a kind of faith He says the three ways of absolute certainty are 1. Religion 2. Science 3. Gov't/Ruler -he says you are able to go on and live your life but can't have absolute certainty but it doesn't affect your lives. -says all our knowledge comes from our 5 senses - says that all we experience are our own sensations and ideas, which he called "impression" because all our knowledge is derived from sense impressions, and if not derived from a sense impression, it is meaningless or nonexistent -says we can have knowledge only if we can point to a sense impression from which it is derived- to prove that many of our common ideas are meaningless. - one particular idea that he argues is meaningless is our common idea of causality- -because the idea of causal connection is not derived from any sense impression, it does not exist in the real world; causality is nothing more than the habitual expectation that events in the future will be followed by the same kind of events that followed them in the past. This habitual expectation is formed by repeatedly seeing the same sequence of events. -Causality is nothing more than a feeling of expectation in our minds -Humes criticism of causal reasoning applies to all inductive generalizations called "The Problem of Induction"

Paradigms and Revolutions in Science

-historical approach: science grows very gradually over a period of time Thomas Kuhn says that all knowledge and science is dependent upon a community -examples of this would be a community of biologists who accept and use Darwins theory, community of chemists who accept and use molecular theory -those who want to become scientist go through a long indoctrination into the theories and research methods of their scientific community -the research tradition or paradigm of science includes a way of thinking and doing research -examples would be theory of the atom in chemistry, theory of evolution in biology, planets revolve around the sun in astronomy -when scientists rethink theories and they develop new theories then a revolution may occur in the scientific community - eventually this new theory becomes the new paradigm for that field of science even though older science will try to resist the new paradigm -Kuhn says a good scientific theory was accurate, consistent with other accepted theories, broad, simple, and fruitful. -criterion of consistency is not established by sense observation, it is based on reason, on the idea that rationality demands consistency - the use of the hypothetical method in science, expecially its appeal to simplicity and consistency, remind us of the rationalist elements that scientific method incorporates.

what are Kuhns five criteria for a scientific theory

-must be an accurate agreement with observations -must be consistent with other prevailing scientific theories -must have broad consequences that extend beyond the phenomena it was originally designed to explain and that organize and relate phenomena that were previously thought to be disconnected -must be simple as possible and simpler than the phenomenon explained -must be fruitful by suggesting fresh research and new experiments

what does Hume say about causality

-our idea that when one object causes another object to do something , there is some kind of real connection between them, some kind of power or force by which the cause really exerts its causality on its effects. -he shows that causality is just a figment of our minds, there is no real causality in the things around us, so we cannot say that the things around us really are caused by anything.

what are the three kinds of memory

Habit memory: our ability to remember how to do something that we learned in the past, such as how to ride a bike Personal memory: our ability to bring into our present consciousness a representation of events that we personally and directly experienced in the past., such as directly remembering personally playing with my little cousin factual memory: memory of all the facts that make up our knowledgeof the world, such as remember George Washington was the 1st president

What basic premise by Descartes did Hume accept?

It is possible that the ideas in our minds may not correspond to a reality outside the mind

Hypothetical Method

Whewell pointed out that advances in scientific knowledge do not depend only on generalizations based on several observations. -he says the greatest advances occur when scientists make a creative guess or "hypothesis" about what causes or explains a particular phenomenon, and test the hypothesis by sense observation and experimentation - reason seems to be the source of hypothesis that scientist come up with and use to guide their research -important because it implies that reason makes an essential contribution to science - in formulating a hypothesis the scientist turns away from the senses and relies on reason -Popper adds that what distinguishes the claims of science from unscientific claims is that scientific claims or hypotheses must be capable of being falsified through empirical observations -a scientific hypothesis may predict certain events and these events may occur as the hypothesis suggests - it always goes beyong the limited factors or observations that it was formulated to explain . -because of this it is always open to refutation, it is always merely probable, never certain

what rationalist term is it called when knowledge is acquired through reason alone

a priori: it is not acquired through sense experience, and it is necessarily true and indubitable. examples are mathematical truths and the laws of logic. -rationalist claim that some of our knowledge about the world is acquired by the use of reason alone, withour sense experience

explain Descartes rationalistic foundation of knowledge

as an example, a piece of wax that the mind knows is the same physical body when it melts but that to the senses looks completely different. Descartes concludes that reason, without the aid of senses, is what knows the body of the wax. -He points out that our minds know that as the wax melts, the wax remains the same bodily thing although to our senses all of its qualities have changed -Our knowledge of what the wax itself is - an enduring physical body- does not derive from the senses or the imagination. -views that reason is the ultimate source of our most basic knowledge -does believe that we acquire some ideas through our senses. our knowledge of sounds, what the sun looks like and what heat feels like are examples of the kind of knowledge of the "world "outside" us that he suggests is acquired through the senses - says our knowledge of the essential nature of the body that gives off sounds or that glows like the sun or that emits heat, is acquired by the mind alone.

What do Rationalists such as Plato, Descartes, Leibniz and the Indian Jain philosophers believe about what kind of ideas can be innate?

believe that the ideas and truths that the mind knows without relying on its senses are innate- in other words, we were born with these ideas in our minds, or they developed from what we were born with. We could not have acquired them by observation because our experience of the world is too limited and its objects are too imperfect. -the basic principles of logic and math are innate - these include the basic axioms of geometry, such as the proposition that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. - the basic laws of arithmetic such as proposition that if equal numbers are added to equal numbers, the results are equal -also believe that the basic rules of science are also innate -believe that not only are propositions like these innate but the individual concepts are also innate. -These concepts include the concepts of "point, line, straight, equality,event, and cause".

Russel is an

example of a correspondence theorist. -explains correspondence by saying that a sentence corresponds to a fact when the relations among the words or constituents of the sentence mirror the relations among the term or parts of a fact. - says the truth or falsity of a belief does not depend on the nature of the belief itself but on something outside the belief

Primary and Secondary Qualities according to Locke

he claimed hat primary or measurable qualities such as weight and shape are really "in" the objects we perceive, where as secondary qualities such as colors, tastes, and sounds are not "in" the objects we perceive but are sensations in us that objects we perceive but are sensations in us that objects causes us to have. Because our experiences of primary qualities are "copies" of the primary qualities that are really in objects, these experiences are reliable indicators of the world "outside" us. -Locke says that PQs are the Objective and can be measured by size, shape, and, weight, motion and these give us measurable qualities. Are in the bodies whether we are observing them or not. -he says that SQ's are the subjective and are measure by taste, texture, color. -claims that primary qualities must be real, although secondary qualities are not.

The Indian philosopher Shankara was a rationalist who...

held that our knowledge of ultimate reality is not acquired through our sense but through reasoning and meditation which are the key to knowing the ultimate reality. developed the idea of sublation: process of correcting an error about reality when it is contradicted by a different but more correct understanding of reality(a thirsty man in a desert who runs to a mirage of water he believes he see, but when he comes up to it and realizes its not there he corrects his answer) -argues that evertything in the world around us that we perceive with our senses can also be sublated.

innate ideas

ideas that are present in the mind from birth: we are born with them. -Plato, Descartes, and Leibniz have generally agreed that we have innate ideas, but it is hard for other philosophers to accept.

two ways of sense perception

impressions: -quite vivid -from perception ideas: -from the mind -not vivid

What is truth?

in different situations in real life we seem to believe truth means different things and is established in different ways: truth may be -what gets us what we want -what fits with our other beliefs and meanings -what corresponds with what is "out there" in the real world

transcendental idealism

influential alternative, attempts to integrate the insights of empiricism and rationalism,

Inductive reasoning

one of the most influential views of the relationship between scientific theories and sensory observations is inductionism - which is a view that holds that science is based on inductive reasoning -which means reasoning moves from any particular observations to claims about the general laws that govern what we observe -Bacon had been called the father of empiricism -Bacon said instead of relying on ideas from the past, scientist should investigate nature by careful sense observation and experimentation -Francis Bacon was the first to suggest that inductive reasoning as the core of the scientific method -Mills three features of inductive reasoning for the scientific approach starts with - accumulations of observation - Generalizations from the observation - Repeated confirmation -inductionism holds that scientific knowledge is based on sense observation: making particular observations, generalizing to general laws, and confirming the laws through additional observations -Galileo confirmed his law of falling bodies falling at the same rate of 32 seconds making it a highly probable law

a posteriori

pertaining to knowledge that is empirically verifiable; based on inductive reasoning from what is experienced.

correspondence theory

says truth is an agreement or correspondence between a proposition and that it is true when it agrees with or corresponds to a fact -not many things are true but the things that are true are solidly true -example "water boils at 212 degrees F at sea level -relies on other beliefs

what did Wilfred Sellar argue

that all our beliefs must be justified by otherbeliefs, so there are no basic beliefs that serve as the foundations of all our other beliefs

what was Humes propostition?

that meaningful concepts must be derived from impression was a crucial step in his attempt to undermine our claims to knowledge, and if a concept is not based on the sensations or impressions of our sense experience then it must be meaningless - he sais claims about the external world were meaningless nut cannot forsure say we know that it doesn't exist just as we can't say that the inner self doesn't exist.

empiricist view

that real knowledge is based on what our sight, hearing, smell, and other sense tell us is really out there, not what people discover in their heads.

Traditional Indian philosophy agrees on what

that sense perception is a source of knowledge, however several indian philosophers hold that sense perception is ultimately erroneous, and that we must rely on other sources of knowledge to what is ultimately true.

JAmes in Pragmatism argues

that the truth of an idea depends on the practical difference it makes: "true ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify" an idea is validated or verified if as a consequence of believing the idea we find we are led to experiences that are "progressive harmonious satisfactory" -do not base truths on a comparison of a statement with some objective external reality

What do rationalists claim about reason being the source of knowledge?

the belief that reason, without the aid of sensory perception, is capable of arriving at some knowledge,some undeniable truths about the world. -When rationalists claim that some of our knowledge is based on reason rather than perception, they mean that we do not rely on sensory experience for allof the fundamental knowledge we have. -we can acquire accurate knowledge about the world around us by simply looking into our minds without observing the world -mathematical knowledge is acquired by reasoning alone without observation of the world, yet it tells us how the world works, they do not need to observe the world to see if their theories are true

What is Empiricism?

the view that all knowledge about the world comes from or is based on the senses. -react sharply to rationalistic claims, empiricists claim that the human mind contains nothing except what experience has put there. - teaches that true knowledge is a posteriori -depends on experience, it is knowledge stated in empirically verifiable or falsifiable statements -it is through observation with our senses that we acquire of knowledge that the sky is blue , that trees are green, that lemons taste sour, and that the seasons change in a regular cycle, through, winter, spring, summer, and fall. - sense observations also underlie almost all the knowledge of the natural sciences, such as the astronomer's knowledge that Halley's comet returns to earth every 75 years, and in all three cases of Chemists, Physicists, and Biologists, our knowledge comes from and is biased on sense experience. -Elements of it can be found in the writings of Aristotle

what does the Humean skeptic suggest about when memories are recovered

they simply become one more element in this jumble of ideas in the mind. no more possible to know whether one of them is true than it is to establish that any of our other ideas correspond to an independent reality

Foundationalism holds that nonbasic beliefs are

ultimately justified by basic beliefs -argue that if all beliefs had to be justified by other beliefs then we would have no real justification for any of our beliefs -belief A had to be justified by B and B had to be justified by C, C had to be justified by D and so on, they argue that at some point we muct reach beliefs that are justified but don't need to be justified by other beliefs - say that a cant be justified without B but B can be without A