Back to PH485 Table of ContentEPISTEMOLOGYDefinitionThe branch of philosophy defined as " the study of human knowledge "Theory of the origin, nature, scope and limits of knowledgeWhat are our basic sources of knowledge?The senses: knowledge from observationReason: from knowing factsIntuition: from the subconsciousAuthority: from the testimony of othersAre there other sources?Instinct (inherited pattern of behavior) Racial Memory (collective unconscious); ExtrasensoryPerception (telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognition);Anamnesis (recollection); Supernatural revelation; Spiritualism (fortune tellers); Occult SourcesGreek EpistemologyPlato (can be said to be real originator of epistemology)1.Knowledge and formsa. The forms are independent of the sensible worldb. The forms are known by reasonc. The forms are always objects of knowledge2. Knowledge and true or false beliefs3. Knowledge and sense perception4. Knowledge and logosAristotle1. Universal knowledge is inherent in particular2. Sense perception is an actualizing of potentiality3. Sense has its own special sense object4. Knowledge of the essence of the thing itself is given by real definition5. Knowledge is a part of scienceMedieval EpistemologyRealism; Conceptualism; NominalismSkepticism1.To justify the possibility and impossibility of knowledge2.To justify the certainty and uncertainty of knowledge: a. Skepticism by rationalists and skepticismby empiricists, b. Relative skepticism and absolute skepticismContinental Rationalism Descartes1. The systematization of knowledge in geometrical form2. The method of doubt3. The indubitable proposition: "I think, therefor I am"a. I cannot doubt that I think; I cannot doubt that I doubt; I cannot the existence of myself as the thinkerb. I doubt the existence of the external world; I doubt the existence of God; I doubt the existence of my body4. Different qualities must have different types of knowing5. Representative theory6. Occasional theorySpinoza1. Monism: the mental and the physical are two aspects of one thing; the goal of all knowledge is seeing the world as a single whole2. Truth must have an intrinsic criterion3. Three grades of knowledgeLeibniz1. Necessary truths by reason2. Contingent truth by fact3. Perception as a property of monad4. Sense perception as the source of error5. All ideas as innateBritish EmpiricismLocke1. Two kinds of ideas2. Two kinds of qualities3. The causal theory of perception4. Three complex ideas5. General words as sighs of general ideas6. Four kinds of knowledge7. Three degrees of knowledge8. The correspondence theory of truthBerkeley1. Material substances are unknowable2. "To be is to be perceived"3. Objects are identical with collections of ideas4. To prevent skepticism and to give certainty to knowledge5. Knowledge is founded on sense perceptionHume1. Understanding is limited2. Distinction between impressions and ideas3. Ideas can be particular in their nature4. Causality is a connection or a habit of association5. The "mind" is merely "a bundle or collection of different perceptions"6. Perceptions are logically independent of any owner and any object7. We have no impression of the selfRussell1. Knowledge by acquaintance is impossible to be error2. Knowledge by description is possible to be error3. Knowledge by description can be reduced to knowledge by acquaintance4.Logical atomismLogical empiricismMeaningful propositions must be either analytical or empirically verifiableAgnosticismKant1. To represent the juncture of rationalism or British empiricism2. To draw the boundaries between the proper use of the understanding and improper use of reason3. To distinguish priori and posteriori, analytical and synthetic judgments4. To distinguish the metaphysical deduction an transcendental deduction5. To find categories of understanding6. No valid judgments can be made about things themselvesPhenomenologyHusserl1.To investigate the essence of mental acts and their objects2.To investigate the essence of different phenomena as they appear to consciousness3.To adopt the method of approach: the bracketing of