PHI 215 EXAM 3 ACTUAL Questions and 100% VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS GRADED A+.

Epistemology - correct answer--study of knowledge --how and to what extent we know things Propositional knowledge - correct answer knowing that something is the case Proposition - correct answer--statement that is either true or false --assertion something is or is not a fact What are 3 necessary conditions that must be fulfilled to KNOW a proposition? - correct answer1. You must BELIEVE it. 2. It must be TRUE. 3. You must be justified in believing it is true. A belief does not count as knowledge unless it is_____ - correct answer true True belief is not knowledge, unless you genuinely ______________ - correct answer know it (a lucky guess is not equal to knowledge). Skepticism - correct answer A philosophy which suggests that nothing can ever be known for certain. 3 questions skepticism might ask - correct answer1. If we have no way of really "knowing", how can we know what we believe is really true? 2. Recognizing the fallibility of how we acquire knowledge (via memory, introspection, reasoning), how can we be certain reliability is not suspect? 3. How do we know our "sources" are not always leading us to error? Cognitive relativism - correct answer the doctrine that the truth about something depends on what persons or cultures believe Subjective Relativism - correct answer The idea that truth depends on what someone believes. cultural relativism - correct answer the practice of judging a culture by its own standards Most serious flaw of relativism is - correct answer If everything is relative, then no unrestricted generalizations are true. Even that statement is an unrestricted generalization, rendering any "true" form of relativism false by definition. Why do most philosophers reject relativism? - correct answer It's too easy to claim knowledge, as all is requires is belief. What is a priori knowledge? - correct answer--knowledge justified independently of, or prior to, experience --knowledge acquired through reason, requiring no sense experience What is a posteriori knowledge? - correct answer--100% dependent upon sense experience Rationalists believe - correct answer through unaided reason we can come to know what the world is like Empiricists believe - correct answer our knowledge or empirical world comes solely from experience; we may come to know logic and math through reason, but only our senses give us empirical reality Name 4 significant rationalists - correct answer Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Liebniz Name 3 significant empiricists - correct answer Locke, Berkeley, Hume John Locke's take on empiricism - correct answer--believed objects "are" regardless if we perceive them or not --rejected skepticism, "we are only directly aware of sense data" George Berkeley's take on empiricism - correct answer--accepts notion of being only aware of sense data --rejects Locke's belief in existence of material objects --logically impossible for physical objects to exist outside our perception, b/c we cannot "conceive of them existing unconceived" --all that exists are minds and ideas (subjective idealism) David Hume's take on empiricism - correct answer--uncompromising empiricism --all knowledge aside from purely logical thoughts arise from empiricism --skeptical about causation, self, religious doctrines, inductive reasoning Kant's take on empiricism - correct answer--believed knowledge begins with raw data of sense experience, but our minds impose order upon it --our minds impress concepts of cause/effect, space/time onto experiences --thus, we can know beforehand (a priori), there are connections between cause and effect --tried to save science and experience from Hume's radical skepticism Plato's take on rationalism - correct answer--sense experience alone cannot be source of knowledge --since we clearly do have knowledge, we must be getting it from a reliable source = reason --senses yield only transitory information, but reason allows derivation of objective truths What are Plato's forms? - correct answer--perfect conceptual molds for every existing thing residing only in the external world, penetrated by reason alone --example: we we access the form for "courage", we know what that is and can use this to determine if "x" is or is not courage --"universals", properties that can be had by several things which we always know denote those things (ex: blueness, triangularity) How can we have knowledge of forms if senses tell us nothing? - correct answer--Innate knowledge present from birth from previous lifetime experience --knowledge access uses recall from past lives Descartes - correct answer--began quest for knowledge via skepticism --doubted all beliefs except those certain and irrefutable --only beliefs that are certain can be counted as knowledge --any reason for doubt is reason enough to reject the whole How did Descartes come to doubt all beliefs based on sense experience? - correct answer--by recognizing we could be dreaming and not even know it --difficult to differentiate between dreams and reality --therefore sense experience can yield no knowledge --evil genius could be systematically deceiving us, infusing our thoughts with false ideas What first truth did Descarte "know"? - correct answer I am. I exist. What second truth did Descartes declare as true? - correct answer--Because I am, what I perceive clearly and distinctly is true. --his mind has a clear and distinct notion of perfection, which must have a Cause, which is God. --a perfect God is no deceiver, so when he follows the principle of clarity and distinctness, he knows it beyond all doubt. He has knowledge, and skepticism is defeated. Empiricists reject_________and deny rationalist claims such as the ________________. - correct answers kepticism, doctrine of innate ideas Locke believed innate knowledge is ________________, and could easily have arisen via ____________experiences. - correct answer unfounded, sense Who wrote "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"? - correct answer John Locke John Locke disagreed with the doctrine of innate ideas. According to Locke, ____. - correct answer what we deem innate impressions are not that, as in children and idiots they are unaware of such thoughts. What "laws" do rationalists cite as "proof of innate thought"? - correct answer--Universal consent: those things "everyone" knows and agrees upon such as it is not possible for something to be and not be simultaneously --What will be, will be A man may live long and die at last in ignorance of many truths, which his mind was capable of knowing, and that with certainty. - correct answerJohn Locke, a proof against innate "knowingness" "Whatsoever is, is, and "it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be" are by nature imprinted, children cannot be ignorant of them; infants, and all that have souls, must necessarily have them in their understandings, know the truth of them, and assent to it." - correct answer John Locke, a proof against innate "knowingness" Where then, does Locke say all the materials of reason and knowledge are obtained? - correct answer from experience As regards to concepts like infinity, how does Locke posit that we understand these? - correct answerThrough sense experience, we become acquainted with related sense experiences then extrapolate from there. How does Locke explain understanding of the physical world? - correct answerSensations caused by external objects, represent those objects and give us knowledge of them. What two types of properties can external objects have, per Locke? - correct answer--primary qualities: objective properties such as solidity land mobility, possessed by the object regardless if anyone is around to see it --secondary qualities: subjective properties like color and smell, which are in the mind and depend on the operation of the senses. Biggest criticism of Locke's theory of knowledge - correct answer Locke has not given us good reason to think our sense data are proof of the existence of an external reality. What is Locke's retort to his lack of proof of the existence of external reality? - correct answer--knowledge of existence of any other thing can only be had by sensation --no memory can serve as proof of existence of any other thing than perception --knowledge in our minds alone does not prove the existence of that thing; perception does --this assurance deserves the name of knowledge --those w/o certain sense organs (i.e. eyes) can never have that knowledge ascertained by having that sense --b/c ideas from memory and actual perception are quite different and if I look at something, I cannot help but perceive it. --pleasure and pain do not accompany ideas, but they do the physical objects (memories of cold are different than actual cold) --our senses corroborates what others perceive --thus what we perceive exists without us What does Berkeley say about knowledge? - correct answerWe can indeed acquire it and the only path is through sense experience. How does Berkeley differ from Locke? - correct answer--Berkeley believes there are no things that exist in the material world, there are objects to be sure, but they exist only as sensations (ideas). They are real only b/c they are perceived. --to be is to be perceived --our sense experience doesn't convey reality, it IS reality How does Berkeley answer, "Why do patterns of sensations present themselves to us as if entirely independent of our minds"? - correct answer Things are never unperceived, b/c God continually perceives them and thus causes them to be as they are. What two types of knowledge did Hume insist we have? - correct answer--relations and ideas (truths of mathematics and truths of logic, such as it's either raining or not raining; every affirmation which is either intuitively or demonstratively certain) --matters of fact (information about the world derived entirely from sense experience; contraries are still possible, are not demonstratively false, as they imply contradictions. Ex: the sun will rise tomorrow is just as plausible as its opposite) The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation. - correct answer David Hume What two classes did Hume divide all perceptions of the mind? - correct answer--Thoughts or Ideas: less lively and forcible (the thoughts or memories of the actuality of something). --Impressions: the actual sense experiences of something What does Hume say about cause and effect? - correct answerWe are never able in a single instance to discover any quality which binds the effect to the cause, rendering one the infallible consequence of the other. We only find that one does in fact follow the other. Problem of induction - correct answer- Consider the statement: All swans are white. - Impossible to prove --it is impossible to justify the assumption that the future will be like the past What does Hume say about the problem of induction? - correct answerWe don't rely upon it b/c it is an established fact, but b/c it is a habit of the mind. What was Kant's viewpoint on knowledge and perception? - correct answerKant was sure knowledge was possible and we can know many things about the world, notably mathematics and science. He vehemently disagreed with Hume's fanatical skepticism. Analytic statement - correct answera logical truth whose denial results in a contradiction. They are true but tell us nothing about the world. Example of an analytic statement - correct answerAll brothers are male. To deny it is to say some males are not males, which is a contradiction.