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Questions tagged [epistemology]

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, acquisition thereof, and the justification of belief in a given claim.

8 votes
7 answers
6k views

Do we know whether we know something?

Intuitively, it seems pretty obvious that, for a given proposition p, we know whether or not we know p. I am not sure how to express this more formally (e.g. as a property of the relevant epistemic ...
user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Question on learning type in Plato Cave Allegory

My question is based on the Cave of Plato. In this myth I see two types of learning. The first type of learning is the person that is released from the cave and climbs up to the light. The second ...
Aristos's user avatar
  • 161
2 votes
3 answers
237 views

Evidence for ~P vs evidence that P is very unlikely?

Is saying that P is very unlikely, the same as saying that you believe ~P? Does it follow rationally, that if P is very unlikely, one should believe ~P? And would the evidence for P being very ...
barlop's user avatar
  • 291
7 votes
3 answers
366 views

Can mathematical sentences in different theories be identified?

My question motivated by a part of this page from Saul Kripke's book Naming and Necessity, which is also viewable on google books. In the middle of the page he say something, which seems unnatural to ...
Nikolaj-K's user avatar
  • 1,143
12 votes
4 answers
15k views

What's the relationship between epistemology and ontology in different traditions?

I'm asking as a relative novice, but have come across the debate in the field of information architecture and classification (and technology studies too). In this field, Aristotle is often quoted as ...
paulusm's user avatar
  • 573
0 votes
1 answer
656 views

Post-structuralist view of physics? [closed]

What is the post-structuralist approach to natural sciences, especially physics? Maybe post stucturalism is a bit too scattered to ask for a specific clear position, but what are the common ideas of ...
Nikolaj-K's user avatar
  • 1,143
3 votes
2 answers
140 views

Do knowing quantities, which are measurable imply that one knows numbers?

Does a kid, which learns the meaning of the term "distance" (or any other expressions which might be thought of as physical quantities) automatically also develope a concept of numbers? If I know ...
Nikolaj-K's user avatar
  • 1,143
-1 votes
1 answer
245 views

Who has made the strongest case in favor of skepticism?

Which brand of skepticism is the hardest to refute or argue against? What argument has given the other theories of knowledge the hardest time?
Kevin Davis's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
923 views

What would a "Turing test for reference" show?

What does Hilary Putnam mean by this? Imagine a situation in which the problem is not to determine if the partner is really a person or a machine, but is rather to determine if the partner uses ...
Kevin Davis's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
515 views

What is Harman's response to the Fake Barn counterexample?

Regarding the Fake Barn counterexample to the causal theory of knowing I heard that Gilbert Harman's response is to deny that there are fake barns at all, is this correct? Does anyone have a link to a ...
Ben Jackson's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

How does the Twin Earth illustration show that "meanings just aren't in the head?"

Hiliary Putnam's Twin Earth thought experiment goes like this: We begin by supposing that elsewhere in the universe there is a planet exactly like earth in virtually all respects, which we ...
Kevin Davis's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

How does Robert Nozick explain the Gettier problem?

Nozick agrees that the Gettier counterexamples to the JTB analysis of knowledge are cases where someone has a JTB but does not know. What is his explanation of what has gone wrong in those cases? ...
Kevin Davis's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
1k views

Does Wittgenstein's Tractatus establish serious bounds for discussions of the supernatural from a modern point of view?

In today's mathematics, we have many variants of logic (propositional, first order, higher order, fuzzy logic, etc.). These are all self-consistent formal systems that are based on some set of axioms. ...
Nikolaj-K's user avatar
  • 1,143
4 votes
3 answers
2k views

Definabilty and Primitive Notions

Towards the beginning of a course on knowledge (we were reading the beginning of Theaetetus) we discussed definitions and what a definition or rather a good definition is. I'd like to know more about ...
Alborz Yarahmadi's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
265 views

Does knowing imply knowing that you know? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Do we know whether we know something? I have come across this idea a few times now that knowing does not imply knowing that you know. However, I am having troubled ...
emschorsch's user avatar

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