Epistemology Study Guide

One of his examples is the tower illusion and basically makes the argument that our perceptions of a tower from either a particular distance or point of view differ in the way it really is. He writes how we might conclude false things about the world by using our senses.

Global/Local Skepticism

1. Global- Someone who claims we have no knowledge of the external world
2. Local- is a skeptic one particular subject area

JTB (Justified True Belief) Analysis

1. S believes that p;
2. p is true;
3. S is justified in believing that p.
4. If I know that P, then p is certain
5. P is not certain
6. I don’t know that p

Dreaming Skepticism- Skeptical argument making the point that we may be dreaming when we use our senses to conclude things. In which case, we may always be wrong.

Lehrer

Leher contends that refutations such as Moore’s fail to answer the fundamental problem with knowledge claims, namely, that they need to show that they satisfy the justification requirement.

1. To know that p, one must be completely justified in believing that p
2. We are never completely justified in our beliefs,
3. Therefore, we do not have knowledge

Moore

1. If skepticism is true, we do not have knowledge of the external world
2. But we do have knowledge of the external world (hand example)
3. Therefore, skepticism is false

According to Moore, Skepticism is refuted by common sense. He uses his hands to justify this answer.

Wright

If there is a p problem about knowledge or reasonable belief that the external world exists then there is equally a problem with Moore’s knowledge that he has a hand, even when the appearances are at their most compelling.

Moore’s reply to this is that the there is a conviction in the skeptic’s argument that carries the same conviction as his, when he uses his hand as an example.

1. Jones has just written an x on a piece of paper
2. Jones has just voted
3. An election is taking place

Perceptual Knowledge

1. Naive Realism is the common sense theory of perception. Naive realism holds that the view of the world that we derive from our senses is to be taken at face value.
2. Representationalism and Phenominalism say the immediate object of perception is a sense datum or sense impression-which cannot exist apart from our awareness of it. The phenominalists and representationalists differ over the relationships between sense data and the external world.

Bertrand Russell

1. Was a representational realist
2. He came up with the concept of the percept
3. The percept is a causal theory of perception in which mental events are caused by processes in the outside world impinging on the perceiver’s body starting a chain reaction, ending with the percept
4. The process involves physics, physiology, and psychology

An example Russell uses to describe the percept is the following: