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EPISTEMOLOGY 1 2023.ppt
- 1. EPISTEMOLOGY - Introduction toIssues about Knowledge
- 2. • A branchin Philosophy, studying KNOWLEDGE • (episteme = knowldge; logia = logical discourse) • Can be said to be: –Knowledge of knowledge –What is knowledge –science of knowledge –theory of knowledge (a popular understanding!)
- 3. • Of course,related to Hermeneutics… –Focus of Hermen: Meaning & Interpretation –Focus of Epist: Truth & knowledge • We know that we know… • But sometimes, we don’t know that we know
- 4. • “It isvery good for a man to talk about what he doesn’t understand, as long as he understands that he does not understand it”- G. K Chesterton.
- 5. What is Knowledge? •Confucius: When you know a thing, to recognize that you know it, • And when you don’t know a thing, to recognize that you don’t know it!
- 6. What is Education? •Daniel J. Boorstin: Education is learning what didn’t even know that you didn’t know. • So in and through this course on Epistemology, you will come to know many things you didn’t know and you didn’t even know that you didn’t know! • (after all, we will never know how much we don’t know, because, all that we know is what we know! ()
- 7. Several important questions… •What is knge? • What is to know? • What do we actually do when we know – before / during / after knowing? • Can we have knge at all? • Can we be certain that we know? • Under what conditions can be said to know? • How is knge different from belief/opinion/doubt? • The sources of knge? How to distinguish valid/invalid sources? • What is the role of memory in acquiring knge?
- 8. • 2. Commonsense knge • ( - why is it so uncommon? – slides…)
- 9. Isaac Newton… making anew door for the small cat…
- 17. The Importance ofEpistemology • Epist. is so very important that many consider it as ‘root of philosophy’ and they identify Philosophy with Epistemology. • Various types of sentences we come across, which give knge directly or indirectly:
- 18. 1. There are10 books on the table 2. I am now going to have coffee 3. Shut the door 4. What is the time? (What is time?) 5. Heavenly Father, have mercy on me! 6. 10 + 2 = 12 7. There will be a storm tomorrow 8. Congress Party will win in the next elections 9. ‘Logic’ means the science of reasoning. 10. Epistemology - What an interesting subject!
- 19. • all ofit is based either directly or indirectly on knowledge. • 1, 2 and 9 are direct, straight forward knowledge claims. • 3 is a command. Apparently it has nothing to do with knowledge. But reflection would show that this command assumes there is another person • 4 and 5. Question 4 assumes that you have a name, • 5 assumes that there is God, that He is merciful.
- 20. • The wholeof human life is based on knge, and that is why, Philosophy is identified with Epistemology • (our sense of morality/ ontology /Religion / social constructs / constitution etc. - all are based on knge.
- 21. Relation between Epistemology andLogic • closely connected • Epistemology is also known as Major Logic while the other is called Minor Logic • Logic deals with rules and methods of arguments, deals with the form or the propriety of arguments, whether it is licit or not • Major Logic deals with the Truth of the conclusion thus drawn.
- 22. Universality of Truth •Can we comfortable with contradictory statements? • Natural desire for truth… • Of course, we cannot know all that is true or possess all knge, but we expect that what we know must be true… • Truth – not relative to place and time • But a truth of a statement – can it change over the years?
- 23. • “No humanperson has set one’s foot on the Moon” – • is it true? • Was it true? (yes, before 1969!)
- 24. • Epist isneeded to settle the cognitive disputes… • (= two competing descriptions about the same person/situation, in the same perspective… but are mutually incompatible… • To have a cognitive dispute, there must be a cognitive difference… in those two descriptions… • How to settle it?: – a) to show, the subject matter is not the same – b) to show, the perspectives differ – c) to show that one of was wrong – D) to dissolve it by showing that there was no issue
- 25. • As welook for truth, we look for certainty too. • when sb says sth, often we ask: – How do you know? – It implies to know the source & reliability of the information – It is actually a demand for certitude and reliability
- 26. Relation between Knowledgeand Belief • To be counted as knowledge it must be true and it must be believed to be true • Socrates: justified true belief - reason or justification for that belief. • Epistemology is concerned with how true beliefs might be properly justified • We must believe everything we know, but cannot say that everything we believe is true
- 27. • Knowledge isdifferent from belief and opinion • Some of the beliefs can be superstitious • For something to count as knowledge, it must be true. • The knowledge which is true, has to be believed. • “I know P, but I don’t think that P is true.” If I say so, I contradict myself profoundly.
- 28. • Epistemology istruly a philosophical enquiry • The very act of knowing is questioned: • How and why do we know? • When is that we know or what happens to us when we say ‘we know’? • Am I absolutely certain that I know? • What is the criterion of truth or certainty? • What about first-hand knowledge and second- hand knowledge? • Is knowledge purely a product of our mind or is it purely from outside our mind?
- 29. • Are theredifferent types of knowing and therefore several kinds of knowledge? • What about different, sometimes altogether contrary solutions to the same or identical problems or questions? • How reliable is or can be our knowledge and what makes it reliable?
- 30. HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OFWESTERN EPISTEMOLOGY • Epistemology: the study of knowledge; what we know and how we know it. • To do with justifying our knowledge. • tripartite definition of knowledge is that “knowledge is justified, true, belief.” • epistemology tries to examine and establish the conditions for certain knowledge. • and also to establish the conditions for knowing a statement is justifiably true.
- 31. Eepisteme • the rootof epistemology : • inquiry of truth and knowledge. • quest for true and scientific knowledge as opposed to opinion or belief. • an organized body of thought about reality. • branch of philosophy that studies knowledge • What distinguishes true (adequate) knowledge from false (inadequate) knowledge?
- 32. Historical Evolution ofGreek Epistemology • 1. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers • Thales (624-545 B.C.) • all things are full of the gods, and that by some nature or principle all things come into being. • the principle of a magnet • The prime mover or arche of everything, according to Thales, was water because the “seeds of everything have a moist nature.” • Thales plants the seed that develops into the quest for knowledge, both scientific and divine.
- 33. Anaximander (610-540 B.C.) •universe originated from the apeiron or the boundless. • the arche, or ultimate underlying substance of all things, must be something other than the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air. • If any one of these were limitless it would destroy the other. • So the apeiron cannot be any one of these four. • Anaximander was laying the foundation for the search for the boundless, that is, theology and the quest to identify with the divine.
- 34. Pythagoras • doctrine ofmetempsychosis or belief that the soul is immortal. • believed the ordering of the natural world was in accordance with mathematic relationships and harmony. • promoted a strict way of life including a strict vegetarian diet since his ideology incorporated that each human and animal soul is reborn
- 35. Heraclitus • arche wasfire and that the flux in nature allowed the contraries of hot and cold to change each element into other. • According to him without strife there is no justice or without war there is no king. • Conflict is Justice, and that all things come to pass in accordance with conflict.” • logos is an underlying organizational principle of the universe • “hidden and perceptible only to the intelligence.”
- 36. Parmenides • being isneither changeable nor divisible and can be neither created nor destroyed. • only one original being and everything else is illusory. Thus, everything is actual or perceived, likewise either true or false, a conclusions highly contested by Plato later on. Therefore, the reality is one and unchangeable.