Epistemology: What Is Knowledge

Question 1

What are the 3 types of knowledge

Answer 1

• ability
• acquaintance
• propositional

Question 2

Ability knowledge/practical knowledge

Answer 2

-Knowing how to do something.
-Knowledge that involves a skill or capability to perform a certain kind of task but doesn’t need to involve having any explicit understanding of what such performance entails.
- practical knowldge is independent of any abikogy to communicate it in language
EXAMPLE: I may know how to swim but would find it difficult to give verbal instructions

Question 3

Acquaintance knowledge

Answer 3

• knowing ‘of’.
  -Knowing in the sense of knowing a person, thing, sensation or feeling.
  -knowledge by acquaintance does not need to involve any capacity to give a verbal report of what it entails
  -some philosophers argue that acquaintance knowledge is the foundation of all our knowledge about the world. Our knowldge is built uo from our acquaintance with shapes, colours, sounds and tastes and without these elements there would be no knowldge at all. Without the input of the senses, our mind would be a blank slate (tabula rasa)
  EXAMPLE:
• I may know the taste of pineapple without being able to describe it and without knowing any facts about it

Question 4

Propositional knowledge

Answer 4

• knowing that something is the case.
  -when we know some fact, what we know can, in principle can be expressed in language
  EXAMPLE:
  2+2=4
  The earth orbits the sun

Question 5

What are the nature of definitions

Answer 5

Real and artificial definitions

Question 6

Real definition

Answer 6

Definining something by explaining the nature of what we are defining. This required the thing to objectivity have a nature and essence.
EXAMPLE:
Water is a real definition as there are alot of liquids in the world and we classify some as water, there is a genuine difference between liquids on a molecular scale such as liquids called water H2O. We could put water under a microscope and investigate the real difference between water and other liquids, there is a real essence we could discover

Question 7

Artificial definition

Answer 7

When you define something that has no essence or nature.
EXAMPLE:
Weeds, there are alot of plants in the world and we classify some as weeds however there is no underlying genetic difference between weeds and non-weeds and instead it is culturally specific due to the question of which plants humans like in their gardens.

Question 8

What does Zagzebski suggest

Answer 8

Zagzebski thinks that it is ambiguous whether concepts such as intelligence and knowldge can have rea, definitions. She suggests that we should treat knowldge as if it does have a real essence and so should seek a real definition until we can show that we have failed to find one.

Question 9

What is the tripartite theory

Answer 9

Someone has propositional knowldge if and only if three conditions have been met:
1. S must BELIEVE p
2. S is JUSTIFIED in believing p
3. p is TRUE
- each of these three conditions are NECESSARY for knowledge
- the three conditions together are SUFFICIENT for knowledge

Question 10

Why is justification a necessary condition for knowledge

Answer 10

As everything you know should have a reason. There must be some sort of connection between the fact that S believes p and the fact that p is true

Question 11

Why is truth a necessary condition for knowledge

Answer 11

You cannot know that something is true if in fact it is false, so if you are to know p, then p must be true.
You can believe that something is true when really it is false however you cannot really know something to be true if in fact it is false

Question 12

Why is belief a necessary condition for knowledge

Answer 12

There must be some connection between S and p. S must have some sort of mental relation to p; but this relation has be of a certain kind. There are attitudes which S might have towards p however if S is to know p, S must accept p is true by believing p.

Question 13

Individually necessary

Answer 13

‘X is an individually necessary condition for Z’ means ‘without x, you can’t have z’
- having 4 sides is a necessary condition for something to be a square, without 4 sides, something is not a square

Question 14

Jointly sufficient

Answer 14

‘X is a sufficient condition for z’ means ‘if X then Z’
- having 4 sides, the sides are equal in length and they are at right angles to each other are together jointly sufficient for a shale to be square. If something meets these three conditions, then it is a square

Question 15

A priori justification/knowledge

Answer 15

The justification is independent of experience.

Question 16

A posteriori justification/knowldge

Answer 16

A justification that is dependent upon experience

Question 17

What do we mean by experience

Answer 17

Sense perception, introspection.
Knowledge justified by memory or testimony doesnt fit in this distinction due to memory and testimony not being primary sources of justification. This makes it hard to think of any other kind of justification that is neither based on some kind of experience as their primary epistemic function is to transmit either a priori or empirical justification