Knowledge Types of Knowledge n Knowledge by Acquaintance

Knowledge

Types of Knowledge n Knowledge by Acquaintance n n Ability n n ‘I know Bob’, ‘I know Robina; ’ ‘I know French’, ‘I know how to ride a bike; ’ Propositional Knowledge n ‘I know that Bob is a builder’, ‘I know that they speak French in Paris. ’

Properties of Knowledge is a Propositional Attitude n Knowledge is a type of belief n True n Justified n

Truth n Correspondence n A sentence is true if the world is the way that the sentence says that it is n ‘Snow n is white’ is true if snow is white What is ‘correspondence’? n Not a picture n Does ‘Snow is white’ look like the whiteness of snow? n What corresponds to negative facts?

Truth n Coherence n A sentence is true if it coheres with all the other true sentences n ‘Snow is white’ is true if you can’t derive a contradiction from it and all your other beliefs n BUT I’ve got lots of false beliefs already, so it follows that I have no beliefs at all n What is coherence? n Consistency is defined in terms of Truth. Circular?

Truth n Pragmatic n A sentence is true if it works n ‘Snow is white’ is true because you can design camouflage on the basis of it n BUT ‘The Earth is at the centre of the universe’ is true because you can predict eclipses using it

Justifications n Are good reasons for holding beliefs, Infallible Makes the ‘true’ criterion redundant n Fallible They can be wrong Preferred n n Have properties which make them good reasons Internal subject n External n properties belong to the properties are real, objective,

Justifications n Reliabilism n A true belief is justified if the belief is formed by methods which reliably lead to true beliefs n We know what we can see because our senses are reliable n BUT we also know what we are told by a reliable oracle n We need to know how the justification works

Justifications n Foundationalism n A true belief is justified if the belief is derived from basic true beliefs n What makes the basic beliefs true? Are they selfjustifying? Are there any?

Justifications n Coherentism n A true belief is justified if it coheres with the other beliefs that a subject holds n One can have beliefs that are false and coherent, and also coherent with a true belief