Questions tagged [knowledge]
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something, which can include facts, information, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education.
494 questions
-4 votes
3 answers
110 views
Are we reaching the limits of Mind? [closed]
I don't know a lot about this question. It occurred to me that maybe our thirst for knowledge and our capacity for knowledge it seems don't match. How much more does humanity needs to "know"...
- 1,642
2 votes
2 answers
181 views
Is knowledge-why agglomerative?
Say that I know why the caged tardigrade screams, KyS. Say that I know why pineapple on pizza is the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe, KyU. Then Ky(S & U)? My first reaction to this ...
- 6,381
1 vote
6 answers
834 views
If truth is not a process in evolution, then why is the man who discovers it today called wise, and tomorrow, outdated? [closed]
Truth does not become consensus — it is reflected in it. And the more perfect the truth, the more imperfect its human translation will be. — Felipe M. Muniz, The Quality of Truth Throughout history, ...
- 183
1 vote
1 answer
39 views
Is this a valid argument against Nozick's Adherence condition?
In Philosophical Explanations (1981), Robert Nozick proposes a tracking theory of knowledge that replaces the traditional “justified true belief” model with modal conditions meant to explain how ...
- 31
2 votes
0 answers
49 views
Arguments that are against Nozick's Adherence condition?
I’ve been readying Robert Nozick’s tracking theory of knowledge from Philosophical Explanations (1981), and I’m trying to understand whether his fourth condition — often called the adherence condition ...
- 31
1 vote
2 answers
127 views
Fallible vs. infallible knowledge
If someone asks me, "Did you throw that beer can there?", I can say, "No, not to my knowledge." This means that I acknowledge the fallibility of my own knowledge. According to my ...
- 5,492
4 votes
7 answers
391 views
Is appeal to advanced knowledge as proof of God or divine being fallacious?
By "advanced knowledge", I mean knowledge that is not provable by the scientific or logical methods of the time. For example, if primitive people knew about the supercontinent Pangea or knew ...
user108018
5 votes
2 answers
470 views
"Dubito, ergo cognosco". Could we argue that the very fact of doubting, sets a limit to the epistemological notions we can actually doubt?
Let's leave aside the cartesian doubt as source of certainty about the ontological existence of ourselves. Let's focus again on the doubt. The doubt is not a self-sufficient, transcendental, living-in-...
-1 votes
2 answers
139 views
Is knowledge impossible? [duplicate]
In everyday conversation, we say things like "I know I have hands", or "I know London is the capital of England". However, strictly speaking, do we really know those things? After ...
- 9,790
9 votes
19 answers
2k views
Why do we need the concept of knowledge, not just beliefs?
Knowledge has often been defined as justified true belief. However, some people argue that this account is insufficient and have proposed additional conditions. This suggests that many scholars are ...
- 167
5 votes
4 answers
441 views
Do subjunctives exclude the actual world?
This is in an essay (Knowledge and Skepticism by Robert Nozick) which tries to modify the definition of knowledge as justified true belief. The four conditions for knowledge discussed are the ...
- 167
2 votes
5 answers
447 views
When does Bayesianism generate knowledge?
Suppose we have 2 competing theories X and Y. Now suppose theory X is confirmed (per Bayesian Confirmation Theory) and Y is disconfirmed, when are we justified in saying “we know X is true”? Is there ...
- 417
3 votes
2 answers
71 views
In Plato's "Charmides", why is there doubt that wisdom is useful when it's claimed that wisdom makes it easier to learn than not having wisdom?
Charmides contains the following passage May we assume then, I said, that wisdom, viewed in this new light merely as a knowledge of knowledge and ignorance, has this advantage:—that he who possesses ...
- 351
0 votes
10 answers
2k views
What is a proof and what does it mean to prove something?
Many people, when faced with a statement, exclaim: “PROVE IT!” But are they truly aware of what they’re saying? What is a proof? What does it mean? For example: is a proof an observation, a perceptual ...
4 votes
2 answers
743 views
Why does knowledge have to be restricted to justified true belief (JTB)?
To me it seems that the usual requirement of a knowledge in epistemology to be a justified true belief a bit arbitrarily restrictive, anthropocentrist as well as pushing the burden of definition to J ...
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