TEST #1 Flashcards

Question

philosophical skepticism

Answer 1

1. statements have truth-values but... 2. we dont know what most or all of them are - we lack knowledge / knowledge is impossible - this doesn't deny that there is truth or belief, it just denies that there's justification -a skeptic shows that if your beliefs arent justified, you dont have knowledge ex. according to a skeptic, your belief that it's tuesday is not justified

Answer 2

a. dream hypothesis b. evil genius hypothesis -skeptics claim that any criteria/evidence that distinguishes dream from reality is not good evidence at all (ex. pinching yourself can just be a part of the vivid dream)

Answer 3

P1= UNLESS i am completely certain that im not a) dreaming, or b) being deceived by an evil genius, all my BELIEFS lack JUSTIFICATION (they don't count as knowledge) P2= I am not completely certain that im not a) dreaming or b) being deceived by an evil genius C= Therefore, all my BELIEFS lack JUSTIFICATION (they don't count as knowledge)

Answer 4

- there ARE truth values in many subject areas that can be known - requiring absolute certainty for a belief to count as knowledge seems to be asking too much - self-defeating (a skeptic can't really say that P1 and P2 justify believing the Conclusion, because according to him, we don't really know anything)

Answer 5

used to ask a question

Answer 6

statements used to ask questions, give commands, and describe things

Answer 7

used to give a demand

Answer 8

used to describe things -the only ones that can be true or false

Answer 9

when things really are the way the sentence says they are / the sentence corresponds with the facts

Answer 10

when things are not the way the sentence says they are

Answer 11

CP1- a proposition is true only, and only true, when it corresponds with the way things are CP1- a proposition is TRUE just in case it describes things as they actually are/ corresponds to the facts. A proposition is FALSE just in case it fails to describe things the way they really are/correspond with facts. - a declarative sentence/statement is true only when it corresponds with the facts as they actually are / it correctly describes the world as it is

Answer 12

PROS: - simple - intuitive - avoids the drawbacks of the coherence model of truth CONS: - One Truth Value principle claims that every proposition has exactly one truth value. it's either true, false, not both nor neither. - 1) certain propositions don't seem to fit this model, even if we think they really are true or false. - there are no facts in the present moment about these propositions to deem them true or false. - ex. "if Hitler had died, WW2 would never have happened." - ex. "you will have a hamburger tonight" - 2) there's no way to fact check that our whole system of beliefs corresponds to the facts. - there's no vantage point outside of our beliefs/propositions that would allow us to check whether our beliefs correspond with reality and if they are true or false. - saying your beliefs correspond with reality just becomes another belief, and hwo can you fact check that?

Answer 13

- "true for" is a form of relativism - "true for" talk leads people to believe that a statement can be both true and false at once -"true for" talk means that 2 people disagree about something- one believes it, one does not. This mixes up belief with truth. To believe something or not believe something, doesn't make it true that it is or isn't that way (beliefs can be false) - "true for" talk obscures the fact that the point of an argument is to establish the one truth

Answer 14

TYPE= - the pattern the sentence token follows TOKEN= - individual example of a sentence *SAME TYPE, DIFF TOKEN: - "I am hungry" says Abba - "I am hungry" says Jake

Answer 15

-every proposition has exactly ONE truth value. It's either false or true, not both or neither. - truth value depends on whether or not the proposition describes the world correctly

Answer 16

1. In some instances, like historical, we cannot know the truth value 2. Although most propositions' have a truth value independent of people's opinions, there are some propositions that are dependent on people's thoughts/feelings (ex. the likeability of a person, or the scariness of a horror movie)

Answer 17

the who, when, and where of a proposition

Answer 18

S1: John is Paul's brother S2: Paul is the male brother to John P: same premise that Paul and John are brothers S1: Il neige S2: It's snowing P: same proposition, it is snowing

Answer 19

- just because the truth value of a proposition us unknown, does not mean there is no truth value at all -ex. "idk what the # is, but im guessing the # of pebbles in a pond are odd." even though it's unknown what the truth value is, it is true in case there is an odd number, and it is false in case it is an even number.

Answer 20

to think something is true / corresponds with facts

Answer 21

to think something is false/ fails to correspond with facts

Answer 22

can't decide whether proposition is true or false

Answer 23

Whenever a person considers a proposition, they have three options: - believe it (think its true) - disbelieve it (think its false) - suspend judgement (neither think its true or false) - these options are mutually exclusive at a given time (a person cannot at any time have more than 1 of these attitudes toward a proposition)

Answer 24

- 1) particularly important personal thoughts/feelings/attitudes - even though some of what we believe is important to us, a lot of the propositions we believe are not momentous - 2) controversial claims which cannot be known (e.g. "thats just your belief") - even though we have beliefs about controversial matters, we do believe many noncontroversial propositions too (e.g. "it's hot today", "im wearing sandals") - beliefs really CAN be KNOWN; you know them (e.g. 2 + 2 = 4)

Answer 25

not every belief is certain: -i THINK -i FEEL -i HOLD the truth to be that -ranges from feeling certain to limited belief

Answer 26

- whether a belief is true has nothing to do with how STRONG the belief is, but rather with how the world is (ex. you strongly believe the earth is flat, but your belief is still false)

Answer 27

- the same sentence can be used to express different propositions - this can create an illusion of disagreement, but there really isn't one, since they aren't discussing the same proposition -ex. "The store is past the bank" -P1 may refer to the bank as the financial institution, P2 may refer to the bank as the water bank - People have genuine disagreements when and only when there is some proposition that one believes and the other does not - Sometimes people use sentences in ways that make it seem that they disagree, but they are just using words in different ways and there is no proposition about which they really disagree. - Similarly, sometimes people seem to agree because they agree that some sentence is true, but they may be using that sentence to express different propositions and they may disagree about these propositions -arguments only make sense when there's a potential for disagreement about the truth value

Answer 28

PRINCIPLE OF RATIONAL BELIEF: this principle tells us what we should do with our beliefs when regarding evidence. 1) if a person's evidence concerning a proposition supports that proposition, then it is r/j/r to believe the proposition - ex. evidence for your grade 2) if the person's evidence goes against the proposition, then it is r/j/r to disbelieve the proposition - ex. disbelieving someone was sick for a test because there is no evidence of being sick 3) if the person's evidence is neutral, then it is r/j/r for the person to suspend judgement about the proposition - either no evidence (ex. # of stars in the universe) - or evidence on both sides (ex. equal amounts of evidence to believe/disbelieve God)

Answer 29

information indicating the truth or falsity of a proposition

Answer 30

1) two people may have different evidence available to them, so it may be rational for them to disagree about the truth of that proposition - there is still only one truth though - ex. two different detectives 2) an individual person's evidence may change overtime, therefore different beliefs can be rational at different times - ex. belief about someone's character

Answer 31

FALLIBILISM: the view that R/J/R beliefs can be false beliefs - one can be R/J/R in believing a proposition (based on available evidence) can, but it doesn't guarantee that the belief is true - there's an important difference between whether something is true and whether there are good reasons for believing it -ex. believing someone will win an election because the polls show they are far ahead - ex. believing bus will come at 10 am due to good reason (the bus schedule, routine), but it doesn't - ex. in the past thinking the world is flat, even though it isn't

Answer 32

- to be R/J/R, beliefs have to be based on ENOuGH of the RIGHT KIND of evidence - what kind of evidence that is appropriate and how much evidence is enough depends upon the context *the higher the "stakes," the more evidence is required for a belief to be R/J/R* - ex. OJ Simpson case (stakes were lower for civil trial so he was found guilty of wrongful death of 2 people (not a lot of evidence was needed), buthe was found innocent for the murder of 2 people because the stakes were higher and rewuired more evidenceƒmo) - ex. your friend will believe you if you say youre sick, but your professor wont (simply based off word of mouth) because the stakes are higher for missing a test in school and more evidence is required

Answer 33

CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE: - strong evidence that guarantees the truth of a belief (never leads to false beliefs) -some people counter fallibilism as to say if evidence isn't conclusive then it's irrational to believe it, but, if we were only to believe things when their evidence guaranteed their truth, it wouldn't be rational to believe many propositions such as our name or our birth date -fallibilism is too restrictive and will lead people to just suspend judgment about everything

Answer 34

PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTIONAL BELIEF: - the rational thing to do is to proportion the strength of your belief to the strength of the evidence - The stronger the evidence, the stronger the belief should be - a belief is still rational even when the evidence supports it only very slightly (in this case, your confidence in the belief should also be very slight) -small degree of evidence for the proposition = small degree of confidence in that proposition -strong degree of evidence for the proposition = strong degree of confidence in that proposition - "its rational to believe the proposition with a strong degree of confidence because it is proportional to the strong degree of evidence" - "its rational to believe the proposition to a small degree because the evidence itself supports the claim to a small degree" -this principle goes along with the principle of rational belief

Answer 35

1. motivational errors: - being influenced by what we WANT to be true/false (desires and feelings) rather than the relevant evidence - ex. hope you'll win the lottery even though there's no evidence - ex. - ex. knowing ur gonna get a bad grade based off ur marks, but fear makes u believe for a while to feel better, that u will not 2. failing to weight all the evidence properly: - a) ignoring some of the available evidence entirely - ex. detectives don't look at part of evidence - b) under-valuing contrary evidence (disconfirmation bias) - giving less value to evidence that opposes your view - ex. not valuing evidence that confirms God exists because you disbelieve his existence - c) over-valuing confirming evidence (confirmation bias) - giving more value to evidence that confirms your view - ex. valuing evidence that God doesn't exist because you disbelieve he exists - d) over-valuing "psychologically available" evidence - giving too much weight to memorable or vivid experience - ex. fear of flying is based on vivid stories of catastrophic plane crashes, even though there's more evidence showing planes are safe - ex. misconception about shark attacks

Answer 36

a proposition that when you understand the concepts/words involved, you obviously know the truth value becomes evident (ex. all bachelors are unmarried)

Answer 37

- a proposition is true if, and only if, it is coherent with a system of well-supported propositions - otherwise, it is false, and fits with other beliefs - it describes things as they appear to YOU (subjective) -ex. "SSH 105 has more than six students" -> my propositions suggesting i saw many people walking in, the class has high enrollment, and the classroom is big, make this statement TRUE

Answer 38

1. coherence with a well-supported system isn't sufficient for truth -ex. mental illness, hallucinations (their thoughts may be coherent and allow them to think there is a monster, but that is false) - ex. you think you're in the matrix because your beliefs may be coherent/consistent, but do we really want to say that they're all true? 2. coherence with a well-supported system isn't necessary for truth - ex. you have many coherent beliefs that your partner is loyal and will never cheat, but evidence contradicts that cause he cheated maybe coherence isn't enough.

Answer 39

aka rational belief, justified belief, reasonable belief

TEST #1 Flashcards

(63 cards)