ToK

Week 2

Fun metaphors

There is an elephant in the room.

Love is a battlefield.

Video killed the radio star.

You are the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas!

Announcements• TYPO: vocab #1, argument ad ignorantium, not agreement.

Apologies. Very different things. • Quiz this Friday: content and vocab• Readings: “Science’s Finest Hour” and “Uncertainty of Knowledge”

• Ishmael Beah piece: (turn in at end of period, please.)– Knowledge Claim(s) (topics)– Knowledge Issues (questions)– Problems of Knowledge (holes in the certainty)

*Think about issues for which you have a passion. What are the knowledge claims? Knowledge issues? Problems of knowledge?

New Blog Post"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." -Confucius

"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance." -George Bernard Shaw

We've briefly talked about strengths and limitations in regards to the epistemologies (Ways of knowing: sense perception, language, emotion, and reason; Areas of knowing: sciences, maths, arts, history, ethics.) Discuss where you see strengths and limitations in knowledge in one or more of these areas. Which do you find yourself drawn to as having more certainty than others? Personally, where are your strengths as a knower in these epistemologies at this point in your life? How does knowledge in the different areas or ways change over time?

Respond to the podcast, quotes, the questions, or a combination of these by Saturday, February 2, 2013.)

Review: Problems of Knowledge

• Certainty (doubt of)• Radical Doubt• Relativism/Moral Relativism• Common sense—assumption• Bias• Too skeptical, too judgmental• Gullibility—Gossip, Conspiracy theories, Mob

mentality

Four little questions

• How is knowledge acquired?• How is knowledge presented?• How is knowledge evaluated?• How is knowledge passed on?

Create a visual metaphor to help us comprehend your response to these questions.

Finish and present tomorrow.

Metaphor…?

Truth Tests

Coherence:X is accepted as true because it is…• Logical• Makes sense• Fits into the system• Rational

Correspondence: X is accepted as true because…• You perceived• You observed• You saw it with your

own eyes.• You check the equation

Truth testsCoherence:

Correspondence: The dog is on the

rug.

Sharks don’t live in

freshwater rivers! Not

true.

Sharks reported in Clarkfork

River!

PROPOSITIONS

Four kinds: 1. Empirical Statements2. Analytical Statements3. Value-Judgments4. Metaphysical Statements

*See Handouts!

Gettier Problem

• Edmund Gettier—1963 Paper• Repudiates a definition of knowledge as JTB.• Two scenarios where the three criteria

(justification, truth, and belief) seemed to be met, but where the majority of readers would not have felt that the result was knowledge due to the element of luck involved.

1.

Smith has applied for a job, but, it is claimed, has a justified belief that "Jones will get the job". He also has a justified belief that "Jones has 10 coins in his pocket". Smith therefore (justifiably) concludes (by the rule of the transitivity of identity) that "the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket".

In fact, Jones does not get the job. Instead, Smith does. However, as it happens, Smith (unknowingly and by sheer chance) also had 10 coins in his pocket. So his belief that "the man who will get the job has 10 coins in his pocket" was justified and true. But it does not appear to be knowledge.

2.

Smith, it is claimed by the hidden interlocutor, has a justified belief that "Jones owns a Ford". Smith therefore (justifiably) concludes (by the rule of disjunction introduction) that "Jones owns a Ford, or Brown is in Barcelona", even though Smith has no knowledge whatsoever about the location of Brown.

In fact, Jones does not own a Ford, but by sheer coincidence, Brown really is in Barcelona. Again, Smith had a belief that was true and justified, but not knowledge.

Reuben Abel

The Man is the MeasureAbel's Nine Good Reasons for Knowledge

1.) I know that ice is cold because I feel the chill. Sense perception is the evidence for our knowledge about the world.

2.) I know that three plus two is five because I can prove it. Logic is the basis of our analytic knowledge.

3.) I know that I should not kill an innocent, because my intuition tells me so. Knowledge of right and wrong is often based on such inner convictions of certainty.

4.) I know that I am tired because I feel it. Self-awareness is the basis for knowing one's own "self-presenting" states. One's wishes, feelings, thoughts and hopes, etc., seem to be self-evident.

5.) I know that I had pink rain boots when I was a child because I remember it. Knowledge of the past is based on memory.

6.) I know that the atmosphere is composed of nitrogen, oxygen and a small percent of other gases because my science teachers told me. We rely on authority as a justification for some knowledge.

7.) I know that Jesus is real because everyone says so. Consensius gentum, the theory that what everyone knows collectively, is true, is a justification for knowledge.

8.) Cassandra knew that Troy would fall under the Greeks because the gods revealed this to her. Revelation as a justification for knowledge.

9.) I have faith in the goodness of human nature. Faith is not knowledge, and faith cannot be relied on as a reason for knowledge. *

*Abel says that belief is requisite for knowledge, but not a guarantee for it.

Words

Paradigm Shift: change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis.

Axiom: 1.a self-evident truth that requires no proof. 2. a universally accepted principle or rule. 3. Logic, Mathematics . a proposition that is

assumed without proof for the sake of studying the consequences that follow from it.

Theory1: the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another

2: abstract thought : speculation

3: the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art

4 : a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action (her method is based on the theory that all children want to learn) b : an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances —often used in the phrase in theory (in theory, we have always advocated freedom for all)

5: a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena (the wave theory of light)

6a : a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b : an unproved assumption : conjecture

Rational and Intuitive Knowledge

The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

Rational: Experiences we have with objects and events; intellectual; discriminates, divides, compares, measures and categorizes. Buddhists call this knowledge ‘relative’.

Rational knowledge is based on our “mental map” of reality—how we’ve already made sense of many abstract concepts and symbols (think about the alphabet, or how words are lines of letters)

Problems of rational knowledge

There is no perfect map: in other words, we only get close in our conceptual thinking—all rational knowledge and its application is limited.

The nature of Knowledge

LINKING QUESTIONS:

Truth, authority, paradigms, context, acquaintance, know-how, wisdom, information, justification, belief.

Strengths and Limitations

Sensory PerceptionEmotionLanguageReason/Logic

*Homework: a. Limitations and strengths in

generalb. MY Limitations and strengths in

knowledge in each epistemology.

Natural ScienceHuman ScienceHistoryMathematicsEthicsAesthetics