Epistemology

Unit 5 Assignment - Epistemology

Instructions: Please note that the questions below are based on the Unit readings and are intended to be both an outline of the units’ material and the basis for your Unit Assessment, so please give your best effort to answering them thoroughly. The task is to respond to 15 of the questions below. Each question will be worth two points.

The format for submission is to include the questions with the replies. Example:

How does one know what the good life is? 

- The good life is… 

1. Define Epistemology. What are the types of philosophical questions considered in the study of Epistemology?

2. Describe and give an example of the “four different uses of language” the unit reading highlights.

3. What is meant by the Cognitive use of language?

4. What is the central claim of Rationalism? Who were the first philosophers referred to as rationalist?

5. What is Scholasticism? Who is the archetypal scholastic philosopher?

6. What did knowledge “involve” for Rene Descartes?

7. What do Empiricists rely on as the central source of knowledge? Name some prominent empiricists from the modern philosophical period.

8. Describe the difference between the term a priori and a posteriori.

9. What meaning did John Locke give to the Latin term tabula rasa?

10. Explain what John Locke meant by the primary and secondary qualities of an object.

11. Give an account of George Berkeley’s subjective idealism. Research what he meant by the statement esse est percipi.

12. Highlight the specific characteristics of David Hume’s empiricism.

13. Summarize Immanuel Kant’s epistemological theory (Transcendental Idealism).

14. What distinction does Immanuel Kant make between noumena and phenomena reality?

15. Why does Kant believe “that humans will never know things as they are in themselves”?

16. Define Skepticism and Fallibilism. Name some skeptics from both the classical and modern philosophical periods.

17. Describe and give examples of Logical, Semantic, Systemic, and Empirical knowledge.

18. What is the Correspondence Theory of truth?

19. What is the Coherence Theory of truth?

20. What is the Pragmatic Theory of truth?

21. “If objectivity is rejected, every group’s claims would be equal.” Explain the meaning and challenge this statement presents.