Decarte's metaphysics
What is Physicalism?
All there is, is physical.
What is Malcom's Cascadilla Gorge thought experiment meant to show?
Knowledge is justified true belief
What does Frankfurt think is deceiving about Bullshit?
“This is the best way to discover the nature of the mind and the distinction between the mind and the body. For if we, who are supposing that everything which is distinct from us is false, examine what we are, we see very clearly that neither extension nor shape nor local motion, nor anything of this kind which is attributable to a body, belongs to our nature, but that thought alone belongs to it. So our knowledge of our thought is prior to, and more certain than, our knowledge of any corporeal thing; for we have already perceived it, although we are still in doubt about other things.”
What does Descartes aim to show in this paragraph?
1. There are minds, and they are ontologically distinct from bodies.
2. We know that because the grounds for our belief in each a different.
What does Hardwig think is the role of trust in knowledge?
1. trust is often epistemically even more basic than empirical data or logical argument: the data and arguments are available only through trust.
data and arguments are too extensive and too difficult to be had by any other means than testimony.
2. [T]he trustworthiness of members of epistemic communities is the ultimate foundation of knowledge.
According to Russell, what are the three features of truth that any plausible theory of it must respect?
1.Truth has an opposite, namely falsehood.
2.Truth and falsehood are properties of beliefs and statements.
3.The truth or falsehood of a belief depends on something that lies outside of the belief itself.
In short, Russell’s account:
“[T]ruth consists in some form of correspondence between belief and fact.”
According to Nahmia, what is free will?
Free will is "a set of capacities for imagining future courses of action, deliberating about one's reasons for choosing them, planning one's actions in light of this deliberation and controlling actions in the face of competing desires."
What is Worsnip's reply to the climate change skeptic?
Considerations of credibility
1. Simplicity
2. Falsifiability
According to Goodman, what are the problems with idea that painting resemble what they represent?
1. An object resembles itself to the maximum degree, but does not represent itself.
2. Suppose a painting of an apple represents its object. To whatever extent the painting resembles the apple, the apple similarly resembles the painting. But the apple doesn't represent the painting.
3. Two objects can resemble each other in great detail, but neither represent the other, e.g. two copies of the same book.
What is Jackson's Mary thought experiment and what is it meant to show?
Why does Clifford think that it is wrong to believe the ship is seaworthy?
1. insufficient evidence
2. he has knowingly and willingly worked himself into that frame of mind, he must be held responsible for it.
What is Austin's take on Russell's account of truth?
1. "belief" is not commonly used outside of philosophy.
2. "fact" is misleading. There is no fact. There is only state of affairs.
Outline and assess Strawson's argument on free will.
No moral responsibility.
The Basic Argument shows that we can never be ultimately morally responsible for our actions; it makes no difference whether determinism is true or false.
1.You do what you do—in the circumstances in which you find yourself—because of the way you are.
2.So if you are going to be ultimately responsible for what you do, you’re going to have to be ultimately responsible for the way you are—at least in certain mental respects.
3.But you can’t be ultimately responsible for the way you are in any respect at all.
4.So you can’t be ultimately responsible for what you do.
Design a Gettier case.
Cases in which S believes that p, p is true, and S is justified in believing that p, but we would't say that S knows that p.
Outline and assess the pragmatist theory of truth
Truth: our ideas agree with reality.
Truth does not statically copy reality. Truth leads the verification process, which can be indirect or only potentially verifying. And we let our beliefs pass so long as nothing challenges them.Truth leads us to a right direction, to a point where we cannot imagine more potential verifications.