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Theaetetus
2008-04-16 20:34:00 by Plato translated by Seth Benardete This is a very important dialogue. Socrates inquires into the notion of “knowledge”. It is very interesting what he allows and disallows. He offers a delighful argument against the Pythagorean notion that “Man is the measure of all things”
By: dwight..knoll
Of Art and Science and the Epistemology of Counterterrorism
2008-04-16 16:48:00 Is counterterrorism more of an art than a science? That question may be irrelevant, since Americans take pride in practicing both effectively. We have plenty of world-class artists, as well as experts who tell us what art is meaningful and most likely to withstand the test of time, and why. We lead the world in government-sponsored scientific research. Few qualified scientists today have not been tempted to relocate to the U.S., for such a move would allow them to most effectively practice their...(read more)
Mueller-Lyer and Inconsistent Beliefs
2008-02-25 11:35:00 Regular readers may know that we enjoy optical illusions, and I think Roy Sorensen, whose Vagueness and Contradiction I’ve been enjoying lately, may have put his finger on why.
By: Big Ideas
Knowledge, Belief and Justification Closure
2008-02-15 08:00:00 Johnny Dee has recently been writing about “justification closure“, which despite its technical-sounding name is a seemingly obvious thing that turns out to present problems (or seeming problems) under certain circumstances.
By: Big Ideas
Hissing in the Wind
2008-01-12 17:22:00 OK, let me try to set a few things straight. The major purpose of this blog has been to engage others with perhaps differing opinions and differing world views in friendly and thoughtful conversations that we all may profit from. Hence the title: Sharp Iron, a line from the biblical book of ...
By: Sharp Iron
(P.O.O.) The Problem of Odor
2008-01-07 19:19:00 One of the more challenging issues for theists in their ongoing debate with skeptical atheists has been the Problem of Evil. Often referred to as the P.O.E., it asks the very reasonable question; if God is good then why would he permit evil? The typical Christian response says that it was man who, by his ...
By: Sharp Iron
Awareness and Knowledge - Table of Contents
2008-01-03 16:55:00 This is the first post of a series on Buddhist epistemology entitled Awareness and Knowledge. An introductory post for this series can be found here the benefits of understanding Buddhist epistemology and psychology. If you haven’t read this post as yet, do so before reading further. As I post each new section I will link to ...
The benefits of understanding Buddhist Epistemology and Psychology
2008-01-01 21:08:00 Awareness and Knowledge an Introduction Buddhism asserts the mind is not merely a function of the brain nor is it an emergent property of physical processes. Buddhist epistemology - a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge - defines consciousness as: that which is clear and knowing. Consciousness, knower and ...
Irrational Numbers And Measurement
2007-12-03 09:26:00 I've been meaning to post an explanation of the irrationality of the square root of 2 for a while, but Meep has just done it in the seventh of her series Meep's Math Matters. But what is an irrational number? Do they really exist?
By: Big Ideas
Epistemology and How to Encourage It
2007-11-21 13:35:00 Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer With very little of the world’s headlines making sense to those millions who read or watch them, this novel or story form, A Secret of the Universe: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Discovery of an Eternal Truth, of addressing the glue that holds people’s perceptions together is a healthy start toward healing. Author Stephen L. Gibson (’ Truth-Driven Thinking: An Examination of Human Emotion and Its Impact on Everyday Life’) is a young campaigner for epistemology - the science of studying the origins of human belief and knowledge as examined through basing all thought on truth. Instead of electing to create what could have been a dry discourse on science and religion and how the two intertwine, Gibson has demonstrated his own personal journey through a story involving the friendship of two boys/men, one (Bill) is a devoted literalistic, evangelical Christian while the other (Ian) seeks to explain the holes in the blind ...
By: Blogging Authors
Naturalising Epistemology: Quine vs. Crumley (Part 2)
2007-08-20 05:45:00 In my previous post I outlined two objections presented by Jack Crumley to Quinean naturalised epistemology. While I’m not altogether unsympathetic to Crumley’s process, I believe that as they stand, Crumley’s objections require further defence.Crumley claims that nature may favour belief-forming mechanism that form false beliefs. However, Crumley seems to be overstating the case. (Here, Quine’s frequent admonition seems quite apt: let's not overreact.) The survival value of being overly cautious is limited to certain special situations and circumstances. However, a general paranoia is as equally destructive as the alternative. For example, the individual that runs every time the bush rustles because she assumes it is a lion will prove less adaptively fit than the one who learns to tell the difference between the bush rustle caused by a lion (potential predator) and a rabbit (potential prey). While being overly cautious may prove evolutionary valuable in specific cir...
Naturalising Epistemology: Quine vs. Crumley
2007-07-30 16:13:00 Thus far we have established that naturalised epistemology is no longer concerned with providing some justification for science that is prior to science. However, defenders of traditional epistemology point out that this still leaves room for sceptical worries that find their starting place within science. Science, remember, informs us that our theoretical conception of the world is underdetermined by our sensory evidence. Thus, even if we give up first philosophy, Quine still needs to account for the gap between "meagre" input and "torrential" output. Of course Quine can easily account for such a gap in causal terms. That is, science can, at least in principle, provide a complete causal account describing how sensory stimulation is eventually translated into theoretical posits. However, it is not the causal gap between evidence and theory that bothers defenders of traditional epistemology, but rather the inferential gap. In other words, the problem of the underdetermination ...
Naturalised Epistemology: Quine vs Stroud (Part 2)
2007-07-23 11:31:00 In his notoriously laconic reply to Stroud, Quine treats Stroud's dilemma as merely an instantiation of the sceptical worry that reality might be very different from how we perceive it to be. If the first horn of the dilemma, that science is wrong, obtains then it naturally follows that reality is not as we perceive it to be. If the second horn of the dilemma, that all our theories are merely unverifiable posits, obtains then there is no way for us to rule out the possibility that reality is not as we perceive it to be. Both horns of Stroud's dilemma, then, amount to the sceptical worry. I take this conclusion to be uncontroversial, and I will therefore treat a successful reply to the sceptical worry as a successful reply to Stroud's dilemma.Quine maintains that the meaning of words is determined by their usage within a linguistic community. When we say: "there is a spoon," we are simply referring to a certain set of sensory stimulation’s to which our linguistic community has i...
Naturalised Epistemology: Quine vs. Stroud (Part 1)
2007-07-13 16:33:00 The central difference between Quinean naturalised epistemology and traditional epistemology is located in Quine's rejection of first philosophy. Traditional epistemology is involved in the following two-fold task. First, traditional epistemology seeks to identify the regulating criterion for knowledge. Second, it tries to determine, based on this criterion, whether or not we truly have knowledge. This two-fold task is referred to as first philosophy because it is analytically prior to all of our sensory or empirical knowledge. In brief, traditional epistemology attempts to find the epistemic foundation and justification for all scientific knowledge.Quine believes that traditional epistemology's attempt to find a justification for knowledge outside of or prior to science has either failed or is moribund. Our only remaining hope of finding a validation for science is within science itself. Hence, Quine's now famous (or is that infamous?) declaration: "Epistemology, or something li...
contributions invited for book on epistemology
2007-02-14 06:36:01 In my last blog "Epistemology", I mentioned about my book proposal. Some more particulars can be found in "Comments" of that blog. In "Comments", I have indicated the possible contents of the book. T
An Epistemology Position Paper On The Controversy Regarding
2006-12-02 16:10:08 AN EPISTEMOLOGY POSITION PAPER:A RESOLUTION OF THE CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE THOUGHT OF VAN TILAS IT PERTAINS TO THE CLARK CASEAND THE SHEPHERD CASEBy Forrest W. SchultzIntroduction and Scope The Clark vs. Van Til controversy is a complex one not only because of the nature of the epistemological issues it raises but also because of the related controversy of defining the exact position of each of these theologians and the related historical controversy concerning the events in the ?Clark Case? which occurred in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the still later events which occurred in the handling of the ?Shepherd Case? by the Westminster Theological Seminary. Since I do not consider myself sufficiently knowledgeable in the matters of the exact positions of Clark and Van Til here and of the historical events noted, I shall not deal with those matters here ? I shall leave the resolution of those matters to the Van Til scholars, the Clark scholars, and th...
By: Van Til Tool
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