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These materials are printed inThe Philosophy Guidebook: Complete with Maps copyright 1997 by David Felder and available for $10.
Theories of Knowledge
Question: Can we know anything?
Challenge: We cannot know anything.
Positions and Definitions
View that say there is no such thing as truth (1)
Man is the measure of all things - relativism (2) Anything that anyone says is true for that person.
Cultural relativism (3) What people of one culture say is true is true for those people while the opposite may be true for people of another culture. There are no cross cultural standards.
Redundancy theory (4) To say "statement P is true" is not to do anything more than to assert statement P. It is redundant to say "Statement P is true." The "is true" part does not add anything.
Views that present theories of truth (5)
Coherence (6) The test of truth is consistency or the coherence of ideas with each other in a thought system.
Correspondence (7) The test of truth is whether our ideas correspond with a reality outside of us.
Pragmatism (8) The test of truth is whether our ideas are useful.
Logic
How can we test to find the truth?
Challenge: There is no test for truth.
Defintions
Argument: An argument consists of two or more statements with a premise and conclusion part. The conclusion is the view that one is trying to support and the premise or premises are the used to support the conclusion.
Deductive argument: In a deductive argument the premises provide conclusive reason for accepting the conclusion. In a valid deductive argument, a deductive argument that is true to its definition, if the premises are true the conclusion must be true.
Inductive argument: In an inductive argument the evidence provides some support for the conclusion. If an inductive argument is true to its definition, then the conclusion is probable.
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© Copyright 1998 by David W. Felder. All rights reserved.
