| Tests of Knowlege Reliabilism
One alternative is reliabilism, in which we say that we are
justified in believing something if, and only if, we arrived at it via a
reliable cognitive process. For example, in the past our senses
have been very reliable, so we may be justified in saying "I know
there's a computer in front of me".
Foundationalism
One way of explaining where we get our knowledge from is to start with
certain ideas or statements as our foundations and build on them,
which is called foundationalism. This is much the same way as we can
proceed in mathematics—starting with some axioms and building up a
system based on what we can get from them. An obvious question to ask,
of course, is where we get our foundations from in the first place: are
they justified? Some thinkers propose that the choice of such
foundational concepts doesn't need to be explained because they're so
obvious; perhaps denying them makes no sense at all, for instance, like
questioning if the universe really exists. In more recent times some
philosophers have called such fundamental assumptions properly basic,
meaning that they require no justification at all and can be held by any
reasonable person without argument. The trouble then, though, is
debating which ideas can be so called. The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten
Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light
of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one
substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men,
and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the
Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also
for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third
day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again
with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall
have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father
and the
Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and
glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic
and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of
sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the
world to come. Amen.
Coherentism
Some people don't think there are any foundational beliefs; instead,
they think that our ideas hang together (or cohere, hence the
name) and support each other, like bricks in a building. In that case,
for example, we might reject the claim "Hugo is interesting" because it
doesn't fit with all we already know about how dull he is; on the other
hand, if someone said "Hugo is as mad as a clown's trousers" we might be
inclined to accept it because we already have a long list of instances
that have given an inkling of that theory.
Empiricism
As we noted above, empiricism proposes that our knowledge comes from
experience. One of the attractions of this idea is that we might be
able to avoid false superstitions with no basis in the world, but there
are problems all the same. Many people—not just philosophers—have
wondered how logic, mathematics or even ethics could be based on
experience: isn't twice two four whether our earth exists or not? If so,
how can we account for these (and other) areas from experience alone? On
the other hand, we do seem to take a lot of our ideas from our
experiences in the first place and when we come on to consider
scientific epistemology later we'll see that empiricism has a large
part to play with some further (theoretical) difficulties as well.
Rationalism
On the other side of the coin, we have the notion that much of our
knowledge comes from reason, or the act of reasoning. In
particular, we might be looking for knowledge that must hold,
irrespective of circumstances, like mathematics or logic (again). The
overuse of reasoning, though, can lead to being accused of piloting an
armchair; no matter how well you can fly it, you won't leave the lounge
and see what the world outside can tell you. It makes sense to think
that empiricism and rationalism can tell us a good deal together.
Naturalism
In epistemology, naturalism refers to the idea that knowledge can be
studied as a science and involves a relationship between sense inputs
and cognitive (or mental) outputs. In that case, psychology, sociology
and biology can tells us a lot about how we come to our beliefs and
further investigation may show how our experiences influence what we end
up thinking. We can also apply evolutionary ideas to our questions
above.
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