"Theories of Knowledge"
Notes For Friday 4-19-02
Prof Borrowdale.

Monday 4-22: Study guide will be handed out.
Wednesday 4-24: First examination begins. This can be taken in the
center bldg rm #423.
Tuesday 4-30: At 5:00 pm the first exam will end.

1. Dretske (& Moore): The burden of proof is on the skeptic to give us
reasons to doubt common sence beliefs.
A. Common sence is "innocent" until proven "guilty".

2. G.E. Moore (& Dretske): Common sence is justified unless we're
given specific reasons to doubt it on specific occasions.

3. Remember "common sence is neither".

4. Common sence, what alternatives are relevant or plausable?
A. Culturally dependent.
B. Changes over time.
C. Might vary from person to person.

5. "Internalist" Criteria
A. Justification ("what seems true to most people") is too relativistic to
be trustworthy.

6. When asking what most people think is obviously true, should
everyone count equally?

7. If a lot of people believe something does that make it more likely to be
true?. Is it a good reason, or justification?

8. Is the force of wide spread agreement merely psychological, or
social? Or is it rational? (analogous to an experiment)

9. Problem of Induction.
A. Premises - "Every swan I've seen so far is white". Conclusion -
"Therefore every swan is white". <- At most this is very probably but
never 100% certain.
B. Deductive - "All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore
Socrates is mortal". Conclusion is 100%, it follows from premises. It's
all or nothing, valid or invalid. Descartes ontological argument is
deductive.

10. Inductive reasoning (Hume) is merely guess work.