James's working notes from Western Civ class

Table of Contents

My Epistemology

WARNING: work in progress

  • Knowledge is perception of the truth
  • We can't know if we are actually perceiving the truth or not.
    • (So, Ptolemy thought he was perceiving the truth that the universe moved around the earth, and so he thouth he had knowledge; but in reality, because his perceptions were not of the truth, he did not have knowledge) (obviously, this example assumes that Ptolemy was actually wrong, which we cannot be 100% certain about)
  • Knowledge (because it is based on truth) is always certain.
  • Faith is accepting something as true, because we think that we know it.

LOOK INTO: Gettier problem