PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy: Knowledge and Skepticism 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Wittgenstein's 'On Certainty' proposes that Moorean commonsense claims like 'I have hands' function as:
- Empirical hypotheses open to revision
- Hinges or framework propositions that underpin our epistemic practices (Correct answer)
- Self-evident a priori truths
- Conventions adopted by social agreement
Correct answer: Hinges or framework propositions that underpin our epistemic practices
Wittgenstein argued that certain propositions serve as 'hinges' — they are not believed or doubted in ordinary practice but form the bedrock that makes inquiry possible.
Question 2: The 'preface paradox' arises because an author who writes 'some claims in this book are false' simultaneously:
- Asserts and denies the same proposition
- Believes each individual claim yet rationally disbelieves their conjunction (Correct answer)
- Violates the principle of non-contradiction
- Claims knowledge without justification
Correct answer: Believes each individual claim yet rationally disbelieves their conjunction
The author is justified in believing each claim (else they wouldn't include it) yet rationally acknowledges that not all can be true, creating tension with closure under conjunction.
Question 3: Which epistemological view holds that justification flows in a web of mutually supporting beliefs rather than from basic foundations?
- Foundationalism
- Coherentism (Correct answer)
- Infinitism
- Reliabilism
Correct answer: Coherentism
Coherentism, associated with BonJour and Davidson, maintains that a belief is justified to the degree it coheres with the overall system of one's beliefs.
Question 4: What does it mean for a skeptical argument to be 'undercutting' rather than 'rebutting'?
- It denies the conclusion of a belief rather than its support
- It removes or undermines the support for a belief without directly contradicting the belief (Correct answer)
- It proves the negation of a belief
- It shows the believer is irrational
Correct answer: It removes or undermines the support for a belief without directly contradicting the belief
An undercutting defeater removes the reason that supported a belief, while a rebutting defeater provides positive evidence for the belief's falsity.
Question 5: 'Dogmatism' in the epistemological sense associated with Jim Pryor holds that:
- We should never revise our beliefs
- Perceptual experience immediately provides some degree of justification for its propositional content (Correct answer)
- All knowledge must be derived from authority
- Certainty is the only standard of knowledge
Correct answer: Perceptual experience immediately provides some degree of justification for its propositional content
Pryor's dogmatism claims that having a perceptual experience that P gives you immediate, prima facie justification to believe P without independent argument.
Question 6: According to 'virtue epistemology,' credit for a true belief constitutes knowledge only when:
- The belief is produced by a reliable mechanism
- The truth of the belief is attributable to the agent's own intellectual virtues (Correct answer)
- The belief survives peer scrutiny
- The belief is supported by independent testimony
Correct answer: The truth of the belief is attributable to the agent's own intellectual virtues
Ernest Sosa and John Greco argue that knowledge requires that the true belief manifest the agent's intellectual character or virtue, not merely lucky circumstances.
Question 7: The 'knowledge norm of assertion' (Timothy Williamson) states that one should assert P only if:
- One believes P sincerely
- One knows P (Correct answer)
- One has strong evidence for P
- P is socially beneficial to assert
Correct answer: One knows P
Williamson argues that the constitutive norm of assertion is knowledge: asserting without knowledge is a kind of epistemic impropriety, like a foul in a game.
PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy: Knowledge and Skepticism 5
Wittgenstein's 'On Certainty' proposes that Moorean commonsense claims like 'I have hands' function as: