PhD Doctor of Philosophy Epistemology and Theory of Knowledge 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Descartes' method of doubt in the Meditations is an example of which epistemological approach?
- Methodological skepticism (Correct answer)
- Pragmatism
- Reliabilism
- Contextualism
Correct answer: Methodological skepticism
Descartes used systematic doubt as a method to strip away uncertain beliefs and find indubitable foundations for knowledge.
Question 2: A priori knowledge is best described as knowledge that is:
- Independent of sensory experience (Correct answer)
- Derived from empirical observation
- Based on inductive reasoning
- Culturally transmitted
Correct answer: Independent of sensory experience
A priori knowledge, like mathematical truths, can be known through reason alone without relying on experience.
Question 3: Which philosopher argued that all knowledge comes from sensory experience, coining the phrase 'tabula rasa'?
- John Locke (Correct answer)
- Immanuel Kant
- René Descartes
- Gottfried Leibniz
Correct answer: John Locke
Locke held in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the mind begins as a blank slate filled by experience.
Question 4: Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' in epistemology claimed that:
- Objects conform to our cognition, not the reverse (Correct answer)
- Knowledge mirrors an independent reality
- Empiricism fully explains knowledge
- Mathematics is empirically derived
Correct answer: Objects conform to our cognition, not the reverse
Kant argued that our cognitive faculties impose structure on experience, making the mind constitutive of objects of knowledge.
Question 5: The problem of induction, highlighted by Hume, questions the rational justification for inferring:
- General laws from particular observations (Correct answer)
- Mathematical truths from logic
- Moral claims from facts
- God's existence from design
Correct answer: General laws from particular observations
Hume showed that no logical necessity forces future cases to follow patterns observed in the past, undermining inductive inference.
Question 6: Contextualism in epistemology holds that the truth conditions for knowledge attributions vary with:
- The context of the attributor (Correct answer)
- The content of the belief
- The reliability of the process
- The coherence of the system
Correct answer: The context of the attributor
Epistemic contextualism, defended by DeRose and Cohen, argues that what counts as 'knowing' shifts depending on conversational context.
PhD Doctor of Philosophy Epistemology and Theory of Knowledge 2
Descartes' method of doubt in the Meditations is an example of which epistemological approach?