Epistemology Commons^™

Epistemic Analysis And The Possibility Of Good Informants, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Edward Craig has proposed that epistemology should eschew traditional

conceptual analysis in favor of what he calls “conceptual synthesis.” He

proposes we start not from the finding of necessary and sufficient conditions

that match our intuitions; rather we start from considerations on what the

concept of knowledge does for us. In this paper I will explore one aspect of

Craig’s proposal – the good informant. It is this aspect that is central to

Craig’s epistemic method and perhaps most problematic. I will evaluate this

concept by first articulating three initial worries that some have had about

the concept and then …

Chapter Four Synthesis, Apperception And The Opacity Of Consciousness: A Nietzschean Reading Of Kant’S A Deduction And Prelude To A Theoretical Account Of The Relation Between The Two Systems Of Reason, Richard Lara

Richard Louis Lara

In the first and fourth speeches of Zarathustra titled "Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit" and “The Despisers Of The Body,” Nietzsche articulates his own views on themes central to Kant’s theoretical philosophy. In so doing, he articulates two systems of reason: consciousness or "little" reason, which he conceptualizes in the same way that Kant conceptualizes theoretical reason, and "the great reason of the body." The goal of this chapter is to present a faithful reading of Kant’s A deduction of the pure a priori categories of the understanding that will serve as the basis of my effort, in subsequent chapters, …

The Mystery Of Lonergan, Richard M. Liddy

Richard M Liddy

No abstract provided.

The Mystery Of Lonergan, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

On Skepticism About Case-Specific Intuitions, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Moral theorizing is often characterized as beginning from our intuitions about ethical cases. Yet, while many applaud, and even demand, this methodology, there are those who reject such a methodology on the grounds that we cannot treat people’s intuitions about ethical cases as evidence for or against moral theories. Recently, Shelly Kagan has argued that the reliance upon case-specific intuitions in moral theorizing is problematic. Specifically, he maintains that the practice of using intuitions about cases lacks justification and, hence, we ought to be skeptical about the evidential weight of moral intuitions. This leads Kagan to conclude that we ought …

The Epistemic Availability Of Transcendental Self-Experience: Husserl And The Paradox Of The Pure Ego, Shiloh Whitley

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Intelligence And Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the ramifications of the lack of epistemological underpinnings from which the rightness or wrongness regarding WMD in Iraq can be constructed and adjudicated.

Faith-Science Issues: An Epistomological Perspective, E. Edward Zinke

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

Epistemology And Education: An Incomplete Guide To The Social-Epistemological Issues, Harvey Siegel

Philosophy Articles and Papers

Recent work in epistemology has focused increasingly on the social dimensions of knowledge and inquiry. Education is one important social arena in which knowledge plays a leading role, and in which knowledge-claims are presented, analyzed, evaluated, and transmitted. Philosophers of education have long attended to the epistemological issues raised by the theory and practice of education (along with the moral, metaphysical, social-political, and mind/language issues so raised). While historically philosophical issues concerning education were treated alongside other philosophical issues, in recent times the former set of issues have been largely neglected by philosophers working in the core areas of the …

The Thomistic Cosmological Argument, W. David Beck

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Utility Of Offshoring: A Rawlsian Critique, Julian Friedland

Julian Friedland

Most prominent arguments favoring the widespread discretionary business practice of sending jobs overseas, known as ‘offshoring,’ attempt to justify the trend by appeal to utilitarian principles. It is argued that when business can be performed more cost-effectively offshore, doing so tends, over the long term, to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. This claim is supported by evidence that exporting jobs actively promotes economic development overseas while simultaneously increasing the revenue of the exporting country. After showing that offshoring might indeed be justified on utilitarian grounds, I argue that according to Rawlsian social-contract theory, the practice is nevertheless …

Minds That Matter: Seven Degrees Of Moral Standing, Julian Friedland

Julian Friedland

No abstract provided.

Miniaturen. Studien Zu Kalkül Und Kreativität 1998-2002, Rudolf Kaehr

Rudolf Kaehr

Informatik, künstlerische Praktik und Kunsttheorie der digitalen Bildtechnologien NULL&NICHTS; weder leer, noch nicht – oder Kraut und Rüben Gedanken zu einer autonomen Medienwissenschaft Das Menschenbild aus der Sicht einer polykontexturalen Systemtheorie Thesen zum trans-klassischen Menschenbild Gebaute Phantasien, unkontrollierbare Schwankungen Kreativität und Kalkül Ver_Endungen in/der Programmierbarkeit Diagrammatik: Denken a la Carte Zur Verstörung des (H)ortes der Zerstörung Zur Kenogrammatik der Medientheorie

Dynamic Semantic Web, Rudolf Kaehr

Rudolf Kaehr

Dynamic Semantic Web (DSW) is based at first on the techniques, methods and paradigms of the emerging Semantic Web movement and its applications. DSW is advancing one fundamental step further from a static to a dynamic concept of the Semantic Web with extended flexibility in the navigation between ontologies and more profound transparency of the informational system. Web Services are now redefinded by Semantic Web. To proof the advantages of DSW, it is the main aim of this project to develop the tools and methods necessary to develop a DSW based Web Service (DSW business application). The existing framework of …

How To Get It. Diagrammatic Reasoning As A Tool Of Knowledge Development And Its Pragmatic Dimension, Michael H.G. Hoffmann

Michael H.G. Hoffmann

Discussions concerning belief revision, theory development, and "creativity" in philosophy and AI, reveal a growing interest in Peirce's concept of abduction. Peirce introduced abduction in an attempt to provide theoretical dignity and clarification to the difficult problem of knowledge generation. He wrote that "An Abduction is Originary in respect to being the only kind of argument which starts a new idea." These discussions, however, have led to considerable debates about the precise way in which Peirce's abduction can be used to explain knowledge generation. The crucial question is that of understanding how we can get the new elements capable of …

Learning By Developing Knowledge Networks. A Semiotic Approach Within A Dialectical Framework, Michael H.G. Hoffmann, Wolf-Michael Roth

Michael H.G. Hoffmann

A central challenge for research on how we should prepare students to manage crossing boundaries between different knowledge settings in life long learning processes is to identify those forms of knowledge that are particularly relevant here. In this paper, we develop by philosophical means the concept of a dialectical system as a general framework to describe the development of knowledge networks that mark the starting point for learning processes, and we use semiotics to discuss (a) the epistemological thesis that any cognitive access to our world of objects is mediated by signs and (b) diagrammatic reasoning and abduction as those …

Poetry And The Question Of God, Richard M. Liddy

Richard M Liddy

No abstract provided.

Augustine's Intellectual Conversion, Richard M. Liddy

Richard M Liddy

No abstract provided.

Augustine's Intellectual Conversion, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Poetry And The Question Of God, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Review: Biblical Ideas Of Nationality: Ancient And Modern, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Why Constant? A Critical Overview Of The Constant Revival, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

Recent years have seen a remarkable renewal of interest in the thought of Benjamin Constant (1767–1830). For long recognized as the author of the literary masterpiece Adolphe, Constant is now receiving increasing attention for his political writings. Paperback editions of his major works are presently available in both French and English, helping to establish his growing reputation as a founding father of modern liberalism. Constant's stature as a seminal liberal thinker has benefited from the recent climate of opinion in the Western world and, in particular, from the return to fashion of liberalism as a social and political doctrine. …