Introduce the philosophy of knowledge/epistemology
• Epistemology is the study of knowledge and rational belief (standard answer)
• Epistemology is the study of different kinds of knowledge, justification and how we acquire
knowledge (more interesting answer)
• Another way to access the subject is by considering how we can respond to the skeptic
• What kinds of knowledges are there
• Feldman (2003) identifies a useful list of types of knowledge:
• Knowledge about what’s around us. Eg: there are chairs in the room
• Introspective knowledge: eg. I am hungry or worried about an exam
• Common Knowledge. Eg. Most birds fly, New York City is in The United States of America
• Basic scientific facts, eg. The solar system is heliocentric, apples fall off trees because of gravity
• Theory of mind facts. Eg. The guy staring at me doesn’t like me very much, the student is looks
confused at the test
• Past Facts. Eg. Nelson Mandela our first democratic president of South Africa, Thomas Edison
invented the light bulb, I fell off my bike when I was 12
• Future facts: the sun will rise in the morning, Bafana will not win the World Cup.
•Mathematical knowledge: e.g. the interior angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees; 5 +5=10
• Semantic truths: all bachelors are unmarried men, tigers are mammals
• Moral “facts”: Murder is wrong, breaking promises is wrong
Religious claims: God exists, God is good
• Epistemology is the study of knowledge and rational belief (standard answer)
• Epistemology is the study of different kinds of knowledge, justification and how we acquire
knowledge (more interesting answer)
• Another way to access the subject is by considering how we can respond to the skeptic
• What kinds of knowledges are there
• Feldman (2003) identifies a useful list of types of knowledge:
• Knowledge about what’s around us. Eg: there are chairs in the room
• Introspective knowledge: eg. I am hungry or worried about an exam
• Common Knowledge. Eg. Most birds fly, New York City is in The United States of America
• Basic scientific facts, eg. The solar system is heliocentric, apples fall off trees because of gravity
• Theory of mind facts. Eg. The guy staring at me doesn’t like me very much, the student is looks
confused at the test
• Past Facts. Eg. Nelson Mandela our first democratic president of South Africa, Thomas Edison
invented the light bulb, I fell off my bike when I was 12
• Future facts: the sun will rise in the morning, Bafana will not win the World Cup.
•Mathematical knowledge: e.g. the interior angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees; 5 +5=10
• Semantic truths: all bachelors are unmarried men, tigers are mammals
• Moral “facts”: Murder is wrong, breaking promises is wrong
Religious claims: God exists, God is good
