Epistemology - Answers The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge
Branches of epistemology - Answers 1. Personal Experience
2. Spiritual/Metaphysical
3. Authority
4. Tradition/Culture
5. Reason
6. Empiricism (observation)
What is the strongest form of 'knowing'? - Answers Personal Experience
Personal Experience - Answers Things we know from having lived through or personally experienced
(unlikely to change)
Spiritual or Metaphysical - Answers Knowing gained this way can be hard to explain or prove, it's a
feeling (ex. it doesn't FEEL right to hit your child)
Authority - Answers Official/Unofficial authority figures (ex: celebrity endorsement)
Tradition/Culture - Answers Kind of thing "everybody knows" or you cannot identify where you learned
it
Which type of 'knowing' is hardest to recognize? - Answers Tradition/Culture
Reason - Answers Type of knowing that is the result of thinking about things
Which type of 'knowing' is very useful, but can be problematic? - Answers Reason (if you have flawed
reasoning or premises, your conclusions will be flawed as well)
Empiricism (observation) - Answers Not just observation, but careful, intentional observation
(systematic)
Positivism - Answers There is one objective truth, science is a tool to get that objective truth
Positivism (2) - Answers Has the goal of using observation to discover the fundamental laws or truths
that govern the world, including the social world.
Post-Modernism (1) - Answers There are many truths, each with their own merit.
Post-Modernism (2) - Answers "Truth" is subjective and there is no absolute truth- truth is what is
experienced.