PHL232H1 Lecture Notes - Socratic Method
Document Summary
Appiah thinking it through: an introduction to contemporary philosophy. Socratic method: asking questions and leading those to their own answers. Theaetetus: geometry, how to make a shoe, etc. S: don"t want examples, wants an explanation of the nature of knowledge. Wants a definition that we can use to decide whether any particular case really is a case where somebody knows something. T: to know something is just to believe something that is true. Based on this theory: you must believe you are reading this book, you must, in fact, be reading this book. S: but if a lawyer persuades a jury that someone is innocent, the jury will believe that someone is innocent even if the lawyer used dishonesty to establish that. Therefore, this theory must be wrong because the jury may not know that the person is innocent even if they believed it.
