PHIL 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Alternative Facts, Mathematical Analysis, Critical Thinking
3 Jun 2018
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Week 8B – Belief, knowledge, and truth
PHILOSO PHY
Outline
- Beliefs, Opinions, Facts, and Truths
- Knowledge
- But why Care about Knowledge?
- Belief and Evidence
- Conclusion on Epistemology
Recap on Epistemology
1. Epistemology: the study of belief and knowledge
2. Sources of Knowledge
a. Empiricism
b. Rationalism
3. Testimony
a. Solidarity
b. Autonomy
The incorrect answer
A priori
The last answer
raises the worry of Skepticism about the existence of the external world. A possibility very hard to reject given
the nature of our best possible evidence.
Fact
A fact is neither true or false … it just is
A fact = something that is the case
Terminology
You might have been taught things like
- “A fact is something proven to be true – can be true or false”
- “An opinion is a personal belief that is not founded on proof, cannot be true of false”
These are seriously incorrect ways of thinking about belief, opinion, fact, and truth!
Preliminary Definitions
Belief: a mental state by which one takes something to be the case
- I believe that the moon is made of cheese
Contrast with
- I desire that the moon be made of cheese
Content of the belief: what the belief is ‘about’
- That the moon is made of cheese
Fact: what is actually the case
- The moon is made of racks magma and an iron core
Belief
A belief is a mental state that purports to be about some fact
A belief is either true or false
- True when its content matches the facts
- False, otherwise
Opinion about objective matters
To have an opinion is to have a belief but with a low degree of confidence
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Week 8B – Belief, knowledge, and truth
PHILOSO PHY
- You are ‘not sure’ that what you believe is in fact true
Yet, the matter is one that is either true or false
In acquiring and maintaining a belief
We are under a rational demand to avoid falsehood
Our beliefs are supposed to correspond to facts, to what is actually the case
- If you acquire conclusive evidence that a belief of yours is false, you are supposed immediately to give
the belief up
What about opinions?
These are two distinct uses of the term “opinion”
1. Opinions about objective (factual) matters
2. Opinion about subjective matters
Opinion over subjective matters
In matters of taste or preference (say your favorite ice cream flavor) you do have special authority
- Your opinion settles the matter… about what you actually like
You do not lack confidence or authority
Hence
If you have an opinion on objective matter
1. You are still under a demand to avoid falsehood
2. The matter is not ‘closed’ to further investigation
a. Quite the contrary: you have to do more work to acquire stronger evidence
Compare: experts who have ‘opinions’ over factual matters – they just have lower confidence in their answers
about complicated matters
This is different on subjective matters
But be extremely careful about what you really consider a subjective matter
To be a genuine subjectivist, you must accept that there is no logical space for
- Genuine disagreement and
- Any interpersonal rational justification
And this might be problematic for domains such as policies
A common confusion
On objectively factual matters (e.g., the size of the crowd at the inauguration), one cannot claim that one’s
opinion settles the matter as if the issue were a subjective matter
- To have an opinion is rather a declaration of the lack of authority on a question that has a correct answer
Clicker Question
Can we make sense of the following kinds of facts?
1. Alternative facts
2. False facts
3. Unproven facts
4. Facts that no one believes
a. Yes, to all
b. 1 & 2 only
c. 2 & 4 only
d. 3 & 4 only
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Recap on epistemology: epistemology: the study of belief and knowledge, sources of knowledge, empiricism, rationalism, testimony, solidarity, autonomy. The last answer raises the worry of skepticism about the existence of the external world. A possibility very hard to reject given the nature of our best possible evidence. A fact is neither true or false it just is. A fact = something that is the case. A fact is something proven to be true can be true or false . An opinion is a personal belief that is not founded on proof, cannot be true of false . These are seriously incorrect ways of thinking about belief, opinion, fact, and truth! Belief: a mental state by which one takes something to be the case. I believe that the moon is made of cheese. I desire that the moon be made of cheese. Content of the belief: what the belief is about". That the moon is made of cheese.
