PHI 1101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Pediatrics, Botany, Toxicology

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Mark Brown

Document Summary

Either you are alive or you are not. All these examples above are known as analytic statements: statements that are true or false because of their form or because of the words that make them up. If this is a book, then it is a book. Statements such as these can be described as analytically true or as tautologies. Self-evident or necessary truths such as analytic statements are of utmost importance since we recognize that because they must be true, they cannot be subject to doubt. We accept a great many beliefs because they are based upon senses. Factors that can give us good reason to doubt the reliability of personal experience or our senses: If our perceptual powers are somehow impaired, we have reason to doubt them. The following are reasons to doubt the trustworthiness of what we experience. Situation: too dark, too bright, too hazy, or too noisy.