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Methods of Philosophizing: Lesson 2

This document provides an overview of epistemology and theories of truth. It defines epistemology as the science of acquiring and validating knowledge. It discusses different methods of determining truth, including sense perception, proof or justification, consensus, and testing statements through action. The document also compares different theories of truth such as correspondence theory and coherence theory. The overall purpose is to distinguish opinions from facts and provide guidance on properly acquiring and validating knowledge.

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Aljeya Evanchez
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70 views25 pages

Methods of Philosophizing: Lesson 2

This document provides an overview of epistemology and theories of truth. It defines epistemology as the science of acquiring and validating knowledge. It discusses different methods of determining truth, including sense perception, proof or justification, consensus, and testing statements through action. The document also compares different theories of truth such as correspondence theory and coherence theory. The overall purpose is to distinguish opinions from facts and provide guidance on properly acquiring and validating knowledge.

Uploaded by

Aljeya Evanchez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Methods of Philosophizing

LESSON 2
• The module is divided into two lessons, namely:

• • Lesson 1- Knowledge and Truth


• • Lesson 2– Theories of Truth

• MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCIES


• After going through this module, you are expected to:
• 1. Distinguish opinion from truth;
• 2. Realize that the methods of philosophy lead to wisdom and truth

• Specific objectives:
• 1. Identify the meaning, importance, and source of knowledge.
• 2. Describe, the steps/processes of acquiring knowledge.
• 3. Explain how validating one’s knowledge leads to truth.
• 4. Compare/contrast different theories of truth.
INTRODUCTION
• Have you ever experienced believing in something you thought is true but in the end you
discovered that it is false?
• For example you feel that the person standing in front of you is a true friend who will
never betray you but in the end he did betray you.
• Or during an examination period you feel strongly that “A” is the right answer for item
number 12 but it turned out to be “B.”
• Or you feel that your belief(s) can guide you in the correct path only to discover that that
it leads to disaster.
• These, and countless examples from your experiences, show that there is a BIG difference
to what we feel is true and what is really true.
• According to philosophy if you want to know the truth you have to use, not emotions, but
thinking.
• To think however is an act of choice which is not always done properly. Sometimes we
need guidance to straighten our thoughts. This is what LESSON 2 provides.

• Welcome to the province of epistemology.


WHAT IS EPISTEMOLOGY?
• There is no one correct definition of epistemology. The one that I’m
going to use came from the philosopher Ayn Rand: “Epistemology is a
science devoted to the discovery of the proper method of acquiring
and validating knowledge” (Rand 1990). The purpose of epistemology
therefore is two-fold:

• 1. To show how we can acquire knowledge.


• 2. To give us a method of demonstrating whether the knowledge we
acquired is really knowledge (i.e., true).

• Since knowledge plays a central role in epistemology let us briefly


described its nature.
THE NATURE OF TRUTH
• Now that we know how we know, it’s time to see whether the knowledge we acquired is “really” knowledge i.e.,
is true. This is the second part of epistemology: validating one’s knowledge.

• The first step in validating one’s knowledge is to ask oneself the following question:
• “How did I arrive at this belief, by what steps?” (Binswanger 2014).
• Thus you have to retrace the steps you took to acquire the knowledge, “reverse engineer” the process
(Binswanger 2014). This is what Dr. Peikoff calls reduction (Peikoff 1990).
• One will therefore realize that the steps you took to acquire knowledge
(perception-concept-proposition-inference) are the same steps needed to validate knowledge (but in reverse
order).
• Thus what the ancient pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus said is true when applied to epistemology: “the way up
[knowledge acquisition] is the way down [knowledge validation]” (quoted by Dr. Binswanger 2014).
• If we perform the process of reduction we will realized that all true knowledge rest ultimately on sense
perception. “A belief is true if it can be justified or proven through the use of one’s senses” (Abella 2016).
Consider the following statements (Abella 2016):

• I am alive.
• I have a body.
• I can breathe.
• Second, You can only validate the above statements if you observed yourself using your
senses.
• Feel your body. Are you breathing?
• Feel your pulse. Observe your body. Is it moving?
• These and countless examples provided by your senses proved that you’re alive (Abella
2016).
• Not all statements however can be validated directly by the senses. Some beliefs or ideas
need a “multi-step process of validation called proof’ (Binswanger 2014).
• Nevertheless proof rests ultimately on sense perception.
• Statements based on sense perception are factual and if we based our beliefs on such
facts our beliefs are true (Abella 2016).

• For example the belief that human beings have the right to life rests on the following
claim:
• 1. Human beings are rational animals.

• 2. Animals (including human beings) are living organisms.


• And of course the fact that we are alive can be demonstrated perceptually as shown above.

• A third way to determine if the statement is true is through a consensus (Abella 2016).
• If the majority agrees that a statement is true then it is true.
• However there are certain limitations to this approach.
• Far too many times in history false ideas became popular which ultimately leads to disaster.

• For example the vast majority of Germans during the time of Adolph Hitler believed that Jews are
racially inferior.
• This is obviously false supported by a pseudo biological science of the Nazi.
• The result of this false consensus is the extermination of millions of Jews in many parts of Europe.
• A fourth way to determine whether a statement is true is to test it by means of action (Abella
2016).

• For example you want to know if a person is friendly. Well the best way to find out is to approach the
person. Thus the famous Nike injunction of “Just do it” is applicable in this situation.
ACTIVITY TIME

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