Philosophy of Knowledge
OUTLINE AND GUIDE QUESTIONS
based on the book of Alejandro Llano, Gnoseology. Manila: Sinagtala Publishers, 2001.
BRIEF OVERVIEW
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I. GNOSEOLOGY AND THE CRITICAL PROBLEM
IV. AN EXAMINATION OF SKEPTICISM
I. GNOSEOLOGY AND THE CRITICAL PROBLEM
I. GNOSEOLOGY AND THE CRITICAL PROBLEM
- The Value of "Critical Philosophy"
- What is "Critical Philosophy"?
- Why the term "critical"? Where does this come from?
- Is it a good position to take? Why or why not?
- Origins and Historical Development of the Critical Problem
- What role does Ockham play here?
- And Descartes?
- How about Kant?
- The Role of Gnoseology within Philosophy
- What is Gnoseology? What does it study?
- Is it the most important branch of Philosophy?
- How is it related to the other branches of Philosophy?
- Of what use is it? Or is this just another waste of time?
II. TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE
II. TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE
- The Nature of Truth
- Truth? What is that?
- Are there many kinds of truth?
- What's this thing called adaequatio?
- How is truth related to the human intellect?
- How is truth related to the divine intellect?
- Truth and Being
- What is being? What is reality?
- What does reality have to do with truth?
- Truth in Knowledge
- Is there truth in simple aprehension? (What is simple apprehension, first of all?)
- What is this thing called "logical truth"? Isn't all truth logical?
- And "ontological truth"? What do you mean by "ontological"?
- What do we mean by the truth being reflexive?
III. CERTAINTY AND EVIDENCE
III. CERTAINTY AND EVIDENCE
- Assertive force? Propositional content? What in the world are you talking about?
- Certainty
- What does "certainty" mean? Is it the same as being sure of something?
- Isn't certainty truth? Why or why not?
- How is it related to evidence?
- What abracadabra is per se evidence "quoad se" and evidence "quoad nos"?
- And what abracadabra is evidence "per aliud notum"?
- Is it possible to be "more or less certain"?
- Doubt
- How is "doubt" defined?
- Is it wise to start by doubting absolutely everything (universal doubt)? Why or why not?
- Opinion
- What is "opinion"?
- Is it different from "certainty"?
- Why couldn't we just be certain or sure of things? Is there a reason for just holding opinions?
- Faith
- What does "belief" mean? Can we be sure of our beliefs?
- Is faith something forced on us? Or, on the contrary, does it come automatically?
- What makes for credibility?
- How about supernatural faith?
- Error
- Is error the same as ignorance? If not, what's the difference?
- Is it true that falsehood is only in the mind? How about counterfeit coins?
- What does "privation" mean? Is error a privation?
- If it has no positive existence, can we then detect falsehood? How?
- How does error arise?
IV. AN EXAMINATION OF SKEPTICISM
IV. AN EXAMINATION OF SKEPTICISM
- Varieties of Skepticism and of the Skeptical Arguments
- What is skepticism? What kinds are there?
- Tell me more about the Greek brand of skepticism.
- But why should anyone be foolish enough to embrace skepticism? Does it have any solid arguments?
- The Metaphysical Defense of the First Principle of Knowledge
- What is "Metaphysics"?
- What is this so-called "principle of non-contradiction" (also known as "principle of contradiction" by some)?
- How does one argue in its favor?
- What is "dialectic"?
- The Objectivity of Sense Knowledge
- Why this problem?
- Are our perceptions invented by us? Or do they have a basis in reality?
- But don't our senses deceive us sometimes?
- An Examination of Relativism
- How did Edmund Husserl refute relativism?
- And Gottlob Frege, what was his contention?
- Is there a connection between relativism and sensism? Can you elaborate on that? Thanks!
V. IDEALISM AND REALISM
V. IDEALISM AND REALISM
- The Principle of Immanence
- What is "immanence"? "idealism"? Why are these worlds apart from "transcendence"?
- What arguments are put forward to support immanentism?
- What attitude does idealism take towards metaphysics?
- How is it possible that a person could take such a posture? Isn't that simply crazy?
- Varieties of Idealism
- Can you describe to me succinctly the critical idealism of Kant? What's this thing of synthetic a priori?
- What's "transcendental aesthetics"? How about "transcendental analytics"? And "transcendental dialectics" and "practical reason"? Whew!
- How about the absolute idealism of Hegel?
- What did Hegel say about the beginning of knowledge? Its negation? Its progress?
- What is the "Hegelian Absolute"? Is that the same as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? Why or why not?
- Describe the aftermath of Hegelian idealism. What happened afterwards?
- Realism
- What is "critical realism"? Is it the real realism? Or is it the unreal realism? Why do you say that?
- Was there an attempt to resurrect real realism?
VI. BEING IN KNOWLEDGE
VI. BEING IN KNOWLEDGE
- The Primacy of the Knowledge of Being
- What does "primacy of the knowledge of being" mean?
- Do you mean we grasp "esse" right away, when we opened our eyes as a cute little brat?
- What's this "ens" thing?
- How about this thing called "essence"?
- I've heard talk of "substance". What could that be?
- What does St Thomas mean when he says "quidquid fit, causam habet"?
- The Link Between Sense Knowledge and Intellectual Knowledge
- So you say these two are linked. How?
- Once we've conceptualised something, is that it? What's this about "conversio ad phantasmata"? Is it about some ghosts converting?
- So what do we really know, our ideas inside our mind or the things outside?
- Species and Ideas
- So what's really the role of the concept in our knowledge?
- This one's got me stumped: "nominalist immediatism" and "idealist mediatism". Could you enlighten me on this?
- Reflection and Self-Knowledge
- Self-knowledge: tell me about it.
- What's the difference between spontaneous consciousness and reflex consciousness?
- Freedom in Knowledge, and the Ethical Dimension of Scientific Activity
- What's freedom?
- What does Ethics have to do with science?
First Edition 26 March 2005
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