Study Questions for Week #1 (Introduction)

1. Explain or distinguish the following terms. You may use examples to do so:

(a) Epistemic Principle/Particular Epistemic Judgment.

(b) Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Reasoning in Epistemology

2. (a) What is the complete analysis of knowledge that Theaetetus proposes to Socrates? State it in the form of a mutual implication ('ó'). (b) Your answer to (a) is itself equivalent to two claims of implication. What are they? (c) Socrates proposes a counterexample to one of the two claims of implication. Which one? (d) What is Socrates' counterexample? Explain why it is a counterexample. (e) Which claim of implication does Socrates not propose a counterexample to? (f) Logically, what would be required for there to be a counterexample to the answer to part (e)? Is there a counterexample to the answer to part (e)? (Use as your test for a counterexample the considered judgment of a majority of the class. If you think there is a counterexample, give one that a majority of the class would accept. If you think there is no counterexample, give the best potential counterexample you can and explain why a majority of the class would not accept it.)

3. (a) What two features of our beliefs about bodies (i.e., physical objects) does Hume attribute to the imagination rather than the senses or reason? (b) Why does he not attribute them to the senses? (c) Why does he not attribute them to reason? (d) According to Hume, what two features of experience lead the imagination to attribute those two features to the objects of perception? Explain. (e) Why does Hume believe that beliefs about cause and effect cannot be the product of reason? (f) What does he believe that beliefs about cause and effect are the product of? Explain.

4. (a) Why does Hume believe that there can be no justification for empirical beliefs about the future? (b) According to Hume, what is the explanation of our empirical beliefs about the future?

5. What is Goodman's new riddle of induction?