6 Skepticism and Its Challenges Free Online FlashCards

What does skepticism about knowledge question?

Skepticism questions whether and how we know, often by asking whether our evidence can rule out possibilities that would make our beliefs false or unknowable.

What is epistemic closure?

Epistemic closure is the principle that if you know a claim and know that it entails another claim, you can know that second claim too.

How did G. E. Moore respond to the skeptical argument?

Moore argued that he knew he had hands and therefore knew the skeptical scenario was false. Critics say this reverses the skeptical argument without explaining how the alternative is known to be false.

How does the argument from analogy support belief in other minds?

The argument from analogy treats other people’s similar behavior as evidence that they have experiences like ours; for example, their pain behavior supports the inference that they feel pain.

What is induction?

Induction uses observed cases to support conclusions about unobserved cases, such as expecting a medicine to help a new patient because it helped many others.

What does pragmatic vindication ask about induction?

Pragmatic vindication asks whether induction is the best available method for achieving reliable expectations, rather than proving that it must succeed.

What problem does epistemic regress raise?

Epistemic regress asks whether justification ends with basic beliefs, loops through mutual support, or continues through an endless chain of reasons.

How does contextualism explain shifts in claims about what we know?

Contextualists hold that the standards for saying someone knows can rise when skeptical possibilities become salient, such as during a philosophical discussion.

What do fallibilists say about error and knowledge?

Fallibilists hold that knowledge need not eliminate every conceivable possibility of error.

How can reliabilism support knowledge without a proof of reliability?

Externalist theories such as reliabilism allow a belief to count as knowledge when produced by a reliable process, even if the knower cannot independently prove the process is reliable.

What does a transcendental argument claim against skepticism?

A transcendental argument claims that some facts questioned by the skeptic are necessary conditions for coherent experience or thought.

How can other minds be inferred as the best explanation of behavior?

The best-explanation response says that other minds help explain people’s flexible, complex behavior.