Term
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Definition
| Answer:Belief consists of thinking that something is true, we must understand what truth is in order to understand adequately what belief is; because the goal of belief is knowledge of the truth. |
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Term
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Definition
| Answer:One of the most basic areas of philosophy investigates the nature of knowledge, sources of knowledge, methods for achieving knowledge, and methods for evaluating knowledge claims. |
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Term
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Definition
| Answer: In order to answer the question “what is truth?” you need to know what truth is. You need to know what truth is in order to know if something is an example of truth. |
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Term
| (6) How do philosophers distinguish assertions from propositions? |
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Definition
| Answer: A proposition is the meaning of an assertion, claim, or statement. Proposition is used by philosophers to refer to what is being asserted or stated or claimed. |
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Term
| (7) According to the correspondence theory of truth, what makes an assertion, i.e., a proposition, true or false? |
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Definition
| Answer:What makes an assertion to be true or false is the way reality is, or “the way things are.” The way things were or will be, depending on the tense of the verb. |
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Term
| (9) What is the criticism of the correspondence theory of truth that Creel mentions? |
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Definition
| Answer: Creel mentions that it is unverifiable. |
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Term
| (10) According to the pragmatic theory of truth, what makes an assertion true or false? What’s the problem with the pragmatic theory of truth that Creel mentions? |
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Definition
| Answer: To be true would mean that it works or that it guides us successfully when we act on it. A false belief is one that does not turn out the way we expect it to when we act on it. A false belief can work. |
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Term
| (11) According to the coherence theory of truth, what makes an assertion true or false? What’s the problem with the coherence theory of truth that Creel mentions? |
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Definition
| Answer: For a belief to be true ,and what makes a belief true, is that it fits coherently with other beliefs that are solidly established, whereas a false belief is one that does not cohere with other beliefs that are well-established. The most serious problem with the coherence theory of truth, according to its critics, is that truth, as conceived by the coherence theorist, seems to have no connection to reality. Its only connection is to others’ beliefs, and it is conceivable that a large system of beliefs that cohere with one another could be an illusion. |
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Term
| (13) List the three laws of thought. Explain why neither a vague assertion, e.g., “Johnny is a pretty good guy” nor a meaningless assertion, e.g., “Blickle is a blackle, but blackle is blick,” count as good counter-examples to the Law of the Excluded Middle. |
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Definition
| Answer: Law of Identity, Law of Non-Contradiction, Law of Excluded Middle. With the Law of the Excluded Middle it states that an assertion must be true or false, therefore, there is no third alternative between being true or false. |
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Term
| (14) List, explain, and give examples of the six sources of truth that Creel mentions. Creel: “All six of these means can lead us to truth, but each can also lead us into error. Because of this unhappy fact, we want more than just to have the truth; we want to have it in a special way.” What way? |
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Definition
| Answer: The 6 sources of truth are sensation: to find out if something is true through hearing, smell, touch, taste, or vision, intuition: truth comes to a person unexpectedly and apart from any conscious reasoning process; perhaps it is a reasoning process that goes on unconsciously and then flashes an answer on the screen of consciousness, introspection: you will attend to what you are experiencing inwardly-and you may discover something about yourself, reason: by means of reason we discover, for example, geometrical truths, such as that the internal angles of a plane triangle must add up to exactly 180 degrees, dreams: you can sometimes realize or see the truth in your sleep by having random dreams, and revelation: there are many truths that will not be known unless they are revealed to others. We want to have it in such a way that we know that we have it. We want knowledge of the truth-and that leads us to ask next: “What is knowledge?” |
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Term
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Definition
| Answer: Logic is the study of argumentation. It is that part of philosophy which helps us understand, recognize, and evaluate arguments. Knowledge of logic helps us do a better job of constructing arguments of our own and evaluating arguments of other people. |
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Term
| (2) What is an argument in the logical sense of the term? |
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Definition
| Answer: An argument consists of two or more assertions one of which someone claims or thinks follows logically from the other or others. |
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Term
| What are the two main types of argument? |
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Definition
| Answer: Deductive and inductive |
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Term
| What is a deductive argument? |
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Definition
| Answer: What distinguishes a deductive argument is that its conclusion is claimed to follow from its premise(s) with necessity. A deductive argument is a set of two or more assertions one of which is claimed to follow necessarily from the other(s). |
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Term
| (7) What is a necessary condition? Give an example of one thing’s being a necessary condition for another thing. What is a sufficient condition? Give an example of one thing’s being a sufficient condition for another thing. |
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Definition
| Answer: A necessary condition is a condition that is necessary for something else to exist. Example: Oxygen is necessary for fire. A sufficient condition of something will make that something exist or occur. Oxygen is not a sufficient condition of fire because, if so, the atmosphere would be on fire |
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Term
| (8) What is a sound deductive argument? |
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Definition
| Answer: A sound argument is a valid argument with all true premises. The conclusion has to be true. |
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Term
| What is an inductive argument? |
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Definition
| Answer: An inductive argument makes a weaker claim that the conclusion follows form the evidence not with necessity but with some degree of probability. |
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Term
| (11) What is a warranted inductive argument? An unwarranted inductive argument? |
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Definition
| Answer: A warranted inductive argument is when the conclusion is sufficiently supported by the evidence submitted to support it. An unwarranted inductive argument is when its conclusion is not adequately supported by the evidence cited on its behalf. |
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Term
| (2) Postman constructs a taxonomy of culture based on the respective attitudes that different cultures have towards technology. List this taxonomy. |
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Definition
| Tool using culture, technocracies, and technoplies |
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Term
| Define a “tool-using” culture. |
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Definition
| Answer: The main characteristic of all tool-using cultures is that their tools were largely invented to do two things: to solve specific and urgent problems of physical life, such as in the use of waterpower, windmills, and heavy-wheeled plow: or to serve the symbolic world of art, politics, myth, ritual, and religion, as the construction of castles. |
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Term
| (4) In a tool-using culture, what is the relationship between (a) the religious, moral, and political ideals of that culture and (b) the invention and uses of technology within that culture? What examples does Postman give to illustrate this reality? |
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Definition
| Answer: The beliefs, in fact, directed the invention of tools and limites the uses to which they were put out. Spiritual ideas and social customs acted as controlling forces. |
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Term
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Definition
| Answer: Tools play a central role in the thought-world of the culture. Everything must give way to their development. |
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Term
| Three inventions emerged in the European civilization which attacked the heart of that civilization. What were they and how did they transform the medieval world? Of these three, which was the most destructive of the medieval civilization according to Postman? Why? |
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Definition
| Answer: The mechanical clock, which provided a new conception of time, the printing press with moveable type, which attacked the epistemology of the oral tradition. And the telescope, which attacked the fundamental propositions of Jedeo-Christian theology. Telescope because it allows men to see, measure, and speculate about heavens in ways that have not been possible before. |
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Term
Postman contrasts Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton—whom he considers all “men of tool-using cultures”—with Francis Bacon—whom Postman describes as “the first man of
the technocratic age” (p. 35). What’s different (new) about Francis Bacon and his approach to science? |
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Definition
| Answer: He did no pioneering work in the field of research he prided himself on being the creator of a revolutionary advance in scientific method |
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Term
| Give Creel’s expanded definition of philosophy. Be able to explain why each of the parts of that definition is present in the definition (N.B. you will need to go back to chapter two in order to complete this question). |
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Definition
| Answer:Philosophy is the passionate pursuit by means of reason of knowledge of the real and the good. |
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Term
| Compare and contrast philosophy and religion. (N.B. Comparing x and y = showing what x and y have in common; contrasting x and y = showing how x and y differ from one another). |
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Definition
| Answer:Philosophy and religion are similar in that they are both concerned with nature of reality and the way to human fulfillment. Religions often turn to what they believe to be a divine revelation contained in a sacred scripture. Philosophy recognizes no authoritative scripture. |
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Term
| Compare and contrast philosophy and experimental science |
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Definition
| Answer:They are alike in that both want to see what truths can be learned by human effort alone, and both proceed in disciplined, systematic ways. Philosophy is concerned with basic questions about value and morality. Pure science is limited to questions about how things are in actuality, rather than how they ought to be or what would make them better. |
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