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Advanced Philosophy — Epistemology

Knowledge, justification, and the structure of belief

J
justified_belief 23 terms Aug 31, 2025
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Terms 23

1
Epistemology
Branch of philosophy studying nature, scope, and limits of knowledge and justified belief
2
Justified True Belief (JTB)
Classical analysis of knowledge: S knows P iff P is true, S believes P, S is justified in believing P
3
Gettier Problem
Counterexample to JTB: cases where someone has JTB but intuitively doesn't know; justified by luck
4
Reliabilism
Goldman: belief is justified if produced by reliable cognitive process; externalist view
5
Foundationalism
Beliefs justified by bedrock of basic beliefs (self-evident or incorrigible) that justify others
6
Coherentism
Beliefs justified by mutual coherence with other beliefs in holistic web; no foundational beliefs
7
Contextualism
Knowledge attributions vary with conversational context; standards shift with stakes
8
Internalism vs Externalism
Internalist: only internal mental states justify; externalist: external world facts can justify
9
Skepticism
We cannot know the external world; Descartes' demon; brain-in-vat; Hume's problem
10
Cartesian Skepticism
Descartes: could be deceived by evil demon about all sensory experience; how to respond?
11
Moorean Response
Moore: 'Here is a hand' is more certain than any skeptical premise; commonsense over philosophy
12
Contextualist Response
Skeptical standards are very high but don't apply in ordinary contexts; Stanley, DeRose
13
Closure Principle
If S knows P, and knows P implies Q, then S knows Q; skeptics exploit this
14
Safety
S's belief is safe if in all close possible worlds where S forms belief the same way, it is true
15
Sensitivity
S's belief is sensitive if S would not believe P if P were false; counterfactual condition
16
Epistemic Virtue
Stable intellectual character traits (open-mindedness, thoroughness) producing reliable inquiry
17
Virtue Epistemology
Knowledge as cognitive achievement; credit goes to agent's virtues not epistemic luck
18
Testimony
How we acquire knowledge from others; reductionism vs anti-reductionism about testimonial justification
19
A Priori vs A Posteriori
A priori: knowable by reason alone (math); a posteriori: requires experience (empirical facts)
20
Analytic vs Synthetic
Analytic: true by meaning ('bachelors are unmarried'); synthetic: adds new information
21
Synthetic A Priori
Kant: truths knowable a priori but not analytic; e.g. '7+5=12', causality; controversial
22
Epistemic Luck
Belief is true but could easily have been false; undermines knowledge even with justification
23
Social Epistemology
Studies how social factors (testimony, trust, disagreement) affect knowledge; expert deference