As Philosophy (Aqa New Spec) - Epistemology

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A posteriori

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Knowledge of propositions that can only be known to be true or false through sense experience.

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A priori

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Knowledge of propositions that do not require (sense) experience to be known to be true or false.

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Ability knowledge

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Knowing 'how' to do something, e.g. 'I know how to ride a bike'.

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Acquaintance knowledge

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Knowing 'of' someone or thing, e.g. 'I know Oxford well'.

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Analogy

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Similarity in several respects between different things.

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Analysis

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Process of breaking up a complex concept or argument in order to reveal its simpler constituents.

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Analytic

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A proposition that is true (or false) in virtue of the meanings of the words.

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Antecedent

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The proposition that forms the first part of a conditional statement.

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Argument

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A reasoned inference from one set of claims - the premises - to another claim, the conclusion.

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Assertion

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The claim that a proposition is true.

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Begging the question

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The informal fallacy of assuming the truth of the conclusion of an argument as one of the premises employed in an effort to demonstrate its truth.

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Belief

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Affirmation of, or conviction regarding, the truth of a proposition, e.g. 'I believe that the grass is green'.

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Circular

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An argument is circular if it employs its own conclusion as a premise.

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Clear and distinct idea

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A clear idea is 'present and accessible to the attentive mind'; a distinct idea is clear and also sharply separated from other ideas so that every part of it is clear.

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Cognitive

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Language or thought that can be true or false and aims to express how things are.

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Coherent

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A set of statements are coherent if they are consistent and increase each other's probability.

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Common sense

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The basic perceptions or understandings that are shared by many or most people.

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Concept

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Any abstract notion or idea by virtue of which we apply general terms to things.

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Conditional

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A proposition that takes the form 'if... then...'.

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Consequent

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The proposition that forms the second part of a conditional statement.

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Contingent

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A proposition that could be either true or false, a state of affairs that may or may not hold, depending on how the world actually is.

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Humean copy principle

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All simple ideas are copies of impressions.

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Deductive

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An argument whose conclusion is logically entailed by its premises.

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Direct realism

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Physical objects exist independently of our minds and of our perceptions of them.

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Disjunctive theory of perception

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If something looks a certain way, then one of two things is going on; either I directly perceive a mind-independent physical object that is F or it appears to me just as if there is something that is F, but there is nothing that is F.

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Empirical

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Relating to or deriving from experience, especially sense experience, but also including experimental scientific investigation.

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Empiricism (knowledge empiricism)

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The theory that there can be no a priori knowledge of synthetic propositions about the world.

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Concept empiricism

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All concepts are derived from experience. There are no innate concepts.

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External world

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Everything that exists outside of our minds.

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Falsifiable

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A claim is falsifiable if it is logically incompatible with some (set of) empirical observations.

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Falsification principle

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A claim is meaningful only if it is falsifiable.

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Gettier case

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A situation in which we have justified true belief, but not knowledge, because the belief is only accidentally true given the evidence that justifies it.

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Argument from hallucination

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Against direct realism: the possibility of hallucinations that are subjectively indestinguishable from a veridical perception means that we don't immediately perceive physical objects, but sense-data.

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Hume's fork

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We can have knowledge of just two sorts of claim: relations of ideas and matters of fact.

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Idea

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An object of perception, thought or understanding. Locke uses the term to refer to a complete thought, taking the form of a proposition.

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Complex idea

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An idea that is derived from two or more simple ideas.

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Simple idea

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A single, uniform conception or sensory experience, with nothing distinguishable within it.

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Berkeley's idealism

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All that exists are minds and ideas.

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Numerically identical

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One and the same thing. Everything is numerically identical to itself, and nothing else.

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Qualitatively identical

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Two or more things that are qualitatively identical if they share their properties in common, e.g. our textbooks are qualitatively identical, Iron Man and Tony Stark are identical etc.

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Argument from illusion

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Against direct realism: illusions can be 'subjectively indistinguishable' from veridical perception, so we see sense-data, not physical objects, immediately.

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Impression

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Experiences we are immediately and directly aware of - either impressions of 'sensation' or impressions of 'reflection'.

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Indirect realism

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We perceive physical objects, which exist independently of the mind, indirectly via sense-data which are caused by and represent physical objects.

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Inductive

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An argument whose conclusion is supported by its premises, but is not logically entailed by them, i.e. if the premises are true, the conclusion may be false, but this is unlikely (relative to the premises).

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Infallibilism

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To be knowledge, a belief must be certain. If we can doubt a belief, then it is not certain, and so it is not knowledge.

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Inference

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Accepting a proposition as true on the basis of reasoning from other propositions taken to be true.

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Innate

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Knowledge or ideas that are in some way present 'from birth'.

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Concept innatism

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The claim that some of our concepts are innate, not derived from experience, but somehow part of the structure of the mind.

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Knowledge innatism

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The claim that there is at least some innate knowledge, not derived from sense experience but somehow part of the structure of the mind.

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Intuition

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Direct non-inferential awareness of abstract objects or truths.

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Rational intuition

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The capacity to discover the truth of a claim just by thinking about it using reason.

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Language game

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A linguistic practice, constituted by certain 'rules' that determine the meaning of the words used. A speaking part of a 'form of life'. Wittgenstein's examples include asking, thanking, cursing, praying.

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Logical positivism

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Twentieth-century philosophical movement that used the verification principle to determine meaningfulness.

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Matters of fact

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States of affairs, how the world is. According to Hume, they are known through experience and induction, especially causal inference.

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Necessary

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A proposition that must be true (or if false, it must be false); a state of affairs that must hold.

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Necessary condition

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One proposition is a necessary condition of another when the second cannot be true while the first is false, e.g. being a man is a necessary condition of being a bachelor.

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No false lemmas

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An argument in which nothing was inferred from false sources.

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Ockham's razor

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The principle that states that we should not put forward a hypothesis that says many different things exist when a simpler explanation will do as well.

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Immediate objects of perception

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What we are directly aware of in perception, which may be physical objects or sensations of these.

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Argument from perceptual variation

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Against direct realism: different people perceive the same physical object differently. Therefore, what each person perceives is how the object appears to them. This appearence is mind-dependent sense-data.

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Predicate

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The part of a sentence or clause containing a verb or adjective stating something about the subject, e.g. in 'Jane is happy', the predicate is 'happy'.

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Premise

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A proposition that, as part of an argument, provides or contributes to a reason to believe that the conclusion is true.

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Primary quality

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Properties that are 'utterly insperable' from the object, whatever changes it goes through.

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Relational property

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A characteristic that something has only in relation to another thing, e.g. 'being taller than Bob', or 'being in love with Jack'.

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Propositional knowledge

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Knowing 'that' some claim - a proposition - is true or false, e.g. 'I know that Paris is capital of France'.