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Is knowledge relative because epistemic intuitions vary?
In a paper entitled Normativity and Epistemic Intuitions, Weinberg, Nichols and Stich (who I will hereafter refer to as WNS) have proposed a challenge for the “normative project” (WNS 2001: 2) of epistemology, a project which involves taking an analytic perspective on epistemology and thereby setting norms for how to pursue knowledge. One knowledge-forming processes that the this project is based on, as WNS point out, our “epistemic intuitions” (WNS 2001: 5), and it is from these intuitions that we may work out a normative account of epistemology. The problem, as WNS state, is that if groups of people other than those that generally write about epistemology have different intuitions on these matters, it undermines the normative status of the epistemological standpoint that is advocated. WNS go on to make the claim that not only is this a possibility but is in fact reality, supporting this claim with data from several experiments investigating the epistemic intuitions of people from differing cultures or different socio-economic statuses (SESs). From this and other evidence, it seems that there is indeed a difference of intuitions between Westerners and East Asians, whereby the former, they claim, are more “detached” and “analytic” regarding situations, while the latter have a more “holistic” view and are more focused on the relationships in situations. If this is so, then it seems that if each group's conception of knowledge is based on their own epistemic intuitions, we would have to say that what knowledge is differed between these two groups. And, of course, unless we were able to come up with some intuition-independent way of adjudicating between them we could not...
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...ling to use speed as a measure for the objective goodness of a car. Yet whatever the value that the concepts have within their societies, knowledge itself is not relative, but is fixed to our own intuitions and therefore criteria. That which has somewhat different criteria is not to be called knowledge even though the understanding may play a similar role. There need be no conflict in assigning something cknowledge and not knowledge, if it is emphasised that these are different concepts – which may be broken down with agreement into more universal concepts.
Bibliography:
Weinberg, Nichols, Stich. 2001: Normativity and epistemic intuitions. Philosophical Topics, 29, 429-60.
Sosa 2005: A defense of the use of intuitions in philosophy. In M. Bishop and Murphy, Stich and his Critics.
All page references are to pages in the reading pack.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous quality shared between humans is the capacity to know. The English language seems stark and stale when considering a definition for the word itself that encompasses the various feelings that can be summoned in knowing something. John Farella examines the inequality that exists in the relationship between the West...
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This essay starts with definition of traditional epistemology, followed by an explanation of how class, gender, and race can affect what one can know. Traditional epistemology can be defined as all knowers, regardless of who you are or what your social situation is, are bound by the same cognitive norms. (lecture) Charles Mills however, in the article “Alternative Epistemologies”, argues that who you are and your social situation change your access to knowledge. He criticizes that traditional epistemology fails to consider how an individual’s social situation can affect what he can know. Those in non-dominant social groups have epistemic access especially for knowing about oppression. In this essay I will attempt to explain Mills argument
How we approach the question of knowledge is pivotal. If the definition of knowledge is a necessary truth, then we should aim for a real definition for theoretical and practical knowledge. Methodology examines the purpose for the definition and how we arrived to it. The reader is now aware of the various ways to dissect what knowledge is. This entails the possibility of knowledge being a set of truths; from which it follows that one cannot possibly give a single definition. The definition given must therefore satisfy certain desiderata , while being strong enough to demonstrate clarity without losing the reader. If we base our definition on every counter-example that disproves our original definition then it becomes ad hoc. This is the case for our current defini...
Hume, D. (1748). Skeptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding. In T.S. Gendler, S. Siegel, S.M. Cahn (Eds.) , The Elements of Philosophy: Readings from Past and Present (pp. 422-428). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
The “new hypothesis” attempts to persuade individuals to go beyond their initial thoughts and tries to put folks inside the mind of other cultures and aliens. Individual’s lean toward the idea of moral objectivism as stated before, but with the new hypothesis, the authors are making people think outside the universe, which are making individuals responses shift to a more relative moral truth. The authors are trying to reason that when a question is asked, an individual automatically assumes that certain people are from the same culture and there can only be one correct answer. However, when a question is asked and the individual has to compare one answer from their culture and another answer from a different culture, individuals sway to a more relativist moral truth. Furthermore, when a question is asked and the individual has to choose between an answer from their culture and one from an alien culture, people allow both answers to be
"Knowledge, Truth, and Meaning." Cover: Human Knowledge: Foundations and Limits. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. .
Robinson, R. R. (1994). Some methodological approaches to the unexplained points. Philosophy 2B/3B (pp. 27-34). Melbourne: La Trobe University.
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