What is skeptic epistemology? Can we gain data beyond the world of experience? Can we discover...

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Psychology

What is skeptic epistemology? Can we gain data beyond the worldof experience? Can we discover the causes of phenomena?

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Epistemology of Memory We learn a lot Friends tell us about their lives Books tell us about the past We see the world We reason and we reflect on our mental lives As a result we come to know and to form justified beliefs about a range of topics We also seem to keep these beliefs How The natural answer is by memory It is not too hard to understand that memory allows us to retain information It is harder to understand exactly how memory allows us to retain knowledge and reasons for our beliefs Learning is largely a matter of acquiring reasons for changing views But how do we keep reasons for the views we keep The epistemology of memory concerns memorys role in our having knowledge and justification This branch of epistemology unlike nearly all other branches addresses our having knowledge and justification over time Memory and Knowledge Most of the interesting features of memorys relationship with knowledge originate in memorys relationship with justification Knowledge requires justification As a result when justification connects in interesting ways with a topic knowledge shares those connections This section covers what is perhaps the only unique connection between memory and knowledge a The Epistemic Theory of Memory Semantic memory is responsible for our remembering that something is true Much philosophizing in the 20th century tried to state necessary and sufficient conditions for propositions of the form S remembers that p The theory that dominated that discussion is especially important in epistemology the epistemic theory of memory see for example Anscombe 1981 Ayer 1956 Audi 2002 Locke 1971 Malcolm 1963 Moon 2013 Owens 2000 Pappas 1980 and Williamson 2000 Roughly put the epistemic theory states that remembering is a kind of knowing If S remembers that p then S knows that p Many philosophers go even further if S remembers that p then S knows that p because S previously knew that p You remember that Plato taught Aristotle and this is because in the past you came to know that Plato taught Aristotle and because that past knowledge has contributed to your present knowledge Incidentally Plato might even agree he appears to endorse the epistemic theory of memory in the Theaetetus If the epistemic theory of memory is correct we might not remember as much as we think we do Remembering requires knowing and the standards for knowing are not low In particular it is generally accepted among philosophers that S knows that p just in case p is true S believes that p believing that p is justified for S and it is not accidental that Ss justification for p gives S a true belief that p Knowledge is a kind of justified true belief a kind where the truth of the belief is tightly connected to its justification When the connection is not tight the belief might be Gettiered or true by sheer accident If you see someone walking down the street dressed as a postal worker you might justifiedly believe that your mail will be delivered soon Suppose the person you see is not in fact a postal worker but is merely testing out a Halloween costume And suppose that nonetheless the mail will indeed be delivered soon your regular postal worker is just around the corner delivering mail to your neighbor Your belief that the mail will be delivered soon is justified but true only by coincidence So you do not know that the mail will be delivered See Answer

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