Epistemology and metaphysics

Philosophy · Logic, ethics and special topics. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Epistemology asks what knowledge is and how we get it. The traditional definition is justified true belief. The sources named are sense experience (empiricism), reason (rationalism), authority and intuition. Three theories say what makes a belief true: correspondence, coherence and the pragmatic theory. Scepticism doubts that certain knowledge is possible.

Metaphysics asks what is real. Materialism says only matter is real; idealism says reality is mental or spiritual; dualism says mind and matter are both real and distinct. The mind-body problem asks how the two are related. Causality raises a further question: if every event has a cause, are human choices free? Hard determinists say no, libertarians deny determinism, and compatibilists say freedom and determinism can both hold.

Rules to remember

Correspondence: true = agrees with the facts. Coherence: true = fits consistently into a system of beliefs. Pragmatic: true = works in practice.
A priori knowledge is independent of experience (e.g. mathematics); a posteriori knowledge depends on experience.
Pyrrho: scepticism as a final position, suspending judgement. Descartes: doubt as a method to reach certainty ('I think, therefore I am').
Mind and body: interactionism (Descartes); occasionalism (Malebranche); pre-established harmony (Leibniz); epiphenomenalism (mind is a by-product with no causal power).
Materialists: Democritus, Hobbes. Idealists: Berkeley ('to be is to be perceived'), Hegel.
Hume on causality: we observe only the constant conjunction of events, never a necessary connection; the idea of necessity comes from habit.
Determinism: every event is fixed by earlier events and the laws of nature. Fatalism: events will happen whatever we do. The two are not the same.

Common mistake

Students match the theories of truth to the wrong test. Ask what the belief is being checked against: the facts (correspondence), other beliefs (coherence) or results in practice (pragmatic).

Worked example

One billiard ball strikes another and the second moves. What would Hume say we actually observe, and what do we add?

We see the first ball move, touch the second, and then the second ball move: one event followed by another.
We have seen events of this kind follow each other many times: this is constant conjunction.
We never see any power or necessary connection that forces the second event to happen.
After repeated experience the mind expects the second event when it sees the first, and this habit is the source of our idea of necessity.

Answer: We observe only regular succession; the 'necessary connection' is supplied by custom or habit, not by observation or reason.

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