Epistemology

1. Epistemology Professor Christopher Ullman Christian Life College

2. Everyone has a concept of what is true/false.Each person decides how important truth is to him. Each of you know of ways to test a statement to see if it is true.These underlying presuppositions govern our thoughts, words, choices, and actions.

3. Consider these questions asked by thinking people What is truth? Can we even define truth? Can we know truth? Can we know truth with certainty? Is truth merely opinion controlled by the dominant forces of our society? How is it that so many people have so many different views of truth? Is truth relative? How can we say something is false if we have no way of determining what is true?

4. Some truth tests • Pragmatism: truth is that which works. If something works, then it must be true. • Coherence: there is an essential internal harmony of ideas. If something does not harmonize with the ideas that already cohere, it may not be true. • Correspondence: truth corresponds to reality, identifies things as they actually are.

5. Poststructuralism is an intellectual movement that • completely rejects “binary oppositions” such as • true/false • right/wrong • good/evil, and • formulates views consistent with that rejection. These dualistic concepts are believed to be rooted not in reality, but in modernistic philosophy that has “scripted” Western thought and culture. 

6. Postmodernism rejects the belief in universal absolute truth that transcends culture, time, and space by redefining it to say that truth is that which is • Created • Defined • Articulated by local (sub) communities. Young people today are choosing a postmodern worldview over and against all other worldviews.

7. 5 Ways to Know Something • Empirical: through sensed perceptions • Rational: through reason apart from the senses • Mystical: immediately, apart from the senses and reason • Pragmatical: by finding out what works • Authority: through a trusted source

8. Consider these questions asked by thinking people Can we trust our senses? What are the proper roles of reason and sense experience in knowledge? Are our intuitions more dependable than our perceptions? What is the relationship between faith and reason? Is knowledge about God possible? If so, how? Should we appeal to “mystical downloads” for spiritual knowledge?

9. Sources of Knowledge 1. Reason alone (excluding faith) 2. Faith alone (excluding reason) Faith + Reason (God created people to think rationally) Intuition Sensed perceptions Authority

10. A Tale of Two Systems Continental philosophers taught that human knowledge comes not originally or even primarily from sense experience, but from reason. This is rationalism. • Rene Descartes: I think, therefore I am • Baruch Spinoza: the essence of each and every thing is a way that God causes himself to exist • Gottfried Leibniz: we have innate ideas, but all ideas that come from the senses are confused

11. A Tale of Two Systems Some problems arose for the rationalists • The Theory of Ideas • “What you know when you perceive a brown table is the idea of a brown table.” • The key word here is know. • The Problem of the External World • How do we know there’s a world out there? • The Problem of Other Minds • How do I know that you have a mind?

12. A Tale of Two Systems The Rise and Fall of Empiricism Rejecting rationalism and innate ideas, three British philosophers come rushing into the room: • John Locke: “The mind is a blank slate” Sensed experience begins to fill it Reflection arranges it • George Berkeley: “The objects of human knowledge are ideas, not things” You cannot know the carrot, but you can know the idea “carrot”

13. A Tale of Two Systems • David Hume: all that is real consists of sensations, and these are unconnected to one another What about things we do not personally experience? We cannot prove they are causally connected to anything else So we accept out of custom or habit that one idea is caused by another Knowledge boils down to non-rational operations of the soul “We can stop our philosophical researches”

14. Ontological The study of the nature of existence, or what it means “to be”: • Is basic reality found in matter or physical energy (the world we can sense), or spirit/spiritual energy? • Is reality lawful and orderly or chaotic? • Is reality fixed and stable or ever-changeable? • Is reality friendly, unfriendly, or neutral in regard to humanity?

15. Basic Question In Epistemology… Is there truth independent of human experience? • A Priori knowledge • A Posteriori knowledge

16. A Priori Knowledge: • Is independent of human awareness • Is true whether humans know/accept it or not • Exists prior to human experience • Traditional science has upheld the superiority of a priori knowledge as it represents the fixed and permanent world that is ‘uncontaminated’ by human knowers

17. A Posteriori Knowledge: • Requires human experience for verification of truth/knowledge • Modern philosophers claim a posteriori knowledge is superior, and that a priori knowledge does not even exist!

18. 3 Basic Positions on the Objectivity of Knowledge: • Humans are recipientsin the knowledge process. • Humans are participants in the knowledge process. • Humans exist as ‘pure objects’ who become manufacturers of truth rather than recipients or participants

19. Sources of Knowledge: • Empirical Knowledge: composed of ideas formed from observable data • Sensory Knowledge: knowledge obtained through the Senses • Revelatory Knowledge: knowledge that is revealed through a transcendent or supernatural reality that breaks into the natural order/reality

20. Sources of Knowledge: • Authoritative Knowledge: accepted as truth because it comes from experts or is sanctioned over time by tradition • Rationalism/Reason:emphasizes the power of thought & what the mind contributes to knowledge, the senses are not enough • Intuition: knowledge that is not the result of conscious reasoning

21. Validity of Knowledge • Corresponding Theory • Coherence Theory • Pragmatic Theory

22. Validity of Knowledge - Tests of Truths • Correspondence Theory: • theory fits the data collected & analyzed through research • if the judgement corresponds with the facts it is true • method most often used by those working in the sciences

23. Validity of Knowledge - Tests of Truths • Coherence Theory: • places its trust in the consistency of harmony of all ones’ judgments • a judgment is true if it is consistent with other judgments that have previously been accepted as true • there is an agreement on the boundaries, logic & phenomenon of the theory

24. Validity of Knowledge - Tests of Truths • Pragmatic Theory: • there is NO such thing as static or absolute truth • people know only their own experiences • the test of truth is in its utility, workability, or satisfactory consequences

25. Epistemology What is Epistemology? “The theory or science of the method or grounds of knowledge.” —Webster’s Dictionary “The branch of philosophy that is concerned with the theory of knowledge. It is an inquiry into the nature and source of knowledge, the bounds of knowledge, and the justification of claims to knowledge.” —Feinberg

26. “Today evangelical Christians stand at a greater distance from those with whom we communicate than we did just 20 years ago. At that time, even those who rejected Christianity were prepared to discuss whether the evidence for Christianity’s truth was adequate. Today, this is much less frequently the case. Before we can broach the question of whether the Christian gospel is true, we have to establish that such a thing as truth exists.”

27. A Conversation Between Protagoras and Socrates (4th Century B.C.) Protagoras: Truth is relative. It is only a matter of opinion. Socrates: You mean that truth is mere subjective opinion? Protagoras: Exactly. What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me. Truth is subjective. Socrates: Do you really mean that? That my opinion is true by virtue of its being my opinion?

28. A Conversation Between Protagoras and Socrates (4th Century B.C.) Protagoras: Indeed I do. Socrates: My opinion is: Truth is absolute, not opinion, and that you, Mr. Protagoras, are absolutely in error. Since this is my opinion, then you must grant that it is true according to your philosophy. Protagoras: You are quite correct, Socrates.

29. Epistemology Self-defeating statements: “I cannot speak a word in English.” “My wife has never been married.” “We cannot know anything about God.” “There is no such thing as truth.” “Truth cannot be known.”

30. Epistemology A short history of western civilization: Three periods: • Premodern (400-1600 A.D.) • Modern (1600-1900 A.D.) • Postmodern (1960-present)

31. 400 1600 1960 Epistemology Modern Postmodern Premodern

32. PRE-MODERNISM: THE TIME AND WORLDVIEW WHEN • TRUTH INCLUDES • HEAVEN • GOD • EARTH • NATURE • OTHERS • SELF • THE TRUTH IS • UP THERE • AND • OUT THERE

33. PRE-MODERN WORLD • Embraced the objectivity of truth • The preference was for a Platonist, or neo-Platonist notion of reality • There is an objective, or external realm that is transcendent • “Reality existed independently of any individual apprehension of it” • For the Christian pre-moderns, this independently existing realm of transcendence was the mind of God. Erickson, Evangelical Interpretation, 100. • There was a belief in the referential understanding of language; that is, “language referred to something beyond itself,” Erickson, EI, 100.

34. PRE-MODERN WORLD • There was belief in the “Correspondence Theory of Truth” which asserted that “true ideas are those that accurately correspond to the state of affairs as it is.” • In terms of hermeneutics, the pre-modern period accepted that “the meaning of a text was . . . within that text in a rather literal or straightforward fashion. . . . Hermeneutics was in this approach virtually equivalent to exegesis.” • The premodern understanding of reality was teleological. There was believed to be a purpose or purposes in the universe.”

35. MODERNISM: THE TIME AND WORLDVIEW WHEN • TRUTH INCLUDES • EARTH • INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE • REASON ONLY • THE TRUTH IS • OUT THERE

36. Epistemology Postmodern Transition 1900-1960 Modern

37. POST-MODERNISM: THE TIME AND WORLDVIEW WHEN • TRUTH INCLUDES • INDIVIDUALS GROUPED IN COMMUNITIES • THE TRUTH IS • ONLY IN HERE

38. POST-MODERNISM: Impact • Ideas have legs! It is impossible to understand postmodernism without noting its impact on our culture • What begins in the ethereal realm of the academy eventually will show up in popular culture • The Arts • Architecture • Literature

39. Truth and Tolerance “In Postmodernism, there is no objective, universal truth; there is only the perspective of the group. . . . In postmodernism, all viewpoints, all lifestyles, all beliefs and behaviors are regarded as equally valid. . . . Tolerance has become so important that no exception is tolerated.” –Charles Colson,

40. Modernist Objections to Christianity • What about all the contradictions? • God is just a crutch. Religion was invented by man. • Jesus was just a man. • The Bible we have today is not the same as when it was written two thousand years ago. • I don’t believe in what I can’t see. • Evolution has proven Christianity to be wrong.

41. Modernist Objections to Christianity • The Bible is a myth full of fairy tales. • How did Noah get all of the animals on the Ark? • There are no such thing as miracles. • Do you really believe in the story of Adam and Eve?

42. Postmodernist Objections to Christianity • If God exists why is there evil? • The inquisition and the Crusades show that Christianity is oppressive. • Christianity is a way to God but not the only way. • Christianity is arrogant and exclusive. • How do you know that your Bible is better than other religious writings? • Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

43. Postmodernist Objections to Christianity • What about those who have never heard? • The church is full of hypocrites. • Why would God send anyone to Hell? • The God of the OT is cruel, partial, and unjust.

44. Modernism vs. Postmodernism: Objections to Christianity

45. Modern View of Truth Correspondence view of truth:(1) Truth is an objective reality that exists whether someone believes it or not, (2) and (to the modernist) that objective reality has no definite basis.

46. Modern View of Truth • True statements are that which correspond to that objective reality. • False statements are those that do not correspond to that objective reality.

47. Modern View of Truth Law of non-contradiction does apply A ≠ -A at the same time and in the same relationship.

48. Modern View of Truth What is an example? Key Motto: Man can and will know all truth.

49. Postmodern View of Truth • Relativism: what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by some group. • Subjectivism: what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by each individual. • Pragmatism: what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by what works.

50. Postmodern View of Truth • What is an example? Law of non-contradiction does not apply A = -A at the same time and in the same relationship. No objective truth • Key Motto: The truth cannot be known.