Certainty

2. Certainty Itdistinguishesknowledgefrombelief. What´sthedifferencebetweenBelieving X and Knowing X? Know – becertainaboutthetruth of X and have no doubtsaboutit. Believe – thinkthat X is true but are no certainaboutit.

3. Are you 100% sure you know the things you just listed? Why?

4. Language It enables us to acquire knowledge from other people. However, the authority of other people is not always a reliable source of knowledge… even experts!!! How can webesure?

5. Perception Knowledge is mostly based on personal experience, but our senses deceive us sometimes. Color blind test

6. Reason Reason gives us greater certainty than our senses. In practice, however, people do not seem to be very good at abstract reasoning and are liable to make all kinds of errors. False syllogism

7. Emotion Some of the things that we claim to know strike us as intuitively obvious or are based on our gut feelings. …but what is intuitively obvious for me may not be to you, and feelings are just not a sure guide to the truth. Conflictingintuitionsonimportantissues

9. René Descartes

10. Initially, Descartes arrives at only a single principle: thought exists. Thought cannot be separated from me, therefore, I exist Therefore, Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting, therefore the very fact that he doubted proved his existence. Descartes states that he can be certain that he exists because he thinks. But in what form? He perceives his body through the use of the senses; however, these have previously been unreliable. So Descartes determines that the only indubitable knowledge is that he is a thinking thing. Thinking is his essence as it is the only thing about him that cannot be doubted. To further demonstrate the limitations of the senses, Descartes proceeds with what is known as the Wax Argument.

11. He considers a piece of wax; his senses inform him that it has certain characteristics, such as shape, texture, size, color, smell, and so forth. When he brings the wax towards a flame, these characteristics change completely. However, it seems that it is still the same thing: it is still a piece of wax, even though the data of the senses inform him that all of its characteristics are different. Therefore, in order to properly grasp the nature of the wax, he cannot use the senses. He must use his mind.  In this manner, Descartes proceeds to construct a system of knowledge, discarding perception as unreliable and instead admitting only deduction as a method. As a result of his Cartesian doubt, he viewed rational knowledge as being "incapable of being destroyed" and sought to construct an unshakable ground upon which all other knowledge can be based. The first item of unshakable knowledge that Descartes argues for is the aforementioned cogito, or thinking thing.

12. Evaluate the certainty of the four WoK’s. Which of the AoK’s is, in your opinion a better access to truth?

15. No absolute truth. • Truth is not independent from the individual who thinks about something being true. • Truth is different among individuals, and cultures. • There is no ‘true’ or ‘false’ but ‘true for me’ or ‘false for you’ • All points of view are of equal value. Santa Claus cannot ‘exist’ and ‘not exist’ at the same time. • Believing something to be true is not enough for it to be actually true. • Relativism establishes a vicious circle, there is no apparent way out.

16. Is Scepticism a better alternative than Relativism?

17. Whichislesslikelytobe true? Theexistence of theLoch Ness monster Somemystics are abletolevitate EXPLAIN AND GIVE REASONS

19. Voltaire “Peoplewhobelieveabsurditieswillcommitatrocities.” To what extent is Voltaire's opinion true? Give examples and counter-examples.