DAY 38 Epistemology - What's Epistemology?

You all remember the "red pill blue pill" scene in The Matrix?  It's become a popular symbol for living in the bliss of ignorance (blue pill) vs. living in the stark reality of the truth (red pill).

In many ways it represents Epistemology quite well - Epistemology is the philosophy of the truth, or how we know what we know, or how we think we know what we know.  In short we will spend the next few weeks examining how people arrive at their own versions of the truth and it's more complex and interesting than you might think.

For example, these two definitions of "Theory" are in the Oxford English Dictionary:

Theory (1): A system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be the general law, principles or causes of something known or observed.

Theory (2): A hypothesis proposed as an explanation; hence, a mere hypothesis, speculation, conjecture; an idea or set of ideas about something; an individual view or notion.

Consider the old theory about the Earth being the center of the universe, that everything observable out there revolves around the Earth.  That fits nicely within Theory (1) above.  Of course we now know that the sun is what we revolve around, the sun goes around the Milky Way, etc. etc. - the current Heliocentric Theory of the Solar System (we go around the sun) also fits in nicely with Theory (1) above.  The thing is one of these scenarios is correct and one is not.  Both, however, rely heavily on things we can actually observe but because of perspective the actual meaning of those things changes drastically.

Now consider things like Evolution, Creationism, God, the loyalty of your friends, and the list goes on.  Where do they fit in to our understanding of what we "know" or think we "know"?  How can you be sure?  What evidence, if any, are you using in your thinking on the topic?

The answer to that last question goes a long way to explain how Epistemology, the philosophical study of knowledge, applies to you in your everyday life.

Now we'll have a look at this video and take notes on the most relevant parts dealing with Epistemology - the video covers some big topics.

This is streamed from the Halton Board's website - you can access it at any school computer without logging into the site but if you're at home you'll be prompted during your login to put in the long number on your Library Card (student ID card that you get from your school).  Don't use your student number it won't work - the other much longer number on your card is what you need.  Here's the link:

The Day the Universe Changed - Part 1 - if this doesn't work it's because you'll need to login.  In that case go to:

HDSB Online Library Site  (which is actually hdsb.ca/library/) and enter their Education Library Catalogue and search for "The Day the Universe Changed" - the video to watch is Part 1 - The Way We Are - It Started with the Greeks.