Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Causal theory of knowledge: The causal theory of knowledge posits that knowledge requires a causal connection between a belief and the truth of the proposition it concerns, meaning that the belief was caused by the truth. See also Causality, Explanations._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Alvin Goldman on Causal Theory of Knowledge - Dictionary of Arguments
Brandom I 310ff Knowledge/causal theory/facade-barn example/Alvin Goldman/Brandom: the causal theory of knowledge is intended to show the uselessness of an analysis which the cognitive authority of noninferent observation reports wants to fix exclusively on characteristics of the causal chain. I 310ff Definition causal theory of knowledge/Brandom: an observation is considered knowledge if it is caused by exactly the right way of what it is about (GoldmanVsCausal Theory of Knowledge). For example: barns: in a certain province, deceptively real façades of barns are built up. Everyone who knows nothing about the hobby of the local people will be convinced to see real barns and not just facades. I 311 Goldman: the assertion of a resident of the "real barns province" expresses genuine knowledge, the assertion of a resident of the "barn facade province" expresses no knowledge. Here it is just coincidence when he actually looks at a real barn. 1. One must go beyond the causal prehistory of a belief. 2. The difference in circumstances has an influence on the assessment of entitlement (even if they are causally irrelevant!) This can be explained by terms of reliability based on the circumstances (probability, quantity). >Reliability theory, >Probability, >Circumstances, >Knowledge, >Certainty. I 312 E.g. quantity: someone builds deceptively real sparrow mockups. As long as there are only a few copies of this genre of mockups, I am still a reliable judge of real sparrows. The probability that I am wrong, however, does not depend on my acuity, but on the frequency of occurrence of mockups! Reliability: reliability provides exactly the term used to explain cases such as the barn example. I 312 Goldman's example underlines the possibility of Gerrymandering: it is a matter of whether one is in the barn province, in the facade province, or on the border between the two, in order to assign values to the probability of the truth of assertions. >Gerrymandering. I 312/313 Reliability/Goldman: reliability is an objective property; it is not based on perceptibility, but on objective probabilities. The metaphor of the borders becomes concrete. >Objectivity._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Gold I Alvin I. Goldman Reliabilism and Contemporary Epistemology: Essays Oxford 2015 Bra I R. Brandom Making it exlicit. Reasoning, Representing, and Discursive Commitment, Cambridge/MA 1994 German Edition: Expressive Vernunft Frankfurt 2000 Bra II R. Brandom Articulating reasons. An Introduction to Inferentialism, Cambridge/MA 2001 German Edition: Begründen und Begreifen Frankfurt 2001 |
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> Counter arguments against Goldman
> Counter arguments in relation to Causal Theory of Knowledge
