1.
What
reasons did Descartes give to show that “there is not one of my former beliefs
about which a doubt may not be raised”?
Which of these reasons led him to doubt even so obvious a belief as
“2+3=5”?
2.
What
do you think about the sort of skeptical doubts Descartes raised?
3.
How
do you know you are not living in the Matrix?
4.
What
is the difference between logical impossibility and physical
impossibility?
5.
What
are some of the ways that our personal experience can be misleading as a source
of knowledge?
6.
Explain
the difference between foundationalism and coherentism (or holism) as accounts
of the structure of beliefs. (Hint: the pyramid vs. the web)
7.
Why
do Schick and Vaughan reject coherence as a standard of justification?
8.
Knowledge
is sometimes defined as “justified, true belief.” Why “justified”? Why not
just “true belief”?
9.
Explain
briefly what ‘confirmation bias’ and ‘the availability error’ are.
10.
Descartes
is a rationalist. Hume is an
empiricist. What’s the difference?
11.
Explain
the difference between ‘a priori’ and ‘a posteriori’ knowledge.
12.
What
is supposed to be the difference between inductive reasoning and deductive
reasoning?
13.
Hume
is sometimes credited with discovering ‘the problem of induction’. Why does Hume think that our tendency to
draw inductive conclusions from our experience is just a ‘custom’ or ‘habit’
and that it cannot be justified by any valid reasoning?
14.
What
is ‘inference to the best explanation’? (Explain by inventing your own
example.)
15. Some people seem to think
that the hallmark of the scientific method is the unbiased (or
presuppositionless) collection of data.
What’s the problem with this view?
16. According to Schick and
Vaughan, what is the difference between science and pseudo-science or ‘science
and its pretenders’?
17. Schick and Vaughan admit
that choosing between rival scientific theories is not a purely logical
process, but they insist that it is not a subjective process either. How so? What do you think?
18.
According
to Kuhn the history of science can show us that paradigms play a crucial role
in science. Based on your reading of
Chapters II and III in The Structure
of Scientific Revolutions, what is a paradigm, and why does scientific
inquiry flounder without one? (In other
words, how does ‘pre-paradigmatic science’ differ from ‘normal science’?)
19.
What
point does Kuhn make using the ‘anomalous card’ experiment he describes on pp.
62-64? (Describe the experiment briefly
and explain the significance Kuhn thinks it has for understanding human
perception and science.)
20.
Based
on your reading of Chapter VIII, explain how Kuhn thinks scientists normally
respond to observations that contradict their theories.