General Definitions

General Definitions:

• Epistemology: The study of knowledge in general. How do we know something is true? How do wedistinguish true from false? What is knowledge? Are there different sorts of Knowledge?
• Logic/Reasoning: While this subject is closely related to epistemology it is more about how we connect one truth with another or why it is that one truth implies another. It is less about how we know something is true and more about how do we understand the sorts of connections that make it so one truth leads to another.
  • Has two central concepts (see slides: Introduction to Reasoning)
  • VALIDITY: An argument is valid IF the premises WERE true the conclusion would be guaranteed also to be true
  • SOUNDNESS: A sound argument is one in which the premises ARE TRUE and the argument as a whole is valid
• Metaphysics: What is reality? Metaphysics asks broad questions about what the universe is made up of. It is different from physics because physics is a particular way of studying the physical world while metaphysics asks questions like “even if physics says we are all made of atoms are my thoughts just a bunch of atoms?”? Are the parts of reality which cannot be captured by the science of physics or what does it even mean to say that things are made up of atoms?
• Ethics: Ethics is the study of what is morally right and wrong. While epistemology asks us to figure out how to distinguish what is true from what is false ethics asks us to figure out the difference between what is right or wrong (or good and bad).