Epistemology And The Nature of Knowledge

Epistemology And The Nature of Knowledge
Epistemology And The Nature of Knowledge
1. Derived from the Greek words for knowledge and study,
is that area of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of
knowledge.
(A) metaphysics
(B) ontology
(C) epistemology
(D) rationalism
(E) empiricism
2. According to the classic definition, knowledge refers to .
(A) true belief held with conviction
(B) certainty
(C) justified true belief
(D) a state of enlightenment
(E) objectively true belief
Epistemology And The Nature of Knowledge
 
3. Epistemology primarily focuses on propositional knowledge (knowing
that such and such is the case). Propositional knowledge is typically
contrasted with what other types of knowledge?
(A) Practical knowledge and knowledge by acquaintance
(B) Artistic knowledge and moral knowledge
(C) Moral knowledge and practical knowledge
(D) Artificial knowledge and knowledge by acquaintance
(E) Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description
116 ❯ McGraw-Hill’s 500 Philosophy Questions
4. Suppose I suddenly believed, for no particular reason, that I will win
the lottery tomorrow, and suppose I actually end up winning.
Most philosophers would say that I didn’t know that I would win,
since my true belief lacked .
(A) certainty
(B) conviction
(C) content
(D) justification
(E) predictive success
5. According to foundationalist analyses of knowledge, .
(A) beliefs can be justified on the basis of basic, self-evident beliefs
(B) the foundation of all knowledge is justification
(C) beliefs are justified according to how well they fit in with a person’s
overall set of beliefs
(D) knowledge is the primary basis for all human behavior
(E) beliefs can be justified on the basis of an infinite regress of justified
beliefs
Epistemology And The Nature of Knowledge
 
6. Which of the following has presented the biggest challenge to the classic
analysis of knowledge as justified true belief?
(A) Academic skepticism
(B) Gettier cases
(C) Empiricism
(D) Frankfurt counterexamples
(E) Rationalism
7. Which of the following names the theory according to which knowledge
is true belief arrived at by a trustworthy process?
(A) Coherentism
(B) Contextualism
(C) Reliabilism
(D) Foundationalism
(E) Internalism
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8. The debate between internalists and externalists, in the context of
epistemology, is primarily about .
(A) whether or not knowledge is even possible
(B) whether or not everything necessary to provide justification for a
belief must be immediately available to the believer’s consciousness
(C) whether or not what makes a belief true must be something that
is immediately available to the believer’s consciousness
(D) whether the objects of belief are inside the mind or in the external
world
(E) whether or not we can ever know the contents of another person’s
mind
9. Which of the following claims best describes the central thesis
of coherentism?
(A) Beliefs are justified according to how well they fit in with a person’s
overall set of beliefs.
(B) Knowledge requires not mere evidence, but also warrant.
(C) Beliefs are not justified unless they are internally consistent.
(D) Knowledge requires not mere true belief, but also justification.
(E) Beliefs are justified if they are arrived at by a trustworthy process.
10. Who wrote the important 1969 essay “Epistemology Naturalized”?
(A) Bertrand Russell
(B) Alvin Plantinga
(C) W. V. O. Quine
(D) Philip Kitcher
(E) Edmund Gettier
11. Arguably, one of the first analyses of knowledge as justified true belief
can be found in .
(A) Plato’s Dialogues
(B) St. Augustine’s Confessions
(C) Descartes’s Meditations
(D) Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
(E) Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
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