epistemology

What is a "belief"? which are its characteristics? What is "knowledge" What exactly is the difference between both of them? In every discussion people take for granted an incredible amount of stuff, like that the particular POV everybody have is the best, or truer, or more realistic, and...

Many are discussing about this, because, who is Weinsten to believe that he, a "nobody" can just state stuff like that, without being respected by the peer review community? And, independently of whatever happens to his theory, the thing that calls my attention is this, reticence, to just be...

Hello, everybody! I've been studying a lot of political philosophy and have combined several elements of various philosophies into one which I think is both reasonable and practical. I'd love to hear constructive criticism, so without further ado: When asked to describe Objectivism whilst...

There are the religious ones, the materialists, the dualists, the agnostics, the (insert any belief system here)... and I'm curious about what do YOU believe? I'm highly skeptical, in the real sense, this is, I doubt we can have something called "knowledge" in the first place. That said...

Hi, I am new to this forum. I've read through many threads and I realize this topic is mainly dominated by anti-Truthers. However, I am interested not in debating what conspiracy narrative is the valid narrative to explain the collapse of the World Trade Center towers but the ideology which is...

I remember asking myself one late night while drinking tea, "What is knowing?" and I repeated this question to myself a few times and realized I wasn't entirely sure. I decided to turn my attention to the words of the question to see if the answer lied in the very assumption the question makes...

OK, this is not a parody thread. Of course I believe atheists can be rational (I just took the title from the other thread) but what I want to see is a rational argument for atheism. I have always assumed such exist, and that atheism can be entirely rational, but following recent reading of...

In another thread Volatile asked the excellent question as to why I converted from atheism to theism, and that subset of theism known as Christianity. http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=4216892#post4216892 I very much doubt anyone gives a hoot, and I am not that...

Is anyone aware of any 9/11 conspiracy theorising that grounds itself in poststructuralism? By “poststructuralism”, I’m broadly referring to anything that openly exhibits any of these characteristics: Pure epistemological relativism or epistemologically relativist anthropology: Objective truth...

To keep things under control, please use this format: "An object is: 1) a separate entity 2) it existence is independent of observers 3) has different characteristics which are not affected by observers and so on... " Change the list with what you believe, of course. I used what I think is...

Put it here to gain more attention.I object that philosophy and religion share the same forum. True, some philosophy is religious but the latest trends are ALL but about religion. Philosophy should be either alone or tied with the science forum. Like this: "Religion" "Philosophy and Science"...

Some quite unexpected facts (to the common people): There is no “external” material world outside your consciousness. There are no objects, there is no light, nothing like and earth or stars or galaxies. Consciousness is your world, the only one you know and will know, the only one that exists...

There was a time, long time ago, in which I believed in woo. I wanted to adhere to things like reincarnation, immortal souls, unknown mental "forces" and that kind of things. Later, I learned that the world was more important than my beliefs, and so I spent a great amount of time reading books...

What is "to be right" or "to be wrong" In which circumstantes can one say that his/her opinions are on one side or the other? Am I right if I reach a conclusion (that later is proven correct) with a wrong induction? Am I wrong if the consensus believes Im wrong? Im I right if what I say is...

This was the title of a post that I wrote in another forum some time ago. It is of general interest, so I thought that I'd present it for discussion here as well. What do you know, and how do you know you know it? The post was about how I, personally, address this question. Particularly when...

After entering into a discussion here the topic of Pragmatism came up. After doing a bit of reading on the topic, I must admit I am somewhat confused as to the Pragmatic stance in Epistemology. The Pragmatist says knowledge that does not lead to any 'real life' benefit is not knowledge (thus...

Hi everyone, I'm somewhat of a long time lurker on various forums such as this one and decided to post. As I understand epistemology is the study of knowledge, and why or if you can know something to be true. Are there any good books/sites(reputable) for beginners on the subject? I'd like to...

To the atheist the root of knowledge is logic and reason. The atheist starts with I think therefore I am and builds upon it. Using the scientific method or mindset to determine reality from fantasy. To the Christian the root of knowledge is two things: #1: The Holy Ghost #2: The Holy Bible...