Philosophy

Philosophy Study Guide

power of reason. 6.6 Making Connections: Your Beliefs about the World You have a theory of knowledge, meaning you and everyone else develops beliefs and constructs knowledge based on certain principles. Your critical thinking abilities will enable you to develop the most informed beliefs and construct the most enlightened knowledge of which you are capable of. Beliefs represent an interpretation, evaluation, conclusions, or prediction about the world that we endorse as true and express an endorsement of the truth or accuracy of the beliefs by the speaker based presumably on convincing reasons or evidence. The beliefs you develop in living your life help you explain why the world is the way it is, and they guide you in making decisions. All beliefs are not equal—some are certain because they are supported by compelling reasons and other beliefs are less certain because the support is not as solid. As you form and revise your beliefs based on your experiences and your reflections, it is important to make them as accurate as possible. The more accurate they are, the better you will understand what is taking place and to predict what will occur in the future. When you state you know something, you mean at least two different things: ‘I think this belief is completely accurate’ or ‘I can explain to you the reasons or evidence that supports this belief.’ We work at evaluating the accuracy of our beliefs by examining the reasons or evidence that supports them (known as the justification or the beliefs). Your beliefs can be thought of as forming a continuum based on their accuracy and justification and as you learn more about the world and yourself you try to form beliefs that are increasingly accurate and justified. Determining the accuracy and justification of your beliefs is more challenging and we generally use the following criteria: ● To what extent is the belief supported by sound reasons and compelling evidence derived from reliable sources? ● How effectively does the belief explain what is taking place? ● To what extent is the belief consistent with other beliefs you have about the world? ● How effectively does your belief help you predict what will happen in the near future? ● Is the belief falsifiable? A critical thinking perspective sees knowledge and truth as goals that we are striving to achieve, processes that we are all actively involved in as we construct our understanding of the world. Developing accurate knowledge about the world is often a challenging process of exploration and analysis in which our understanding grows and evolves over a period of time.

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