Ways of Knowing: What Can We Know and How Do We Know It?

What do we mean by “I know”?

Claims to Knowledge
Knowledge and Belief – Mini-Assignment
The Basis For Knowledge (Man is the Measure, Abel Ch. 2)

What’s Up With This “Justified True Belief” Stuff?

Belief & Truth – Justified True Belief
What Can We Know? (Persons & Their World Ch 15 Olen)
The Justification of Our Beliefs – Justification Chains, Web of Belief (Olen Ch 16)
Knowledge Need Not Be Justified, True nor Believed

Occam’s Razor: How Can We Decide Between Competing Theories?

Occam’s Razor Explained (:12 mins)
The Mentalist: Flipping a Coin (:3 mins)
Occam’s Razor & Why We Use It (:5 mins)

What Are Some Problems With Knowing?

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
- “Alegory of the Cave” (Book 7)
- “Allegory” TedEd Video (5 mins)
- Allegory of the cave – explained
- Plato’s Republic (FULL)

Descartes: Certainty & Doubt
- Descartes – “I Think Therefore I Am”supplement
- On Doubt & Certainty – Rene Descartes Meditations 1&2
- Overcoming Doubt – Descartes’ Approach
- Descartes On Certainty and Doubt- 1st Meditation

The Ascent of Man: Knowledge or Certainty (Jacob Bronowski) 50 mins
Do Chairs Exist? (V-sauce YouTube :40 mins)

ISHMAEL (Stepping away a bit for a novel approach….)

ISHMAEL Homepage
Robin Wall Kimmerer: Objective Science Can Be Enriched By Indigenous Wisdom
My Octopus Teacher (IMDB Film page)

PERCEPTION:

- “Appearance & Reality” The Problems With Philosophy (Bertrand Russell)
- TeacherMetzler – Psychology/Perception Page
- Perception – in the minds eye
- Lessons from Judas Priest Trial
- “Powers of Ten” (Eames 8 mins)
- Is Your Red the Same as My Red (VSauce :10 mins)
- SOME PERCEPTION EXERCISES & Readings:
  - Perception quotes
  - Do THIS exercise, then do THIS ONE
    - You’ll understand the problem even before you’re done
  - What Are Your Assumptions?
  - The spider and the fly problem
  - Puzzles – mental flexibility and creativity
  - The Mouse Who Ate the Cheese
  - The blind men and the elephant
  - Perception – painters keep one eye on center canvas
    - Eye-Placement Principle in 500 years of Portraits
  - Different Cultures Define Happiness Differently (Atlantic 2021)
- Joseph Campbell’s Woman Problem: The Heroine with 1001 Faces (The Atlantic)

LANGUAGE:

- “Drowning”- Complexities of Language
- Taylor Mali: “Totally Like Whatever, You Know?”
- Melissa Lozada-Oliva (“Like Totally Whatever”)
- The Big One- The F Word
- Fun with language 1
- Language Fun 2
- Loose with language fun
- language – Nothingness Poem
- I Am Writing Blindly
- language_quotes
- language_questions
- Jabberwocky – exercise 1
- jabberwocky – exercise 2
- Can Tone Indicators Help with Online Communication? (NYT)
- GEORGE CARLIN on the English Language
  - Hot Water Heater
  - Baseball v. Football
- “Who’s On First?” – Abbott & Costello (8 mins)
- You are what you say – Robin Lakoff
- BULL—- Between Truth and Lies
- The Gift of Gab
- “Meaning & Naming” (Man is the Measure – Reuben Abel CH 7)
- The Human Language Series (Part 1 – Colorless Green Ideas – :60 min)
- The Human Language Series (Part 2 – Playing the Language Game – 60 min)
- Linguistics & Understanding the Brain (Pinker – :50 mins)
- language and thought – Mackenzie
- No, You Can’t Have My Pronouns
- The One Word That Bars Trump From Pardoning Himself
- “Banished” Words 2021-Covid Edition
- Words Like “Racism” Have Lost Their Common Meaning (Atlantic)
- Free Speech & Cheerleader Social Media Expression
- Canceled: MIT Cancels U of Chicago Prof Lecture; Princeton Adds
- 3 Common Phrases That Mean Different Things to Men & Women (INC)
- Gender Neutral Pronouns Aren’t New (The Atlantic)
- Mansplaining At the Supreme Court (Atlantic)
  - Justice Interrupted: Gender & Language on Supreme Court (Northwestern U)
- How Newsroom Leaders Wrestled with Covering a Tumultuous Year (NPR :9 mins)
- Parkland Shooter Cannot Be Called “Animal” During Trial (CNN)
- Prosecutors Cannot Use Word “Victims”, But Defense Can Use “Looters” (NPR)
- Honestly, You Should Keep Using Verboten Terms (NYT)
- “Woke” Went the Way of “PC” and “Liberal” (NYT)
- Woke Words: A Linguist Explores the Words We All Grapple With (NYT)
- Tone Indicators Online (NYT)
- The Patriarchal Tradition That Just Won’t Budge- Father’s Last Names (Atlantic)

And How Might We WRITE About This Stuff?

- ESSAY: Student as Source of Knowledge & Critical Analysis (Student Sample)

LOGIC:

Crash Course Philosophy
- CC Philosophy #2: How To Argue – Philosophical Reasoning (:10 mins)
- CC Philosophy #3: How To Argue – Induction & Abduction (:10 mins)
LOGIC Intro Questions
Logic – A Summary
Argument Terminology for Logic Chart
The Requirement of Logical Rigor for Knowledge
NECESSARY v. SUFFICIENT (Khan Academy)
Love is a fallacy – Max Shulman
Love Is a Fallacy (Fun High School Production – YouTube :14 mins)
- Find ALL the Fallacies in “Love Is a Fallacy”
Logic Puzzle #12 (From our Puzzles Page)
Categorical Propositions – Logic
Deduction Puzzles
Brain Bogglers
Syllogisms
Syllogism Forms
Induction- Caution, slippery when wet
Logic Exercises
Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies!
Don’t Fallacy Me Game (Reclaim Your Brain)
Toulmin Model for Rhetoric
- Visualization of Toulmin Model
A Field Guide to Critical Thinking (James Lett)

AND AGAIN, let us never forget that….

Correlation is NOT Causation (a FUN take!)
Correlation is NOT Causation 2

What do we mean by “I know”?

What’s Up With This “Justified True Belief” Stuff?

Occam’s Razor: How Can We Decide Between Competing Theories?

What Are Some Problems With Knowing?

More Problems with “Knowing” in Our Everyday Lives

And let us never forget that….

ISHMAEL (Stepping away a bit for a novel approach….)

PERCEPTION:

LANGUAGE:

And How Might We WRITE About This Stuff?

LOGIC:

AND AGAIN, let us never forget that….