AQA A LEVEL PHILOSOPHY Essay Plans - EPISTEMOLOGY
A* Level Essay Plans which are concise and easy to understand.
Written by a student predicted 4A*, with an offer to study Philosophy & Economics at the LSE.
Very helpful to write a top grade essay.
Essay Plan: Limits of knowledge (scepticism)
Introduction:
- Define philosophical scepticism: the doubting of all commonly accepted
beliefs and belief forming methods (e.g., perception), even to the extent of
doubting that the external world exists.
- Descartes was the creator of philosophical scepticism, through his three
waves of doubt.
- Thesis: scepticism prevails; poor responses from reliabilism, Descartes,
and indirect realism.
Outline:
- Descartes three waves of doubt challenge whether the external world truly
exists.
- Illusions challenge reliability of experience; dreams suggest we’re always
dreaming; evil demon example shows we could be always being deceived.
- This leads to philosophical scepticism: a form of global scepticism
meaning all beliefs are doubted; it is radical (and only thought about by
philosophers); it is doubting belief forming methods (e.g., perception); it is
not easily resolvable through sense experience. E.g., doubting whether the
external world exists.
- Should not be confused with normal incredulity: these are local (only
doubting a few beliefs), and are provisional (they are resolvable through
sense experience); they doubt the subject of perception; occurs every day
to normal people. E.g., doubting when a friend’s birthday is.
Strengths:
- It is impossible to deny that we could be being constantly deceived by an
evil demon; we would never know.
- Backed up by brain-in-a-vat example.
Issue 1:
- Reliabilism response: denies the need for absolute justification for the
existence of the external world; is satisfied with true belief formed by
reliable cognitive process.
- Define reliable.
- So even if we can’t justify the belief, it’s fine.
- As long as we take perception at face value (like we do for necessary
truths, for example), then we can be confident the external world exists.
Response:
- Reliant on sense experience being reliable.
- Also reliant on reliabilism being the correct definition: fake barn county
suggests its not.
Response to response:
- Through induction we generally form reliable beliefs through perception so
can say that perception is reliable.
R to R to R:
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