Study Questions

1. How does Bertrand Russell differentiate between “knowledge by acquaintance” and “knowledge by description”? (check out the footnote at bottom of p. 19)
Russell claims that “knowledge by acquaintance” is direct and immediate and consists of raw “feelings”, while “knowledge by description” is descriptive of fact and couched in propositions.
2. How does Abel distinguish between “knowing how” and “knowing that”?
Abel claims that “knowing that” is a propositional knowledge, while “knowing how” cannot be fully specified in propositional knowledge.
3. What does he mean when he asks: “can knowing how theoretically always be reduced to knowing that? What is Abel’s answer? What do you think?
By this he means “can you know how to do something and always know why it is able to be done?” (like in the example of riding a bicycle). His answer is that this is not always true. I agree with that answer because I think that there are some things that you know through an emotional state that cannot be explained rationally.
4. How does language become a problem of knowledge?
It is not possible to fully state the rules for some ordinary English usages which we all know how to employ.
5. What do you think William James means when he says: “Life defies our phrases?”
Some experiences cannot not be explained rationally.
6. What, according to Abel, is the difference between “experience” and “propositional knowledge”?
Abel claims that “experience” includes everything we do and everything that happens to us, encompassing sensations and emotions, while “propositional knowledge” describes and explains experiences.
7. What are Abel’s Four Conditions for propositional knowledge? Where have we seen this before? Why does he add a Fourth Condition?
The proposition must be true, must be believed, must be justified, and must not be undermined by other evidence. These were seen when we were studying Plato’s definition of “Truth”. He adds the Fourth Condition because it is so easy for someone to mistake something they truly thought they “knew”.
8. What are Abel’s Nine Good Reasons or Evidence which serve as the Basis of Knowledge? Please give an example for each that is not in the book!
Sense perception (I know the food taste bad because I can taste it), logic (I know the Earth is round because I can prove it), intuition (I know it is wrong to steel because my intuition tells me so), self-awareness (I know I am hungry because I feel it), memory (I know where the house is because I remember how to get there), authority (I know WWI happened because the teacher told me so), consensus gentium (I know Bob is a mean person because everyone says so), revelation (I know that I must do this because it is the will of the gods), faith (I know I will go to heaven when I die because I have faith).