Problem of the criterion
The problem of the criterion is an issue in epistemology about the starting point of knowledge. It is considered a separate but more fundamental issue than the regress[1] argument found in discussions on proving that some knowledge is true.[2]
History
[change | change source]Classical antiquity
[change | change source]In Western philosophy, the earliest surviving document of the problem of the criterion was written by Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus (b. 2nd century AD).[2] In the Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Sextus Empiricus showed that there had been no criterion of truth, contrary to the position of dogmatists, such as the Stoics well-known for their doctrine of katalepsis.[3][4]
Modern period
[change | change source]American philosopher Roderick Chisholm detailed the problem of the criterion with two sets of questions in the Theory of Knowledge:
- What do we know? or What is the extent of our knowledge?
- How do we know? or What is the criterion for deciding whether we have knowledge in any particular case?
Related pages
[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- ↑ A series of statements in which a logical procedure is continually reapplied to its own result without approaching a useful conclusion (e.g. defining something in terms of itself). Oxford Languages.
- 1 2 "Problem of the criterion". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ↑ Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism Book II Chapters 4–9.
- ↑ Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia (PDF). Princeton University Press. pp. 22–23. ISBN 9781400866328.