← Knowledge & Inquiry syllabus

SingaporeKnowledge & Inquiry

The Nature of Knowledge

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

Does the language we use shape what we are able to know, or merely express knowledge we have independently?

Evaluate the role of language in the construction of knowledge, considering linguistic relativity, the public nature of meaning, and the risks of vagueness and conceptual framing
A focused answer on how language bears on knowledge. The linguistic relativity hypothesis and its strong and weak forms, the public nature of meaning, framing and vagueness, and whether language constructs or merely expresses what we know.
10 min answer →

Can perception give us knowledge of an external world, and how do illusion and the theory-ladenness of observation threaten that claim?

Assess perception as a source of knowledge, contrasting direct realism, indirect realism and idealism, and evaluating the arguments from illusion and theory-ladenness
A focused answer on whether perception delivers knowledge of the external world. Direct and indirect realism and idealism, the argument from illusion, the veil-of-perception problem, and the theory-ladenness of observation.
11 min answer →

Can reason alone give us knowledge of the world, or does all substantive knowledge ultimately rest on experience?

Distinguish a priori from a posteriori knowledge and analytic from synthetic truths, and evaluate the rationalist and empiricist accounts of the sources of knowledge
A focused answer on reason as a source of knowledge. The a priori versus a posteriori distinction, analytic versus synthetic truths, rationalism versus empiricism, and the contested status of synthetic a priori knowledge.
11 min answer →

Can we gain knowledge simply by being told something, and if so what justifies trusting the word of others?

Assess testimony as a source of knowledge, contrasting reductionist and anti-reductionist accounts and considering memory as a further source
A focused answer on testimony as a source of knowledge. Why so much of what we know rests on the word of others, the reductionist versus anti-reductionist debate over its justification, and memory as a preservative source.
10 min answer →

If knowledge is justified true belief, why do Gettier cases seem to be justified true beliefs that are not knowledge?

Explain the Gettier problem as a challenge to the sufficiency of the tripartite analysis and assess the main attempts to repair the definition of knowledge
A focused answer on Gettier's challenge to justified true belief. How Gettier cases work, why they show the three conditions are not jointly sufficient, and the leading repairs - no false lemmas, defeasibility, causal and reliabilist accounts.
11 min answer →

What does it take to know something, and why are truth, belief and justification each thought to be necessary?

Explain the three conditions commonly held to be necessary for propositional knowledge - truth, belief and justification - and assess whether each is genuinely required
A focused answer on the three classic conditions for knowing that something is the case: truth, belief and justification. What each condition adds, why theorists treat each as necessary, and how to argue about them in an essay.
11 min answer →