Self-study
Historian: Because medieval epistemology (theory of knowledge) is a complex subject, intellectual historians have, until recently, failed to produce a definition that would help to determine what should and what should not be included in it. ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ████████ ████████████ ████████ ████ ███████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████████ ████████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ █████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that a solution to the problem of defining medieval epistemology is to define it as “the epistemological beliefs of the medieval epistemologists.” Using this definition, the author believes we could determine what is a part of medieval epistemology by asking whether any medieval epistemologists believed it. If any did, then it’s a part of medieval epistemology. If any believed the opposite, then the opposite claim is also part of medieval epistemology.
Notable Assumptions
The argument assumes that it is possible to determine whether someone was a medieval epistemologist. The argument also assumes that it’s possible to determine what medieval epistemologists believed.
22.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
Medieval epistemologists held ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████████████
There’s nothing wrong with some beliefs being part of both medieval epistemology and ancient epistemology.
b
The epistemological beliefs ██ ████████ ███████████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ █████ ██████████████████ ████████
Even if epistemological beliefs depended on nonepistemological matters, the definition simply includes the epistemological beliefs. Other beliefs about nonepistemological things wouldn’t be part of medieval epistemology.
c
The writings of ████ ████████ ███████████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █████████████
The author never suggested medieval epistemologists couldn’t write about nonepistemological things. We care about the epistemological beliefs; whatever’s not epistemological just wouldn’t be part of medieval epistemology.
d
Some medieval epistemologists ███ ███████████████ ███████ ████ ████████████ ███ ███████████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████████████
There’s no reason medieval epistemology can’t include beliefs that are contradictory. Maybe some people believed “X is true” and others believed “Not X.” Both “X” and “Not X” can be part of what we understand to be medieval epistemology.
e
There is much ██████ ██ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ████████████████
This provides a reason to think that the author’s solution to defining medieval epistemology might not be workable. If we don’t know who medieval epistemologists were, then we don’t know whose beliefs we should include as part of medieval epistemology.