Concept

A Causal Theory of Knowing

Overview

"A Causal Theory of Knowing" is a philosophical essay written by Alvin Goldman in 1967, published in The Journal of Philosophy. It is based on existing theories of knowledge in the realm of epistemology, the study of philosophy through the scope of knowledge. The essay attempts to define knowledge by connecting facts, beliefs and knowledge through underlying and connective series called causal chains. It provides a causal theory of knowledge.

A causal chain is repeatedly described as a sequence of events for which one event in a chain causes the next. According to Goldman, these chains can only exist with the presence of an accepted fact, a belief in the fact, and a cause for the subject to believe the fact. The essay also explores the ideas of perception and memory through the use of the causal chains and the concept of knowledge.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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1. But the notion of force is not all of the principle of causality. This consists in a judgment stating that every force develops in a definite manner, and that the state in which it is at each particular moment of its existence predetermines the next state. The former is called cause, the latter, effect, and the causal judgment affirms the existence of a necessary connection between these two moments for every force…

   Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

   States what A Causal Theory of Knowing is.

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2. Our judgments on causal efficacy are almost inextricably warped by the acceptance of the symbolic reference between the two modes as the completion of our direct knowledge. This acceptance is not merely in thought, but also in action, emotion, and purpose, all precedent to thought. This symbolic reference is a datum for thought in its analysis of experience.

   Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism, its meaning and effect

   States what A Causal Theory of Knowing is.

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3. But it is the will of the individual that sets the whole mechanism in motion, by urging the intellect, in accordance with the interest, _i.e._, the individual aims, of the person, to recall, together with its present representations, those which either logically or analogically, or by proximity in Time or Space, are nearly related to them.

   Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature

   States what A Causal Theory of Knowing is.

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Philosophers who discussed A Causal Theory of Knowing

• Alvin Goldman

Related ideas

• Philosophy
• If and only if
• Alvin Goldman
• Edmund Gettier
• Princeton University
• Perception
• Sense data
• Memory
• The Journal of Philosophy
• Cognitive science
• Rutgers University
• Epistemology

Place in the tradition

Part of Analytic philosophy.

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