Notes on Epistemology 
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                       Rev. John J. Toohey, S.J. 
                        Georgetown University 
                          Washington, D.C.  
                                
            The unique place of reason in natural-law philosophy has been affirmed by 
             the modern Thomistic philosopher, the late Father John Toohey. Toohey 
            defined sound philosophy as follows: "Philosophy, in the sense in which the 
            word is used when scholasticism is contrasted with other philosophies, is an 
              attempt on the part of man's unaided reason to give a fundamental 
                 explanation of the nature of things." – Murray Rothbard  
                                
                                
                                
                        Scanned from 1952 monograph 
                        (italics replacing underlining) 
                           by Anthony Flood  
                            February 2007 
                                                   2 
                          Table of Contents 
            
               I  The Starting Point of Epistemology 
               II  Reality and Truth 
              III  Proposition, Judgment and Inference 
              IV  The Definition of Certitude 
               V Universal Scepticism 
              VI  The Cartesian Doubt 
              VII Idealism 
             VIII  The Secondary Sensible Qualities 
              IX  The Theory of Kant 
               X  Kant on the Propositions of Pure Mathematics 
              XI Error 
              XII Pragmatism 
             XIII  The New Realism 
             XIV  The Misinterpretation of the Abstract Term 
              XV  The Misinterpretation of the General Concrete Term 
             XVI Universal Ideas 
             XVII Human Testimony 
            XVIII  The Ultimate Motive of Certitude 
             XIX  Philosophy and Common Sense 
              XX  Philosophy and Its Pitfalls 
             XXI  Schiller’s Attack on Formal Logic 
                                                                                                       3 
                                                           Theses 
                        
                        
                        
                       1.     Certitude is a firm assent to a perceived truth. 
                       2.     The doctrine of universal scepticism cannot be professed 
                              without self-contradiction; the state of mind of universal 
                              scepticism is intrinsically impossible. 
                       3.     No reasonable man can demand a proof of every truth before 
                              assenting to it. 
                       4.     There is a world outside of us. 
                       5.     The theory of Kant offers no escape from the scepticism of 
                              subjective idealism and undermines its own foundation. 
                       6.     There is no proof that the human mind has ever been 
                              deceived per se. 
                       7.     The assent which the mind gives to a truth without 
                              scientifically weighing the grounds is in many cases a 
                              genuine certitude. 
                       8.     The pragmatist’s account of truth is arbitrary and his 
                              philosophical position is without foundation. 
                       9.     There are direct universal ideas, i.e., universal ideas whose 
                              objects are independent of the mind.  The world of reality 
                              affords a foundation for the universality of the direct 
                              universal ideas. 
                       10.    The systems of Ultra-realism, nominalism, and 
                              conceptualism are false. 
                       11.    The mind can acquire certitude of historical fact from human 
                              testimony. 
                       12.    Evidence is the universal criterion of truth and the ultimate 
                              motive of every act of certitude. 
                        
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                           Introduction  
                                
                      The Definition of Epistemology 
            
            
            
             Epistemology is derived from the two Greek words “episteme” 
           knowledge and “logos” science,  and means the science of 
           knowledge.  As employed in philosophy the word means the science 
           of the certitude of human knowledge. 
             The material object of Epistemology is human knowledge and its 
           sources. 
             The  formal object of Epistemology is the certitude of human 
           knowledge. 
             Epistemology is also called Major Logic, Applied Logic, Material 
           Logic, Critical Logic, Criteriology, and Fundamental Philosophy.  
           Since the name Logic without qualification is now very generally 
           applied to the science of valid argument, it can hardly be regarded 
           as a good name for the science of certitude.  Fundamental 
           Philosophy is not suitable as a name, because it does not tell what 
           the science is concerned with; and besides, it supposes that there 
           is general agreement that the science of certitude is the foundation 
           of all philosophy.