Some skeptical philosophers have wrongly characterized the class of basic beliefs in foundationalist theory known as ‘the given’ as a myth. In response, contemporary epistemologist Roderick Chisholm maintains that some beliefs can be self-justified independently, and that our other non-foundational beliefs, in turn, can be traced back to these basic beliefs. Yet, significantly, what [...]

“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…yes, I have a dream that my [...]

Moritz Schlick, inspired by David Hilbert’s work, took the concept of separating epistemology from its intuitive content much further. Schlick asserts, “it seemed intolerable that the ultimate principals- the axioms of geometry, which underlie all proofs and therefore are not themselves provable-should still owe their validity to intuition alone.” (The Nature of Knowledge, pg. 32) [...]