KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM COMMON SENSE BELIEFS “ G.E. MOORE “
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
    What is knowledge? What can be known? What is it to know? Or put simply; what is the possibility of an absolute truth and certainty in knowledge? These are fundamental questions in epistemology. Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher appealed to sense experience, as the source of knowledge. He argued that knowledge begins with a study of particular things. In other words, our knowledge of things begins with the things we can perceive. There is no way we would understand an object or something. We must appeal to the things our sense perceive about that particular thing or object.
    However, to understand G.E. Moore’s argument on the epistemic status of common sense which is a contemporary defense to the theory of knowledge, we can begin by examining what we mean by sense experience and common sense view of the world. Against this background, this work examines the theory of knowledge gotten from common sense beliefs, its implications, importance, effects and differences.
 1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
    The problems of this study can be seen in the tensions arising from G.E. Moore’s attempt to defend common sense beliefs. Moore’s conception of common sense creates some problems in the discourse of philosophy. The first problem created by Moore’s idea of common sense beliefs, is that in appealing to the epistemic nature or character of various common sense beliefs and propositions, there is lot of inconsistency in these beliefs and propositions, this in turn raises objections and criticisms.
The second problem is in the fact of empiricism, the idea that only the senses can give us knowledge There is first of all the question of whether there are other ways of getting certain knowledge, which exist outside of the empirical method and if it does exist, how does it contribute to knowledge, and how can it be attributed to common sensual knowledge? There is infact the question of the epistemological status of the empirical; is every empirical thing true, knowable or useful?
Lastly, though Moore took great pain in specifying the kinds of statement he was talking about, by asserting common sense beliefs and propositions, which can be taken as data, the problem remains that these common sense beliefs and propositions cannot be epistemologically justified. This is because it is not in the virtue of their being common sense proposition and beliefs that confers any positive epistemic status on them. Rather it is as a result of being the case that it is not every common sensical beliefs that are sources of knowledge.
1.3    PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
    The main purpose of the study is to examine and evaluate critically, the epistemological implication of common sense propositions and beliefs as sources of knowledge in G.E. Moore.
1.4    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
    The significance of this study can be seen in its potential contribution to knowledge. It will expose us to the contribution, importance, sources and limits of common – sensical beliefs to knowledge. It will enable us determine the justification of what we mean by common sense beliefs.
1.5    SCOPE OF THE STUDY
    The scope of this study will be limited to knowledge derived from common sense beliefs, as argued by G.E. Moore. It will include sense perceptory knowledge and empirical knowledge. A critical evaluation of the theory of knowledge and G.E. Moore’s idea of common sense will be studied, since it exposes us to its implication and contribution. Thus, it affects what we claim to know epistemologically.
1.6    METHODOLOGY
    The primary source will include G.E. Moore’s work on common sense; a critical evaluation which looks at the merits and demerits will be a major methodology to be used in this project.
    Secondary source will also include extensive library research, relevant and literature and materials applicable to the current subject, with a view to extensively evaluate and analyze them and also to source the internet for more materials to support this project.
1.7    LITERATURE REVIEW
    There are a number of works that have been done on epistemology. These works focuses on its practices, sources, and limits. Some of these works also offer a general view on the theory of knowledge, specifically common sense theory. One of the works relevant to this study is titled; An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge by Dan O’ Brien. He examined the study of the theory of knowledge, its sources, limits, justification and areas of knowledge. For him, epistemology as a branch of philosophy, studies the human knowledge. It examines how human beings acquire knowledge. It tries to know and examine the scope and limits of human knowledge.1
    Another relevant work is ‘A Contemporary Defense on Common Sense, by Noah Lemos. It explains the common sense tradition and highlights some of its features. It examines some of the chief representatives of the common sense tradition, mainly Thomas as Reid, G.E. Moore and Roderick Chisholm. Although there are important differences among the views of these three philosophers and epistemologist, the book gives a rough account of some central features of the common sense tradition in philosophy.2
    Another relevant work on G.E. Moore was edited by Michael Huemer. The book titled Contemporary Readings in Epistemology exposes us to the contributions and implication of sense data, his contribution on classical correspondence theory. The text articulates three different versions of common sense. These epistemological concerns also motivate the focus on the ontology  of cognition, which specifically implies that the object of knowledge/cognition are not independent of their knower’s, in other words, being known (cognized, perceived etc) makes a difference to the nature and things being known “the object of knowledge”3. We now proceed to Moore’s intellectual biography.
END NOTES
1.    Dan O’ Brien, An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge, (Cambridge; Polity Press, 2006) P. 6.
2.    Noah Lemos, A Contemporary Defence on Common Sense, (Cambridge; Routledge 2002) P. 1.
3.    Michael Humer, Contemporary Readings in Epistemology, (London; Routledge 2002) P. 602.            
4.    Edward N. Zalta, “Epistemology” Senior Research Scholar, Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. Wikipedia.org/Epistemiclink.com; 2011. P. 1.

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