Epistemology

The nature of knowledge, its essential elements — the knowing subject, the known object, and the cognitive act — and the problem of objectivity.

How knowledge is acquired: the role of sensation, abstraction, and judgment in the knowing process.

Whether the objects of knowledge are genuinely extra-mental realities or merely subjective constructs; the case for realism.

The nature of the senses, their faculties and organs, and their role as the foundation of all human knowledge.

The five external senses and their proper and common sensibles; the reliability of external sense-perception.

The internal senses — common sense, imagination, memory, and the cogitative power — and their contribution to knowledge.

The nature of the intellect as a faculty distinct from sense; its immateriality and capacity for universal knowledge.

The three acts of the intellect — simple apprehension, judgment, and reasoning — and how they yield intellectual knowledge.

The definition of truth as the conformity of mind with reality; ontological and logical truth; the transcendental property of being.

The nature of falsity as the non-conformity of mind with reality; its kinds and the conditions under which error arises.

Ignorance, doubt, suspicion, and opinion as states of mind that fall short of certain knowledge.

Certitude, faith, and conviction as decisive states; their distinctions and the conditions required for each.

Evidence as the true and ultimate criterion of truth; the role of self-evident first principles and the conditions of valid evidence.

Critique of inadequate proposed criteria of truth: common consent, utility, feeling, and the authority of the individual.

Certitude defined as a firm assent to truth without fear of error; its classification into metaphysical, physical, and moral certitude.

The gradations of certitude and probability; how degrees of assent correspond to the strength of the evidence.

Dogmatism as the correct position that certain knowledge is attainable; its defense against all forms of scepticism.

Universal scepticism — the claim that certain knowledge is impossible — its forms, historical exponents, and refutation.

Agnosticism as the denial of knowledge beyond phenomena; its relationship to Kantian criticism and its philosophical refutation.

Relativism as the view that truth and certitude are relative to the knower; its forms including pragmatism, and its refutation.

Defense of the trustworthiness of external sensation against sceptical and idealist objections; the scholastic theory of perception.

The reliability of internal sense-perception — consciousness, memory, imagination — and its indispensability to intellectual knowledge.

Whether universal ideas genuinely represent objective reality; nominalism, conceptualism, and moderate realism assessed.

The trustworthiness of intellectual judgment, especially the self-evident first principles of reason and their indemonstrability.

The reliability of the syllogism and mediate inference as instruments for extending certain knowledge.

Authority as a source of certitude; the conditions under which testimony and expert witness generate genuine knowledge.

Divine faith as the highest certitude; the grounds for assenting to divine revelation and its relation to natural reason.

Human testimony and tradition as sources of certitude; the limits of human authority and the conditions for prudent credence.