The criminal and the sick

Opinion surveys were taken in an effort to determine the philosophical beliefs of students beginning philosophy. Correlated sets were made of those who took the survey before and after a first course in philosophy; and opinion shifts noted.

The acquired information may be of interest to people in various disciplines. The authors tested the semantic usage of certain epistemological terms, the change in religious beliefs, the degree of consistency between general skepticism and particular knowledge claims. Finally, the authors proposed a consistency test for the measure of the extent to which a sample of students “clarified their beliefs,”; and attempted to measure their own pedagogical efficiency with reference to this test.