Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MP/2012-07
Branches of Philosophy
Ontology (metaphysics) What is real? Ethics What is right or wrong? Aesthetics What is beauty? Epistemology What is knowledge?
Epistemology
What is Epistemology?
The study of the nature, source, limits, and validity of knowledge. It is interested in developing criteria for evaluating claims people make that they know something. Central questions:
What is knowledge?
Definitions
Knowledge is "justified (i.e., verified) true belief."
To know is to believe. The belief must, in fact, be true. The belief must be "justified" (i.e., verified, proved) by some standard and generally recognized means.
Opinion is belief that may be true or may be false but that has not been or cannot be "justified" (i.e., verified, proved) by any standard and generally recognized means.
Object
What is (Being, Reality) What is & is not (Becoming) What is not (Nothingness, Unreality)
Access
Intellect Perception ?
Example
An example: What is 2 + 2 = ? Opinion or knowledge? What is the boiling point of water? Opinion or knowledge? What about: Best Subject, Favorite Subject What about: Best Subject, Favorite Subject? Opinion or knowledge?
Knowledge: 2+2=4:
a. I know this; I dont doubt it; I cannot even properly say that I believe it. b. I dont disbelieve that 2+2 equals 4; I know it. Opinion: TV is best mean of entertainment a. Some people doubt it; b. some may believe it; c. no one knows it to be true.
CONTD.
There will be another World War in the next 5 years. a. b. c. No one actually knows. At best it is a probable prediction. Some people may believe it and some may doubt it, but it is not a statement of knowledge.
We know nothing; everything is a matter of opinion? And we mustnt be fooled, he says, by the feelings which we sometimes have of certainty, the feeling that the things is perfectly clear and sure for us.
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David Hume says that we do have knowledge, but at best, it is highly probable opinion that consists in the experimental sciences. Thus, because it is probable, it is opinion, not knowledge.
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Anyone who argues that everything is a matter of opinion, cant defend his case without establishing that his view is knowledge. It is self-defeating.
Conclusion:
Therefore, an opinion is not knowledge, nor is knowledge that of ones own opinion.
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References
Hoffmann, T. Plato Knowledge vs. Opinion. http://faculty.cua.edu/hoffmann/courses/201_1068/Plato6%20knowledge%20and%20opinion.pdf Kneller, J. Introduction to Philosophy of Education. Nicholas,A. (2003). Theory of Knowledge, London. John Murrey. Russell, R (1926). Theory of Knowledge: Encyclopaedia Britannica http://www.marxits.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/r ussell1.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge
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