THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

K IS A JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF

JUSTIFIED:Justify belief in the right kind of way to be reliable.

TRUE: Beyond reasonable doubt ( objective requirement)

BELIEF: You must believe that is true ( subjective

requirement)

SOME WORDS ABOUT K

• We all have a vast range of opinions, perspectives and belief by which we make hundreds of decisions, sometimes consciously, sometimes without thinking.

• K is a true belief that has been arrived at by a reliable process or indicator of truth.

• K is the outcome of a process which continues over time, the quest of K is endless and daily. K seeking never stops.

• K is not static. “Yesterdays revolution in thought becomes today common sense and tomorrows superstition”.

• K are facts related one to another in a systemic way

• We acquire K trough language, reason, sense perception and emotion, but none of these ways can give us certainty. We have to rely more in judgement ( evidence and coherence).

BELIEFS

• “The unexamined life is not worth living” ( Socrates)

Make your beliefs and opinions genuinely your own by subjecting them to critical scrutiny.Have another person as a witness of your evolution.

There is more reality beyond we can see and touch.

“Ignorance kills you”

KNOWER IN THE CENTRE.

• “People who believe absurdities will commit atrocities” (VOLTAIRE)

People beliefs define who you are as a person and affect their actions. We have the responsability to take a critical look at our own beliefs and prejudices. (ETHICAL ELEMENT IN THE PURSUIT OF K)

We are confronted with a bewildering array of contradictory beliefs.

INFORMATION VS KNOWLEDGE

•

The genuine K does not merely have info about it but understands how the various parts are related to one another to form a meaningful whole. Info is to K as bricks are to a building.

COMMON SENSE• Vague and untested beliefs ( prejudice, hearsay and blind

appeals to authority)

• Mental map of reality. We dont check it out all the time, so we can fall in inaccuracies and falsehoods.It may give us a distorted picture of reality

• Cultural biases in our picture of the world

• ¨The map is not the territory”

ORIGINS OF KNOWLEDGE

K is true belief that has been arrived at by a reliable process or indicator of truth. From all the ideas we absorb, combined with al our personal experiences, we shape our own belief and our own K.

The origins of K are really vast ( internet, TV, books, teachers) we need to work in our skills of discernment and discrimination.

KNOWLEDGE CATEGORIES

K by acquaintance is based in personal experience. Knowing how

EMPIRICISM

K by description is not acquaired by direct experience. Knowing that.

RATIONALISM

THE BASIS OF K

• RATIONALISM: Reason has precedence over all other ways of acquiring K.

Descartes: “I think therefor I am” . We can doubt about everything.His reason told him that he existed. We have innate ideas (implicite K)

• EMPIRICISM: The senses are primary with respect to K. Much closer to common sense. People were a blank slate to be written upon by experience. Locke said the empirical process begins at birth. All we know is taken in by our senses as raw material to be worked up into ideas by the mind.

Most of us use both ways to acquire K

TRUTH TESTSK begins in doubt and wonder and is a triumph of passing hurdles known as truth tests or achieving proofs.

What is true and what is not , because there are degrees of truth.

• The correspondance theory of truth: Go and check!

State of affairs correspnd to a fact. Wether the proposition matches up to what we know trough our senses. Demands that we rely on our own personal experience to be able to figure out if something is true or not.

• The coherence theory of truth: Think! Does this fit with what I already know?

Fit with other statements you take as true theories, they hang together trough their coherence.

• The consensus theory of truth: Truth is what the majority of people believe.

• The pragmatic theory of truth: Does it work?

Truth is whatever is useful and profitable to us and whatever brings us benefit.

TRUTH TESTS

• If the truth tests were perfect, we could clear away so many uncertainties. Yet we must conrtinue the search of truth. Our awareness of the tests imperfections can help us remain open to new information and prevent us from falling into the complacent attitude of believing we know it all.

• Truth for me?

JUSTIFICATIONS FOR BELIEF• Reasoning: Your figure it out logically or understand by

following someone else´s rational thinking. ( coherence test for truth)

• Observation: Your sense perception of the world gives you a justification for belief. ( correspondence truth test)

• Reliable source: You heard it from someone you trust. Expressed in language. ( Expert source or general consensus)

• Memory:You remember previous claims and their justifications. “Look inside”

• Emotions: You accept the claim because you feel that it is right. ( intuition or faith)

• Revelation: You accept the claim because God showed himself to you. This applies to metaphysical beliefs.

CERTAINTY• Is what distinguishes K from mere belief. We must support your

beliefs with evidence and be able to consider and respond criticism. In accepting plausibility and probability for most of our K claims we lay aside the expectation of finding absolute, unmistakable truth.

• EVIDENCE: To be reasonable there should be some positive evidence in support of it ( difficult prove negative FALLACY OF ARGUMENT AD IGNORANTIAM)

• COHERENCE: It coheres or fit with our current understanding of things. Examine them one at the time against the background of our other beliefs.

COMMON SENSEVague and untested belief

Mental map of realityCultural biasesSome evidence

Subjetive requirement: You must believe that is true.

CERTAINTYBy truth tests

Objective requirement: Beyond reasonable doubt Evidence and coherence

RELATIVISM-SCEPTICISM-GULLIBILITY

Relativism says there is no such thing as ABSOLUTE TRUTH that exists in an objective way. Instead truth is relative and may be different to individuals. All points of view are equally valued.

Good judgement is needed to balance scepticism with open mindeness. If we are too sceptical the danger is that intellectual progress will stagnate.

K CLAIMS

• Rational claims: Justified by reasoning and tested for their consistency within a system by the coherence truth test.

• Observational claims: Statements we can observe with our sense perception.

• Value claims: These claims embed evaluations on a scale that is not calibrated in measurable units. Until the claim is put in observational terms, it is not fact but opinion.

• Metaphysical claims: These are statements about the nature of reality outside physical reality.They cannot be tested with sense perception.

SECOND HAND K“If we have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” (NEWTON).

We can make progress by building on the accumulated achievements of past generations.

Not fall into AUTHORITY WORSHIP and blindy accept what we are told without thinking about it.

K by authority or by testimony

• CULTURAL TRADITION

• SCHOOL: Not what is thought but how ! ( indoctrination?)

• INTERNET: Source of disinformation vs accesibility and speed

• EXPERT OPINION: Specialized. They are fallible and they have a limited range of competence.

• NEWS MEDIA: There is some bias in both selection and presentation news.

LIMITATIONS OF SECOND HAND K

• It is not a original source.

• Our K claims must ultimately be justified and not only rely on our own judgement, we have to talk to people with different opinions.

• We must balance between taking K on authority and relying on our own resources.

FINAL SUMMARY

• K first is a subcategory of belief. It is a claim that you have accepted. K is a belief that is true for ALL. Is a belief that is held in areas where the truth tests work. It cannot al least be proven false. K is a belief that is pubicly justified and currently passes tests for truth.

• TRUTH is defined in different ways and tested imperfectly, that JUSTIFICATION for beliefs takes many different forms which are varyingly persuasive to different people, and that KNOWLEDGE in its most publicly demonstrated form, is not fixed and certain.

• Let us aknowledge and accept imperfection but try to believe as truly as we can.