What is Knowledge?
Assignment #8
“What is knowledge?” is a fundamental question to TOK.
There are three conditions that need to be fulfilled to be able to tell that you know something.
- It has to be true.
- You need to believe in it.
- You need a justification for it.
Bertrand Russel divided knowledge into:
- Knowledge by an acquaintance. (based on personal experience)
- Knowledge by description. (not acquired by direct experience)
There are two “schools of thought”, which are the Rationalism and the Empiricism.
Rationalism is the theory that we should only trust what comes from our reasoning because our senses can be easily fooled.
Descartes’ famous quote:
“I think, therefore I exist”
Comes from his Meditations, where he tried to prove the existence from God. He also believed that we should always try to take a scientific approach to all knowledge that comes from the senses.
Empiricism is the theory that our mind begins as a blank slate, and as we gather experience, we start working out how things work.
John Locke, an influential English philosopher, disagreed with the Descartes’ concept of “innate ideas” because he thought that no knowledge could be imprinted on the soul, but rather we build up knowledge from our senses.
There are degrees of knowledge
Intuitive: when something is almost obvious.
Demonstrative: requires the help of connecting ideas.
Sensitive: deals with experience and sensations.
Intuitive: when something is almost obvious.
Demonstrative: requires the help of connecting ideas.
Sensitive: deals with experience and sensations.
