Understanding the Nature of Knowledge
Added on 2020-04-07
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Running head: PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE.PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGEName of the StudentName of the StudentAuthor Note
1PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGEKnowledge may be defined as the insight into someone or something likeinformation, facts, skills or description that can be gained by education or experience, bydiscovery, study or perception. It may involve a practical or theoretical understanding of anyparticular subject. Knowledge may be both implicit and explicit. Implicit knowledge refers tothe expertise or practical understanding of a matter while the explicit knowledge deals withthe theoretical comprehension of the concerned subject. The essay concentrates on definingknowledge from the philosophical point of view. It throws light on the tripartite definition ofknowledge. The following essay mainly focuses on propositional knowledge. This essay alsolooks into the variations and counter-examples of propositional knowledge and tries toexplain them as well.According to the famous philosopher Plato, knowledge may be defined as any beliefthat is true and justified (Sisson & Ryan, 2015, September). The study of knowledge isknown as epistemology. Knowledge is something that can be acquired and that can beacquainted with. Knowledge maybe derived from a variety of sources. These sources can bebroadly categorized into perception, inference, testimony and similarity. Knowledge maybeacquired from the mentioned sources but knowledge does not depend only on these sources.Epistemology includes a person`s belief and what a person believes. Thus, the idea of truthand beliefs incorporated in the concept of knowledge (Pritchard, 2013).Knowledge, according to many philosophers, may be defined as justified true belief.It holds the view that for ‘a’ to know ‘s’ there must exist an entity ‘s’; ‘a’ should believe in‘s’ and the belief of ‘a’ should be justified. This definition of knowledge is also known as thetripartite definition of knowledge. This definition of knowledge defines propositionalknowledge but not knowledge gathered by virtue of acquaintance. There are philosophers likeEdmund Gettier who put forward the theory that the tripartite definition is insufficient
2PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE(Gettier, 2007). He further argues that the concerned observer may be unaware of the fact thatall the clauses of the tripartite are fulfilled.The word “knowledge” can be defined in various ways in the English language(Göranzon & Josefson, 2012). Firstly, knowledge may be defined as that of individuals. Theindividual knowledge may be defined as knowledge based on acquaintance. The knowledgementioned may refer to a person’s possession of knowledge about any person, place otherthings. Secondly, any knowledge of a fact about any person, place or thing may also betermed as knowledge. In this type of knowledge, a person claims his knowledge of a factabout someone or something. Thus, this is categorized as factual knowledge. Factualknowledge may also be referred to as propositional knowledge. In this type of knowledge, itis not necessary to know the fact and the person or thing that it is attached to in attachment toeach other. The facts may be known separately as well. In some languages of the world, it isnoticeable that there exists separate vocabulary for knowledge based on acquaintance andknowledge based on facts. Knowledge can be classified in yet another way. Under thiscategorization, knowledge is classified on the basis of skills.A proposition may be defined as a statement that can have two values, true and false.The propositions are always found occurring at the end of sentences. Knowledge may beanalyzed through the philosophical skill of conceptual analysis. Conceptual analysis aims toachieve a clearer and better understanding of a concept by making an attempt to analyze thesituations under which the idea applies. There are three different steps that follow each otherin the similar order with the goal of attaining a counter-example free definition of the same.Philosophical readings do not always give such clear results, but nevertheless provides with adeeper understanding of the concept that is being analyzed. The first step towards conceptualanalysis is the use of intuitive knowledge towards the method of application of a concept. Itrefers to the capacity of the concerned person to put forward a primary definition of the
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