What is it to know something? In evaluating arguments, one need to check for both validity and soundness. To know that an argument is sound, one has to know that the premises—or the supporting statements—are true. But is it even possible to know something? The study of what knowledge is and whether it is possible falls within a subfield of philosophical inquiry called EPISTEMOLOGY. The verb ‘to know’ functions in various ways in our language. I can say that I know how to ride a horse, that I know where the best coffee on campus is, and that I know that 2 + 2 = 4. Since premises express propositions, it is this last kind of knowledge—‘know that’ or propositional knowledge—that is involved in evaluating arguments. What is it then to know a
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In the Theaetetus, Plato 's philosophical avatar and protagonist, Socrates, worries that trying to define knowledge leads to a regress. If what differentiates knowledge from mere true belief is justification (logos), then for knowledge to be possible, it has to be possible to give a justification for the proposition believed to be true. To know something is, according to Plato, to know its definition, and to know a definition is to know the terms of which the definition is composed. But now either those terms themselves have definitions, the terms of which must also be known through their definitions, and so on ad infinitum, or there are terms of a definition that are not themselves known by …show more content…
To know a word is to know the letters of which the word is formed and their combination, but since letters are not composed of anything more basic, the way in which we know the letters can’t be the same as the way in which we know the word. Our knowledge of the letters can’t itself involve knowing any further elements. Whether by being unable to halt the regress of justification or by the fact that some elements of a knowledge claim have to be accepted without an account or justification, it is unclear whether, if knowledge is justified true belief, knowledge is possible.
Some philosophers — starting with Plato 's student, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E) — tried to avoid this problem by grounding justification in propositions that do not need further justification because they contain their justification within themselves. These 'self-justifying ' propositions can thus be known to be true by 'intuition '. Axioms of mathematical proofs are the most obvious examples of self-evident or intuitively known propositions. They are the starting point for proofs, and not themselves the product of further
In the Theaetetus, Plato 's philosophical avatar and protagonist, Socrates, worries that trying to define knowledge leads to a regress. If what differentiates knowledge from mere true belief is justification (logos), then for knowledge to be possible, it has to be possible to give a justification for the proposition believed to be true. To know something is, according to Plato, to know its definition, and to know a definition is to know the terms of which the definition is composed. But now either those terms themselves have definitions, the terms of which must also be known through their definitions, and so on ad infinitum, or there are terms of a definition that are not themselves known by …show more content…
To know a word is to know the letters of which the word is formed and their combination, but since letters are not composed of anything more basic, the way in which we know the letters can’t be the same as the way in which we know the word. Our knowledge of the letters can’t itself involve knowing any further elements. Whether by being unable to halt the regress of justification or by the fact that some elements of a knowledge claim have to be accepted without an account or justification, it is unclear whether, if knowledge is justified true belief, knowledge is possible.
Some philosophers — starting with Plato 's student, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E) — tried to avoid this problem by grounding justification in propositions that do not need further justification because they contain their justification within themselves. These 'self-justifying ' propositions can thus be known to be true by 'intuition '. Axioms of mathematical proofs are the most obvious examples of self-evident or intuitively known propositions. They are the starting point for proofs, and not themselves the product of further