Foundations of Knowledge: Reason, Truth, and Belief

Mythical vs. Rational Explanations

Mythical Explanation

1. It involves the divination and personification of the forces of nature.
2. The happenings of the universe are considered arbitrary.
3. The explanation is held as true because of the strength and authority of tradition.
4. The authority of tradition is not questioned.

Rational Explanation

1. It interprets phenomena and natural forces.
2. Natural events occur according to laws that are investigated and known.
3. The explanation is considered true because of the force of the argument it is based on.
4. Any rational explanation may be subjected to criticism.

Degrees of Knowledge

Opinion

This is a subjective assertion that has not undergone examination. It lacks a foundation, is shallow, and is exposed to unsafe changes. It can be either true or false.

Belief

Like opinion, belief lacks objective certainty, evidence, and rational examination. However, compared to opinion, belief shares with knowledge a firm and sure subjective certainty—the personal conviction that what is asserted is absolutely true.

Knowledge

This implies both objective and subjective certainty and security. Knowledge is rational, consistent, and necessary. It is true, unique, and independent of circumstances.

The Cartesian Method

Descartes proposed four rules to guide reason:

1. Evidence: Accept only what is clear and distinct. This comes through intuition. An idea is clear when it appears to the understanding through the senses. An idea is distinct when it is separated from other ideas and contains nothing that belongs to other ideas.
2. Analysis: Divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible and as are required for its better resolution.
3. Synthesis: Conduct thoughts in an orderly manner, starting with the simplest objects to learn and rising gradually, by degrees, to the knowledge of the most complex, assuming an order even among those that do not naturally precede one another. This rule assumes the orderly procedure of geometry, which for Descartes is the course of deduction.
4. Enumeration: Make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that one can be sure of omitting nothing.

Theories of Truth

Truth as Correspondence

A fit between what is said and what is. Associated with realism and empirical facts.

Truth as Coherence

Vision equals knowledge. A rationalist and idealistic way of thinking (e.g., 2 + 2 = 4).

Pragmatic Truth

It is useful because it is true, and it is true because it is useful. Truth is dynamic because it can change.

Consensual Truth

Arises from the question of what is good and right in a pluralistic society.

Perspectivist Truth

Truth is known through history. The complete truth is inaccessible to a single individual. We approach truth by articulating different perspectives.

Modes of Human Knowledge

• Intuition: Direct and immediate knowledge.
• Induction: Reasoning based on the observation of specific cases to generalize a universal statement or law.