Understanding Knowledge: Possibility, Origin, and Essence

Understanding Knowledge

Knowledge is a mental representation of the interaction between a subject and an object, from which a cognitive image emerges. The three main problems of knowledge are:

1. The Possibility of Knowledge

Problem: Is knowledge possible? What is its value?

Responses and Representations:

• Dogmatism: A naive stance that believes knowledge is possible and does not question it. Examples include pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle.
• Skepticism: Denies that humans can have true and certain knowledge, in contrast to dogmatism. Example: Pyrrho of Elis.
• Relativism: Denies the possibility of knowing universal valid truths, asserting that the validity of knowledge is unlimited. Examples include the Sophists.
• Criticism: Emphasizes the critical role in knowledge, ultimately affirming that knowledge is valid. Example: Kant.

2. The Origin of Knowledge

Potential solutions to the problem of the origin of knowledge:

• Rationalism: True knowledge comes from reason, not the senses.
• Empiricism: Knowledge is based on experience. Examples include Berkeley, Hume, and Stuart Mill.
• Intellectualism: An intermediate position between rationalism and empiricism. Experience is the fundamental condition, and reason is the critical condition for knowledge.

3. The Essence of Knowledge

Finding grounds to establish certainty. The desire to know the truth leads to the need for a grounded, rational basis for knowledge that is beyond doubt.

Sources of Knowledge:

• Pre-modernity:
  • Source: Religion
  • Features: True, unchangeable truth substantiated.
• Modernity:
  • Source: Reason
  • Features: Rationality, certainty.

Front States of Knowledge:

• Ignorance: Not knowing, or knowing some things but not others.
• Doubt: Indecision, suspending judgment due to lack of interest or failure to define demands.
• Probability: Ranges between doubt and certainty.
• Certainty: Based on evidence.
• Falsehood: Contrary to the truth; the senses do not show us reality.
• Error: Believing one knows something when one does not.

Why is Doubt Not Error?

The one who doubts is not necessarily wrong, but the one who makes an error is. To start thinking is not to start being wrong. Error no longer involves doubt.