Good Essay About What Is Knowledge

The paper provides five different answers to the question “What is knowledge to you?” The answers base on a survey conducted. In the survey, five different people offer their definitions of the term knowledge. The paper contains the answers given by the respondents in the survey. The contents in the paper base on the points of views of those answers and the views of philosophers in part 4 of the book “Classic Philosophical Questions 14th Edition by Robert J Mulvaney.
The first definition derived from the survey defines knowledge as a condition or fact of familiarity. It enables an individual to know something through their experiences or association. In this case, knowledge relies on an individual’s relationship with other beings. In addition, knowledge depends on the kind of experiences that an individual goes through in life. The definition is comparable to Plato’s definition. According to Plato, one of his definitions of knowledge refers to knowledge as pure perception. The perception emanates from the experience one has gone through in life.
The second answer from the survey asserts that knowledge is a condition or fact of being fully aware that something exists. In this case, the individual believes that one's knowledge relies on something, which exists. The person has knowledge because they are aware of the thing’s existence. A Greek philosopher, Theaetetus, closely links the definition to the definition form the survey. The philosopher states that knowledge is an honest judgment with an account of that judgment. The person judges that something exists, and they account for it by proof of its existence.
The third definition of knowledge from the survey suggests that knowledge refers to the range or extent of an individual’s understanding or information. In this scenario, the respondent thinks that knowledge centers on how much a person knows. In addition, the respondent thinks that the level of understanding of the individual determines their knowledge. Understanding bases on factors such as the amount of information that the individual has acquired from school. According to the book by Robert Mulvaney, the definition relates to the metaphysical definition of knowledge. Knowledge here is more derivative than natural.
In the survey, the fourth definition of knowledge states that it is the ability to apprehend the truth and the facts by reasoning. In this case, a person’s ability to determine what is true and what is false states how much knowledge the person possesses. A person’s ability to reason and convince other people that their ideas are right, indicates how much knowledge they have. The definition corresponds with what Socrates says about knowledge. Socrates asserts that knowledge is true belief that is justifiable. According to him, knowledge is true belief.
The final definition of knowledge from the survey is broad and inclusive. The individual suggests that knowledge is the summation of what humankind knows. According to him, knowledge refers to the principles, information, and truth developed and shared by man in the whole world. There is a variation in the body of knowledge. What America considers common knowledge to all individuals living there may be hardly exist in parts of Africa. The variation results from the diversity in human culture and practices. As a result, knowledge is the summation of all the facts and beliefs that humans regard to be truth ad information. The definition concurs with the Pre-Socratic philosophers’ definition of knowledge. They think that knowledge is a collection of all that humankind is familiar with and close associates. The word all shows that the philosophers think that knowledge is a broad term.