Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Knowledge - Essay Example t the person may turn out to be as disappointing as the previous one; in which case my knowledge is not based on truth, but only belief which is not ultimately justified How is Justification possible? Justification is often inferential depending on another justified belief. But as this takes us to a slow and roundabout path to establish truth, some theorists argue that there must be some basic beliefs on which our justification can rely on. This theory is termed Foundationalism. Other thinking pattern, termed Coherentism reject the idea of foundationalism. According to this school of thought, it is important that belief system is not mutually contradicting, but must remain consistent, cohesive and within human comprehension. There is yet another alternative theory Reliabilism, which holds that there must be a mechanism which supports our belief system and which is reliable enough to be justified. Our beliefs directly depend on our perception of the world, perception we acquire from books, media and the people. Perception makes us delve under the surface, contents supplied by our experiences. They act rather like a reflective process. There are two schools of thought: Empiricism and Rationalism. What do the empiricists say? According to the empiricists we learn everything through our personal perception that we gain from our own experience. The empiricists emphasized on our sense perception. When we enter this world our mind is a ’blank slate’, holds John Locke. Empiricists, however, concede to certain basic truth such as â€Å" there are no four sided triangles†. What do the rationalists say? Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, belonged to the rationalist school of thought. Descartes argues that ‘ we possess at least some innate knowledge’, such as our faculty for language. Senses often deceive us, e.g., ‘straight stick appears bent in water’, ‘and colored objects may appear gray in the dark.’ In fact we have reason to doubt everything in our external