The Nature of Knowledge
Essay Preview: The Nature of Knowledge
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Philosophy
The reading of Human Knowledge was rather dense, and required further research to fully comprehend the premise surrounding the philosophers viewpoints. The areas of interest varied, but the theme of the material addressed the nature of knowledge; mainly epistemology, which has its roots in the study of rationalism, empiricism, and pragmatism. The study of belief, truth, and justice; all three of these philosophies are debatable, but their theories work in accord with one another.
Epistemology according to (Runes, 1977, p. 94) explains “epistemology is a branch of philosophy.” Meaning, the branch is a smaller comprehensive theory of a main component. Epistemology around (427-347 B.C.) reveals the many facets of knowledge, views, and beliefs. The early philosophers explored Metaphysics, which branched off into many directions, and theories capturing different viewpoints; concluding that there are many branches that stem from one concept.
The major areas addressed by traditional philosophers
The major areas addressed by traditional philosophers were belief, truth, and justification. The concepts behind their theories were not uniform according to Kant who addresses Humes skepticism on cause and effect, presented a solution to Humes skepticism with pure reason, or pure understanding (Kant, 1978, pp. 4, 247; 7). However, my theory about Humes skepticism is not one of dishonor among philosophers but can be seen as an opportunity for further discussion.
The understanding behind this type of philosophy is the doubt that is causes because people may consider themselves knowledgeable in a particular field (e.g. assumptions and experience) later to discover that you do not know. These theories along with the other philosophers viewpoints are critical to my belief system because it challenges the way I perceive things, and at the same time, it provides an opportunity to question my beliefs, the beliefs of others, and their origin.
Naturally, one would think that Greek philosophy emerged out of Greece; however, that is not case according to (James, 1954), who states “Greek philosophy was deeply rooted in Egypt. In fact, some philosophers were educated in Egypt, and took their knowledge back to Greece, and it was noted that the ancient Egyptians had a very complex religious system, call the Mysteries” (p. 1).
Further, it took five thousand years before the Greeks were allowed to enter Egypt for their education. The Egyptians had a secret society, and was known for their secret systems of writing and teaching. Greeks were not forbidden to record anything that they learnt, which explains why Socrates philosophy were not recorded by him, but was traced through Platos dialogues.
Compare philosophy
The revisiting of the material opened my mind to the history of philosophy, and Plato experience as a student of Socrates who documented his work in the form of several dialogues starting with his apology to Socrates for his non-support of Socrates imprisonment and demise. In my interpretation of the material, the themeepistemology is the root, the foundation for the different dialogue that transpired among the philosophers of the past, and of the present.
The Rationalists, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz were in opposition to Locke, Berkeley and Hume, the Empiricists (Moser & Vander, 2002). The ideology of philosophy is to build or critique the work of their colleagues. Further, Plato went on to embrace the loss of Socrates by recording Socrates last conversation