Knowledge plays a crucial role in our lives, however we tend to accept the existence of it without really thinking how we came to know what we know. As Plato once said, “Knowledge is the food of the soul”, and with technology growing exponentially, we often forget that knowledge is not just some article on the internet. With the indoctrination of society claiming that the only key to success is through absorbing as much “information” as possible, we have undervalued the importance of experience, and what knowledge really is.
Knowledge is information we attain and process, which we come to believe is true, through the nine epistemologies. Sense perception can be considered to be one of the strongest foundation for the basis of knowledge. We utilize our different senses to perceive what is true or false, similar to t, it matches to the correspondence theory. The correspondence theory is based on evident information that determines if a certain claim or statement matches to the reality. For example, I know a dog is biting my arm, because my arms can feel it, and I can see it chewing my arm.
Many people can disagree that sensory perception is flawed due to our knowledge filters, where our experience and emotion expect a certain thing, which would produce biased views towards a certain subject. An example of this idea could be from spending time in Magic Club. When a magician says he will put the card on the top of the deck, and when we see hit, we believe that the card chosen is at the top of the deck. In reality, the magician sneaked the card on the bottom, pretending to put it on the top.
But to those who can see this trick can easily notice the truth, or the knowledge of where the card is. This can connect similarly to logic. Logic is another strong foundation for all source of knowledge. When my mom takes the grocery discount card with her when she leaves my house, she is going to the grocery store because she usually doesn’t bring it with her when she leaves the house. This analytic approach in what we see is a strong source of knowledge for 2 reasons: first, logic is basic and obvious information that we already know, and it does not interfere with our emotion.
This means that it is straight out fact, with no doubts. Secondly, logic is “the science that investigates the principles governing correct or reliable inference” (Dictionary. com) This states that logic is a reasoning that has been observed, experimented and assessed with firm roots of rationality. Sometimes, logic can backfire and create misunderstanding, when not observed properly. Logic can sometimes lead into more absurd knowledge. However, when taking the context into consideration, such problem does not tend to occur.
Despite the different epistemologies that contributes to a stronger basis of knowledge, faith has proven to be one of the weak foundations of knowledge. Statistically, 2. 1 billion people on Earth are Christians. Therefore, there is only one unique god. This is a highly doubtful statement, especially when it contradicts with other religions, where another billion people believe in the existence of multiple gods. Faith, by definition, is complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
This means that when I have faith in my teacher to give me an A on a research assignment, I still have the odds of receiving a lower score. Faith requires no empirical evidence, and is very impractical for those who wishes to fill their minds with pure justified beliefs. Despite our modern society undervaluing the importance of the nine epistemologies, it is empirical to say that we has people practice strong epistemologies such has utilizing sense perception and logically analyzing things we see. After all, maybe our souls can be fed with great finesse.
