Philosophy: Understanding Knowledge, Truth, and Reason
Theoretical and Practical Reason
1. Theoretical reason is oriented towards the contemplation of the world and the knowledge of reality, trying to explain it. Practical reason is the use of reason to guide action. Theoretical philosophy deals with the knowledge of reality, of what is “knowledge that cannot be any other way.” It must try to know the truth and reality with the greatest possible rigor. From this clarification, it addresses the theory of knowledge or gnoseology. Metaphysics tries to understand reality in its entirety, going beyond scientific explanation. It tries to approach the study from a universal perspective, considering what things have in common.
Subject, Object, and Degrees of Knowledge
2. Knowledge is an activity that has as its goal the apprehension of a state of affairs that can be shared with others. We must differentiate between two poles: the subject and the object. Knowledge is the result of the activity, and knowing is the result. The combination of subjective and objective schemes gives rise to three degrees of knowledge: opinion (a state of knowledge in which something is held as true but without complete certainty), belief (when someone is convinced of what they say, but there is really no justification that can be accepted by others), and knowing (an opinion based both subjectively and objectively; a person knows something when they are subjectively convinced and have reasons to persuade others objectively). All knowledge is guided by interests:
- According to Kant, human reason is put in motion by two interests: a theoretical interest (to achieve the logical perfection of knowledge, thus arising the knowledge of nature), and a practical interest (to discover what we should do and what can be expected if we act accordingly, leading to religion and ethics).
- Apel and Habermas distinguish three types: technical interest (to dominate and exploit nature, serving as a guide for empirical-analytical sciences like physics and biology), practical interest (targeted at communication and understanding among beings capable of communicating, leading to historical-hermeneutical sciences like history), and liberating interest (to release human beings from repression, leading to critical social sciences, cognitive psychology, or critiques of ideology).
The most radical question is the possibility of knowledge. This crucial question has caused at least six types of responses:
- Dogmatism: Expresses the naive attitude of those who are certain of knowing because they presuppose the ability of our cognitive faculties.
- Skepticism: Considers it impossible to obtain reliable knowledge because it believes that there will never be sufficient justification to accept something as true.
- Subjectivism and relativism: Deny the possibility of achieving universally valid truths. For subjectivism, certainty depends on each individual, and for relativism, it depends on each epoch, culture, or social group.
- Pragmatism: Identifies what is true with what is useful.
- Criticism: (Karl Popper and Hans Albert) Represents the intermediate position between dogmatism and skepticism. It is possible to obtain some knowledge, but always while undertaking at least one of the following tasks: clarifying where our knowledge can come from or critically comparing our knowledge with reality.
- Perspectivism: Proposed by Ortega y Gasset, it states that we can come to know reality by combining different perspectives.
Truth: Origin, States, Criteria, and Theories
3. Origin of the word truth:
- GREEK: aléthia: That which is not hidden, what is manifested.
- LATIN: veritas: Accuracy, precision when talking, connecting with what is said.
Truth as objective knowledge: Knowledge has the goal of obtaining certain results.
States of Security with Respect to Truth
- Ignorance: The state of mind that admits ignorance about a subject.
- Doubt: When one cannot affirm or deny the truth of a judgment.
- Subjective Certainty: The state in which the mind affirms the truth of a judgment without the possibility of error.
Criteria of Truth
Criteria of truth are the procedures to distinguish truth from falsehood and to be sure of the value of a sentence:
- Authority: Accepted because it usually comes from someone with great knowledge of the matter.
- Tradition: Over time, it has been accepted as true.
- Correspondence between thought and reality: If what we think is true, when we see it, it agrees with empirical reality.
- Consistency of logic: To see that there is no contradiction between statements belonging to the same system.
- Utility: A statement will be true when it is useful to us.
- Evidence: The essential criterion. It clearly shows that it seems overwhelming.
Theories of Truth
Every theory of truth preferably relies on one of the criteria of truth and develops it to the fullest.
- Truth as correspondence or fitness: Understood as a relationship between subject and object and its representation (words).
- Truth as coherence: (Hegel) It is a contextual approach, referring each of our knowledge to the rest of the system. Any new knowledge must be integrated into the system that we already had.
- Pragmatic theory of truth: Theory of adaptation, taking into account the usefulness of statements to solve problems or meet needs.
- Consensus theory of truth: Dialogue is stressed as necessary to discover the truth of propositions. It is based on open dialogue on the issue in defense of truth to arouse the support of other partners and build consensus among community partners.