Understanding Opinion, Belief, and Knowledge
Opinion and Belief
An opinion is a subjective assessment, often a personal evaluation of reality based on our interests, beliefs, and desires, but not based on compelling reasons.
Beliefs may be of two types:
- Dubious: When we are not really sure of the truth and have doubts about compliance.
- Assertive: We speak of belief when we are sure of something but do not have enough evidence to prove it.
Knowledge is a belief that we are safe and we can prove. Rationally justifying something is characteristic of knowledge. Belief no longer becomes subjective, and objectively true knowledge.
- Theoretical: The one who stays at the level of abstraction of knowledge. Refers to the metaphysical = theoretical knowledge.
- Practical: There is no practical knowledge without theory. Try to transform reality.
Evidence and Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity (I): Is the criterion which is based on the idea that knowledge is objective, shared by all, and not exclusive to one person. It means that our beliefs must be acceptable to any rational subject.
Evidence (E): It is clear that we distinguish clearly and distinctly, influenced by culture and education. Knowledge is evident when it produces a certainty that prevents us from doubting its truth.
Facts
- Truth of facts: Try to reveal what reality itself is. It only approximates the truth because we have appearances. Acts try to see reality as such.
- Truth proposition not questioned: To see our reality, we say phrases that describe the world, and say if it is true or false, based on our language and our vision.
Truth of empirical propositions:
- Truth by correspondence: Believes that a proposition is true when there is a match between what the proposition expressed and the reality to which it relates. The first theory was proposed by Aristotle; a proposition is true when in reality what happens is shown.
- Truth as coherence, Truth as success.
Truth of formal proposals.
Difference Between Dogmatism, Skepticism, and Relativism
Dogmatism is the position that we can gain secure, universal knowledge, and be absolutely certain of it. It defends the possibility of progressively and steadily expanding our knowledge. The most important philosopher: Descartes.
Skepticism (the opposite position to dogmatism) doubts as to enable a firm and sure knowledge. It considers that the claim for access to a firm and sure knowledge is an unattainable desire. The most important philosopher: Pyrrho.
Relativism is the position that denies the existence of absolute truth; it rejects the claim of a universal and objective knowledge since what is true in a particular time and culture is not in another. Socialists are the parents of relativism.
Epistemology
It is the part of philosophy that studies and analyzes knowledge, but also determines its origin, the method we follow to obey, and the limit of what we know.
Language Features
From linguistics, language is considered the human ability to communicate through a system of signs. This power is manifested in the particular language used by each speaker and possesses these characteristics:
- It is arbitrary or conventional; in different languages, there are different words to express the same concept.
- It is articulated and thus creative: the nature of language articulated their creativity and originality guaranteed.
Sentence
Through this process of abstraction, reducing, sorting, and categorizing the multiplicity of perceptions of the environment on universal concepts that contribute to our understanding of reality.
Language, Thought, and Reality
To construct a concept such as a tree, we abstract from the reality they have in common that we have seen trees (pines, oaks, apple, banana…) and ignore the superficial differences (height, stem form, and leaf color…). Through this process of abstraction, reducing, command, and classify the multiplicity of perceptions of the environment on universal concepts that contribute to our understanding of reality.
Propositional Knowledge
Empirical propositions assert or deny anything about the world. They have empirical content that can be contrasted with experience, such as “snuff causes cancer.”
Formal propositions: They have no empirical content. They say nothing about the world but the relationships between symbols.