Knowledge and belief

ROSE AUNAETITRAKULEMILIO SOLOMON

ZAINAB YAQUB

What is the difference between knowledge and

belief?

What is knowledge?

“Justified true belief”Ways of Knowing

(WoK) Emotion Reason Perception Language

Plato’s Theory of Knowledge K= JTB

J= Justifiable T= Truth B= Belief

What is truth?

Distinguishes knowledge from beliefObjective requirement for knowledge“If you believe something is true, does not

make it true.”

Second-Hand Knowledge

Cultural TraditionSchoolThe internetExpert OpinionThe news media

Limitations of Knowledge

Certainty Example: The belief-knowledge continuum

Commonsense Example: The mental map

Relativism Example: Culture

What is belief?

Subjective requirement for knowledgeBelief-Knowledge Continuum

Kinds of Belief

A vague belief Example: Eating fish helps you concentrate

A well-supported belief Example: I believe that my teacher gave me too much

homework because it took me five hours to finish it all.

A belief that is beyond reasonable doubt Example: On September 11, 2001, the World Trade

Center collapsed.

How is belief justified?

“Someone told me” “I saw it”“I worked it out”“It’s intuitively obvious”

Limitations of Belief

The role of judgment Example: “The real world”

The danger of gullibility Example: Yahoo! Articles,

eHow.com, Stanley Milgram Experiment

The danger of skepticism Example: Science/Theories