Objects of Knowledge

The quest for a definition of the term 'knowledge,' leads to a clear understanding of what it means for
someone to know something: "Johnny knows x." One aspect of this understanding is a clarification of
the object of knowledge. Here is list of six objects that have historically been pursued.
1. The External World
2. The Past
3. The Future
4. Other Minds
5. The Self
6. Abstract Entities
Means of Knowledge
People process information in many ways. Information, in itself, is not knowledge. However, some
information maybe knowledge in virtue of what it is while other types of information maybe knowledge
in virtue of the circumstances. The various means of processing information maybe classified as possible
means to knowledge. Here are six possible means to knowledge.
1. Cognition immediate sensorial experience/ direct sense experience
2. Memory recorded sensorial experience
3. Imagination transformed sensorial experience
4. Perception mental grasp/understanding of external object/event
5. Intuition mental grasp/understanding of internal condition/emotion/state
6. Thought
Theories of Knowledge
Plato
In many of his dialogues, Plato mentions supra-sensible entities he calls Forms (or Ideas). So, for
example, in the Phaedo, we are told that particular sensible equal thingsfor example, equal sticks or
stones (see Phaedo 74a-75d)are equal because of their participation or sharing in the character of
the Form of Equality, which is absolutely, changelessly, perfectly, and essentially equal. Plato sometimes
characterizes this participation in the Form as a kind of imaging, or approximation of the Form. The
same may be said of the many things that are greater or smaller and the Forms of Great and Small
(Phaedo 75c-d), or the many tall things and the Form of Tall (Phaedo 100e), or the many beautiful things
and the Form of Beauty (Phaedo 75c-d, Symposium 211e, Republic V.476c). When Plato writes about
instances of Forms approximating Forms, it is easy to infer that, for Plato, Forms are exemplars. If so,
Plato believes that The Form of Beauty is perfect beauty, the Form of Justice is perfect justice, and so
forth. Conceiving of Forms in this way was important to Plato because it enabled the philosopher who
grasps the entities to be best able to judge to what extent sensible instances of the Forms are good
examples of the Forms they approximate.
Scholars disagree about the scope of what is often called the theory of Forms, and question whether
Plato began holding that there are only Forms for a small range of properties, such as tallness, equality,
justice, beauty, and so on, and then widened the scope to include Forms corresponding to every term
that can be applied to a multiplicity of instances. In the Republic, he writes as if there may be a great
multiplicity of Formsfor example, in Book X of that work, we find him writing about the Form of Bed
(see Republic X.596b). He may have come to believe that for any set of things that shares some property,
there is a Form that gives unity to the set of things (and univocity to the term by which we refer to
members of that set of things). Knowledge involves the recognition of the Forms (Republic V.475e-480a),
and any reliable application of this knowledge will involve the ability compare the particular sensible
instantiations of a property to the Form.
John Locke
Summary Statements
Let us suppose the mind to be, as we say, a Tabular Rasa (or blank slate), void of all characters, without
any ideas; how comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store, which the busy and
boundless fancy of man has painted on it with almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of
reason and knowledge? To this I answer in one word, from experience: in that all our knowledge is
founded, and from that it ultimately derives itself. --Locke
1. The conceptual structure of Lockes theory
a. Ideas of Secondary Qualities
b. Ideas of Primary Qualities
c. Idea of Substance an obscure vague idea
d. Causal Theory of Perception
e. Primary Qualities (solidity, extension, figure, motion/rest, number)
f. Secondary Qualities (sounds, smells, tastes, colors)
g. Fundamental Substance inert matter

2. Lockes definition of knowledge: A person has knowledge of something whenever that thing
produces a primary idea in his or her mind through direct sense experience.

3. Locke attacks Descartes' notion of innate ideas
a. Universal assent does not prove that an idea is innate.
b. Children and uneducated people do not possess these innate truths.
George Berkeley
To be is to be perceived -Berkeley
1. The conceptual structure of Berkeleys theory
a. Ideas of Sensation
b. Ideas of Imagination
c. Idea of God
d. Causal Theory of Perception
e. Primary Qualities
f. Secondary Qualities
g. Fundamental Substance: God
2. Berkeleys argument that shows that God is the source of ideas.
a. Ideas are similar only to other ideas and exist only in minds.
b. Thus, ideas of sensation must come from another, superior, mind.
c. Now, the ideas of the universe and human activities could only come from a superior
mind like that of Gods. God must be the source of our ideas of sensation.
d. Therefore, we acquire knowledge through our experience of the ideas of sensation
transmitted by God.
e. Berkeleys definition of knowledge: a person has knowledge of something whenever he
or she experiences the idea of that thing. The name or description given to that thing
designates the group of ideas that constitute the experience of that thing.
3. Berkeleys objection to Locke
a. Lockes notion of substance entails a contradiction:Locke claims that ideas are produced by
matter. But, ideas are produced only by mental beings. Now, matter is nonliving and so
cannot produce ideas. Therefore, Lockes concept of matter is contradictory.
b. Locke's primary/secondary quality distinction is erroneous: Locke claims that primary and
secondary qualities are inseparable. But, he also holds that primary qualities exist and that
secondary qualities are mere experiences. However, if these two qualities are truly
inseparable, then they should exist in the same way.
David Hume
Summary Statements
1. The conceptual structure of Humes theory
a. Impressions
b. Ideas
c. Fundamental reality cannot be known with certainty.
2. All perceptions of the mind can be divided into two kinds: impressions and ideas.
3. All claims of knowledge express either relations of ideas or matters of fact. Any claim that
cannot be reduced to a relations of ideas or a matter of fact is to be regarded as empirically
meaningless, nonsense.
4. All that we know or can ever know about reality is what is presented by experience. We need
not pursue the view that there is anything beyond this experience. We cannot know what is
beyond our experience.
5. Humes skepticism
a. He doubts the certainty of causation
b. He doubts the predictability of induction
c. He doubts the existence of an external world of things beyond experience. *The
continuity of existence independent of mind
6. Hume Objects to Locke and Berkeley
a. Locke's belief in the matter cannot be justified as a relation of ideas nor as a matter of fact.
Therefore, this belief should be regarded as empirically meaningless.
b. Berkeleys belief in the existence of God cannot be justified as a relation of ideas nor as
matter of fact. Therefore, this belief must be treated as empirically meaningless.
== What is knowledge? ==
Sophos - truths are all relatives
Socrates - theory of forms, some truth are necessary truth
Metaphysics - Understanding what constitutes ultimate reality, to understand fundamental stuff, what
things are made of.
Methaphisic claim - what is real

Epistemology - What is it to know?
Epistimic claim - what you the individual know
Ex. Stapler - Metaphysics claim: It is a stapeler.
Epistimic claim: I know is a stapler.
Knowledge: definitive and understood, justified true belief
Belief: idea that is taken to be true, probably true
Opinion: something that is true for you, the viewer

== Idea of Truth ==
Truth: a conviction of the mind, a property of ideas

Epistemology: a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human
knowledge
a priori truth: known independently of experience (conceptual knowledge), prior to experience
analytical truth/deductive truth: something thats true by definition
innate truth: (innate: born with) truth that we are born with? I liked red, a feeling
empirical truth: true by experience, are facts
facts:
theories:
empirical ideas:
relations of ideas:
primary qualities:
secondary qualities:
idealism:
rationalism:
empiricism:
skepticism:
tabular rasa: blank state, empty mind

A necessary truth is one that could not have been otherwise. It would have been true under all
circumstances.
A contingent truth is one that is true, but could have been false. A necessary truth is one that must be
true; a contingent truth is one that is true as it happens, or as things are, but that did not have to be true.