Knowledge on my opinion is the fact or state of knowing. There are various aspects of knowledge. Knowledge comes from many different factors and situations. There are numerous philosophers who have tried to depict where knowledge comes from. Also knowledge can be categorized into various factors according to the way we acquire knowledge. There are many things, which are related to the knowledge of something. Epistemology is the theory or knowledge. This theory poses three questions: what are the sources of knowledge? What is the nature of knowledge? And is our knowledge valid?
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There are four different sources of knowledge. Each source has their own way to look at the world. The appeal to authority is the first source of knowledge. We learn this about the past from the testimony of others. The experience of the person who gives a lot as a source of knowledge, this is only a secondary source. Another source is the senses through empiricism. The wealth of knowledge is given to us through all of our perceptions of something substantial. Whatever someone sees, hears, touches, smells, and tastes then is made into an idea that becomes an element of the knowledge that person can receive. The philosophy of pragmatism is similar to empiricism. The next source is rationalism. Rationalists believe that thinking is a source of knowledge. They also believe that the mind has the capability to ascertain truth by itself, or knowledge is obtained by comparing one factor with another. The things that the senses detect are just raw material of knowledge in rationalism. The last source is intuition, or the direct apprehension of knowledge, which is not the result of conscious reasoning or of immediate sense perception. Intuition ha three different ways that it is connected with being a source of knowledge. First intuition was the awareness of the immediate data of consciousness. The second is that intuition is actually just a combination of one’s past experiences and thinking. It comes from subconscious induction or deduction. People who have done a lot of thinking and have done a certain type of work will have a good intuition in that region. The last way intuition could be a source of knowledge is through mystical expressions. It is believed that mystical expressions can enable someone to gain an immediate knowledge that surpasses knowledge acquired through reason and the senses. This fourth description of intuition says that it could be a manifestation of the self in union with spiritual reality.
Knowledge does not only have its sources but it also can come from different natures. The two main natures of knowledge are subjectivism and objectivism. Other than the nature of knowledge there are two types of knowledge. These types are associated into both natures. Subjectivism is the belief that things do not exist without a preconception of the object. Through consciousness we can find reality. The dreams, hallucinations, and illusions that a person has are all part of subjectivism. All these things, which a person experiences are not tangible in the outside world but a part of the experiences in the mind. The color, sound, taste, odor, and son on of an object do not belong to that object in the outside world. These are called these secondary qualities. The secondary qualities vary from person to person. The second nature of knowledge is objectivism. They believe that there is an independent reality apart from minds. Although the subjectivists give a definition to the word idea, they also give that word another definition. The two definitions are, the concept held by the knower and the object known. This is a little confusing and brings up different questions about it. There is no way that the object of an act of thought can be the actual thought itself. Another argument for objectivism is that the existence of an outside world explains the experiences that we have to contribute to day-to-day life. These experiences are forced upon us by the outside world. These events have to obey laws outside our minds. The subjectivists and objectivists will argue day and night until both are blue in the face, but we will never know the nature of knowledge.
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Knowledge is the most powerful tool known to human. If it is ever mastered, it could prove fatal. Although people try everyday to find total knowledge but that will never happen because there are so many ways knowledge can be found, the choice of nature of knowledge, and the tests of knowledge.