INTRODUCTIO

N TO
PHILOSOPHY
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is often defined as a belief that is
true and justified. Many philosophers define
knowledge as justified true belief (JTB). This
definition characterizes knowledge through three
essential features: as (1) a belief that is (2) true
and (3) justified.
Ayn Rand
knowledge is a “mental grasp of reality reached
either by perceptual observation or by a process of
reason based on perceptual observation”
When you know something (be it the behavior of your
friend, the movement of the planets, or the origin of
civilizations) you understand its nature. You identify
what it is. And it stays with you. Knowledge is a
retained form of awareness (Binswanger 2014).
Example
Have you ever experienced believing in something you
thought is true but in the end you discovered that it is
false?
For example you feel that the person standing in front
of you is a true friend who will never betray you but in
the end he did betray you. Or during an examination
period you feel strongly that “A” is the right answer for
item number 12 but it turned out to be “B.” Or you feel
that your belief(s) can guide you in the correct path
only to discover that that it leads to disaster.
These, and countless examples from your
experiences, show that there is a BIG difference
to what we feel is true and what is really true.
According to philosophy if you want to know the
truth you have to use, not emotions, but
thinking. To think however is an act of choice
which is not always done properly. Sometimes
we need guidance to straighten our thoughts.
This is what module 2 provides.
How do we acquire knowledge?
Miss Rand’s definition gives us two ways:
1. We can acquire knowledge using our senses:
seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, smelling.
 How do you know that the table is brown?
Because you see it. How do you know that fire is
hot? Because you feel it. This method of
acquiring knowledge is called empiricism and it
has many adherents in the history of philosophy
such as John Locke, George Berkley, David
Hume
2. We can acquire knowledge by thinking
with the use of our minds (what
philosophers call the rational faculty). This
is what rationalism advocates.
(Some well-known rationalists in history are
Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz).
THE PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
The first part of epistemology
1. Reality-to know is to know something. This
“something” is what philosophers call reality, existence,
being. Existence is everything there is (another name
for it is the Universe. It includes everything we perceive
(animals, plants, human beings, inanimate objects) and
everything inside our heads (e.g., our thoughts and
emotions) which represents our inner world. Existence
is really all there is to know. If nothing exists
knowledge is impossible.
2. Perception
Our first and only contact with reality is through our senses.
Knowledge begins with perceptual knowledge. At first the senses
give us knowledge of things or entities (what Aristotle calls
primary substance): dog, cat, chair, table, man. Later we became
aware not only of things but certain aspects of things like qualities
(blue, hard, smooth), quantities (seven inches or six pounds),
relationships (in front of, son of) even actions (jumping, running,
flying). These so called Aristotelian categories cannot be
separated from the entities that have it. Red for example cannot be
separated from red objects; walking cannot be separated from the
person that walks, etc
3. Concept
After we perceive things we began to notice that
some of the things we perceive are similar to other
things. For example we see three individuals let’s call
them Juan, Pablo and Pedro who may have nothing in
common at first glance. But when we compare them
with another entity, a dog for example, suddenly their
differences become insignificant. Their big difference
to a dog highlights their similarity to one another
(Binswanger 2014)
 Wider generalization is the process of forming wider
and wider concepts.
 Example from Juan, Pedro and Pablo we can form the
concept “man”. Then from man, dog, cat, monkey we
can form a higher and wider concept “animal”. And
from plant and animal we can form a still higher and
wider concept “living organism”.
As we go up to these progressive widenings our
knowledge increases
4. Proposition- A proposition is a statement that
expresses either an assertion or a denial that an existent
belongs to a class or possess certain attribute. When we
use concepts in order to classify or describe an “existent”

 Example
When I say, for example, that “Men are mortals” I am
making an assertion of men which are affirmative in nature
(thus the statement is an affirmative proposition).
When I make an opposite claim however, “Men are not
mortals” I am denying something about men and thus my
statement is negative in nature (thus the proposition is
called a negative proposition
5. Inference How do we demonstrate that the
statement is true? By providing an argument. According
to Hurley an argument “is a group of statements, one or
more of which (the premises) are claimed to provide
support for, or reason to believe one of the others (the
conclusion) (Hurley 2011). To clarify this definition let’s
give an example using the famous Socratic argument:
All men are mortals
Socrates is a man
Therefore Socrates is mortal.
 Here we have three related statements (or
propositions). The last statement beginning with the word
“therefore” is what we call a conclusion. A conclusion is
a statement that we want to prove.
 The first two statements are what we call premises
(singular form: premise). A premise provides
justification, evidence, and proof to the conclusion.
 THE NATURE OF TRUTH
TRUTH VS OPINION
Identifying truth however can sometimes be tricky. The
reason is that there are times when we strongly held an
idea that we feel “deep down” to be true. For example
religious people strongly believed that there is life after
death. Some people who embraced democracy may
passionately embraced the idea that the majority is always
right. Or on a more personal level you may feel strongly
that your sister is “selfish”
 However we must not confused strongly held
beliefs with truth. Truth is knowledge validated and
when we say validated we mean they are based on
the facts of reality.
 You must understand dear student that the facts of
reality are independent of your thoughts, feelings or
preferences (Ayn Rand calls this the primacy of
existence [Rand 1982]). That is the characteristic of
truth. For example the statement “Jose Rizal died in
1896” is true. You may not like that statement or deny
it strongly. That does not change the fact that the
statement is true because it is based on what really
happened in the past. There are many sources that can
validate the truth of that statement if one cared to look.
 However when you say that “Jose Rizal is the greatest man
who ever lived” you are stating your preference and not facts. This
is an opinion.
Now it is true that there are many facts about Rizal but that
statement is asserting something that is beyond what the facts state.
That statement represents not facts but your interpretation of facts
which may reveal your biases.
To summarize an opinion has the following characteristics:
1. Based on emotions
2. Open to interpretation
3. Cannot be confirmed
While truth is:
1. Based on the facts of reality
2. Can be confirmed with other sources
3. Independent of one’s interpretation, preferences
and biases