Tripartite Theory of Knowlege
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- Category: Politics: Philosophy
- Date Submitted: 06/12/2011 03:34 PM
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Plato's tripartite theory of knowledge
“Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom” - Plato.
Plato is one of the most important Greek philosophers. Plato began his philosophical career as Socrates' pupil, he wrote many of his books using Socrates' views. After Socrates died he travelled a lot and eventually returned to Athens and founded the Academy which was devoted to the teaching of philosophy and the sciences. Together Socrates and Plato began the study of knowledge, querying what it is and how we achieve it. All in all they started the debate that is still going to this day.
Plato reasoned that for something to be genuine knowledge, it had to be more than what we believed to be true. Many people would believe something that happens to be true, but its not actually proper knowledge. Tripartite theory attempts to define what knowledge is, it analyses knowledge as justified true belief. The theory states that if we believe something, have a justification for believing it, and it is true, then our belief is knowledge.
The first condition for knowledge that I am going to explain is belief. Unless you believe in something, you cannot know it. Even if something is true, and you have excellent reasons for believing that it is true, you cannot know it without believing it. Knowledge, quite clearly, needs belief.
The second condition for knowledge, is truth. If you know something then it must be true. No matter how well justified or sincere a belief, if it is not true then it cannot constitute knowledge. If a long-held belief is discovered to be false, then you must admit that what was thought to be known was in fact not known. What is false cannot be known, knowledge must be knowledge of the truth.
The third condition for knowledge is justification . In order to know a thing, it is not enough to merely believe it; you must also have a good reason for doing so. Lucky guesses cannot constitute knowledge; we can only know...
“Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom” - Plato.
Plato is one of the most important Greek philosophers. Plato began his philosophical career as Socrates' pupil, he wrote many of his books using Socrates' views. After Socrates died he travelled a lot and eventually returned to Athens and founded the Academy which was devoted to the teaching of philosophy and the sciences. Together Socrates and Plato began the study of knowledge, querying what it is and how we achieve it. All in all they started the debate that is still going to this day.
Plato reasoned that for something to be genuine knowledge, it had to be more than what we believed to be true. Many people would believe something that happens to be true, but its not actually proper knowledge. Tripartite theory attempts to define what knowledge is, it analyses knowledge as justified true belief. The theory states that if we believe something, have a justification for believing it, and it is true, then our belief is knowledge.
The first condition for knowledge that I am going to explain is belief. Unless you believe in something, you cannot know it. Even if something is true, and you have excellent reasons for believing that it is true, you cannot know it without believing it. Knowledge, quite clearly, needs belief.
The second condition for knowledge, is truth. If you know something then it must be true. No matter how well justified or sincere a belief, if it is not true then it cannot constitute knowledge. If a long-held belief is discovered to be false, then you must admit that what was thought to be known was in fact not known. What is false cannot be known, knowledge must be knowledge of the truth.
The third condition for knowledge is justification . In order to know a thing, it is not enough to merely believe it; you must also have a good reason for doing so. Lucky guesses cannot constitute knowledge; we can only know...