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Is Justified True Knowledge: The Myth Of Knowledge

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Knowledge is still being researched and explored to this day. It is described to be anything that is true. Truth has many forms, but none in which we can see with our naked eye. Throughout the years many skeptical arguments has had us question if knowledge is real or what it even is exactly. Skepticism, such as Descarte and Locke, I believe makes one doubt and destroys the foundation that knowledge does indeed exist. Knowledge is the sum of all the information created by the human race. Knowledge has been identified by philosophers with language, logic, and human beliefs. They identify knowledge with statements or propositions that can be logically analyzed and validated. Knowledge has also been defined as “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” …show more content…

The only light they have is from a fire. There are many things behind them but they cannot see it firsthand they can only see it from shadows that the fire casts on the wall. Plato ask many questions throughout the reading such as “Do you suppose, first of all, that these prisoners see anything of themselves and one another besides the shadows that the fire casts on the wall in front of them? How could they, if they have to keep their heads motionless throughout life? What about the things being carried along the wall? Isn’t the same true of them?” (Plato 23). Because the prisoners cannot see behind them to see that the shadows on the wall are not real they believe that they are. They then play a game of guessing which shadows would appear next and if one was to get it right they were praised as clever. One of the prisoners escapes and finds new knowledge of the outside world. He then returns to the cave to tell the others of what he has found but they do not believe him and they do not want to be set free. This portrays the cave to be people that are trapped in the misunderstanding that knowledge is what we see or hear in the world. Also known as empirical evidence. The shadows represent those who believe empirical evidence. If you believe everything you see or hear to be the truth then you are only seeing the shadows of the truth. The game is like the proposition “S believes that P” because S believes it so does P. When the prisoner escape it is like finding now meaning to questions that have always been asked about knowledge. Then the return is like people not believing the new truths that skepticism is trying to portray to

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