Weaknesses And Philosophies Of The Correspondence Theory Of Truth

With this lesson, we begin a new unit on epistemology, which is the philosophical study of knowledge claims. In this first lesson on epistemology, we begin by examining the question “What do we mean when we say we know something?” What exactly is knowledge? We will begin with a presentation that introduces the traditional definition of knowledge. Wood then discusses some of the basic issues raised in the study of epistemology and then presents an approach to epistemology that focuses on obtaining the intellectual virtues, a point we will elaborate on in the next lesson.

The topic of knowledge and belief has been a subject of investigation and a primary field in philosophical research for centuries. Whether it was Aristotle or Descartes, multiple ideas on knowledge and belief arise, such as the epistemological theories of foundationalism or coherentism, which provide philosophical explanations to this debate. For the sake of this essay, and in my own opinion, knowledge should be distinguished from belief. Everyone is subject to different types of beliefs based on upbringing, however knowledge of basic items is universal, therefore it immediately becomes apparent that there is a clear distinction between the two concepts.

The most interesting part of this week’s text is the correspondence theory which is all about claims. We are brought up to believe and accept things that we never even thought of finding out if it’s really true.

Knowledge is defined as a true justified belief; however, what if it were impossible to differentiate between truth and falsehood? The Matrix addresses this question when Neo awakens from the Matrix and discovers that he has been living in a false reality. He is told that this new reality is the truth, and that his life in the Matrix was simply a computer program controlling his thoughts and actions (The Matrix). The Matrix presents the idea that truth is equivalent to objective reality, in contrast to Kierkegaard’s belief that only subjective truth combined with faith is necessary. However, both the movie and Kierkegaard believe in the importance of taking a leap of faith. In the movie, truth is shown to be reality, but they do not explain how to know when you are living in reality, because it is impossible to be entirely sure that you are living in reality.

Edmund Gettier’s argument that justified true belief is not a sufficient definition for knowledge is correct. There are many scenarios in which the conditions for justified true belief are met but cannot be said to qualify as knowledge; therefore justified true belief is not a sufficient definition for knowledge.

You cannot claim to know something if you cannot claim to believe it as well.

Lewis’ work did not go uncriticized, both by his contemporaries and later historians. Light and Truth received criticism in its time from Lewis’ contemporaries, such as Martin Delany. In Delany’s The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of African Americans in the United States and Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party, he argues Lewis’ work is not a step towards progress, but rather “a compilation of selected portions of . . . other ancient histories; added to which, is a tissue of historical absurdities and literary blunders, shamefully palpable” (Delany 38). Delany goes as far as to criticize the publishers who print Lewis’ Light and Truth, citing it as a piece only printed to make money, and a danger to the very audience Lewis argues he wants to help and educate (Delany 38). I would argue that the conviction displayed by Lewis throughout the book disprove this argument of publication solely for profit, with Lewis repeatedly referring to his desire to shed light on the truths of history. Close to two centuries after the 1844 publication of Light and Truth, historian John Ernest mirrored general criticisms from Lewis’ contemporaries,

A man once told me that there is no truth in this world. All the ideas such as Math, Science, Language, and even society is all made up. That the only reason two plus two equals four is based solely off of one man saying it does, and society agreeing with it blindly. But I tell you that there is no such thing as truth, but that itself is a truth.

The article “The Attack on Truth” by Mclntyre Lee is about willful ignorance and the fact people are very stubborn. Willful ignorance is when they keep them self from the facts and the truth that is right. The one very likely candidate is the Internet. It has gotten to the point where very little people know simple things like when the dinosaurs lived. It is all because of the internet and the fact that the kids these days don't go around and fact check because they have “better things to do.” This article is about kids And adults not learning to tell the fake news between the real news.

In his essay, “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato, argues his idea of how to distinguish the reality and truth from that which is a falsehood. Most essentially, he finds it as important to enlighten others that may remain in that

One consistency in both texts of the Meno (Meno 99c) and Republic (Republic 472d) is that people who use true belief cannot show or explain how their belief is the truth. I believe this is one of the largest distinctions between knowledge and true belief. Knowledge is

universal truths and pass it on to those who cannot see it. To Plato the above is his

In his book ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, Descartes writes that all beliefs, even the most irresistible convictions, may not correspond to how the world really is; and this is something that defenders of the correspondence theory are arguably unable to dismiss. As a result, the coherence theory takes a different approach and argues that a proposition (truth-bearer) is true if it ‘fits’ or coheres with a specific set of beliefs (truth-maker). These beliefs may belong either to the individual (and include the laws of logic, for example), to human beings at the ultimate stage of historical development, or to a system of beliefs held by a God or the Absolute (Walker, 1989). So in the example where Billy believes that ‘dogs have five legs’, his claim can be assessed by considering if this statement coheres with a specific set of true beliefs. For instance, it may be commonly understood that dogs have four legs not five, that there has never been a dog with more than four legs, and that no one apart from Billy has ever claimed that dogs can have more than four legs. Thus, it follows that the key to determining whether Billy’s statement is true or false is “internal consistency and logical standards” (Dunwoody, 2009, p. 117).

The quality of being true is related to something clear, without any uncertainty. This is perfectly summarized by the Greek word for truth is ἀλήθεια (alétheia), from the privative prefix ἀ- (a-), meaning 'not', and -λήθε (-lethe), 'oblivion', which, as Martin Heidegger (2001) explained by analysing its etymology, refers to "the state of not being hidden". Truth is a cross issue, that embraces everything related to humans, from the most ordinary aspect of daily life, to the most deep religious thought. The need to find what is true is part of the human nature, but as the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1965) stated, that same nature, which gave us the need of knowledge, at the same time bound us to subjectivity, limiting our understanding to judgement and interpretation, thus, truth can only be obtained gradually, through a never ending task. This process of understanding finds its ancient roots in Greece, in the VII-VI century B.C., when philosophy was born and the slow loss of universal certainties has started. The very first interest of philosophers was that to define the concept of Being, a wide notion that embraces objective and subjective features of reality. Throughout the philosophy of truth, objectivism and subjectivism lead to the development of the two major approaches to reality, Relativism and Universalism.

Plato argued that true knowledge was not obtained through the knowledge of the physical world around us, but from these unchanging ideas. Plato’s theory of knowledge is well explained through his discussion of the Divided Line; a line divided into two unequal parts. One section represents the visible order and the other intelligible order, relating to opinion and knowledge, respectively. The stages of cognition flow upwards: imagining, belief, thinking, and intelligence. The visible, changing world of opinion begins with the awareness of images through perception. Awareness of images can include