What+is+Knowledge

=What is Knowledge anyway? Let's examine 2 potential responses to this question.= =__No. 1 JTB__=

**Activity: In your groups, come up with definitions for 'Know' and 'Believe’. Be prepared to share these.**
Can you know something without believing it?

Can you believe something without knowing it?

Knowledge requires belief but belief does not require Knowledge. Yes? No?



Plato’s definition of Knowledge is Justified True Belief.
So, if it is knowledge you have to believe it, otherwise you can’t say you know it. Plato further says that in order to know something, it has to be true. If you say you know the Earth is flat then you can’t know it because this is not true.

There is enough evidence to justify the belief that the Earth is round, and many things we do on Earth wouldn’t work if the Earth was flat. Your true belief must then be justified because you could believe something to be true that is coincidentally true but not well justified.


 * __This model of Knowledge__**

A knows X = X is true+A believes X is true+ A is justified in believing that X is true

Maybe there are some problems with this. Does this work for artistic knowledge? Experiential or procedural knowledge (I know how to ride a bike), Does knowledge really have to be true? Still, it is useful for us to start with the same definition and we will use this throughout the TOK course (but we can feel free to question, modify or throw this out as needed)

So, the TOK million Lira question is: = = =How do we know if a [|belief] is true or not. TOK is the examination of What we and others believe, the reasons for believing, and whether or not these are likely to be good reasons.=

How do we find out if our reasons for believing are good? If we use Justified True Belief as our model, we find out if something is justified or really true by examining the validity of Justification, so maybe knowledge can lay on a spectrum.

===All of this begs the question: What is truth? Look over the Three Theories of Truth. Which seems best to you? Is this response more rational, emotional or intuitive. Something else?===

=__No. 2: That Which is Percieved, or Reasoned, or Imagined, or ...__=

Justified

=Discussion question=

Does Justified True Belief work for all the key elements of TOK in the diagram below? Try to pick one of the key elements below that you think Justified True Belief (as a definition of knowledge) works well for and pick one element that you think is not such a good fit for this definition.


 * 1) Write a thoughtful response (around 250-300 words) to the question above in your class discussion page in the toolbar on the left.
 * 2) Comment on at least two other responses. One of your comments must be to a response without any comments. Make this something more substantial than, "Great Response!"

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