philosophy homework help?

Question

i am having troubles answering this question. I am interested in your thoughts about this question : " describe philosophically, what it is to know something."

Answer 1

The branch of philosophy which studies (according to dictionary.com) "the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge" is called epistemology. Epistemology is a big topic, for example, in religion: how do you _know_ there is a God? When you cannot prove something logically, is it possible to still _know_ it is true? How does logic work? How do we know it works? Regarding the senses and how we interact with objects outside ourselves, because we filter everything we see and touch and hear through our own individual brains, how do we know a reality "out there" exists that we all share in common? If it does not, what does this mean to the study of science?

How do I _know_ that this apple is red? What makes a thing red? How do I know when something is a table? If I use a chair as a table, is it a table? How do I (or scientists) _know_ that gravity is going to be there when I wake up tomorrow to keep me from floating off the ground?

So it has a bit to do with definitions and a bit to do with objective reality and a bit to do with the mind/matter brain/body dichotomies. Here's a website about "the analysis of knowledge":

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/

Answer 2

In order to answer this question you must understand that there are two branches of philosophy:

(1) Metaphysics – This wrestles with the fundamental questions of the nature and meaning of existence. Its ultimate goal is to construct a worldview (weltanschauung), what philosophers call “a unified view of reality”, a way of making sense out of existence. Metaphysics wrestles with questions such as, "Is there a God?" or "Why do I exist?" or "Why is the purpose of government?"

(2) Epistemology – This is to reason about reason. Before one can form a world view, she needs to question or evaluate whether or not she is thinking properly. It lays the groundwork to do metaphysics. Thus epistemology’s goal is to sort out the questions of knowledge, truth, proof, evidence and belief. Epistemology is therefore the forming of a defense for the truth of a claim. Epistemology is actually, “thinking about thinking.” How to think properly must precede what to think about reality.

So you are asked an epistemological question by your professor! How do I know something is real or true? There are bascially four sources of knowledge in philosophy:

a. Empirical -- Knowledge that comes from our five senses (aposteriori). This is also called the scientific method.

b. Reason -- Reaon is self-evident (apriori). It is built into the human mind and is based on laws or axioms that test whether or not something is true. These laws cannot be proven empirically or by any other scientific methods. They just are true and science or any other discipline that searches for truth relies on reason. Some of these self-evident laws are the law of non-contradiction, the law of identity and the law of cause and effect.

c. Intuition -- Intuition is the sixth sense. It is knowledge that comes to us mysteriously, but it is still true. You don't arrive at it empirically or logically. You don't know where it comes from! It is a gut feeling, i.e. mother's intuition, heart.

d. Faith -- Faith is knowledge that comes to us through revelation or from a transcendent source (i.e. God or scripture).

But the question of knowing something (epistemology) is the ongoing debate of philosophy. In fact, most philosophers deal not in the metaphysical but in epistemology.

Answer 3

Go with the standard answer: Justified true belief. To the extent you believe something that you can rationally prove is the objective truth, you know it. That's pretty much the definition of knowledge most philosophers have used since the time of Socrates (though Socrates himself wasn't convinced this was the most accurate definition of knowledge).

Answer 4

1+1=2
did you understood the values of each number then go even futhermore with them,

Answer 5

I think that's a pretty good answer.

I'd bullshit a paragraph about that concept.