HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED……

1
 ACCORDING TO
PHILOSOPHY

• if you want to know the truth

you have to use, not
emotions, but thinking.
• To think however is an act of
choice which is not always
done properly.
• Sometimes we need
guidance to straighten our
thoughts.
2
 LESSON 3

KNOWLEDGE
& TRUTH
4
 KNOWLEDGE
• people are already relying on knowledge for their survival.
• Without knowledge on how to create a fire, how to cook one’s
food, how to build a shelter, how to build dams to control
flooding, how to create laws to preserve order in society and
yes even how to think properly, we would still be in a
prehistoric cave.
• Knowledge literally enabled mankind to survive and reach
the present level of our civilization.
5
 EPISTEMOLOGY

“Epistemology is a science
devoted to the discovery of
the proper method of
acquiring and
validating knowledge”
(Rand 1990).
6
 The purpose of epistemology therefore is two-fold:

1. To show how we can acquire

knowledge.
2. To give us a method of
demonstrating whether the knowledge
we acquired is really knowledge (i.e.,
true). 7
 The Nature of Knowledge

Knowledge is the clear awareness and

understanding of something.
• It is provided by facts
• It is based on reality
• It is observable and evident on the
real world.
8
 How do we acquire knowledge?
1. We can acquire knowledge using
our sense (Empiricism)
Empiricists:
1. John Locke
2. George Berkley
3. David Hume
9
 How do we acquire knowledge?
2. We can acquire knowledge by thinking with the
use of our minds (what philosophers call the
rational faculty). (Rationalism); knowledge comes
from intellectual reasoning

Rationalists:
1. Rene Descartes
2. Baruch Spinoza
3. Gotfried Wilhelm
Leibniz 10
 PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
1. Reality
• To know is to know something.
• This “something” is what philosophers call
reality, existence, being.
• Existence is everything there is (another name
for it is the Universe).
• It includes everything we perceive (animals,
plants, human beings, inanimate objects) and
everything inside our heads (e.g., our thoughts
and emotions) which represents our inner world.
11
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
1.Reality
Existence is really all there is
to know. If nothing exists
knowledge is impossible

12
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
2. Perception
Our first and only contact
with reality is through our
senses.
Knowledge begins with
perceptual knowledge 13
 Click icon to add picture

ADD A FOOTER 14
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
3. Concept
“an abstract or generic idea
generalized from particular
instances” (Merriam-Webster
Dictionary)
15
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
4. Proposition
a statement that expresses
either an assertion or a denial
that an existent belongs to a
class or possess certain
attribute.
16
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
4. Proposition
a statement about the world or
reality are called propositions.
Propositions may or may not
carry the truth.
17
 Click icon to add picture

ADD A FOOTER 18
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING
KNOWLEDGE
5. Inference/Argument
is a group of statements, one
or more of which (the
premises) are claimed to
provide support for, or reason
to believe one of the others.
19
EXAMPLE

20
EXAMPLE
All men are mortals.
Socrates is a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

21
KNOWLEDGE VALIDATION
The first step in validating
one’s knowledge is to ask
oneself the following question:
“How did I arrive at this belief,
by what steps?”
22
 KNOWLEDGE VALIDATION
• This is what Dr. Peikoff calls
reduction.
• One will therefore realize that the
steps you took to acquire
knowledge (perception-concept-
proposition-inference) are the same
steps needed to validate knowledge
(but in reverse order). 23
Knowledge acquisition Knowledge validation

ADD A FOOTER 24
• If we perform the process of
reduction we will realized that all
true knowledge rest ultimately on
sense perception.
• “A belief is true if it can be justified
or proven through the use of one’s
senses”
25
 I am alive.
I have a body.
I can breathe.
26
KNOWLEDGE VALIDATION
• The third way to determine
if the statement is true is
through a consensus.
• “If the majority agrees that
a statement is true then it is
true.”
27
 EXAMPLE
For example the vast majority of
Germans during the time of Adolph
Hitler believed that Jews are racially
inferior. This is obviously false
supported by a pseudo biological
science of the Nazi. The result of this
false consensus is the extermination
of millions of Jews in many parts of28

Europe.
KNOWLEDGE VALIDATION
• The fourth way to
determine whether a
statement is true is to
test it by means of
action.
29
 EXAMPLE
• For example you want to know
if a person is friendly. Well the
best way to find out is to
approach the person. Thus the
famous Nike injunction of “Just
do it” is applicable in this
situation.
30
TRUTH VS OPINION

Identifying truth
however can sometimes
be tricky.
The reason is that there
are times when we
strongly held an idea
ADD A FOOTER that we feel “deep 31

down” to be true.
 EXAMPLE

• Religious people strongly believed that there is

life after death.
• Some people who embraced democracy may
passionately embraced the idea that the
majority is always right.
• Or on a more personal level you may feel
strongly that your sister is “selfish”.
32
 TRUTH VS OPINION

• You must understand that the facts

of reality are independent of your
thoughts, feelings or
preferences .That is the characteristic
of truth.
• For example the statement “Jose
Rizal died in 1896” is true.
33
 TRUTH VS OPINION

• However when you say that “Jose

Rizal is the greatest man who ever
lived” you are stating your preference
and not facts. This is an opinion.

34
OPINION

1. Based on emotions
2. Open to interpretation
3. Cannot be confirmed
4. Inherently biased
35
 TRUTH

1. Based on the facts of reality

2. Can be confirmed with other
sources
3. Independent of one’s
interpretation, preferences and
biases 36