Plato s Perspective On Knowledge - 1110 Words

Plato’s Perspective on Knowledge Epistemology is the field of philosophy that deals with the nature, scope and origin of knowledge. It looks at how all forms of knowledge including what human beings claim to know and what they think they know, are derived. Many philosophers have contributed to the discussion of the origin of knowledge with various perspectives being applied. Some of the major views on epistemology are innate versus acquired knowledge as well as the rationalist and empiricist perspectives of reason and experience respectively. Plato’s stand on the origin of knowledge can be found in the detailed Theaetetus. These were Plato’s writings that covered his views and beliefs in the issue of epistemology. Some of his views on the†¦show more content†¦He discovers that the theory being employed in this definition is that of Protagoras whose view is that human beings are the measure of all things. The view is the human ability to identify appearance with that which is considered to be r eality. In this respect, knowledge seems as a private issue to the owner of the knowledge. This is to mean that what appears to an individual is only to that individual. The theory is therefore, identified as the interaction between two major elements which include a stimulus and sensory response to the stimulus. Thus, the stimuli that exist around can be described as objectively real. However, since each individual’s senses are private, the results of stimuli are private knowledge. After much criticism, Socrates refutes Theaetetus definition that knowledge is perception. Socrates brings up another element of knowledge which is the involvement of the mind in the interpretation of information derived from sensation. While sense simply collects raw data, the data must be transferred to the mind for further interpretation against the standards of already existing information. For example, when one takes a bite of an apple, the tongue collects the raw data that cannot resemble knowledge until it is interpreted by the mind. Due to this new revelation about knowledge and the mind, Plato’s definition of knowledge becomes true judgment. This is to mean that knowledge