3 Knowledge, Wisdom, and Opinion

Knowledge, Wisdom, and Opinion

This lesson will discuss two popular methods of philosophizing,
the dialectal method or the Socratic method and an exercise in
skepticism using Descartes’ method of systematic doubt. The
exposition of these methods will give the student an experience of
the philosophical method of arriving at knowledge. Thus, as a
needed corollary before the discussion of the Socratic method, is an
overview of Plato’s theory of knowledge and his corresponding
metaphysical system, Plato’s allegory of the cave introduces the
process of enlightenment of the soul toward s the ultimate
knowledge of goodness. Together with the Platonic concept of the
divided line, this will complete the discussion of Plato’s theory of Forms
and Ideas.

Philosophical method (or philosophical methodology) is the study of

how to do philosophy. A common view among philosophers is that
philosophy is distinguished by the ways that philosophers follow in
addressing philosophical questions. There is not just one method that
philosophers use to answer philosophical questions.

Philosophy is concerned with determining the concept of truth. Truth

lies at the heart of any inquiry.

Truth in metaphysics and the philosophy of language is the property

of sentences, assertions, beliefs, thoughts, or propositions that are
said, in ordinary discourse, to agree with the facts or to state what
the case is. It is most often used to mean being in accord with fact
or reality, or fidelity to an original or standard. Truth is also sometimes
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defined in modern contexts as an idea of "truth to self", or
authenticity.

Propositions is a statement about the world or reality. Propositions

may or may not carry truth.

Knowledge is the clear awareness and understanding of something.

It is the product of questions that allow for clear answers provided by
facts.

Facts are propositions or statement which are observe to be real or

truthful.

Claim is a statement that is not evidently or immediately known to

be true. This means that any claim can be proven by verification and
experimentation.

Therefore, truthful statements can be considered as based on

facts. There are several views regarding truth. Philosophers
emphasize the importance of belief as a basis for determining truth.
But as a philosopher, we do not assume that every statement is true.
Remember the famous French philosopher, Rene Descartes traced
the need to philosophize to doubt.
In philosophy, systematic doubt is employed to help determine the
truth. This means that every statement, claim, evidence, and
experience is scrutinized and analyzed.

Philosophers always engaged with the concept of truth.

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Philosophers consider truth as a kind of quality or value. Knowledge
is the clear awareness and understanding of something, since it is
true knowing that we are able to determine what is true.
Doubt has a very important purpose in philosophy as it drives
our desire to discover the truth. In philosophy, systematic doubt is
employed to help determine the truth.
A belief is true if it can be justified or proven through the use
of one’s senses. Another basis for determining truth is a belief or
statement is true if it is based on facts.
Getting consensus or having people agree on a common
belief is another way of determining what is true. Although this
approach has certain limitations. Getting everyone to agree on
something may not take that belief true.
Philosophers also believe that claims and belief should also be
subjected to test to determine truth. In determining truth requires also
that a person can prove a statement through an action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RWOpQXTltA

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In Plato’s allegory, he described prisoners inside a cave where

they are chained facing a wall. Behind and above the prisoners are
people carrying objects along a road and beyond this road is a
burning fire. The burning fire would cast the shadows of the people
with their objects to the wall in front of the prisoners. Consequently,
the prisoners could see only the images or shadows cast by these
objects.
Once the prisoner is set free, and would be forced to turn
around, he will realize that the cause of the shadows were the
people on the road with the objects they carry and the fire. But if he
is further forced and dragged out from the cave, he will realize that
the sun is the source of whatever is true and good for all things, thus,
his soul will be enlightened towards the intelligible world, or the world
of true reality Once the vision of the good is attained from the
sunlight, he will be unwilling and reluctant to descend and go back
to the cave or the world of darkness again. This process of the
enlightenment of the soul or the mind’s eye represents its ascent from
the world of opinion inside the cave with its beliefs and illusions, to
the world of real knowledge where the real objects of knowledge
could be found, the forms and ideas-this is Plato's divided line.

The Divided Line - Knowledge and Opinion

Plato made a distinction between the sensible world or the world of
experience, and the intelligible world or the world of true knowledge.
This is popularly known as Plato's divided line. The sensible world is
known through the use of our senses paving the basis for opinion;
while the intelligible world is known through the use of the intellect
paving the basis for knowledge.

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Opinion, which could only produce appearance or reality as it
appears to us, is further divided into belief and illusion. Between the
two types of opinion, eikasia or illusion, or imagination is considered
as the lower type in Plato's allegory. This is represented by the
shadows seen by the prisoners. This would also include second-hand
information that we accept without further investigation or search
for any evidence. Therefore, included among the objects in this
illusory realm would be poetry and works of art like paintings.
Plato believed that poets and artists should be banished from
the Republic because they are creating a tertiary copy of reality.
Since the objects found in the world of the senses is construed by
Plato as merely secondary copies of the Forms and ldeas existing in
the true reality. Moreover, the realm of the shadows and reflections
are always changing. thus, they cannot be the objects of real
knowledge. In the first place, Plato believed that for something to be
accepted as objects of knowledge, they must be clear and
unchanging
For Plato, the real objective is the search for knowledge.
Knowledge has two levels: reason or noesis using the intellect and
dianoia or understanding using scientific, mathematical, or abstract
hypothesis.
According to Socrates, "The unexamined lite is not worth
living.” This passage is meant to emphasize the importance of
contemplation or the philosophical life in order to remember the
perfect knowledge that the soul knew before it joined the body. This
is done without having to rely on the senses which could clutter our
understanding with appearances or opinion, but solely through the
use of our intellect. Thus, this is direct, know ledge of the forms and
ideas through the forms and ideas themselves, without having to rely
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on the senses, in order to reach, attain, and remember knowledge

of the highest idea of them all: the idea of goodness which is the key
towards the attainment of wisdom. Before achieving full or complete
knowledge, the person has to go through the process of recognizing
his own ignorance or aporia. This recognition and realization of one's
limitations and ignorance will help the soul gain noetic insight and
enlightenment.
This is the only time that one could be prepared to true
knowledge using the eye of the mind, which is the soul or intellect.
The mind's eye could be honed through dialectics and constant
questioning and by recognizing one’s ignorance in order to grasp
the universal form of Goodness, thus, reaching the highest form of
knowledge. The attainment of this knowledge means that one would
simultaneously proceed to apply this knowledge to the particular
instances in his life, thus, becoming virtuous and attaining wisdom.

The Socratic Method and The Method of Skeptic Doubt

An Exercise in Dialectics
The Socratic method is actually an example of the method of
dialectics. As early as the time of Zeno, a follower of Parmenides, the
dialectical method has already been used through his arguments
against motion. This constitutes the embracing and taking on the
hypothesis or view of your opponent as if you agree with it. After
which, you will try to deduce contradictory consequences of the
same hypothesis to make it look absurd. You could show the
contradiction or absurdity of your opponent's argument by asking a
series of insightful questions in a dialogue that would lead to this

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absurd or contradictory conclusion. Through this
series of questions and answers, the opponent
usually tails to realize that by the answers he has
given, he 1s in the process of showing or
demonstrating the contradiction in his own
original argument or proposition.

Despite having no writings of his own to pass on, Socrates still left a
significance influence on philosophy through his student Plato.

An Exercise in Skepticism

Descartes is known not only for his

philosophical writings but also for his
contributions to mathematics, such as the
Cartesian plane.

Rene Descartes, in his book Meditations on First Philosophy

(1641), believed that knowledge can proceed or start from very few
premises or starting points just like his model of mathematics. Once
one is certain about what these starting points of knowledge are, he
can expand it. He saw the structure of knowledge as an inverted
pyramid where a tew premises are the starting points. For something
to be accepted as a starting point of knowledge, an idea must be
clear, distinct, and certain. He believed that reason is an important
instrument or source in gaining knowledge about reality because it
is reason alone, which can discover the indubitable premises of

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knowledge which are self-evidently true and where other
propositions could be deduced, thus, knowledge could proceed.

The indubitable premises are logically true and nonsensical to

doubt because the moment that you doubt them, you would
contradict yourself. These clear and distinct ideas which Descartes
considered as the starting points of knowledge: the self, God, and
material objects. Hence, they became the three premises of
knowledge. These three could be discovered using the method of
systematic doubt. They are considered as substances, were, through
the use of the transcendental faculty of reason, one would be able
to gain knowledge of, without having to rely on experience as a
source of knowledge.
Let us take Descartes' proof for the existence of the self as an
example of the use of his method of systematic doubt. The method
of systematic doubt consists of doubting everything that can be
doubted until you arrive at clear and distinct ideas which are
nonsensical to doubt. For something to be accepted as one or the
starting points or premises of knowledge. an idea must be clear and
distinct.
Descartes believed that one of the logically certain premises is
the existence of the self. He began his proof for the existence of the
self by doubting everything that can be doubted. Even if you doubt
everything that can be doubted e.g., you can doubt your parents, if
they are really your parents; or your brothers and sisters, if you are
really related by blood; or even the existence of things in the other
room, if nobody is there to perceive them; etc., as Descartes argues
that you can even doubt your own doubt), you can still be sure and
certain about one thing, that you are doubting.
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Doubting is a form of thinking. Thinking could not happen in a
vacuum. There must be an owner of these thoughts. Therefore,
thinking implies that you exist as a substance. You would be
contradicting yourself it you doubt that you exist, at the very moment
that you are doubting as a result, the self exists at the very act of
doubting, which is a form of thinking. Or in other words, cogito, ergo,
sum or ‘I think, therefore, I am.’

ACTIVITY No. 3
Directions: Write your answer in a one (1) whole sheet of yellow
paper.

A. Fill in the blanks

Complete the concept by filling up the blanks with the most
appropriate word. Write only the answer.
1. ____________________ is the method of embracing and taking on
the hypothesis or view of your opponent as it you agree with it then
deduce contradictory consequences from the same hypothesis to
make it look absurd.
2. 'Cogito, ergo, sum' means “I ____________________, therefore, I am.
3. ____________________ has to do with lower type of knowledge,
which is associated with mathematical, abstract or scientific
understanding.
4. Plato believed that this world is not the basis for the attainment of
true and real knowledge because he assumed the existence of
another world in another dimension which he called
______________.

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5. Before achieving full or complete knowledge, the person has to go
through the process of recognizing his own ignorance or
____________________.
6. According to Plato, "The ____________________ of every man
possesses the power of learning the truth and the organ to see it
with...”
7. The ____________________ method is actually an example of the
method of dialectics.
8. ____________________ is claimed by Plato to be a higher level of
knowledge because it has to do with the grasping of complete or
perfect knowledge of the forms and ideas.
9. According to ____________________, “The unexamined lite is not
worth living."
10. Belief or conviction, or ____________________, on the other
hand, comprises our commonsensical view about the world.

B. Essay
Rubric Scoring for Evaluation
One clear Clear and adequate
Excellent statement each explanation
both strength and why it is considered both as
for weakness are a
given Strength and a weakness.

Only one is given for Only one explanation is

Very Good either its strength or provided.
its
weakness

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One strength or No clear or adequate
Good weakness was explanation.
provided

1. Evaluate Plato's theory of knowledge. Discuss its strengths and

weaknesses. Do you agree with his theory?

2. Give your own example of the application of the dialectical

method in arriving at a conclusion or a statement that is considered
as contradictory or at least different from your original belief or
opinion. This example should show how the method of dialectics can
revise your original belief or opinion to arrive at a much better version
of it. Write your answer in the space provided next page.

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References
Ramos, C. C. (2019). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human
Person Edition. Rex Book Store.
Vinzons, M. P. (2020). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human
Person. Vibal Group Inc. .
DepEd Module

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