Knowledge and Reality

Paper Summary:

The observation that in order to genuinely know that something is so one must first know that one knows it may appear to be simply tautological. However, as this paper argues, this observation reveals a fundamental issue in our understanding of knowledge and how we know. It argues that to truly know something we must have justification for this knowledge. It also looks at how this classic understanding of knowledge can be seen in Plato's dialog "Meno" in which he describes knowledge as being differentiated from right opinion in that one has justification for this knowledge.

From the Paper:

"The observation that in order to genuinely know that something is so one must first know that one knows it may appear to be simply tautological. However, as this essay will argue, this observation reveals a fundamental issue in our understanding of knowledge and how we know. As will be argued, to truly know something we must have justification for this knowledge. The classic understanding of knowledge can be seen in Plato's dialogue Meno in which he describes knowledge as being differentiated from right opinion in that one has justification for this knowledge. In this dialogue Socrates is shown to reveal to Meno the underlying contradictions of his flawed understanding of the difference between knowledge and true opinion. "

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