Introduction
Epistemology is one of the most interesting branches of philosophy. It deals with the numerous question raised by various philosophers about education. One of the many questions raised by persons in the profession over the years is the definition of knowledge. Many philosophers believe that knowledge acquisition in education is dependent on the ability of the student to identify with the ideas sent out by teachers. Other philosophers believe knowledge is the end product after feeding students with information.
Educators normally find themselves questioning their practice with relation to their delivery of facts. One of the most pressing dilemmas facing educators is whether they should instill values in education, that dictate their information to be true or to assume a passive view on the information they have. Some philosophers in the field of epistemology have developed theories to address this question, and some of their models are quite plausible as revealed in this chapter. Knowledge is the ability to use the factual ideas gathered in the process of gaining education, and it should be open to validity tests by students.
Theories of Knowledge
Socrates and Plato are some of the earliest philosophers to engage in the analysis of the concept of knowledge. Socrates particularly leaned toward the claim that knowledge is perception. Socrates developed a theory that claims that for one to claim he or she has knowledge, he has to perceive the ideas he or she is presenting.
This definition would later be negated by other philosophers, who claimed that Socrates’ definition was subject to negation because perception in itself requires knowledge, and not everything that people knew could be perceivable. Socrates looked into knowledge as an opinion, but this claim was also negated (Noddings, 2010). Opinions can either be false or true, and they are normally open to personal bias; hence, there is no way knowledge can be equated to an opinion because it is the ultimate truth devoid of biases.
Descartes, reasoning with relation to knowledge is perhaps the most plausible attempt in defining knowledge. According to the philosopher, knowledge is equivalent to the limits of one’s thoughts. Descartes believed that for knowledge to exist there must be lines of thoughts guided by personal reasoning to generate ideas. Whereas there is still no clear definition of knowledge, truth in the various domains of the concept has attracted modern philosophers as a viable area to address.
Truth can only exist if there is factual knowledge supporting it. Factual knowledge on the other hand can only exist if the knowledge in it passes all tests of reasoning. In essence, all the theories of knowledge that have been developed by philosophers in the field of epistemology translate to a general view that knowledge is the ability to use the factual ideas gathered in the process of gaining education, and it should be open to validity tests by individual students (Noddings, 2010).
Conclusion
Epistemology is an interesting field in philosophy, which deals with the questions raised about education. One of the most pressing questions of all times is the definition of knowledge. Many epistemologists have attempted to define knowledge in the simplest terms, but there is always a loophole negating the validity of the definitions. It is not possible to come up with a plausible definition of knowledge and the truth; hence, one can only generalize a deduction from the numerous theories that have been developed by renowned philosophers.
References
Noddings, N. (2010). Philosophy of Education. Stanford: Stanford University.