Plato
“I believe that truths are to be unearthed, and knowledge is permissible. Truth is not relative but objective as it conforms with how our reasoning apprehends a statement’s logic. It is thus wrong to state that people lack knowledge in some rudimentary way. However, there must be a distinction between believing and knowing as there are objective truths to be discovered which do not have any logical basis to be considered correct. For truths to suffice as correct, they must satisfy three basic principles: the knowledge must be believed, true, and supported by relevant logic. This means that knowledge can be considered as justified and true beliefs.
Truth or falsity thus requires a statement that can be evaluated. A list of words does not meet the threshold for being true or false. Terms must be capable of interacting with other words to create statements that assert knowledge by agreeing or disagreeing with logic. There are two kinds of beliefs, truth and false which form part of our knowledge pool. These two concepts are vital in determining whether knowledge is a true belief. For example, one can form two statements: Tom is sitting, and Tom is flying. Both are statements and highlight how words can combine to form truthful statements. However, one is true, and the other is false; thus, a philosopher must decipher the meaning between the two statements to unearth the correct one.
The first statement is true as its entities developed by the words are combined as the statement asserts. Although the second one asserts something, it is false as the conditions regarding the forms and truth are not satisfied. These statements show that there are two different kinds of knowledge truths, beliefs without knowledge about intelligible objects and beliefs with knowledge about intelligible objects. In this instance, belief remains separate from knowledge because it only provides us with a partial understanding of its comprehensible object. This belief is implicit in my use of similes because it allows readers to include beliefs in their investigations while preserving a clear boundary between belief and knowledge. I conclude that true belief is not recognizable to the person who bears the statement. In addition, knowledge is not true belief; therefore, there needs a requirement that something other than trivial truth is needed for knowledge”.
Skeptic
“I disagree with Plato’s arguments regarding beliefs and truths where one is required to decipher the meaning of two statements to unearth the truthful meaning. The rational response in a conflicting situation is to suspend judgment and investigate the truth claims. The question here is whether it is acceptable to conduct investigations regarding the value of truth guided by epistemic principles. It is better not to form any belief than to develop one that could be false. This concept allows one to investigate a truth without believing anything, as skeptics need not be committed to beliefs. According to Plato, thoughts involve concepts that entail beliefs. However, this is not true, as most personal beliefs are cast in the conceptual framework of dialogue.
The claim that there are two kinds of beliefs, truth and false which form our part of the knowledge pool is false as there is only one kind of belief, cognitive attitude. Cognitive attitudes contribute to our knowledge through two opposing ways where one claims truth, and the other identifies a deficiency in the claim. As a skeptic, it is prudent to suspend analysis of the two statements as it leads to the conclusion that one is true and the other false. Knowledge is thus not dependent on having beliefs, as wisdom does not flow from knowing something to believing the same thing. This means that if one believes in something, one lacks adequate knowledge of the subject. When faced with a dilemma whether one has knowledge or belief, it is prudent to suspend judgment and continue to probe”.
Stoic
“I disagree with both arguments as beliefs are never true and thus cannot form the basis of our knowledge. The stoic version of beliefs is that they have developed through preconceptions that arise naturally and do not require approval. The use of concepts that lead to beliefs by skeptics is through the use of preconceptions thus are only acceptable by dogmatists. This is due to the preconception that beliefs are fragile and changeable while knowledge is unalterable. As a stoic philosopher, one cannot approve statements that are non-cognitive, and knowledge does not only entail possession of one or more exhaustive truths. Beliefs are only true and amount to knowledge when expressed in an utterance as either true or false. Beliefs are thus directed by principles that are distinct from truth-bearing statements.
To gain knowledge, one should discard beliefs as they are generally false. As foreign as this doctrine sounds, I believe that humans are closer to this position than Plato or Skeptics. Here, only aphoristic should be considered the bearers of truths, thus invalidating any application of derivative truth. The modest application of this doctrine is where ancestors’ sayings are considered truths and applied by most people as knowledge. This shows that knowledge is derived from people’s utterances and not deciphering statements to unearth their credibility as Plato suggested or suspending judgment to investigate the statement as argued by Skeptics.
References
Hestir, B. E. (2018). Plato on the metaphysical foundation of meaning and truth. Cambridge University Press.
Vogt, K. M. (2015). Belief and truth: A skeptic reading of Plato. Oxford University Press.