Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Knowledge - Essay Example As one of those perennial topics, a team of philosophers decided to name the study of knowledge an epistemology. The word epistemology comes from two Greek words episteme (episthmh) meaning knowledge and logos (logo V) meaning reason. Others, philosophers nowadays would assign this subject as of fundamental importance; however, the subject about knowledge remains an essential part of philosophy (1997). Knowledge started way back, during the civilization period. By civilization, I refer to the many centuries back where humans managed the environmental change. For example there was the Egyptians in Mesopotamia, who discovered that with the possession of water(Nile) and their very fertile land, they could actually practiced farming and feed themselves and as well as making a living. From that, it is clear that knowledge infact is a tool to the ‘subject’ of change as opposed to the ‘object’ of change. You will notice that as time passed, the Egyptians transforme d from farming to other form of activities such as architecture, pottery, animal domestication, writing and so on. The ancient humans continued to discover rapidly other fronts after the set up of infrastructure which was brought about by the early activities. People did not stop discovering new ways of living despite the hardships, from architecture and agriculture to religion and politics, animal domestication to economic set-up. There are two types of knowledge; Knowledge by Representation and Knowledge by Acquaintance. Knowledge by Representation basically refers to the way in which a human being expresses himself. This is normally done through aspects of communication like language speaking or gestures. Through representation, knowledge is fundamentally used as a surrogate. This is for example when someone finds an entity to determine the consequences of something by just thinking about it unlike acting on it. It is more of a belief condition. You will find out that, a person c an claim to be rich one day but he does not even have a job yet being unemployed cannot stop him from proclaiming those words. In other words, on the subject of knowledge, dreams are part of representation. So many people out there would want to have something, some other want it so badly that they go to an extent of making it aloud. This is referred as belief. Regardless of the many difficulties experienced, you will get a person still having the same beliefs in making it in life. Off course everybody wants the best and will do anything to get there. This shows that regardless of the much opposition one might face, he or she continues to have a belief that he will make it. Knowledge by Acquaintance can be described as a direct relation without interference between a person and an existing thing. This is referred to as justification. For example, a person may be acquainted with a color or the texture of a table before him but this does not stop him or her from eating or leaning on i t. This shows that human beings can be acquainted with something immediately without even knowing the real truth behind it. We must concede that words can have different meanings, and that each of the different meanings may be legitimate. For example, one might say, â€Å"It is better to be red than dead.† Here, â€Å"red† obviously does not refer to a particular color in a scheme of colors, but is intended to convey notions of communism (1955).It would be improper to say that â€Å"red† cannot be used in such a way. Faith provides for a strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual belief rather than proof. This then leads to our next question as to whether we should continue inventing new knowledge or we