Philosophy is the systematic study of fundamental questions concerning existence, knowledge, values, reason,

A reality and the underlying principles that govern it, often employing critical thinking, rational argumentation, and rigorous analysis. Philosophy is both ancient and contemporary, addressing timeless questions about the human experience while also engaging with the complexities of modern life and thought.

1. NATURE OF KNOWLEGDE LESSON 2

2. STAGES IN APPREHENSION OF CONCEPTS FOR KNWOLEDGE TO BE POSSIBLE There are actually, three major stages in the apprehension of concept before knowledge become possible. PERCEPTION ABTRACTION JUDGEMENT

3. PERCEPTION This is the first stage, which involves activity that does not make us different from animals. There are two types of Perception: External Perception – Happens with our Five Senses. The result of process is called “PERCEPT”. Immediate product of External Perception. Internal Perception – Use your imagination and memory to recreate the percept into an “IMAGE” or PHANTASM.

4. ABSTRACTION Second stage that distinguishes us from animal. A simple apprehension of conception. In this process, concepts are formed in the mind. Concepts are said to be the building blocks of knowledge. When words express concepts, they are technically called terms .

5. JUDGEMENT It completes the act of the mind for knowledge to become possible. This is the third stage to complete the act of the mind. This is where knowledge claim is made where two concepts are put together to make a STATEMENT or PROPOSITION that could either be true or false about the world. You are therefore affirming or denying something about the concept, or you may be pronouncing an agreement or disagreement between these two concepts. For example the concepts SKY and BLUE. This constitutes making a knowledge claim that is either true or false about the world, that is you could check whether the claim is true depending on the weather of that day.

6. This process is called JUDGMENT and the RESULT of this process is a STATEMENT or a PROPOSITION. It completes the act of the mind for knowledge to become possible. If concepts are building blocks of knowledge, you need statements to cement them together to build a house, in this case, to construct an ARGUMENT. This reflects the process of reasoning. From this stage onwards, the accumulation of knowledge and information, and the construction of arguments are now possible.

7. SENTENCES AND STATEMENTS The concepts that we put together are expressed using sentences. Sentences have no truth value except for declarative type of sentences because it has the element of truth or falsity since there is a knowledge claim on the statement THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF STATEMENTS Analytical Statements Empirical Statement

8. Analytical Statements The truth or falsity of the knowledge claim being made by an analytic statement could be found within the statement itself. The Analytical Statement are known or identified as; Truths of language , truths of reason and formal statement . EXAMPLE; “No bachelor has a mother-in-law”’ “The Boy is a male” This are considered as tautologous statements whose truths are contained within itself. Tautologous- The saying of the same thing twice over in different words.

9. Empirical Statement The Knowledge claim being made is not dependent on definitions whose truths are contained within itself, but the truth or falsity being claimed rest on its correspondence with facts or with current state of affairs being claimed. Thus, the statement “the sky is blue” is an empirical one whose truth depends on the additional information or claim being made. Its truth or falsity would now depend on whether the state of affairs being described is present at the moment. Moreover, the denial of an empirical statement would not lead to absurdity and contradiction. The denial of the statement “the kitten is not on the mat” will not be absurd or contradictory because the state of affairs being described is one of the possibilities or contingencies happening in an empirical world. Empirical Statement are also known or identified as in philosophical literature as truth of fact and posteriori statements.

10. TYPES OF KWOLEDGE From the distinction established by Hume, a group of philosophers in the sciences and mathematics would adopt his idea. This would lead to the traditional distinction of two general types of knowledge as “FORMAL” and “EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE”

11. Formal Knowledge - corresponds to knowledge in the formal sciences whose main concern is the validation of their knowledge claims within the formal system in their respective disciplines, like mathematics, logic, geometry, trigonometry and others. EXAMPLE: A mathematical calculation can be done precisely without having to rely on actual empirical data. In other words, you can perform the mathematical operation adding 2 and three apples as equivalent to 5 without necessarily having the actual empirical objects at hand, in this case, the apples.

12. EMPIRICAL KNOWELEDGE -Uses faculty of experience and sense perception in order to establish their knowledge claims. This is the general term used to described the different disciplines in the empirical sciences, ranging from the hard sciences of physics, chemistry, biology and others to the soft sciences of sociology, political science, psychology and others. - Empirical knowledge takes emphasis and makes use of the data or the content from experience and its correspondence with the state of affairs to establish the truth or falsity of their knowledge claims from these empirical sciences. The empirical sciences give information about what the world is

13. KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH LESSON 3

14. THEORIES OF TRUTH Let us begin with the different theories of truth. Let us now consider different theories of truth. The main question that should be consider here is, When does one claim that his/her knowledge claim has the element of truth or falsity?” The answer to this question will be based on three familiar theories of truth: Coherence Theory Correspondence Theory Pragmatic Theory of Truth

15. Coherence Theory It has to do with well-formed formulas (WFF) adopted in the field of the formal sciences, wherein these have been accepted as universal and have been proven to be true. It is a matter of consistency within the system ad its well-formed formulas WFF - have been accepted as universal and have been proven to be true within the assumptions of the system where they belong. EXAMPLE : Pythagorean Theorem have been accepted as WFF in the field of mathematics and Geometry.

16. Correspondence Theory - It has to do with the correspondence of knowledge claims being made with the state of affairs in the world. Correspondence Theory proposes that a proposition is true if it corresponds to the facts. EXAMPLE: “The apple sitting on the table” that can be true only if the apple is in fact sitting on the table.

17. Pragmatic Theory of Truth Associated with an American Philosopher and doctor of medicine, Willian James . According to William James, truth is based on the good or practical consequences of an idea. EAMPLE : Many of children in the idea that Santa Claus is true. Remember when you were young and you would try to stay awake until we see hours of the morning in order to catch Santa putting your gift inside your Christmas socks. But as you grow up, you would realize that you would have outgrown the idea believing in Santa. - It may be practical before, but not today.

18. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE There are two accepted sources of knowledge: Reason- It is an analytic faculty that is able to determine the truth of analytic statements. It is act of thinking and analysis. Experience- uses five senses - Sight - Hearing - - Smell -Taste - Touch

19. The Faculty of intuition- as a third of knowledge, deals with the immediate or direct recognition of self-evident truths. Other call this “tacit”. Intuition – the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning. Tacit - Understood or implied without being stated.

20. Evaluating Opinions Distinguishing between a fact and opinion requires attention, because it is indeed a challenge to weed out opinions based on ones biases and subjective views from facts based on accurate and objective information. There must be a set of examination of these opinions and beliefs before accepting them as true.

21. Acuna- in his book Philosophical Analysis reminded us that we have one very important obligations as a critical thinker, that is, “Never accept the truth of any statement or belief unless there is adequate evidence for it. Healthy Skepticism/ Methodological Skepticism - An attitude that will allow us to our toes as analytical and critical thinker.