Knowledge, Truth, and Justification, Essay Example

Knowledge is used to determine if something true, and it is procured via various ways of knowing, which differs for every person. Moreover, knowledge and knowledge production varies on an idiosyncratic basis according to culture, as each has its own way of knowing through faith, reason, and language. Moreover, each individual goes through his or her own knowledge process through imagination, memory, ingenuity, and intuition. These various factors undergird how knowledge is attained, and through knowledge people are able to analyze and assess various situations and events in order to come to cogent conclusions. However, it is often difficult for people to distinguish factual truth from the subjective truth, which refers to what people believe to know is true. Indeed, the concept of truth is absolute/universal, relative, subjective, and objective. Many of the most seminal philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle have all offered their definitions and conception of truth. One example of such theories in the correspondence theory provided by Plato, which asserts that truth declarations and beliefs must correlate with reality. This definition of truth is considered a traditional paradigm that was popularized during antiquity and in various epistemologies thereafter. Unfortunately, the various definitions of truth suggests that there is no one real or correct definition of truth. Rather, theories about truth exist, and they can only be rendered obsolete if the theory is disproved. Nonetheless, the concept of truth does exist, and it is best explained via the various ways or knowing, which include rationality, language, emotion, and human perception. These various human capacities enable humans to understand what is going on around them and make sense of it all. Ultimately, the concept of truth is an intuition that all humans possess. Yet, while human intuition is sometimes not backed by evidence, truths require evidence that validate their currency. Differences arise if the evidence invoked to validate the truth is questioned by others, thereby rendering the truth invalid to a certain degree.

Perception and emotion are two ways through which knowledge can be garnered although the truth gleaned from these are often subjective in nature because they are not backed by evidence but rather one one’s personal beliefs. Perception includes hearing, seeing, smelling and touching, and these sensory capabilities enable humans to identify things and to express themselves. One poignant dyad that demonstrates the subject/objective dichotomy of truism is the realm of mathematics, which has a concrete answer according to a set of preexisting, mathematical laws, and artistic expression, which represents an artists own image of a certain emotion, scene or event. Artwork reflects the tastes and biases of the artist, as the image often limns what the artist believes to be true rather than merely what is true according to the evidence. Thus, the different ways of knowing enable humans to discern the various kinds of truths that they internalize and that they project. Emotion and perception cultivate more personal knowledge on an idiosyncratic basis, while other forms of knowing rely on concrete evidence that are universally accepted as truth. The amalgam of personal knowledge, empirical knowledge, and factual knowledge enable humans to engage in cogent dialogue on a daily basis, which in itself helps spawn new forms of knowledge and truisms.