Philosophy

    The term knowledge is widely interpreted and has different definitions as to what it means. Ordinarily, knowledge is used to refer to the skills that are obtained by an individual through occurrences andor education to be applied somewhere else. Facts that are also related to a single field of expertise are also referred to as knowledge in the area of specialization. In philosophy, epistemology is a branch that studies the theory of knowledge based on three criteria that were put forward by Plato. In his definition, Plato asserts that knowledge is a justified true belief. Belief acts as the first condition to be met on the theory of knowledge since it is mandatory for one to believe in something in order for him to know it. In addition, for one to belief in a thing, it must hold as true before him. Lastly, justification comes in the place of defining the reasons as to why one believes in a thing as being true (Audi, 2003).

Platos definition has been challenged by philosophers who do not agree with his propositions like the Gettier cases. However, to date, a school of thought still exists based on his contribution. The other view of knowledge accounts for the second school of thought and it is based on the definition of knowledge as a gotten right of way because knowledge acquisition is a process that involves the mind and thinking processes. These processes are subject to an individuals right of way. Rene Descarte is known as the founding father of modern philosophy as he contributed to the fields of mathematics and physics. His definition of knowledge is grounded in the concept of doubt and as he is a follower of knowledge as a justified true belief. This theory has been done with the view of both internalism and rationalism. Internalist theories are those that require justification from the individuals own conscious awareness and implications. This is what makes it externalistic.

The justification factors that he uses are ideas, as he believes that they reflect a persons own perceptions to different things. Being able to arrive at a thing as being true and justify it as knowledge is therefore rational based on the relativity that is imposed on the information by different individuals. The KK principle that requires one to know that he knows is used to back this argument since the belief in a thing requires the additional justification that one really has for his way of view. Philosophical skepticism has been directed to this theory from the assertion that the ideas that emanate from humans may be involuntary from a world that exists outside caused by materialism. Reliabilism is a set of theories that have been used to progress the theory of knowledge as well as justified beliefs (Audi, 2003).

Theory of knowledge according to this thought holds that reliability is used to arrive at a belief, like the statement of the sky being blue. The justification of reliabilism is held on the account that a belief is held as true only if it results from a reliable process. Process reliabilism is used against skepticism because it holds that one can possess knowledge or a justified belief without him knowing it. This goes against the KK principle used by the internalists. The skeptical problem in Descartes theory is undercut by the fact that his externalistic assertion of ideas being able to emanate from an outside source is technically true to the reliabilistic view that knowledge can be acquired without ones own consent, which Descarte believed as from God through our materialistic needs.

    The differences that arise from the two theories is primarily seen through the KK principle which is present on Descartes internalism view and it is absent in reliabilism with the similarity occurring in the belief that knowledge is a justified true belief. Between the two principles, reliabilism can be viewed as more friendly on the fact that as humans, we cannot explain many things that come our way.