Knowledge Inventory and Reflection

           As discussed in class, the idea of knowledge is very much inquiry-based because there is no consensus on what knowledge actually is. According to Duncan Pritchard's article on "What is Knowledge," he explains that as something that is proven, a mere fact, and propositional. We've focused on two types of beliefs so far: mere true belief and true belief. Although very similar, they
differentiate in meaning where true belief requires actual proof and is in fact, true, and mere true belief is a result by chance. Secondhand knowledge, for example, is a mere true belief because it may be information not given from a reliable source and there is no experimental evidence. For instance, if I hear from a friend that there is a sale at my favorite shop at the mall, it could be false fact because there is no actual documentation or proof that there is in fact a sale at the mall. Another example of mere true belief is a personal opinion. For instance, if I believe that the cake my mom made is good, it may not be good for others. Often times people base their knowledge off of personal opinion and close off the opinions of others because they think only what they know themselves.
            This brings us to the topic of a theme-based knowledge that we discussed in class, which is 'what makes humans bad'? If someone thinks different from another person, they're likely to believe only what they know and naturally think that the other person is wrong simply because it isn't what they think. So we come to wonder, does that make a person bad? This is a question that can go both ways, whether a person perceives that as a trait of being bad or not. Much of our knowledge comes from perception and we do that by using our senses. The way we experience the world is not just by influences of the objects and experience around us, but is also developed by our own perceptive process and how we take things in. And this makes us wonder, do we as humans actually know anything at all. Can everything be filled with illusions and philosophical skepticism or do we actually know? The truth is, we don't actually have the answers to these questions, however, epistemology's varying theories can help explain the sources of knowledge and the veracity of what we consider truth.

            During class discussions, we focused our minds on thinking whether humans are good or bad (nature vs. nurture) and expanded our perceptions on how we view this topic. Based off of personal knowledge from experience, I believe that a human being is bad when they go out of their way to hurt someone else or affect them in a negative way either physically or emotionally. In other words, I believe that a human becomes bad when their actions or intentions are. In agreement to John Locke's essay, I believe that a human is naturally born like a white paper- blank and without any ideas. However, I think that as humans start to grow up, they grow up with very selfish tendencies such as not sharing with others because they only focus on self need. As children, they naturally want all the candies to themselves and not want to share with any one of their siblings. In this way, others may be affected or hurt because someone else is acting completely selfish and only focusing on benefitting themselves. Selfishness to me, is a form of what makes humans bad.

Pritchard, Duncan. "Some Preliminaries." What Is This Thing Called Knowledge?London: Routledge, 2006. N. pag. Print.