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Three Types of Knowledge
1) Experience
-Experiential knowledge comes from personal experience.
-It enters through your five senses:sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
*sight- I know that Sydney exists because I have seen it.
*hearing- I know that "Batter Up" by Nelly exists because I have heard it.
*taste- I know that ice is cold because I have tasted it.
*touch- I know that gettin pinched hurts because I have felt it.
*smell- I know that pizza is delicious because I have smelt it.
-Aristotle believed that our mind lacks knowledge of any kind at birth.
-During infancy and early childhood our five senses take in data about the outside world, but only after the brain matures do we begin to process the data using reason.
-Science emphasizes something called empirical knowledge, which is knowledge that we obtain by measuring something.
-Empirical Knowledge is part of Experiential Knowledge because we have to use our senses in order to look at scales, rulers, etc.
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2) Authority
-An authority is a person who claims to have knowledge that I do not.
-We gain knowledge from authority through personal contact, books, etc.
*If you hear the score of the SLUH football game from a friend and accept it, then it is knowledge from authority.
*If you are at the SLUH football game, then it is experiential knowledge.
-Even though we gain knowledge from authority, we should not believe everything people tell us.
-We should determine who to believe by answering these questions in our head.
*Do I consider this so-called authority trustworthy?
*Might this person have an ulterior motive for telling me this?
*If this person isn't lying, then is he misled or deceived?
*From where does she get her facts? How does she know?
*Is there any way to verify this person's claim?
-We believe the information people tell us because it costs us nothing.
-The greatest obstacle to knowledge from authority is fear of the cost.
*When a persons message touches close to home, all the skepticism comes out of you.
-An open mind is a terrible risk, but it is what we are born with.
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3) Reason
-Reason is the power to think in such a way that we proceed from what we know to what we do not yet know.
*For example, imagine you are walking towards your house and the windows and doors are not broken but when you walk in you realize the money you left on the counter is missing. Then you figure it out.
Premise #1: The money on the counter is gone.
Premise #2: The windows and doors are not broken.
Conclusion: You must have left one of the doors unlocked.
-Reason works according to two processes: Deduction and Induction.
*Deduction
+Deduction is the power to draw a conclusion (new information) from two premises (statements we already believe are true).
+Example:
Scarecrows keep crows away.
I have a scarecrow in my backyard.
I have no crows in my backyard.
*Induction
+Induction is the power to make universal statements based on limited experience.
+Example:
Water Boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
There is no way to argue logically that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
Everytime someone has tested water it has boiled at 100 degress Celsius.