DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY Concept of Knowledge by John Hospers, B.A. 3rd Year Honours Presented by: Dr. Sutapa Ray

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? What is it to know something? The word “KNOW” is very slippery. It is used in different senses in various situations.

Aquaintance: Do you know Swami Vivekananda? When we talk about knowing, we are referring to acquaintance of some kind. We might know him without knowing much about him. We might know a great deal about someone but not know him because we have not met him.

Sometimes we speak of knowing how Do you know how to ride a bicycle? Do you know how to swim? Do you know how to ride a horse? Knowing how is an ability Ability is whether in the appropriate situation we can perform the activity in question

The third and the most important sense in which the term “know” is used is the propositional sense. “I know that ….p”, where p is any proposition I know that it is raining I know that the country is facing a critical situation. I know that the examinations are not far away.

How can we separate the rightful claims to know from the mistaken one? When can we say that “I know that…p”? There are three conditions which must be fulfilled before we say that we know that …p. P must be true. Not only must p be true; we must believe that p is true We must have evidence for p, i.e. we must have reason to believe p.

How much evidence must there be? Some evidence is not sufficient There may be some evidence that tomorrow may be sunny but we don’t yet know it Next we may consider “all the evidence that is available”? But all the evidence that is now available may not be enough All the evidence that is now available is far from sufficient to enable us to know whether there are conscious beings on other planets.

How about ‘enough evidence to give us good reason to believe it?’ I may have known someone for years and found him to be honest during all that time, which would constitute ood evidence that he will be honest the next time, and yet he may not be honest. I had good reason to believe that he would remain honest but nevertheless I didn’t know that he would remain honest.

What then is sufficient? Complete evidence? All the evidence there could be? Accumulation of evidence never comes to an end and we can always get more evidence So, most of the propositions in daily life we claim to know cannot be known because more evidence may be accumulated Do we have any alternative?

We may say we have adequate evidence When can we say we have adequate evidence? Strong and weak senses of the term “know” In daily life we use the term “know” in the weak sense. But the philosopher is apt to be more concerned with “know” in the strong sense.