A report on Epistemology, Reason and Truth

René Descartes, who is often credited as the father of modern philosophy, was often preoccupied with epistemological questions in his work.

Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (El sueño de la razón produce monstruos), c. 1797

An angel carrying the banner of "Truth", Roslin, Midlothian

Bertrand Russell famously brought attention to the distinction between propositional knowledge and knowledge by acquaintance.

Walter Seymour Allward's Veritas (Truth) outside Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Canada

An Euler diagram representing a version of the traditional definition of knowledge that is adapted to the Gettier problem. This problem gives us reason to think that not all justified true beliefs constitute knowledge.

Dan Sperber believes that reasoning in groups is more effective and promotes their evolutionary fitness.

'"What is Truth?" by Nikolai Ge, depicting John 18:38 in which Pilate asks Christ "What is truth?"

The analytic–synthetic distinction was first proposed by Immanuel Kant.

David Hume, one of the most staunch defenders of empiricism.

Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth.

- Reason

Epistemologists study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues.

- Epistemology

1) The philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and the conditions required for a belief to constitute knowledge, such as truth and justification

- Epistemology

This eventually became known as epistemological or "subject-centred" reason, because it is based on the knowing subject, who perceives the rest of the world and itself as a set of objects to be studied, and successfully mastered by applying the knowledge accumulated through such study.

- Reason

Vico's epistemological orientation gathers the most diverse rays and unfolds in one axiom—verum ipsum factum—"truth itself is constructed".

- Truth

Logic is concerned with the patterns in reason that can help tell if a proposition is true or not.

- Truth

3 related topics with Alpha

Knowledge

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Familiarity or awareness, of someone or something, such as facts , skills (procedural knowledge), or objects (acquaintance knowledge), often contributing to understanding.

The parable of the blind men and the elephant suggests that people tend to project their partial experiences as the whole truth

The owl of Athena is a symbol of knowledge.

Knowledge of facts, also referred to as propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinct from opinion or guesswork by virtue of justification.

It is the primary subject of the field of epistemology, which studies what we know, how we come to know it, and what it means to know something.

Specifically, this covers cases of superstition, lucky guesses, or erroneous reasoning.

Detail of Pythagoras with a tablet of ratios, numbers sacred to the Pythagoreans, from The School of Athens by Raphael. Vatican Palace, Vatican City.

Rationalism

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Plato in The School of Athens, by Raphael

In spite of his early death, Spinoza exerted a profound influence on philosophy in the Age of Reason. He is often considered one of three most remarkable rationalists of modern Western thought, along with Descartes and Leibniz.

In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".

Much of the debate in these fields are focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification.

Plato

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Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Diogenes Laertius is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy.

Through his mother, Plato was related to Solon.

Plato in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom

A detail of Spinoza monument in Amsterdam.

The "windmill proof" of the Pythagorean theorem found in Euclid's Elements.

A Venn diagram illustrating the classical theory of knowledge.

Oxyrhynchus Papyri, with fragment of Plato's Republic

Bust excavated at the Villa of the Papyri, possibly of Dionysus, Plato or Poseidon.

The Death of Socrates (1787), by Jacques-Louis David

Plato's Allegory of the Cave by Jan Saenredam, according to Cornelis van Haarlem, 1604, Albertina, Vienna

Painting of a scene from Plato's Symposium (Anselm Feuerbach, 1873)

Volume 3, pp. 32–33, of the 1578 Stephanus edition of Plato, showing a passage of Timaeus with the Latin translation and notes of Jean de Serres

First page of the Euthyphro, from the Clarke Plato (Codex Oxoniensis Clarkianus 39), 895 AD. The text is Greek minuscule.

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right) a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and gestures to the heavens.

"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929).

Just as individual tables, chairs, and cars refer to objects in this world, 'tableness', 'chairness', and 'carness', as well as e. g. justice, truth, and beauty refer to objects in another world.

Plato also discusses several aspects of epistemology.

In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one's soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined in the human body.