Knowledge: Memory, The Grounding Force Of Knowledge

Gianluca Ortwerth

February 23, 2013

Theory of Knowledge

Dr. Stock

“Memory - The grounding force of Knowledge”

Our first understanding of knowledge is in our childhood when we rely solely on our perception of what we believe to be true, to be actual. Perception is our first natural process of taking in information before we evaluate its justifiedness in our belief or nonbelief of its actuality. The commonly accepted definition of knowledge as, justified true belief, is based on the sources of knowledge. The importance of such sources of knowledge are heavily reliant on the role that memory itself plays in the meaning, scope and reliability of what we call justified true belief.

With an operational definition of knowledge being justified true belief we can evaluate how each of those terms is affected by memory and what the effect proves for what we understand memory in and of itself. The justifiedness of what we call knowledge is inherently affected by our ability to continue to understand and give justifications for things we claim to have knowledge of. If we forget our justifications do we then have an ability to call the knowledge of something without justifiedness knowledge at all? When we discuss something being true it is dependant on our ability to give it justifiedness for being in fact something we find to be true based on any of the sources of knowledge in any combination. Those sources of knowledge being; memory, introspection, self-consciousness, reason, rational reflection and testimony. With all of these sources which ground what we call knowledge if we can find nothing to ground the justifiedness of something in any of these sources of knowledge we cannot call it true. With the last of the terms in this definiti...

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...nd our memory of their justifications is inherently of ultimate value in things being knowledge. Our memory of such justifications over time is our most reliable way of claiming that things are in fact true.

The meaning, scope and reliability of what we call knowledge is without a doubt completely based on our ability to remember things. We have to remember our justifications of why we find things to be true and the truth in being justified in believing things to be knowledge. The vast libraries of human knowledge as well as the things we as individual hold to be basic truths only exist insofar as we can remember them. The most basic source of knowledge being memory is the grounding force in it as well. Without memory of truths past, present and future, we can know nothing. Memory grounds knowledge, and always will as long as humans have the capacity to do so.