The Importance of Disctinction Between Knowledge and Belief in Philosophy

The Importance of Disctinction Between Knowledge and Belief in Philosophy

To try and decipher the distinction between knowledge and belief we

must first understand what the meaning of Philosophy is. In its

simplest definition it translates to “the love of wisdom” taken from

the Greek word “philo” which means love and “sophia” meaning wisdom.

Philosophers love to know the truth about the general principles of

the world and they pursue the truth in these. Through the ages many

philosophers have been on a personal quest to discover the principles

of the universe and explain what is meant by knowledge and belief.

An opinion, statement or teaching can be a belief and to believe means

to regard or to accept what is being said is true, but it does not

have to be true to be believable. Descartes (1596–1650) was a

Rationalist; he believed he had to doubt everything known to him to

really understand knowledge. He defined belief as an active state of

mind in which agreement is either given or withheld to the

proposition. Whether he was awake or dreaming he was never in any

doubt that he was thinking and that his thoughts were real, hence his

famous quote “I think therefore I am”.

Others such as Hume (1711-1776) an empiricist went against the ideas

of rationalists, whilst identifying with belief being a particular

state of the mind considered it to be a passive state, which either

occurs or is absent in respect of the given proposition. In other

words we believe what we believe because of ‘custom and habit’. For

instance, the sun rises every day as we know it, so it is fair to

assume it will rise tomorrow morning and the morning after and...

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...een put out of his suffering and misery and

that if one were to treat an animal in this way would they not be

chastised for being cruel to animals. However, I have to consider if I

was faced with the same decision would I rather he were alive in some

form or would I be brave enough to let him go and grieve his death.

For all the opinions, beliefs, philosophical hypothesis, ethics and

morals there is no right answer but having an understanding of these

matters can help and guide us when faced with a medical decision that

will never be easy to make.

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Bases on information from:

1. World Library & Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2 Edition

2. http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=medical_ethics&OFFID=se1&KEY=medical_ethics

3. Lecture hand out on Bertram Russell