Conservapedia talk:Opinion and knowledge

I think I will have to disagree that lib vs cons have a different epistomology...--PalMD^talk 18:18, 29 March 2007 (EDT)

When does an opinion become knowledge?

When a majority agrees on it? What if the majority is wrong? Does that mean the opinion is wrong? --Ymmotrojam 18:22, 29 March 2007 (EDT)

Having taken several philosophy classes on the philosophy of science, philosophy of knowledge and ancient and modern philosophers...

The basics of knowing something is two part: you have a true belief, and you have evidence that that belief is true. One particularity confusing example of this is "you believe it is 6 pm, you look at the clock it is 6 pm" - you would know that it is 6pm. However, that evidence is based on how good that evidence it is. If you believe that it is 6pm, and it is 6pm, and you base that on looking at a clock that reads 6pm, and it turns out that the clock stopped at 6pm yesterday - you wouldn't know that it actually is 6pm.

This goes to a more modern account of knowledge:

S knows P if and only if:

• P is true
• S believes P
• if P were false, S would not believe P
• if P were true, S would believe P

In this example, the 3rd item points out the issue with the clock because you would continue to believe that it is 6pm even though it is not.

Opinions never become knowledge - they are about interpretations of knowledge. --Mtur 18:36, 29 March 2007 (EDT)