Essay - Reality and Knowledge Epistemology (The Study of Knowledge) Has Occupied...

Reality and Knowledge

Epistemology (the study of knowledge) has occupied philosophers and laypeople alike for as long ***** human beings have had a conception of reality ***** *****. Many philosophers, beginning with Plato, have argued that ***** and knowledge are essentially abstract concepts. Aristotle argued, in contrast ***** knowledge ***** reality must be based on the senses and inductive reasoning, while Hume argued that our understanding of reality and causation is fundamentally flawed, and ***** skepticism was the only workable way to knowledge of the world ***** the internal self. The philosopher George Berkeley presented what is perhaps the most extreme argument against an Aris*****telian view ***** reality in arguing that the material world does not exist, and that objects ***** simply made of up ideas. While ********** ***** ***** reality as ***** solely upon ***** mind is extreme ***** some***** tenuous, Hume's understanding of the limitations causality and human ***** seems to have real merit. Essentially, we can***** totally rely on our five senses to gain knowledge of the external world.

All men by nature desire ***** know," writes ***** in h***** Metaphysics. It is this desire that h***** driven *****kind to attempt to understand the basis of our knowledge about *****selves and the ***** about us. This desire likely began as soon as human self-insight developed, and has continued to the present day, as movies like the Matrix challenge our conceptions about reality and truth. Great ***** ***** Pla*****, Aristotle, David Hume, and George Berkeley have made important contributions to this ***** of knowledge and reality. This paper will examine the insights of these *****s, and their diverse understandings ***** the limitations of human ***** and the external ***** internal world.

**********, born in 428-7 B.C.E, w***** perhaps the earliest philosopher in the Western tradition to contemplate the nature of *****. He developed the theory of forms or ***** as the b*****is of ***** reality. To Plato, the world that perceive through our senses is only "an imitation of the pure, eternal, and unchang*****g world of the Forms" (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Plato). To *****, the idea or form of beauty can ***** be approximated by human knowlege of beauty. For example, a be*****utiful rose, person, sunset, poem, or song is only an approximation ***** the true idea or f*****m of beauty itself. No matter how seemingly perfect, each ***** these c*****not quite match the form of beauty, which is perfect beauty. The concept of forms extends to concepts like equality, justice, great and small, and even objects like a bed. Essentially, to Pla*****, ***** best human knowledge ***** we can hope for is our best approximation of true nature, or f*****m. Reality in essence remains hidden from us, and we ***** see re*****ations of forms in our everyday experience.

In contrast, Plato's student ***** (born 384 B.C.), disagreed ***** Plato's assertion that the world could only be known ***** the *****. Instead, "Aristotle believed that ***** world could be understood at a fundamental level through the