Knowledge and Opinion

Knowledge and Opinion
· Plato wishes to demonstrate the failings of the world of ordinary experience.

· Plato writes that Opinion lies between Ignorance and Knowledge.

Ignorence--------Opinion--------Knowledge

Differences that distinguish knowledge from opinion

· Opinion and knowledge are different faculties and thus have different fields and effects. The faculty of knowledge is our ability to know what is (the truth), and the faculty of opinion is our ability to hold an opinion of something.

· Opinion is fallible and is gained indirectly through our senses, whilst knowledge is infallible and seen directly through our mind’s eye, using our reason.

· People who are only ever interested in the world they perceive through their senses, such as a beautiful sight or a just act, - but who cannot see beauty itself and justice itself - can be said to have opinions, but cannot be said to know any of the things they hold opinions about. They are described as sight-lovers and are essentially dreaming.

· Those who seek to know the truth, disregarding their sensual experiences and using their reason to experience the intelligible realm can be said to have actual knowledge of the particulars through their knowledge of the forms. They are described as philosophers who are essentially awake.

· Knowledge needs permanence and certainty. For example, something can be beautiful to one observer, but can be seen differently by another. Particulars are in constant flux and are liable to die or be destroyed. Particulars can be both x and non-x.

· The object of opinion is the changing particulars, whilst the object of knowledge is of the forms.