Does Knowledge Require Certainty?

Does Knowledge Require Certainty?

Knowledge refers to an understanding of facts, information, and skills acquired from education, personal experience or researching someone or something. Through knowledge, people can make important decisions in their lives like solving certain problems occurring in their day to day activities. However, Epistemologist traditionally defined knowledge as justified true belief, which means that our beliefs have to be certain to justify a certain idea and be considered as knowledge. The statement that knowledge is a justified true belief is not clear. Therefore, discussing several types of knowledge will bring out clarity whether knowledge requires certainty or not as they will each illustrate how knowledge is obtained and how the individuals can implement the knowledge in their daily activities.

Knowledge is classified in several types one being mathematical knowledge. Mathematical knowledge is   an understanding of solving mathematical formulas and applying them in real life situations (Pino, 96). Mathematical knowledge is acquired through the study of the growing mathematical literature. Mathematical knowledge is further classified as mathematical knowledge for teaching, which refers to both the mathematical knowledge used in teaching and mathematical knowledge commonly used by individuals working in a diverse profession. Therefore, mathematical knowledge requires certainty mainly because the individual has to be sure of the formulas to apply in a certain situation and how to solve them correctly. Scientific knowledge is the knowledge obtained from the scientific methods, which are legally accepted (Sandu, 84). Scientific knowledge is mainly utilized in the technical fields and medical fields. During the execution of scientific methods several steps are carried out, which requires the individual to be certain about the format of implementing them. Therefore, scientific knowledge requires certainty. Memory preserves knowledge acquired from one time to another. Memory knowledge enables someone to recall when certain information was acquired and the original source of information. Memory cannot make an unknown belief known or a known belief unknown; it can only preserve what is already known.

Knowledge can also be classified as testimonial knowledge. Testimonial knowledge refers to knowledge transmitted from one person to another (Tucker, 260). Testimonial knowledge can be obtained from multiple testimonies or a single testimony depending on the complexity of the research being conducted and the accuracy of the information required. Testimonial knowledge requires certainty as the time when the research problem was originally developed must be known and the source other than the testimony. Commonsense knowledge in artificial intelligence consists of facts experienced in day to day activities, which all humans are expected to know (Davis, 98). Example; can you make a salad from a polythene bag? This is a type of question, which every human being knows the answer. From the example, it is obvious that polythene bags are not edible and cannot be used to make a salad. Therefore, commonsense knowledge is based on certainty because a person decides basing on facts. Self-knowledge refers to an understanding of oneself. Self-knowledge involves obtaining the details one needs to identify who they are, which leads to self-awareness and self-consciousness. Self-knowledge enables individuals to know their mental conditions and their nature. Self-knowledge is achieved by self-scanning, self –interpretation and by asking and answering questions about the world at large, which makes self-knowledge to follow the epistemology definition of knowledge.

Intuitive knowledge is also a type of knowledge. Intuitive knowledge refers to beliefs causing knowledge as a result of certain intuitions, which enables an individual to know valid solutions to a certain problem and decision making (Broudy, 8). Intuitive knowledge differs from other types of knowledge as it involves conceptualizing the known object through the means of analytical thought process by the person who is familiar with the object. Descriptive knowledge refers to knowledge of how to carry out some tasks by describing events, things, and how they are related to each other. Descriptive knowledge is based on certainty as it refers to facts stored in the memory that are considered constant. Non –propositional knowledge refers to knowledge expressed using sentences without indicative propositions requiring the individual to know how to solve a certain problem and how to go about it also known as procedural knowledge. A company or an institution can develop its procedures and protect them as intellectual property; hence it is possible to claim the procedural knowledge in a court of law. Non-propositional knowledge requires certainty because the person should be aware of the method required to execute a certain problem. From the above discussion about types of knowledge, it is possible to deduce that knowledge requires certainty.

In summary, epistemologists define knowledge as a justified true belief. Knowledge is classified in several types including mathematical, scientific, testimonial, commonsense, memory, self-knowledge, and intuitive, descriptive, and procedural knowledge. Mathematical knowledge refers to the knowledge of solving mathematical formulas and applying them in day to day activities. Scientific knowledge refers to the knowledge obtained from the scientific methods, which are legally accepted. Testimonial knowledge refers to knowledge transmitted from one person to another. Commonsense knowledge refers to the knowledge about facts revolving people’s daily activities, which everyone is expected to know. Generally, the importance of discussing several types of knowledge was to clarify whether knowledge requires certainty. As a result, it is evident that knowledge requires certainty.