⇒ Plato was one of the first people to think about the nature of knowledge

⇒ In Plato's famous dialogue, Theaetetus, there's a scenario where Socrates' brightest student (Theaetetus) is asked what is meant by knowledge. He answers that it's whatever his teacher teaches him

⇒ Socrates explains that these subjects - the things our teacher teaches us - is only a kind of knowledge

⇒ When we're looking at the theory of knowledge (which is also known as epistemology), we're trying to discover what is the nature of knowledge in general

• I.e. while chemistry is about knowledge of chemicals and how they react, the theory of knowledge is about what is meant by 'knowledge' regardless of the subject matter being discussed

⇒ And there are lots of questions that the 'theory of knowledge'/epistemology seeks to answer. Here are a few examples:

• How is knowledge acquired?
• What do people know?
• Is there a limit to what we can know?
• What makes a justified belief justified?

⇒ When we talk about belief generally, we're usually referring to some religious, moral or political belief

• In other words, it's more about faith, rather than having concrete evidence for something

⇒ But, in philosophy, a 'belief' is an acceptance of anything that may exist or be true. Such beliefs would include:

• "Today is Saturday"
• "It's a sunny day"
• "5 x 5 = 25"
• "Eating too much food will make you fat"

⇒ So a belief doesn't have to be anything serious or important.

⇒ The important thing is they have truth value i.e. they're capable of being either true or false

⇒ See the next topic on empiricism and rationalism