⇒ 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
⇒ And there are lots of questions that the 'theory of knowledge'/epistemology seeks to answer. Here are a few examples:
⇒ When we talk about belief generally, we're usually referring to some religious, moral or political belief
⇒ But, in philosophy, a 'belief' is an acceptance of anything that may exist or be true. Such beliefs would include:
⇒ 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