What Is Knowledge?

What is knowledge? Knowledge is defined as, the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). If this is true, then I believe that knowledge is most definitely possible. I would say that I have plenty of knowledge myself. But based on that definition, it seems as though knowledge is simply memorizing something and continuing to do it that way. But if I am doing something wrong, but believe I am doing it correctly is that also knowledge? Maybe it is a false knowledge?

Plato states that knowledge is justified true belief. This means that in order to believe something is true; you must have a good reason to believe that it is true. You can’t gain knowledge simply by believing what someone has told you. You must have a reason to justify your belief.

An example would be if someone were showing you how to fix an engine in a car. They can show how to take it apart and what parts needed to replaced and how to put it back together. You will then know how to put an engine back together. But unless the engine is fixed and the car can run, you have no knowledge of fixing an engine. You have no reason to justify that he taught you how to fix an engine.

Then you have the skeptics. The total skeptics believed that nothing can be known, or they suspend judgment on it. The modified skeptics believed that there are certain things that are known, but suspend judgment on things such as God, or history, and ethics.

I really thought this was going to be an easier topic to cover. But the more I read into it the more confused I get. There are so many different theories on what knowledge is and how to attain it. If I were to base my answer solely on the dictionary definition of the word knowledge then I do believe that it is possible to have knowledge. There are so many things that I am familiar with through experience. But I think that I am more of a modified skeptic. I don’t believe that everything can be known. There are definitely certain things that are known and can be known. But there are so many things out there that people have been trying to figure out for thousands of years, things like what is God, how did the universe come into being. It just shows that some things just cannot be known. But everyone has their own opinion on things. Some people may agree and some people won’t. That is one thing that is known.