Caravaggio, “Doubting Thomas"

Prolegomena:Knowledge versus Opinion~ Adapted from Mortimer J. Adler’s How to Think About The Great Ideas Caravaggio, “Doubting Thomas"

Consider the following question? If something is knowledge, then is it possible for it to be false knowledge or wrong knowledge?

Consider this question? • Is your response an opinion or knowledge?

Consider the following statement: “In the conduct of trials before judges in our courts there is a famous rule called the opinion rule. The opinion rule says that a witness giving testimony must report what he saw or what he heard. He must not report what he thinks happened, because that would be giving an opinion, not knowledge by observation.” ~ Mortimer J. Adler

Definitions: • Knowledge consists in having the truth and knowing that you have it because you know why what you think is true is true. Knowledge can’t be wrong. If something is knowledge, it’s impossible for it to be false knowledge or wrong knowledge. • Opinion consists in not being sure that you have the truth, not being sure whether what you say is true or false. Even if what you say happens to be true, you aren’t confident because you don’t know why it is true. So, opinions can be right or wrong.

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 1st: The criteria is whether or not everyone must agree. If everyone must agree, then it isn’t opinion but knowledge.

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 2nd Criteria: Doubt and believe are relative only to opinion, never to knowledge. Knowledge: 2+2=4: a. I know this; I don’t doubt it; I cannot even properly say that I believe it. b. I don’t disbelieve that 2+2 equals 4; I know it. c. “Belief” is too weak a word for this truth that 2+2 =

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 2nd Criteria: Doubt and believe are relative only to opinion, never to knowledge. Opinion: “Gentlemen always prefer a triple shot soy latte.” a. I have something I don’t know; b. Some people doubt it; c. some believe may believe it; d. no on knows it to be true.

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 2nd Criteria: Doubt and believe are relative only to opinion, never to knowledge. Consider the following statements and determine whether the statements are statements of knowledge or opinions: 1. “There is always a state of war, either a cold or a hot war between sovereign nations.” 2. “There will be another World War in the next 5 years.”

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 2nd Criteria: Doubt and believe are relative only to opinion, never to knowledge. Consider the following statements and determine whether the statements are statements of knowledge or opinions: 1. “There is always a state of war, either a cold or a hot war between sovereign nations.” a. Anyone who thinks for a moment will see this is true b. Everyone understands it to be true. 2. “There will be another World War in the next 5 years.” a. No one actually knows. b. At best it is a probable prediction. c. Some people may believe it and some may doubt it, but it is not a statement of knowledge.

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 2nd Criteria: Doubt and believe are relative only to opinion, never to knowledge. Consider the following illustration by Adler: “I have some dice. And as I roll those dice I can only say it is my opinion that they will come up a certain number. I don’t know it. I can make bets in terms of it, but I certainly don’t know what number will turn up. Now I have in my pocket here another set of dice which are loaded. These dice are so loaded they will only come up seven or eleven. And as I shoot these dice I have no doubt, not bit of doubt, that each time they will turn up either seven or eleven. That is something that I know, not doubt or believe.”

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • 3rd Criteria: We can only have freedom of thought only about matters of opinion. In matters of opinion everyone has a right to their own opinion but no one ever says this about knowledge. I don’t say, “I have a right to my own knowledge.” 2+2 = 4. Do I have freedom of thought here?

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: 4th Criteria: Matters of opinion are subject to conflict, knowledge is not. “We don’t say there is a conflict of knowledges on this point as we say there is a conflict of opinions on this point. Because it is the very nature of what it is that we have an opinion about to be subject to conflict and that is not true of things we can know” (Adler, How to Think about the Great Ideas, 17).

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 4-fold: 5th Criteria that differentiates between knowledge and opinion is consensus. 1. It is only with respect to opinion that we mention about taking a consensus. In fact, we say a consensus of opinion, majority opinion, minority opinion, expert opinion, inexpert opinion. 2. We never say the “majority knowledge” as opposed to “minority knowledge or “expert knowledge” as opposed to “inexpert knowledge.”

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: • In summary: • 1. Whether or not everyone must agree. • 2. Doubt and believe are relative only to opinion, never to knowledge; • 3. We can only have freedom of thought only about matters of opinion, never knowledge. • 4. Consensus differentiates between knowledge and opinion; with respect to opinion do we talk about consensus. • 5. Matters of opinion are subject to conflict, knowledge is not.

Criteria for distinguishing between knowledge and opinion is 5-fold: Problems regarding opinion and knowledge that one should consider: 1. What sort of objects are the objects of knowledge as opposed to the objects about which we can only have opinions? 2. What is the psychological difference between knowledge and opining as acts of the mind? 3. Can we have knowledge and opinion about one and the same thing? 4. What is the scope of knowledge? How much knowledge do we really have as opposed to the kinds of things about which we can only have opinions? What is the limit or scope of opinion in the things of our mind?

Dealing with Skeptics: Severe Skeptic: “Montaigne says that we know nothing; everything is a matter of opinion? ‘And we mustn’t be fooled,’ he says, ‘by the feelings which we sometimes have of certainty,’ the feeling that the things is perfectly clear and sure for us.” Moderate Skeptic: David Hume says that we do have knowledge, but at best, it is highly probable opinion that consists in the experimental sciences. Thus, because it is probable, it is opinion, not knowledge.

Answering the Skeptic: • On matters of perceptual illusion, how do you know they are illusion? If you know they are illusions, you can only know it because you regard some sense perceptions as accurate. If you could not have some perceptions verified as clear and accurate perceptions, you couldn’t know that others were illusions?

Answering the Skeptic: • As for history and experimental science, we can agree with the skeptic that these are a kind of conditional knowledge, conditional upon the state of the evidence at a given time. But there is still a difference between accuracy and indubitability.

Answering the Skeptic: C. Anyone who argues that everything is a matter of opinion, can’t defend his case without establishing that his view is knowledge. It is self-defeating.

Conclusion: Let’s Return to Definitions: • Knowledge consists in having the truth and knowing that you have it because you know why what you think is true is true. • Opinion consists in not being sure that you have the truth, not being sure whether what you say is true or false. Even if what you say happens to be true, you aren’t confident because you don’t know why it is true.

Bibliography: • Mortimer J. Adler, How To Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Thought, edited by Max Weismann (Chicago: Open Court, 2000).

Caravaggio, “Doubting Thomas"