Knowledge is not something that we are born with or that we can just create for ourselves. It is something that we must learn through life events, which enable us to better our own knowledge. True opinion is a strong belief that people make in order to represent knowledge that they do not have. According to dictionary.com knowledge is facts, information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. In the Meno, Plato says true opinion and “knowledge” are two separate ways of knowledge. In Frank A. Lewis’ book, “Knowledge and the Eyewitness: Plato "Theaetetus” he shows in detail how different true opinion and knowledge are. Lewis states, “He has been correctly persuaded, assuming that he has judged well. But if Knowledge …show more content…
So people can have a true opinion about what they think virtue is, but that would not be the same, as having knowledge about what virtue is, proving how knowledge and true opinion cannot be the same thing. According to Kenneth Blanchards’ book “Impossible Knowledge, True Opinion”, “One ought to be more concerned about one’s soul than about one’s body, and a wrong committed against someone never justifies a wrong committed in return. These are true opinions if they correspond to what one would know about morality if such knowledge were possible” (Blanchard 170). This shows how a person’s morality represents an individual’s true opinion because it is his or her own belief of virtue. According to Socrates and the Bee example when defining what a bee is you cannot say all of the differences that they all have, but one must discuss the similarities that they all possess (Plato 60). Meaning that when you are saying that each person has those virtues of good and morally bad all that is, is a person’s true opinion about virtue because virtue is not knowledge. Knowledge would be something that every person can agree on and since virtue is not knowledge and individual’s virtues can be their true opinion, then true opinion cannot be knowledge. Knowledge is formed from our perceptions and we acquire it through what we learn and understand with people and our events (Lewis 188). The …show more content…
It meant that when the dadalus statue represented knowledge it was tied down in place and had a firm knowledge of what it knew. When it represented true opinion it was a different story because now it was not tied down and had the ability to get up and run away at any given moment (Plato 90). This is a solid representation of the major difference of knowledge and true opinion. It is that when someone knows something to be a fact there is no doubt in his or her mind that it is not knowledge. Then when it is representing true opinion, it shows how people are so eager at the chance to run away from their idea and escape the possibility of being incorrect, showing their disbelief in true opinion. “His opinions must be true or very close to true because they bear up under relentless questioning; all contrary opinions wither under examination” (Blanchard 170). When individual’s true opinion is being questioned they will run away from their answer showing how knowledge is more of a secure and sturdy sense for people. With knowledge people do not so easily change and run from their answers as they do with true opinion. The only possible way to ever be able to obtain any form of true opinion would be to have a previous knowledge giving you an understanding of how to better create a true opinion (Lewis 187). This shows how necessary Knowledge is for obtaining a strong