What is knowledge? Is knowledge what everyone tells you to be true?
If everyone says that 'this building is white', whereas you see it as blue are they lying or can you not diffrentiate between white and blue? Everyone is taught that 11 + 2 is 13, so then how come when one refers to the time 11 + 2 is considered as 1??
According to Plato, and what is widely accepted as one of the best definitions for knowledge, knowledge is defined as "justified true belief". But knowledge can be acquired in more than one way. The mode of acquisition of knowledge often affects one's 'belief'...hence altering what one 'knows'.

9 knowledge claims are listed below.
· I know it is raining
· I know 2 + 2 is 4
· I know my mother is older than I am
· I know to speak French
· I know I will pass the test
· I know stealing is wrong
· I know my tooth hurts
· I know she doesn't like me
· I know God exists

These are 9 claims most would have never thought to be arguable or questionable (other than the last claim, of course).
However, when one thinks about it, how can one say that one knows it is raining or that one knows his tooth hurts? These two claims are based on personal feeling and perception. One knows its raining because one has been told that when water falls from the sky it is called 'rain'. What about when one is standing under a building and water falls on the person…before he/she verifies that it is water from the building and not from the sky does he/she not “know” for that second that it is rain. In the same way, if someone comes up with substantial evidence to refute one’s claim that it is raining, would the person claim that he knows it is raining be considered wrong?? Similarly when one says that his tooth is hurting, how can he be sure of it? If he/ she has just been through an incident after which the tooth is ‘supposed’ to hurt, it is likely that he/ she can imagine the tooth hurting. This is something that one feels – it is based on the processes in one’s brain – and hence can very rarely be disproved, nor can it be proved very easily for that matter.
2 + 2 is 4. This is one form of knowledge by description. How can one know that 2 + 2 is 4. What is ‘2’…what is ‘4’? This however is something that has been defined and is used in math, world over. It can never really be justified, but it is something that has been defined and to refute it, one would be completely changing the laws of math which would disrupt the normal working of life. Hence, ‘knowledge’ such as these have to be taken to be true because they have been defined by man to be able to have something common at the basis of a concept and in order to go further in the subject on the basis of it – 4 + 2 = 6.
There are some claims that I feel are fairly irrefutable. By irrefutable, I don’t mean that there is no counterargument, I mean that there is no reasonably strong argument that can contradict the truth of the statement enough to convince me into believing that the statement cannot be classified as a knowledge claim. One of the claim in the list - I know my mother is older than me - is one of this. It is a scientific fact that a woman cannot give birth to a child before reaching maturity. So far from there being any argument on the mother being older than the child, the mother cannot be less than 13-14 years older than her child.
The only case in which there is any scope of argument is when you consider this statement to refer to the mother that you ‘call’ mother. You might say that “how do u know that your ‘mother’ is you biological mother?” In practicality this seems stupid too because it is absolutely unheard of for someone to be a ‘mother’ to someone older than she is, but in theory it is still arguable. But when some says “I know my mother is older than I am” and if he/ she refers to his/ her biological mother, then I see no argument against this knowledge claim.
Saying “I know stealing is wrong” is probably one of the most relative statements in the list of the 10 given. Any opinion on this is a moral one and is subjective to the upbringing of the person concerned. In most well-to-do families, like mine and everyone’s in the class, a child is always brought up with a very distinct belief that stealing is wrong. After all it is illegal in every country with a stable government, which automatically makes it something ‘wrong’. How often are unlawful actions considered ‘right’? On the other hand, for someone whose brought up in extreme poverty and has no other way of earning 2 square meals a day…stealing might be the only option he/ she has and it might not seem all that wrong to them even though they may be looked down upon by society. Therefore, “I know stealing is wrong” can be called knowledge statement because it is a JTB (Plato’s definition of knowledge) for some people even though it may not apply to everyone.

"I know she likes me" - as teenageers i'm sure we all have had or are having this dilemma in our lives. how do u kno the answer to this vital question. the answer which can affect everything you do about the issue. as we've just studied...every piece of knowledge we have gained is becuase of all four ways of knowing (language, reason, perception and emotion) working together. and in such a case - this interconnection is very obvious. language - wat she tells you and the way you'll communicate. maybe you can even talk about this with a friend of her's and based on what you'll communicate your thoughts can be altered. reason - based on your communication, the way she behaves and a number of different observations you make you reason it out within your head. perception and emotion in this case are absolutely interwoven. your perceptions is greatly affected by your emotion and vice versa. if you really like a girl and really want her to like you too you perceive her actions to be such that she does indeed like you (if you're optimistic, i.e.), and depending on what you perceive (and reason out) your emotions might get more, or less, intense. but even if everything points to the idea that she does like you, you can NEVER be sure that this is absolutely true. in fact, even if she tells you that she likes you, you can still NEVER know for sure if this is true bcos she might be a an excellent liar.

--to be completed--