Answers to Prompt Questions - Essay Example

However, the idea of Plato that knowledge is inclined more on the non-sensible Forms contradicts his own metaphysical claim that Forms would depend upon the interpretation of the philosopher’s works. According to Irwin (154), Plato’s epistemological claim states that “these Forms are inaccessible to the senses.” While Plato expressed that his metaphysical claim is “the Form of F has properties that no sensible F can have.” However, according to Silverman, epistemology is about the acquisition of knowledge and what knowledge is (Silverman).

On the other hand, metaphysics is anything which can be thought and said to be. One cannot fully endorse Plato’s theory of Forms as there are difference in interpretations and opinions of the said work. Not all knowledge is being considered as knowledge by the philosopher. It is only those people who have philosophical thoughts or the non-sensible ideas which are being considered as knowledgeable. This proposition does not apply to those who are exerting more on their physical capabilities.

Acquiring skills can still be considered as knowledgeable by other people or group of thinkers, but not Plato. The idea quite discriminate skill workers which are very much part of the society especially with regards to the economic and workforce aspect. Though what the skilled are doing is sensible, their actions are still knowledge because they are thinking what to do next on a systematic manner. In this aspect, the famous line “I think, therefore I am” by Rene Descartes can come into context (Irwin, 148-55; Silverman; Russell, 516).

Plato makes people seem that knowledge is unachievable which is contradicted by Descartes. According to the latter, there is no perfect knowledge. If the idea proposed by Descartes would be considered, one can be considered knowledgeable without the need to measure up to forms or criterions. Descartes may not have proven to everyone the existence of God; however, he had proclaimed its existence in his works. The author stated that the knowledge which a person acquires is from a supreme being, which is God.

This is supported by the statement: But after I have discovered that God exists, seeing I also at the same time observed that all things depend on him, that he is no deceiver, and thence inferred that all which I clearly and distinctly perceive is of necessity true: although I no longer attend to the grounds of a judgment, no opposite reason can be alleged sufficient to lead me to doubt of its truth, provided only I remember that I once possessed a clear and distinct comprehension of it. (Descartes & Veitch, 109) There might be no concrete evidence to prove the existence of God.

Nevertheless, knowing within the self that a supreme being exists is enough to convince the self and preach about its existence or truthfulness to others. Though there is neither a concrete fact nor a distinct indication of God’s existence, Descartes proposed his readers to meditate and reach within the self to be freed from the doubt that is covering them from recognizing the presence of a higher power. In most if not all of the writings attributed to Descartes, there is always an indication towards the existence and acknowledgement to the things created and attributed to the power and creation of God as the Supreme Being and higher power (Russell, 515-20; Descartes & Veitch, 103-10).

There will always be people who would be skeptic upon the idea of God’