To Blandshard, knowledge is to try to understand what is unknown. He believes that "to think is to seek understanding," meaning that as humans, every thing or situation we encounter we try to understand it. That is why over time we have asked so many questions. It is human nature to want to know not only why something occurs, but how. Long ago humans looked at birds and wondered why they flew rather than walked, but we did not stop there. We wanted to know how they were able to physically take flight and now, today we too are able to fly. Blandshard states that thought is "immanent" as well as "transcendent". Our own thoughts exist is our minds and surpass all usual limits in order for us to understand something.

, we can differentiate those imaginary situations from reality. While we are dreaming, we have no understanding that what we are experiencing is not real. When we dream we truly believe that is what physically is occurring to us as if we were in our actual everyday lives. However, once we awaken we know that whatever we just experienced was a dream. If this final occurrence did not take place, then there would be no way of differentiating dreams from reality. But we all know that what we thought we experienced was just a dream. Everything that did seem real during the dream is now thought over and diagnosed as a dream. The times when you wake up and are not sure that you went to school naked for real or not, you have a slight feeling that it could have been a dream. You can refer from a dream to a reality, but you never have to think twice if reality was a dream. So, it really does not matter what you think is true while you are dreaming, what counts is when you awak!

venth grade I simply needed to know the date of the war and a short list of cause and effects. Because I simply memorized I never actually understood or gained knowledge of that aspect or our history. If we took every basic or natural phenomenon just for its results, we would never grow and prosper as individuals or a society as a whole. The key to knowledge is the ability to understand. Accepting everything as a truth without an explanation will not further us in anyway.

Knowledge is interpreted differently by each philosopher. I find it quite scary actually how many different theories and thoughts there are. The fact that I was swayed from one idea to the next scared me. I was easily convinced that each theory I read was better than the one before, but really, it only offered a different viewpoint. Each understanding of knowledge had equal truth and equal falsity. However, I did find some Philosopher's ideas of knowledge to be more genuine than others. I most closely relate to Locke and his theory of Correspondence. I believe we are born void of any knowledge and through our senses we gain knowledge. With that knowledge we gain the understanding to determine when we are deceived by our senses. And as James might agree, rather than go in circles in a metaphysical dispute, I will accept this theory until results show me other wise. Right now, I know when I'm dreaming, I know when I'm seeing a mirage, and like a soldier, I can look down !

at my leg and see that it is still there. Although I can not prove to anyone's satisfaction (without a doubt), I know. Through a sixth sense that enables me to know the truth of what is real and what is just in my mind, I have an inside gut feeling of what is physical or mental. As of now I believe that I learn from experience and observation. The day my inside gut feeling tells me, or if I have an outer body experience that my brain is in a vat, is the day that I will believe other wise. I will not doubt what I feel in my heart. That unexplainable feeling has more validity, than any of my logical thoughts or ideas. Because my five senses have tricked me before, especially my eyes and ears, I will not give them more credit than a gut feeling. There is no explanation behind the feeling in your heart. Some may say it is your conscious, but doctors can not point to and explain where and how this is occurring inside of me. A doctor can explain to me how I am capable of !

If all of our knowledge was solely based on what we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste we would never have a correct understanding of many basic things. If you are in a crowd and you think you hear a friend's laugh or think you see them from behind but are mistaken, you can justify your misjudgment. You know that your knowledge of that person's existence is not based entirely on your recognition of them, you were simply deceived by your senses. Locke's theory of Coherence does not consider this and would accept the false

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Approximate Word count = 4443
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page double spaced)