{"id":16452,"date":"2022-03-10T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T23:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.plato-philosophy.org\/?post_type=teachertoolkit&p=16452"},"modified":"2025-10-07T10:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T17:39:07","slug":"what-do-you-know-an-exercise-about-what-knowledge-is","status":"publish","type":"teachertoolkit","link":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/teachertoolkit\/what-do-you-know-an-exercise-about-what-knowledge-is\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you know?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Exercise about What Knowledge Is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The full lesson plan is available as a PDF in the Lesson Attachment area above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our whole education is organized around \u201cbuckets\u201d of knowledge: \u201c2+2 = 4\u201d (math bucket); \u201cHydrogen is an element but water isn\u2019t\u201d (chemistry bucket); \u201cAbraham Lincoln was born in 1809\u201d (history bucket). But philosophy (and especially epistemology, the study of knowledge) isn\u2019t another bucket\u2026 it\u2019s about the buckets<\/em>. Which ones are reliable? Why? How do they relate? How do we put new things into them or throw things out of them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our task in this exercise is to create a sketch map of all<\/em> knowledge, starting with a wide array of statements that can begin \u201cI know that\u2026\u201d and then discussing how they relate to one another. I include below a list of possible examples, but I encourage you to pick a few of these most suitable to the interests and age range of your students and then get students to generate more \u2014 perhaps one example per student of an \u201cI know that\u2026\u201d statement they definitely agree with, and one that they definitely disagree with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Exercise about What Knowledge Is The full lesson plan is available as a PDF in the Lesson Attachment area above. Our whole education is organized around \u201cbuckets\u201d of knowledge: \u201c2+2 = 4\u201d (math bucket); \u201cHydrogen is an element but water isn\u2019t\u201d (chemistry bucket); \u201cAbraham Lincoln was born in 1809\u201d (history bucket). 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