Knowledge

This morning when I was standing on the Barasat Junction railbridge,waiting for my train,an object on the first floor of a building on the east side caught my eye.It was a line of yellowish cloth carelessly suspended against a black paned window.But after a few minutes,the cloth moved.The black of the window pane ate into the metal frame.I realised that object I was looking at was not suspended cloth but a boy,standing pressed to that window,who was wearing a black full sleeved tee with yellowish sleeves and underarms,his arms lifted and joined together upwards against the window.The dent made into the frame I could make out as part of his head that had moved.As long as his head did not come in between my sight and the frame,the black of his hair and his dress along with that of the glass created the illusion of some hanging cloth.I grinned to myself,as I remembered that one of the 101 Philosophy Problems,authored by Martin Cohen.It read as follows...


'Farmer Field is concerned about his prize cow Daisy.In fact,he is so concerned that when his dairyman tells him that Daisy is in the field happily grazing,he says he needs to know for certain.He doesn't want just to have a 99 per cent idea that Daisy was safe,he wants to be able to say that he knows Daisy is okay.

Farmer Field goes out to the field and standing by the gate sees in the distance,behind some trees, awhite and black shape that recognises as his favourite cow.He goes back to the dairy and tells his friend that he knows Daisy is in the field.

At this point,does Farmer Field know it?

The dairyman says he will check too,and goes to the field.There he finds Daisy,having a nap in a hollow,behind a bush,well out of sight of the gate.He also spots a large piece of black and white paper that has got caught in a tree.

Daisy is in the field,as Farmer Field thought.But was he right to say that he knew she was?'

This one is an adaptation from the original set out in Plato's Theaetetus.The central question it asks is what is the definition of knowledge?Did Farmer Field have the knowledge of the safety and location of his cow?

And speaking of my little hallucinations in the morning,suppose the boy had not moved from his initial position as I caught the scene,could I say that I knew that the object I was looking at was a line of cloth,and not a boy?

What,according to you,constitutes KNOWLEDGE?