Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 15

Philosophy - Essay Example Prudential knowledge is nothing more but sense, faculty, and memory and absolute knowledge. And by ‘absolute’, Hobbes meant reality that a person knows as truth with ‘absolute’ certainty (Hobbes 53). For instance, childhood memories, or knowledge that scissors could cut paper, or that burger patties are made from pork or beef meat are examples of absolute knowledge because these are knowledge that a person knows with absolute certainty as truths because he has experience it personally or has remember witnessing it being done. Either way, it requires a witness. The other knowledge, scientific knowledge is conditional knowledge. This is because it requires a condition for a person to know something for him to be able to know that something is indeed a fact (Hobbes 53). For instance, he needs to know that by grounding meat and seasoning it could produce patties and by putting a patty in between two breads would create a burger. Or that two metal blades with handles could be bolted and joined together so that it could create cutting motion and this would form a whole new tool called scissors. For a more ‘philosophical’ example, scientific knowledge is conditional because it will require knowledge for a person to know that when you draw any line on a circle that passes through the middle, that would divide the circle equally in half. The person who knows this technical knowledge Hobbes called philosophers. Hobbes further added that the registry of scientific knowledge is recorded in history and that there are two types of history—natural and civil. Natural is anything that concerns those that are independent of man’s will while civil history is the â€Å"voluntary actions of men in Commonwealths† (Hobbes 53). Now these philosophers are people in the society who are able to successfully fuse together both their prudential knowledge and scientific knowledge. They were able to use scientific knowledge and combine it