Shaharudin menulis...

Continued from Knowledge (Part III) Another philosopher, René Descartes ( 1596-1650), had a distinctive perspective on knowledge. He believed that knowledge was a matter of certainty, and that the only way to achieve such certainty was through rational inquiry and doubt. Rene Descartes Cogito, ergo sum Descartes is a rationalist philosopher. He was known for his method of radical doubt, which involved questioning everything he knew in order to arrive at a foundation of knowledge that could not be doubted. He believed that all knowledge should be based on indubitable, self-evident truths, or what he called "clear and distinct" ideas. In other words, knowledge had to be based on ideas that were so clear and distinct that they could not be doubted. Descartes believed that the human mind was capable of arriving at such knowledge through the use of reason alone, independent of sensory experience. He argued that this was possible because the human mind had an innate knowledge of ...

The Tripartite Analysis of Knowledge The tripartite analysis of knowledge has been held by many philosophers throughout history and its origin can be traced all the way back to Plato's discussion of a tripartite analysis of knowledge in the  Theaetetus .  There are three components to the traditional analysis of knowledge; i.e, the truth condition, the belief condition and the justification condition. Let's go through them one by one: - The Truth Condition According to the tripartite analysis of knowledge, a person S can only know the subject of a proposition p if and only if the proposition p is true . Nonetheless, sometimes what is false cannot be known, and s omething’s truth does not require that anyone can know or prove that it is true.  Not all truths are  established  truths. If you flip a coin and never check how it landed, it may be true that it landed heads, even if nobody has any way to tell.  Truth is a  metaphysical , as opposed to...

Continued from Knowledge (Part II)   In discussing about knowledge, we cannot ignore the contributions of Aristotle.  Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, had a different view of knowledge compared to his teacher, Plato. Aristotle believed that knowledge is not just a matter of understanding the eternal truths of the world, but it is also a matter of understanding the natural world through empirical observation and investigation. Aristotle believed that knowledge is derived from experience and acquired through a process of observation, classification, and analysis. To him, all knowledge begins with sensory experience, and only through that experience, people get to know of the particular qualities of things in this world. Yet, Aristotle also believed that true knowledge involves more than just observations of individual instances; knowledge requires the identification of general principles or universal truths that underlie the particular instances. This process of general...

  What is definition We found that language can be a very complicated instrument for human communication. If words are used carelessly or by mistake, the instrument could be burdensome to us.  Vagueness and ambiguity may cause misunderstandings  and misuse of words. Vagueness means the quality of the expression of language is not being clearly stated or understood. Ambiguity means that the quality of an expression whose meaning can be taken in two or more ways. Misunderstandings and misuse of words could cause disagreements and in turn, disputes.  There are three different kinds of disputes .  The first is obviously genuine dispute , whereby the parties explicitly and unambiguously disagree, either in belief or attitude.  The second is merely verbal dispute , where there is no genuine disagreement between the parties. Yet, there happen to be disagreements; perhaps due to misunderstanding or misuse of language. The third is apparently verbal but really g...

Continued from What is Entrepreneurship (Part I) Traits of a successful entrepreneur From the last write-up in What is Entrepreneurship (Part I) , we understood that entrepreneurs undertake risks , carry out new combinations of innovations , able to make decisions and possess needs for achievements . Successful entrepreneurs possess personality traits that motivates them in their entrepreneurship activities. According to Chell et al. (1991), many of the character traits found to be significant in entrepreneurs are similar to the character traits of other successful people. Entrepreneurs are a special kind of people that possess pertinent traits which drives them to success. They are motivated internally and externally . Their internal motivating factors are their personal goals, need for achievement and ambition; while the external factors come from compulsion to sustain living, support from others, looking at exemplar successful entrepreneurs, having access to capital and retain...

Entrepreneur When we talk about entrepreneurship, we need to start with the entrepreneur who runs the entrepreneurship. So, who is an entrepreneur? The word 'entrepreneur' is derived from the French word "entreprendre" coined by Richard Cantillon in his ' Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En General ' (Essay on the Nature of Trade in General) written around 1730, but published 1755. The term 'entreprendre' in turn was derived from two French words: ' entre ' which means  between  and ' prendre ' which means  take . Hence, 'entreprendre' means to undertake or carry out certain activity. By the term 'entreprendre', Cantillon defined entrepreneurs as someone who undertake to overcome uncertainty and risks to invest in an activity in order to gain some return from it. To Cantillon, entrepreneurs are economic agents who have the foresight and willingness to take the opportunity of realised and unrealised profits through buying ...

Continued from Knowledge (Part I)  Knowledge is the gathered understanding or awareness derived from accumulation of information, facts, concepts or skills by means of learning and experience. It provides us with the ability to utilise information and skills for making decisions, solving problems and also understanding the world. Besides of what was revealed in the Holy Quran about knowledge ( in Part 1 ), early Western philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and many more have defined knowledge in their own terms. Socrates was  born circa 470 BCE in Athens and died  399  BCE. He had a unique perspective on knowledge. Despite being credited as the founder of Western philosophy, Socrates had written nothing and all information about him was gained second-hand. His thoughts were obtained through dialogues with his pupils. Socrates had emphasised on knowledge all his life.  He believed that true knowledge could only be obtained through a pr...

What is Knowledge I will start my writing on the topic of knowledge. So what is knowledge? There are agreements of what is knowledge and there are disagreements of what defines knowledge. Surah Al Baqarah: 30-33 Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? - whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not." And He taught Adam the nature of all things: then He placed them before the angels, and said "Tell me the nature of these if ye are right." They said: "Glory to Three, of knowledge  we have none, save what Thou hast taught us in truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom ." He said: "O Adam! tell them their natures." When he had told them, God said: "Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what ye reveal...