What We Know and What We Believe Have you ever wondered why things are the way they are. I have often asked myself this same question numerous times. It wasn’t until I took a philosophy class; I started to develop thought and try to understand the world. A philosopher that stuck out to me the most during the course was Plato. Plato was a western philosopher, who studied philosophy in 427-347 B.C. He was a good friend and admirer of the great philosopher Socrates (Melchert 119). In this paper, I will explore Plato’s theories and distinction between knowledge and belief. As humans we assume our opinion or beliefs to be true. It is merely our perception of the world that defines our beliefs. We often confuse the meaning of knowledge with opinion. The distinction between knowledge and belief are not the same. How does one determine the distinction between knowledge and belief? People often make perceptions or believe false information. Knowledge is something that is proven, real, and involves true meaning (Melchert 120). Beliefs do not truth and falsies, an opinion or belief is a perception of one’s reality. I find that Plato’s theory in Meno 98a was enough consideration of why knowledge and belief are not the same (Melchert 120). In the conversation between Socrates and Meno, Socrates explains how beliefs that seem to be true may be good but their meaning isn’t stable. A belief that has reasoning or evidence is knowledge. Knowledge is grounded and solid. Knowledge has value because there is reasoning behind its information. I believe knowledge and beliefs are similar but not the same. Knowledge consists of only forms and can only be known by intangible souls (Butler). I believe that knowledge is of the wise, a person that has studied and found reasoning behind things. When Plato’s tried to explain why knowledge was truth, he used mathematics to prove his point (Melchert 122). Plato explained how a square could be doubled in size, based of instruction. I believe humans use their instinct and logic to determine truth. Knowledge always is true, backed up by evidence, and is instruction. With Plato’s concept of mathematics the matters of knowledge proved to be true by demonstration. Mathematics expresses a solution that can be seen as correct, because of the puzzle that is solved during the problem (Melchert 122).Plato’s concept of mathematics the matters of knowledge it is true and apart of reality. In consideration, Plato’s explains how humans use their senses to determine if something is real to them. Senses are not accurate nor are they reliable to define truth (Melchert 124) Plato’s developed a term called Form; it refers to objects of knowledge. Since there was speculation that some knowledge was based of assumption, he wanted to develop a concept to separate the two meanings. Forms are supposed to manifest value of goodness. Forms are characterized by a thing that possesses the same qualities in itself. Plato expresses this information in Phaedo 74a-75a (Dorter). The first form is epistemological argument, what knowledge is and what it is about. This form concludes that objects are certainties that are different from beliefs determined by senses (Melchert 125). Knowledge is one and unchanging, it seems many make up one form, this is true. It is said by Parmenides, another western philosopher, that when things seem to appear to us large it seems as it is made of many, but it just a larger form of one. Plato’s explains farther more in his discussion with Parmenides 132a (Anton, Kustas, and Preus p.210-211). The form that things are one no matter the appearance, brings up the next form of argument, metaphysical. The metaphysical argument entails how the nature of knowledge may have similarities but they are not the same (Melchert 125).Metaphysics is actual reality of nature. I believe Plato’s metaphysical argument is similar to the distinction of how nature relates to knowledge and beliefs. The last argument of