Knowledge, beliefs, truths

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I  stumbled over this Venn Diagram that represents the classical definition of knowledge and relates it to the concepts of truth and beliefs.  It’s a diagram worth thinking about as it may help allow ideas to connect and fall in the right places.  These would seem to be the main ideas of the diagram:

First:  Knowledge is the intersection of beliefs and truths, the overlap between the two.  The classical definition is that knowledge is justified beliefs–in other words, beliefs that have been shown to conform to truths.

Second:  There are areas of beliefs that do not conform to truths. These are unjustified beliefs–or beliefs that are, simply put, wrong.  Similarly, there are areas of truths not covered or not yet covered by beliefs.  These would be truths that we know not of yet and do not have any stance in.

While the diagram is appealingly simple, it, of course, seems to have its limitations.  First, that “truths” are out there, and the definite area of truths will eventually be or at least possibly covered by beliefs, turning them into knowledge (knowledge as certain and simple?).

Secondly, what of beliefs that cannot be validated or justified with reason–i.e., beliefs that we choose to take on even if authority and evidence don’t agree about them?  Where would we find these in the diagram?  An example of these would be epistemological beliefs.  They can’t be verified, but we hold them and can choose to subscribe to some of them after examining them, but we can’t really know if these beliefs conform to the truth.

As usual, questions, not answers.  There is really more from where all this comes from.