"How Do I Determine What is Knowledge?"
To answer this question we first have to answer the question "Where does knowledge come from?", and to do so, we come up with some general sources of knowledge, for example:
- Parents
- Teachers
- Belief System
- Books
- Websites
Ultimately, I decided that the Belief System is one of the most influential factors to determine where knowledge comes from because it involves the four ways of knowing: Sense Perception, Reason, Emotion, and Language (some more than others).
In the "Allegory of the Cave", the prisoners have a distorted System of Belief. As their reality is the shadows created by the fire, they live in a "false" System of Belief that relies only on their Sense Perception; the shadows they see and the voices they hear. Most importantly, "Allegory of the Cave" illustrates how difficult it is to change one's System of Belief. When one of the prisoners escapes, leaves the cave, discovers the sun, and comes back to 'illuminate' the others, he ends up dead.
Going back to the initial question posed, the "Allegory of the Cave" shows how Subjective knowledge is perceived in a stronger way than Objective knowledge, even it being Factual knowledge. So, "How Do I Determine What is Knowledge?" I would like to argue that we simply do not determine what is and what is not knowledge, yet, what indirectly determines this is the balance of the four ways of knowing [Sense Perception, Reason, Emotion, and Language] combined with the balance in the willingness of a person to accept or reject knowledge [Objective or Subjective Knowledge]. This two create a close estimate of what can be considered as "Knowledge".
Francesco Mollinedo
IB Theory of Knowledge
February 2012
To answer this question we first have to answer the question "Where does knowledge come from?", and to do so, we come up with some general sources of knowledge, for example:
- Parents
- Teachers
- Belief System
- Books
- Websites
Ultimately, I decided that the Belief System is one of the most influential factors to determine where knowledge comes from because it involves the four ways of knowing: Sense Perception, Reason, Emotion, and Language (some more than others).
In the "Allegory of the Cave", the prisoners have a distorted System of Belief. As their reality is the shadows created by the fire, they live in a "false" System of Belief that relies only on their Sense Perception; the shadows they see and the voices they hear. Most importantly, "Allegory of the Cave" illustrates how difficult it is to change one's System of Belief. When one of the prisoners escapes, leaves the cave, discovers the sun, and comes back to 'illuminate' the others, he ends up dead.
Going back to the initial question posed, the "Allegory of the Cave" shows how Subjective knowledge is perceived in a stronger way than Objective knowledge, even it being Factual knowledge. So, "How Do I Determine What is Knowledge?" I would like to argue that we simply do not determine what is and what is not knowledge, yet, what indirectly determines this is the balance of the four ways of knowing [Sense Perception, Reason, Emotion, and Language] combined with the balance in the willingness of a person to accept or reject knowledge [Objective or Subjective Knowledge]. This two create a close estimate of what can be considered as "Knowledge".
Francesco Mollinedo
IB Theory of Knowledge
February 2012
Hello Francesco. In the allegory of the cave, when the two prisoners murdered the prisoner that was released and came back, do you think they murdered him because they thought that he went lunatic? But what if they didn't even know that they were killing him? they've never seen a real person be killed so maybe they weren't aware of the consequences, and just wanted to punish him, as in torture him, to get rid of his, in their perception, illogical belief.
ReplyDeleteMalik. In a way I do believe the escaped prisoner was murdered because he was seen as lunatic, but most importantly because of the fact itself that he left the cave, he went against the norm. Is this fear of the unknown that ultimately lead to his death. It may be that they didn't intend to kill him, as in getting rid of him, nonetheless, there was always an intention to harm him. This comes back to the question "How Do I Determine What is Knowledge?", and to Rashomon. How do we know which story to believe? We don't. It depends on the Belief System we have developed in our lifetime. This is why I stated that the prisoners of the cave, who live all their lives staring at a wall and the shadows from a fire reflected on this wall in the cave, have "a distorted System of Belief".
DeleteI agree with your idea of sense perception being a way of determining what knowledge is and the way you linked that idea with the Allegory of the Cave is interesting. Also, I like your idea, which is about the willingness of a person to accept or reject knowledge. My question is, you said to indirectly determine what knowledge is the balance of the four ways of knowing is needed. So, how do you explain Reason, Emotion and Language with the idea of Belief system and a way of determining knowledge?
ReplyDeleteHow do you know that it is a distorted belief system, since the only ways of knowing for the prisoners are hearing and visual perception? For them it would be normality, not a false belief system. What do you believe is false belief?
ReplyDeleteYou say that we determine knowledge through a balance of our sense perceptions and our willingness to accept or reject knowledge. I agree with this. You also say that we do not simply determine what is knowledge and what is not knowledge. But Plato defines knowledge as "justified true belief." And as humans, in some point in our lives we have to determine what our knowledge is by finding out if it is justified or not justified. Also, do Systems of Belief not also pertain to religion, and traditions. Living in a world that is continually globalizing, it is getting easier to change your way of thinking. Good job.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by "we simply do not determine what is and what is not knowledge". Don't we determine what knowledge is using our sense of perceptions? And can you you really say that a balance of our four ways of knowing is necessary, doesn't it depend on the circumstance(i.e. after a traumatic situation you may disregard reason and determine the truth using your emotions)?
ReplyDelete