One could have a decorative design on a wall, paper or clothing. In day to day life knowledge is important to deal with any kind of problem or situation. Order Now. However, theory of knowledge essay, claiming that suspension of disbelief is essential in all Areas of Knowledge AoKs and that it is thus absolutely crucial to the core of their nature is a very radical position. Anonymous Yew Chung International School - Hong Kong. You may struggle to understand keywords or terms in the title, or you may not be sure what you are comparing and contrasting in the title.
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Theory of Knowledge or TOK, forms not just part of the inner core of the International Baccalaureate Diploma but is fundamental in developing your critical thinking skills whilst in Sixth Form, a programme uncomparable with any other core UK curriculum. A flagship course, as a student it will ensure that the learning you develop across your IB Diploma subjects is pulled together and will help you develop the ability to question the validity of knowledge. Unlike the rest of the IB Diploma, TOK doesn't have a clear curriculum, with a checklist to be memorised for an end of course exam. Instead, you will craft a wide-ranging essay and presentation which will draw on the key ideas you have developed throughout the Theory of Knowledge course.
For those who have already embarked upon their TOK course, we have taken three of our student essays, all A graded to give you an example of just some of the questions you might explore as part of IBDP TOK. Being one of the art forms, theatre almost always requires both the audience and the cast to abandon realism and rather use imagination, because believing in an theory of knowledge essay, unreal situation is completely necessary for a successful performance to bring enjoyment. Such a deliberate acceptance of something based on implicit belief, with no cogent evidence, is what we call suspension of disbelief. This phenomenon appears to be an integral part of the arts as a whole, since the expressive function of art as a means of conveying ideas and emotions could not be fulfilled without overlooking the scepticism.
However, claiming that suspension of disbelief is essential in all Areas of Knowledge AoKs and that it is thus absolutely crucial to the core of their nature is a very radical position. Personally, I believe that this concept can be applied effectively outside the Area of Knowledge of arts, however, it does not necessarily lie at the heart of identity of all the other AoKs. For instance, there is a widely accepted conception that mathematics and natural sciences, in contrast to arts, provide us with objective knowledge which requires a constant search for justification; as a result, the inherent nature of suspension of disbelief in terms of these AoKs is questionable.
In order to commence my discussion which will be focused on the aforementioned AoKs, I have formulated the following knowledge questions KQs : To what extent do the natural sciences and mathematics rely on unjustified belief? In addition, how far is it possible to remain sceptical when it comes to these AoKs? The method of meticulous proof that is peculiar to mathematics implies that mathematical knowledge theory of knowledge essay to be strongly justified in order to be accepted as reliable.
Being grounded in deductive reasoning, this AoK seems to be exclusive of the "unfounded believing" concept. One then may be led to endorsing an idea that suspension of disbelief is an extraneous theory of knowledge essay in the field of mathematics, since whenever disbelief arises, theory of knowledge essay, so does the absolute necessity to challenge the dubious idea. If and only if a justification is provided, theory of knowledge essay, then the disbelief will be dissipated. It is now important to emphasise that dissipated does not mean suspended. Abandonment of scepticism and critical thinking appear to contradict the methodology of this AoK. Despite its expected impossibility, this idea has been developed using various methods e.
Cesaro summation by different mathematicians and consequently became a part of mathematical knowledge Encyclopedia of Theory of knowledge essay, The resulting statement brings on the rise of disbelief but it is only a theory of knowledge essay justification that makes us accept it, as distinct from theatrical experience where no proof is required. From this it follows that the methodology of mathematics does not leave room for unjustified belief and requires a constant presence of scepticism and reason. However, if we consider the actual nature of mathematical knowledge, what we find is that this field is largely grounded in axiomatic systems.
Therefore, in order to have a solid base for proving, we have to choose certain starting points, theory of knowledge essay. These theory of knowledge essay statements, that are assumed to be true and do not have to be proved, are called axioms. At this point in mathematics, being sceptical would become rather counter-productive since it would deprive us of the ability to proceed any further. For example, the mathematical theory of probability is based on a specific axiom system proposed by Kolmogorov Lim, As a result, almost everything that is mathematically true of probability is a consequence of only three axioms of probability Stark, However, if we theory of knowledge essay to accept one of the axioms, e.
the first axiom stating that the probability of any event is nonnegative, due to the absence of proof, theory of knowledge essay, we would not be theory of knowledge essay to derive further claims, e. that the probability of an event occurring is the probability of an event not occurring subtracted from one. From the above it can be seen that the role of suspension of disbelief in mathematics can actually be described as "essential" in regard to the way this word was defined before.
It is crucial to the nature of this AoK, even though its influence becomes less significant as we proceed further in the body of mathematical knowledge. As a mathematics student, I had to encounter the phenomenon of suspension of disbelief myself throughout the process of knowledge acquisition. A great amount of formulas and theorems that I was taught were not provided with any valid mathematical proofs due to theory of knowledge essay complexity. In particular, when I was introduced to the fundamental theorem of algebra stating that every polynomial equation of degree n has n roots, I had a deep doubt about its validity because it contradicted my prior knowledge which did not include the concept of imaginary numbers Weisstein, theory of knowledge essay, While not being capable of applying some advanced tools in order to prove the theorem, I had to overlook my scepticism and take the statement for granted in order to solve mathematical problems as required by the syllabus.
Thus, the implications are that the role of suspension of disbelief increases greatly when personal perspective is concerned. The essentiality of suspension of disbelief is more controversial in the field of natural sciences due to the fact that whereas mathematics is based upon certain premises which remain unchanged in every separate system, scientific claims tend to have a provisional character. Consequently, theory of knowledge essay, in natural sciences, the need for suspension of disbelief arises in the actual methodology of the area, as new scientific ideas have to be put forward in order to stimulate development. However, some of those ideas may not fit the generally accepted theories and therefore appear to break or push the scientific conventions.
Construction of a novel hypothesis may thus require the use of imagination which leads to overlooking one's scepticism. As Albert Einstein said, "The greatest scientists are artists as well" Kaplan, This quote reveals the similarity between arts and natural sciences and may direct towards thinking that the abandonment of objectivity is sometimes as necessary in the latter area as it is in the former. This point could be well illustrated by Barry Marshall's remarkable discovery of the causes of gastric ulcers, for which he was awarded the Nobel prize Weintraub, According to the physician's theory, the disease was caused by a special type of bacteria, in contrast to the mainstream idea of that time that ulcers are brought on by stress.
While theory of knowledge essay being able to provide any solid evidence supporting the theory, Marshall was trying to convince other scientists on the basis of his unjustified belief. This firm conviction led him to conducting a dangerous experiment on himself: Marshall ingested the harmful bacteria and, as a result, was taken ill with gastritis Weintraub, The common misconception was thus broken and medical community finally acknowledged the new theory. However, theory of knowledge essay, if only Marshall had not withstood the scepticism, he would have given up his hypothesis without running any hazardous tests.
From this example, it can be seen that scientific advancement does rely on unjustified belief in some cases. On the other hand, suspension of disbelief may also become a serious impediment to progress in natural sciences. When the ideas are put forward, it is important for scientists to rather look for the ways of proving them wrong since the essence of scientific method lies in critical thinking. A blind belief in theories results in the tendency to only find evidence that supports them and this is what we call confirmation bias. If scientists only relied on their belief and aimed to discover what they expected to discover, theory of knowledge essay, then any contradicting facts would have been neglected or misinterpreted, theory of knowledge essay.
This is how homeopathic pseudosceince has emerged: due to various flaws in the methodology of experiments conducted by the researchers who were already certain about their idea, the data presented appeared to confirm the hypothesis Farnam Street, n. These findings were disproved later on; no cogent evidence of the effectiveness of homeopathy has been found to present day and it was called a "therapeutic dead-end" Fenton, However, theory of knowledge essay, there are still supporters of this alternative medicine in the modern world that try to prove their theory by carrying out numerous tests.
As a result, the unjustified belief makes scientific progress difficult as it turns out to be misleading. Therefore, it is possible to come to a conclusion that it is crucial for scientists to adhere to scepticism at a certain stage of knowledge production. From the above, it can be contemplated that suspension of disbelief is definitely important in both mathematics and natural sciences which makes me reconsider my initial response to the question. The objectivity of these AoKs does not imply a complete exclusion of unjustified belief and permanent application of scepticism.
This phenomenon appears to be essential in mathematics as it is significant at the very roots of this AoK; in the area of natural sciences it must always be accompanied by a certain doubt. However, in both cases suspension of disbelief cannot be applied extensively as it is only crucial for belief but not the knowledge itself. This implies if we are to ever reach robust knowledge, other ways of knowing such as reason should be applied. Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Another excellent essay from one of BioMed IB graduates. This essay will argue that disinterestedness is valuable and desirable, especially when interpreting results, however it can be very difficult to remain completely neutral towards a topic area.
When undertaking research, a dispassionate approach to interpreting results is the most desirable one. Scientists regularly publish controversial and sometimes wrong findings because of personal bias, economic or egotistical incentives 3. It is difficult to interpret results objectively if you have something to lose or gain from the outcome, and there are incentives to publish as quickly as possible, theory of knowledge essay. Page 2 of 8 Psychiatrist Erick Turner reported in his paper4 that companies only published the positive results they found when researching antidepressants, making the drugs appear to work much better than they actually did.
This is a global problem, with many possible reasons, but the theory of knowledge essay issue seems to be a lack of disinterestedness affected by how studies are funded and the bias of individuals. In Natural Sciences, an example of a flawed study that made it into publication is the MMR Vaccine and its link with Autism6. Theory of knowledge essay only was the link proved unfounded, it was later found that Andrew Wakefield had patented an alternative vaccine to the one he found fault with in his study7 and that two years before he published the study, he had received payment from a lawyer fighting a case against MMR. Wakefield was not a dispassionate scientist, but the resulting public outcry caused a reduction of the number of children vaccinated8.
This shows that disinterest can theory of knowledge essay incredibly important. politics Page 3 of 8 of results, and research is usually incentivised by money, power or ego5 which can result in a lack of objective interpretation. Martine Rothblatt retrained in the field of biotechnology when her daughter was diagnosed with life-threatening pulmonary hypertension. In order to try and find a cure, Rothblatt started a drug company that makes life-saving medicines for rare diseases including the theory of knowledge essay that saved her daughter. Neutrality is important for progress and accuracy, but in every day life it is a rarity.
As humans, it has been argued that it is in our nature to be inherently biased9. This need to achieve perhaps results in an inherent bias. It is 9 Moskowitz, G Are we all inherently biased? html Page 4 of 8 also possible that our personal experiences can affect the way we perceive things. Therefore, theory of knowledge essay, is true objectivity even possible? Objectivity in Art has been the topic of debate for centuries. The philosopher Immanuel Kant theory of knowledge essay that to judge art, one must be disinterested. Marina Abramović is a performance artist who sat for 6 hours and allowed members of the public to use 72 different items on her as they wished The public can kill you.
This is what I wanted to see. htm 12 Kant, I date unknown published in Critique of Judgment by Werner S. Page 5 of 8. Although it is difficult to remove bias entirely, there are ways of making sure that outcomes are interpreted correctly. In the Natural Sciences, this is primarily achieved through the use of The Scientific Method This involves scientific studies being observable, testable, repeatable and falsifiable The first experiment was inbut it has been replicated thousands of times over the last century. In Art, neutrality is important theory of knowledge essay evaluating skills, for example the examination of artwork for the Visual Arts IB qualification, theory of knowledge essay.
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In other words, the more one knows, the more he realizes the need to know more[1]. So is there someone in the world who knows everything, of course not. The best one can do is specializing in a subject, master, research in it and do all it pertains to know more about the subject. Now, we consider seeing general patterns. It is a way of obtaining knowledge, just like seeing particular examples. The topic has four key words, general patterns, knowledge, particular examples and understanding. General patterns simply mean repetition in a logical and regular manner. One could have a decorative design on a wall, paper or clothing.
After following up the pattern in several inches, then one is in a position to predict what is to follow. There could also be general patterns in a community that seek to explain the underlying structure of that particular community. A species could take a pattern, where by, in no case would some species occur together in the same place. Probably, the underlying factor to explain this is the fact that one of the species may exclude the other from the existence through competition. A long-term study of a pattern gives one the knowledge to predict the outcome. Knowledge is learning to obtain information. Gaining of information is through life experience, reading, or through undergoing a formal education.
Having the right amount of knowledge is of paramount importance, as knowledge is justified as a true belief and a working model. More often, people spend almost half of their lifetime, plus millions of money to study in schools, not for any other reason, but to obtain knowledge[2]. Reading mainly occurs in school, but there is also the personal or rather self-studying at our leisure time still to obtain knowledge. Knowledge not only enables one to pass exams in a school-based situation, but also in the daily lives. The things we know that help us get through with life. It is common sense to know at least something little about everything. Knowledge enables one to be a responsible person. In other words, an ignorant person would find it difficult to survive in this hustling world comprised of educated people.
An example is an illustration that seeks to give a practical explanation. We take an example of a mathematics teacher who has to give out a formula. The formula best understood once the teacher illustrates it in a practical example. Most phenomenon best explained through exemplification. The rest would just have question marks at the back of their mind trying to figure out the real meaning of the concept in the real world situation. Understanding is scooping the inner meaning of a concept. It is having an internalized sense of highly advanced concepts of a particular topic. A person who has understood has an analogous mastery of the topic. He is confidence in the topic and can present it confidently.
This person is in able to answer questions on the subject from all corners and angles. He can answer seemingly difficult questions in a precise and relaxed manner, such that the audiences get hugely impressed. A person who well understands a topic simplifies a difficult topic to what can look like magic[3]. To get a greater view of the topic, we had better divided it into two. As described, general patterns give an insight of what is likely to happen tomorrow. Getting an insight of occurrences of what is to happen today, and studying the trend brings one into the awareness of what is to happen in days to come[4]. We take an example to a rainfall pattern.
If a researcher has an interest in studying the rainfall trend, then he takes a study of approximately 5 years. There after the keen study of the pattern, he gains the knowledge of not only the rainfall pattern, the weather and climate of the region of interest. Patterns give a greater insight of obtaining the knowledge of a particular phenomenon. This is a factual statement, and as discussed earlier, examples present the leading route to understanding. Examples drawn from real life experience present the best route to drawing a deeper understanding. Research shows that an exceedingly difficult scientific or mathematical concept driven home using a practical example[5].
One is often confident about something, more especially in a geometry presentation, for as long as he has an airtight proof for it. More often, we take things as right until one gives a critical look and understanding. It is a fact that general patterns give an essence of gaining knowledge. However, is it only seeing general patterns that give knowledge? The answer is no. Knowledge is a general term, widely gained and obtainable from several ways other just observing patterns. The first and foremost thing that enables one to have the desire of knowledge is curiosity.
An extremely curious person turns out to being a keen observer, which is an immensely significant step in gathering more and more knowledge[6]. The other ways of obtaining knowledge include logic and reason, and in his case, intelligence takes rule. A knowledgeable and intelligent person gives his opinions to a subject that truly matters. The extent to which this statement is true is very shallow. Examples, as discussed give understanding. However, not only examples do give understanding, as there are many other ways of driving one into understanding. If for example, one gave a touching testimony, may it be spiritual or not, personal or not, it gives a deeper explanation and understanding of a person.
Once again, arguing from another angle. Having knowledge means one understands justifications for beliefs. The interest in a subject and willingness to spare time for the subject shows the desire to learn[7]. This learning bears knowledge, and from the knowledge, we gain a deeper understanding. Consequently, knowledge and understanding interlink, in that one leads into another. From the discussions and arguments, it clearly shows that general patterns and exemplification play a major role the obtaining knowledge and understanding respectively. However, knowledge is a widely obtainable item. Every bit of anything we see formulates knowledge in our minds. The knowledge thereafter subjected into deep thoughts to give a clear understanding[8].
The visible items are not necessarily patterns, and understanding neither compresses itself to exemplification only. I therefore a do not agree with the assertion that only seeing general patterns can give us knowledge, neither do I agree that only seeing particular examples can give us understanding. Experts then dismissive of man-made factors tend to insist on this factual reality. Conversely, other experts acknowledge climate change of the past, but emphasize evidence strongly indicating that industrialization is creating the modern changes. The facts they note link the rise of industry with the increased warming: 典he average surface temperature has increased more than one degree Fahrenheit since the late s.
Most of that increase has occurred over just the past three decades� UCS. What then becomes clear is that interpretation of facts, as in which each expert chooses to stress as most important, leads to disagreement within the discipline. The discipline of history presents even greater possibilities of disagreement over facts, and if only because what has occurred in the past, no matter actual information and events recorded, is difficult to understand. There is no escaping the reality that context is usually only minimally known, or that varying motivations and forces led to events which are challenged by modern experts and critics.
A powerful example of how history is disputed between experts is seen in how the actions of Christopher Columbus have been variously interpreted over the years. It is largely accepted that Columbus did in fact make his voyages to the New World, and pave the way for European expansion into the Americas. These basic facts then greatly influenced how history was taught, with Columbus venerated as a brave explorer. Later evidence, however, affirmed that the agenda in place was both mercenary and oppressive. For example, in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Columbus made it clear that the Native Americans he had captured in the islands and was sending to them were more valuable than the Guinea slaves Spain had relied upon Resendez At the same time, experts in the past as well as today emphasize other facts, as in the introductions of domestic animals and foods previously unknown to island natives Mann For some, Columbus was a pioneer, a great man, and the force behind New World exploration; for others, he was a corrupt and inhumane adventurer.
Once again, then, reality is subject to debate because the facts are presented in ways supporting specific arguments. It is usual for many to believe that, once documented facts are uncovered, a reality is in place that cannot be contradicted. However, this ignores the greater reality that facts are essentially only instruments, and may be used to support whatever an expert chooses to reinforce as truth. This is seen in many disciplines, just as the issues of climate change and historical revision underscore it. Ultimately, the natural science of meteorology and the discipline of history serve to illustrate how facts gain or lose meaning, and through how experts choose to identify them as valid and employ them in arguments.
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