We all believe in something. The more we experience, the more facts we acquire. Society continuously challenges us intellectually; making us scrutinize the knowledge we believe is evident. The statement above focuses on knowledge, which can be defined as information that an individual believes to be undisputable due to one’s education or personal experiences. It is often the understanding of a certain field of study. It also explores the notion of certainty, how can we be certain that what we believe is absolute truth? Looking back in our history, there have been an abundance of theories and facts that were accepted in their times as justified truth but have since been disproved by advances in modern technology. This statement can be assessed focusing on the following areas of knowledge: biology and history, with regards to reasoning and emotion. What we deem as a fact may actually be a glorified opinion.
During elementary school, the Solar System was taught to me as having 9 planets thanks to Clyde W. Tombaugh who discovered Pluto in the 1930s. I grew up believing this knowledge until I arrived in middle school and was informed that there only existed 8 planets. This was the first example in my life in which knowledge was discarded because of inaccuracies in evidence. I became hesitant of the education I received in school but realized that knowledge is vulnerable to alterations based on new technology. New advancements in space-based observatories will continuously change the way in which we perceive the Solar System and there is a possibly of another planet being discovered that replaces Pluto.
Knowledge changes constantly as technology improves and becomes more progressive. A theory can be accepted as truth when it is orig...
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...ruth then why does The Flat Earth Society exist? It could be because of an obligation that they feel to the cause; the countless hours they have spent attempting to prove its validity. Furthermore, if they accept that it is invalid then they might begin to question the entire education system, which would arise notions of confusion and insecurities in their knowledge of other materials. The knowledge that comprises our mind carries emotional bonds that offer comfort since it is a constant in a world full of unpredictability.
Knowledge is complex, often changing with the times. In order to accept knowledge we must be cautious and analyze various reliable sources. Also, an open mind enables us to receive information because knowledge is not certain. It is not always universal since our personal experiences vary and the knowledge we are willing to aspect will differ.
Knowledge, its source and truthfulness have been under question for a long time. People have always wondered what exactly constitutes facts and if there are any defining laws that can be attributed to all knowledge or information available in the world. Many philosophers speculated on how information can be interpreted according to its falsity or truthfulness, but have not come to definite conclusions. Edmund Gettier has provided one of the key pieces in understanding and trying to figure out what knowledge really is.
Throughout history, people struggled to understand the world and obtain knowledge through questioning, and experiments. And, there were many cases when people reviewed the same facts, and did not come up with the same opinions and hence derived different conclusions. Therefore, conflicts occurred and some facts were not accepted by all people. For example, there are multiple debates on whether ‘the first Moon landing event’ actually took place or not. Though this event had a lot of support, the arguments by the skeptics could not be ignored. Some people questioned the video footage a...
In “The principles of human knowledge” George Berkeley responds to the skeptics view about the external world. As we already talked about, skepticism is against the belief that you can know anything because even saying that you “know” something is a big contradiction itsel...
Our first understanding of knowledge is in our childhood when we rely solely on our perception of what we believe to be true, to be actual. Perception is our first natural process of taking in information before we evaluate its justifiedness in our belief or nonbelief of its actuality. The commonly accepted definition of knowledge as, justified true belief, is based on the sources of knowledge. The importance of such sources of knowledge are heavily reliant on the role that memory itself plays in the meaning, scope and reliability of what we call justified true belief.
Indeed, most of the problem is that there is no formal definition of a planet. Furthermore, it is very difficult to invent one that would allow the solar system to contain all nine planets. I suggest that for an object to be classified as a planet, it must embody three characteristics. It must be in orbit around a star (thus removing the larger satellites from contention), it must be too small to generate heat by nuclear fusion (so dwarf stars are excluded) and it must be massive enough to have collapsed to a more or less spherical shape (which excludes comets, and most of the asteroids). These criteria would admit a few of the larger asteroids and probably some of the Kuiper belt objects as well, but adding a requirement for a planet to have a minimum diameter of 1,000 km would remove the larger asteroids from contention while retaining Pluto.
...r it becomes to discard. The fact that there is the possibility of knowledge getting discarded suggests that perhaps it should not have been accepted in the first place. This begs the question: is knowledge accepted too easily? More often than not, one requires an adequate amount of evidence and facts to accept something as true. However, sometimes there is no evidence and it is impossible to prove something true, yet it is still accepted as knowledge, as is in the case of many theories. This occurs mostly in the sciences, because many times it is difficult to substantiate scientific knowledge. In order to avoid this never-ending cycle of accepting and discarding knowledge, perhaps the standard of accepting knowledge as true should be raised. But sometimes when something is proven false, it leads to finding the truth, so maybe the standard should remain where it is.
If you look in the dictionary, you’ll find the definition of educated to be something close to this: having undergone education; characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning; based on some information or experience. But I haven’t found this to be particularly specific, or really helpful at all. As I’ve come to understand, being educated is transient, unless you learn to be, as a truly educated person is, a life-long learner. True education comes from yourself, from gaining an understanding of yourself, and from honing skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. These skills are what make a truly educated person, because they can use and further these skills throughout any aspect of their lives.
In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.
An education is something that one can keep for a lifetime. Acquiring a good education can affect one’s personal life, one’s community, and one’s entire generation.
Ever wonder how the world would be today only if our great researchers implemented a different attitude towards their experiments? It is possible that the results would remain same. However, some argue that the consequences may be altered. Nonetheless, this does not make the earlier learned knowledge valued less or false, just supplementary. Abraham Maslow’s theory challenges nearly all ways of knowing, suggesting that if we limit our thinking, the outcomes remain homogenous, therefore, limiting the amount of knowledge we acquire. Dilemmas are mentioned in order to repudiate from the opinions that are profoundly accepted in the society. If Newton had eaten that apple, instead of using it as a tool to apply the theory of attraction, he may not have exposed gravity. Because he had more tools than a mere hammer and he was sagacious enough to expand his philosophy beyond hunger, he made such an innovation. It is widely claimed that inventions are accidental. In fact, all the chemical elements in the famous periodic table are a result of different tactics towards scientist’s research. As ToK teaches us that there is no possible end to a situation for it is influenced by the perceptive skills of the arguers. There is never a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or the ‘ultimate answer’ in the conflict, but the eminence of rationalization is what poises the deliberation. This suggestion explains that there is always that one more way to approach the conclusion. Thus, pursuit of knowledge habitually requires dissimilar ways of knowing for it lengthens the verdict.
In our culture today, there is a huge emphasis on education, especially higher education. Society basically says the more educated you are, the better off you are. That is pretty much true if you live by the means of society. The basic idea that education, especially a college education, is something that people should pursue even into their adult years is not by any means a new idea.
Universally sought, regardless of race, age, or ethnicity, almost every soul eagerly wishes for this; the word that can conceivably differentiate between a life of abject impecuniosity or comfortable prosperity: knowledge. The word “knowledge” evokes a sense of power, that which is a victory of brain over brawn. However, the modern day American education system’s ultimate purpose has become to funnel as many young minds as possible to believe that they are solely defined by a number, whether it is a test question consisting of four choices, all of equal relevance, or a homework assignment which is a source of practice, often graded on accuracy. The growth of a child’s individuality is necessary no matter which way they gain their knowledge.
We gain knowledge in through our ways of knowing which are mainly perception, reason and language. We use them to find knowledge because we justify our claims and beliefs by their use, thus, our evidences, because they get us closer to the truth. To accept something as knowledge, it must be considered true, one must believe it and there must be justification why the person knows it, therefore these ways of knowing aid in the process for our quest for knowledge. In conclusion, in order to obtain knowledge all of these three attributes have to be integrated in some type of way, and due to the changing nature of all three of them, knowledge is always changing and it is dynamic, leading to the fact that knowledge can be discarded. The questions b...
After twelve years of school, it took me until now to figure out exactly why I had been there all those years. It was not to torture me by making me learn how to spell but to make sure that my classmates and I got the opportunity to make the most of ourselves. Opportunity that would come from learning as much as possible from books and beginning to see that the world focuses on more than just history and English . I owe my success in life and school to teachers who taught me to spell and to be respectful and responsible. Those quick to argue with me say that school's usefulness is shallow: deeper-real-life experiences truly educate a person. School should be seen not only as a place to study, but also as a place to learn about real life. People cannot depend on experience alone for education just as they cannot solely rely on information from school books to prepare them for life. The lessons, whether from a book or not, learned in school transcend the classroom to real life situations.
Education plays a vital role in shaping tomorrows’ leaders. Not only can we become a better nation by acquiring the skills necessary to be productive members of a civilized society. Increase knowledge to actively achieve and meet challenges that can produce changes in which are productive for attaining business innovations, political and economic objectives.