7 ways to check What is knowledge while discussing theory of knowledge
What is knowledge is a quite tricky question to start with. When we google this question we get truck-loads of search results. Every link I click provides me similar or dissimilar definitions. Arranging the meaning of knowledge into some definition into a snippet is an unjust to the whole concept. Different people have different ideas as to what they perceive ‘what is knowledge?’. An average span of human life is 70-80 years these days. There will be definitely a limit to how much a human brain can consume. When the subject is this vast, it takes a lot of effort to tie both ends in harmony.
Horizon of knowledge expand as we age. We meet and interact with a lot of people over the course of our life. This exposes us to a wide range of information. The gained facts can be important or unimportant, the trouble comes when we can’t quite figure out what to take in. Humans think they know about everything that’s happening around them. But do they? it is important to distinguish the difference between daily consumed information and what is knowledge. For theory of knowledge students, it is an essential discussion to know it as certainty play a cognizant role in shaping what is knowledge.
The universe is so vast that it comprises of indefinite elements. We have very limited knowledge about what exists around us be it the ocean, the sky, and even life on other planets. Knowledge can come under various heads; It can be arts, maths, history, religion and so on.
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘what is knowledge’ as “acts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.” Knowledge gives us the ability to understand what is going around us. There’s no definite source for acquiring knowledge, it can be from anywhere and everywhere. But as we are subjected to lots of opinions we sometimes come across a lot of contradictory facts as well, which confuses us further to explore, what is knowledge?
The famous oceanographer David Gallo says that 95% of the sea life is still unexplored, here we are taking about the water that covers 70% of the earth. He even says about the largest mountain range which is called the mid-ocean ridge which is 55,000 miles long. And here we are, always speaking of Mount Everest as the largest of them all.
Definitely, after seeing the above video of Mr. David Gallo, our knowledge is incomplete about the planet we own. It is because of the ‘Limitation’. What is knowledge can remain unanswered due to human limitations in cognitive approach, imagination, comprehension and many other things.
Coming to knowledge of history, we have very limited information with respect to the life 200 years ago. Whatever we have found about the years before our existence are all based on certain computations, we have found by ourselves. The archaeological artifacts we obtained would suggest how life was during a certain period, but can we cent percent sure whether it was just like how we deduced. Unfortunately, what is knowledge is restricted due to lack of evidences about historical events. We have very little memory, manuscripts, evidences of episodes that give us a complete picture about history,
There are different ways of knowing, such as language, sense, perception, emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition and memory that help us to seek answer for ‘what is knowledge’ in different areas of knowledge. These are basic principles through one can get hold of understanding the world around us.
If we explore human science and seek answer to ‘what is knowledge?’ in this domain, it will be an interesting exploration. When a child is born, nobody teaches it to crawl, sit or stand. The baby eventually does this without anyone teaching it how to do it. Parents do prompt them by giving guided instructions which can be visual or verbal but still how do the babies find the balance and do it by themselves?
Coming back to science, what if I say that there is a possibility of a world where we exist parallelly, we can’t disregard this completely because we don’t have the complete knowledge to ignore this either. World is a complicated mix of happening events which we may have no knowledge about at the present time.
Imagination as mentioned earlier is a way of knowing. Through the works of artists, writers, poets etc we are in a way respecting their way of imparting knowledge. It’s a completely different take altogether and we have limited knowledge about how to value their art.
Long back when tsunami hit the shores on December 2004, we purely considered it to be a natural calamity. But have you come across the possibility of it being a tectonic weapon? I could simply guess most of you saying a BIG NO because I am also one amongst you who has never heard about such a thing in my life.
Even when majority of people addresses it as a hypothetical device or system which can initiate natural events like volcanoes, earthquakes by interfering with Earth’s geological processes. We can’t completely brush off the idea because we don’t have authentic knowledge of its existence or non-existence.
However, can we ever predict the earthquakes? Our knowledge on this issue, or I must say the ability of science is limited.
Lets move to religion as an area of knowledge. Knowledge of religion is a touchy subject. There are two kinds of people: one who believes in faith and the other who doesn’t have the belief. Even in 21st century, Whenever the existence of god is raised, we can clearly see an upper hand of people who immediately disregard the question as a whole. People who have faith believes that there is supreme existence if they are unable to find a reason for a cause. Whereas, the non-believers find the science behind the cause. Ultimately, it’s the faith that makes us choose sides.
Nowadays, if u come across something you don’t know the first quest is to ask a search engine’s assistance. But how do we know the information we obtain through internet is evidential. It is impossible to validate the genuineness of the content. Hence, even when we say we know most things, we don’t have valid facts to substantiate the same.
In the internet age, information travels everywhere like a wild fire. People do not even think twice before sharing the word. Therefore, more than authentic facts fake data travels on a faster pace. They come in the form of hoaxes, click-baits and fabricated reports. The originality of a piece of information is valued based on how viral and accepted it gets.
So, when we discuss about the term ‘knowledge’, we can’t contain it in a mere definition as it is much above than that. Life is a constant struggle between knowing and not-knowing. Comprehending what knowledge means might be one of toughest discussion I have come across till date. As the topic is such an extensive one, there is no one way we could deal with it. As different perceptions always come into picture, What is Knowledge remains as an unanswered dilemma.
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