TOK Essay finaloscar

8/7/2019 TOK Essay finaloscar

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TOK Essay for the IB diploma (IBDP)

Oscar Arjun Singh Tark

(002760-030)

Step by Step High School

Word count: 1411

How can the different ways of knowing help us to

distinguish between something that is true and

something that is believed to be true?



How can the different ways of knowing help us to distinguish between something that is true and

something that is believed to be true?

What is true and what we believe to be true is considered to be the gap in our intellect caused by

perception and emotion. But surprisingly I read in an article titled Brain Fakes It that ³we do not see

what we do not expect to see - we see what we expect to see. Obviously, there are discrepancies

between our perception of the world that surround us and what really is "out there".1 So there is

actually a gap between what we see and what the truth is and there is a biological explanation to it.

The ways of knowing have influenced human race from the very beginning of time, from the creation

of the wheel to that of the atomic bomb; the ways of knowing have helped in the inventions,

discoveries and understanding of the same. The beliefs we have and create for ourselves influence us in

various ways, sometimes enhancing our knowledge and sometimes baffling us. The latter happens

when these truths may not be true but just appear to be true to us. This brings us to the question what is

truth? I s there something like Absolute truth; something that is fixed or facts which cannot be altered?

Ironically, a postmodern constructivist would say our experience of truth is relative and fallible.

As far as science is concerned, the only absolute truth is ³there is no absolute truth´. So, perhaps,

absolute truths belong only in the area of religion.

From my knowledge and experience, I believe that reason is the best way of knowing truth. But the

knowledge issue raised here is how can we one account for the subjectivity caused by us viewing

situations, as we want to view them? As beliefs felt and perceived rather than truths tried and tested

through our reasoning. Webster¶s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines superstition as ³a belief or

practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception

of causation.´2 People tend to believe in what they are told, without verifying these so called µfacts¶ or

µtruths¶. How do we know that certain stones and amulets have µpowerful¶ effects and the hype is not

just a market strategy to sell more precious stones? We buy them because we are so eager to get rid of

our misfortunes and ill-health and that urge pushes our common sense into the background and

emotions take over the driver¶s seat of our intellect. Often we have heard the aphorism that beauty lies

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*Taken from the WatchTower Library 2007 Edition and from the Webster¶s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.



in the eye of the beholder. Does that mean that all judges at beauty pageants choose subjectively? Of

course there are always judgment criteria to be followed but who is to say that the beholder¶s eye will

not cloud his logic? But it is not as if emotion as way of knowing will always mislead the knower. Gut

feeling is connected to the brain and is referred to as the enteric nervous system. Many times our

intuition is based unconsciously on our past experiences in similar situations. So what appears to be

déjà vu has actually been encountered earlier.

Although it forms our past on which we construct our present, History cannot always be trusted to give

us immutable truth. It is highly susceptible to false perceptions and emotions. A knower may perceive

Adolf Hitler was hated by many for massacring millions of Jews simply because he thought that the

pure race (Germans) should reign and this incessant conflict between Hitler and Jews precipitated the

World War II. Yet it is a fact that he received thousands of letters everyday which were recently

published as Hitler¶s fan mail and unbelievably it has letters written by Jews as well.3 The mention of

Nazism leaves an acrid taste in our mouths and yet the party was the first to oppose financial capitalism

and bolstered the economy of Germany. So the generalization that ³everybody hated Hitler´ is just a

projection of our perception untempered by our logic. If reason is applied as a way of knowing, our

perception of both the party and its Fuhrer would be different.

Different people approach the same truth differently depending on their perspectives. If I play a violent

video game next to my little sister, she feels repulsed and thinks ill of me for slaughtering while I think

it¶s a game for precision and accuracy. We are led by our emotions which prove that emotion lacks

coherence and like perception, emotion alone cannot help the knower attain accurate truth. Reason is

needed to offset the subjective perception and emotion. Beliefs are purely subjective reactions to our

surroundings yield experiences that are subjective truths. But how have beliefs taken the place of

truths? Is it our ignorance or the fact that our use of ways of knowing is lop-sided?

Religion and Ethics are more often than not viewed through a kaleidoscope of emotions and

perceptions and the facts attained through these areas of knowledge may contradict both the

correspondence theory and coherence theory of truth. In Religion, God is a good example of unproved

µtruths¶. Faith has gone across the world and since I divide time between Italy and India I have

experienced various religions and so have found that Jehovah witnesses have the biggest faith in God,



they believe in a truth not because it works for them or corresponds to a past experience of theirs but

because ³it¶s god¶s will´. There is no logical or even perceptual evidence that god actually exists. Is

god a truth or a mere belief created by priests who wanted power for themselves and order for society?

Yes it seems plausible that God wrote the Ten Commandments and that the Bible was written by 40

different people from different eras and backgrounds, but by our reasoning power we are able to view

them as mere beliefs and not as truths.

Language is an essential way of knowing for understanding true knowledge and as a character from

Tom Stoppard¶s Real Thing says, ³Words are innocent and sacred and create bridges of

understanding´, 4 But the fact remains that those who use language may not always be innocent so the

language may be distorted due to its high vulnerability which may deflate and degrade truths to such an

extent that they finally become blank truths. The demagogues survive by making misleading speeches

to their voters. But despite this language has been and shall always be an indispensable way of knowing

whether it is the sermon of an elder to shape our spirit or the lecture of a teacher to mould our intellect.

Yes, beliefs can create confusion between us but the only certain and unvariable truth is that we

will never know the unvariable truth. The fact is that truth speaks better than beliefs but most of the

time we are unable to understand things because ways of knowing are used in isolation. Natural

Scientists warn us of impending crisis that water will vanish one day and we understand it with our

reason but continue to use it injudiciously because perception and emotion have not yet experienced the

crisis. Until people will not start feeling the effects of global warming, they will not measure their

carbon footprint nor will they conserve anything seriously.

However there is not always a chasm between the ways of knowing and neither do they always cloud

the truth. Once a scientific law or a math formula is proven it becomes a theory and cannot be

contradicted with beliefs or what is believed to be true; it is independent of opinions and traditions.

Even perception which is responsible for almost all subjectivity is usually a clear transmitter of

coherent facts. Reason of course is a fundamental part of life where emotion is almost eliminated.

There are many things we do every day that include reason, knowingly and unknowingly.

We can conclude that all ways of knowing have their effects in understanding what a truth is and what

a belief is, although reason is closer to truth than the other ways of knowing, all ways of knowing have

Tom Stoppard¶s The Real thing, pg



their strengths and weaknesses in finding what is true and what is believed to be true. Knowledge may

not be what it seems as truths could be beliefs and beliefs could be truths this is all due to the flexibility

of the human mind.



Bibliography:

KWWSXVHUV]LSZRUOGFRP

The WatchTower Library 2007 Edition and from the Webster¶s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.

3Tom Stoppard¶s The Real thing, pg

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