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What is Knowledge

What is Knowledge. Daniel W. Blackmon Theory of Knowledge Coral Gables Senior High. Acknowledgement. This lesson has generously been provided by Kai Arles and may be found at Arles, Kai. "ThoK Notes: What is Knowledge" KA's ThoK Notes. 20 Jul. 2005 <http://www.kahome.co.uk/knowl.htm>.

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What is Knowledge

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  1. What is Knowledge Daniel W. Blackmon Theory of Knowledge Coral Gables Senior High

  2. Acknowledgement • This lesson has generously been provided by Kai Arles and may be found at • Arles, Kai. "ThoK Notes: What is Knowledge" KA's ThoK Notes. 20 Jul. 2005 <http://www.kahome.co.uk/knowl.htm>.

  3. Acknowledgement • Anything in this lesson that is not from Arles will be noted!

  4. Acknowledgement • I have no intention of trying to re-invent the wheel when wonderful teachers around the world have already done so!

  5. What is Knowledge • As its name suggests, the Theory of Knowledge course deals with knowledge.

  6. What is Knowledge • The words "to know" and "knowledge" are every-day words, but there also is a branch of philosophy, called epistemology (from Gk. epistémé, knowledge + logos,) which addresses -- more carefully than we tend to do in every-day life -- the questions of what knowledge is and how we get it.

  7. What is Knowledge • However, the IB's Theory of Knowledge course is not intended to be a philosophy course: on the one hand, it does not go into such great philosophical depth, but on the other, it does cover a rather wider range of approaches.

  8. What is Knowledge • In fact, there are teachers of the course . . . who would prefer it to be called "Ways of Understanding."

  9. What is Knowledge • To put it briefly, what the course is about is what counts as knowledge in different spheres of human activity: knowing a mathematical theorem is completely different from knowing the way to London, for instance, or knowing that the earth is round, or that Shakespeare's Hamlet is a great play.

  10. What is Knowledge • And so [one] also [has] to do very different things if [one is] asked to show or explain or justify [one’s] knowledge.

  11. What is Knowledge • To begin with we need to distinguish different uses of the word "knowledge" and to agree when we can say that somebody knows something or has a certain knowledge.

  12. Exercise 1.1

  13. Exercise 1.2

  14. Exercise 1.3

  15. Exercise 1.4

  16. What is known in 'knowledge that' is a proposition, expressed in the clause which, (in the most obvious cases at least,) follows the word "that".

  17. Exercise 2.1

  18. A proposition is what different sentences, even in different languages, with the same meaning have in common (B. Russell, 1862-1970.)

  19. Propositions are capable of being true or false: this distinguishes them from promises, questions, commands, proposals, etc., (which like propositions are expressed in sentences.)

  20. There are different kinds of distinctions that can be made between propositions:

  21. empirical propositions, or statements of facts about things in the world • normative propositions, or value judgements • metaphysical propositions, expressing beliefs about what the world is

  22. a priori propositions, whose truth is knowable prior to any (particular) experience • a posteriori propositions

  23. analytic propositions, true by virtue of the meanings of their parts • synthetic propositions

  24. These distinctions are important as different kinds of propositions express different kinds of knowledge.

  25. Corresponding to the first of the above distinctions between kinds of propositions there are different kinds of knowledge that we have, and most of the remainder of the course will be spent discussing these three kinds of knowledge:

  26. empirical knowledge • value judgements (normative) • one's basic view of the world (metaphysical)

  27. Exercise 2.4

  28. We can now try to state the role of the Theory of Knowledge course in the context of the IB:

  29. In each individual subject you learn what is true and how to argue in that particular area, and thereby you gain knowledge in that subject and the ability to support it, (and you become able to answer questions in exams.)

  30. In Th.o.K. we ask questions about subject areas, and in particular we try to establish what constitutes a valid justification of knowledge in each one. • (This last question is of course one which is, or should be, addressed within each course as well.)

  31. Exercise 4.1.: • For each of the following subject areas, describe something you do or learn in the subject, and the different way in which it might be looked at in Th.o.K..

  32. Example:In a science subject you do experiments, in Th.o.K. we discuss why experiments play a role in science, but don't in mathematics, say.

  33. a. Language A (literature) • b. History • c. Mathematics • d. Language B (a foreign language) • e. Economics • f. Music

  34. There are three main theories of what is meant by "truth".

  35. .Correspondence Theory: • "A true proposition is a proposition which says that things are such and such, and things are just such and such" (Alfred Tarski) -- i.e. for a proposition to be true it must correspond to or match a state of affairs in the world.

  36. .Coherence Theory: • According to this view, a proposition is true if it is consistent with all the other propositions we hold.

  37. The following question arises though: Without a basis, how can such a concept of truth ever get off the ground? We must accept some propositions as true so that others can be consistent with them.

  38. Pragmatism (from Gk. pragma, act, deed): • This is a method of philosophy in which the meaning of an idea is to be found in an examination of the consequences to which it would lead (C.S. Peirce,)

  39. and the truth of a proposition is measured by its correspondence with experimental results and by its practical outcome -- i.e. by its consequences rather than its origin.

  40. Thus pragmatists hold that truth is not absolute, but modified as discoveries are made, and that it is therefore relative to time and place and purpose of inquiry.

  41. "The pragmatic method ... is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to any one if this notion rather than that notion were true?

  42. If no practical difference whatever can be traced, the alternatives mean practically the same thing, and all dispute is idle" (William James, Pragmatism, 1907.)

  43. Works Cited • Arles, Kai. "ThoK Notes: What is Knowledge" KA's ThoK Notes. 20 Jul. 2005 <http://www.kahome.co.uk/knowl.htm>.

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