This last Friday, August 31, we grouped up in pairs to decide which 2 methods of knowing were the "best" for knowing.
My partner and I came up with Reason and Empiricism. As we went around the classroom stating our different choices, I would listen to his or her reasoning, but then I would still question how they knew how to be so certain that they had chosen the best answer. Yes, this did have lots to do with opinion, but people started to talk and defend their choices with a "proven-like" certainty. HOW DO YOU KNOW??? I try to think about these knowledge obtaining concepts as something concrete but it hurts my head because it goes nowhere. I follow along in class accepting the transitions to new topics; however, it disturbs me that nothing is really settled. No class has ever had me in this puzzled way. Certainty is my hardest concept to grasp. I am so accustomed to scientific exactness in other classes that TOK bothers me. For example, all that I have just said can't be taken seriously because, how do you know that these words mean what they are understood to mean...i say, they just do because im going to be lazy and say they do.
My mind keeps on spinning, and it is uncomfortable, but it is one of the most interesting areas of study that I have ever done. So, I am on the edge of my seat awaiting more mind boggling concepts in this class.
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3 comments:
And yet consider the level of uncertainty even in the so-called hard sciences. Your experience with a certain exactness in the sciences may simply be the result of your relatively elementary level of study, which is no slight on you, just a statement of where you are in school. Talk to Mr. Brown in math topics or Mr. Gibson in physics. I think they will tell you that there is more uncertainty involved in these disciplines, but you have to be sufficiently well schooled in the basics to see it.
For your own self, try this experiment. Write down three things that you would claim to know to be true. It does not matter whether anyone else knows them or would agree with you that they are true. Now, how do you know for yourself that those things are true? Next question...how would you try to convince someone else of their truth?
You are on the right track with yoru feelings. Hang on to the edge of your seat!
I look at knowing not as much as how can we all be sure, but more as how can i be sure. There is all this talk about proving your ideas to others, and while that may be important on some levles isn't that only an attempt at self justification? does it really matter what other people think as long as you yourself are confidant in the reality of the situation. this relates to the whole "matrix theory" what if we live in a word that does not exsits? for me that is not the question the question is does it really matter? as long as we believe in our own set of infalibe truths does it matter if were wrong?
Rob, you bring up a huge and important issue. Unquestionably for some things it does not matter. If I know that Pizza Hut has the best pizza, it is not a matter of importance to share that with anyone. But how many things are so isolated? Most of us live in close community, and what I think I know has a great impact on those around me. I may be confident that there is a safe distance between the vehicle in front of me and my car. Based on that knowledge, I turn my head to grab my cell phone. In doing so, I fail to see the other car slam on its breaks, and I rear-end it, causing a huge pile up on the highway.
What kinds of knowledge seem to be purely personal, and what seem to have more of an effect on those around us? What ways and problems of knowing are inherent to each?
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