Possessing Knowledge and Applying it Ethically - Essay Example

Possessing Knowledge and Applying it Ethically What if you could manipulate the weather? If you had the knowledge to change, shift, or influence theweather, would it be a good idea to do it? Knowledge is the most powerful thing in the entire world. While that is a bold and sweeping statement, the truth is that knowledge is the saving grace of all catastrophes, the power behind every leader, and the basis of human historic development. Knowledge can control anything if the subject is understood well enough. This also makes knowledge the most dangerous thing in the world. Without the ethical use of knowledge, the use of it will fall to the ruin of others. The following paper will discuss the nature of knowledge and that in having knowledge there is an imperative to act with it ethically and responsibly. There are four ways of knowing. The four ways are language, perception, reason and emotion. Language is the exchange of knowledge through common forms of verbal expression. Having someone tell you something puts reliability into question. If you believe what you are told, then you believe on faith in the person who has given you that knowledge. Ethically, one should not blindly accept anything that one is told. Acting on knowledge that you do not know to be true has consequences. Perception is how one views what is received through the senses. The scent of oranges means that there is likely an orange nearby. It could also mean that there is only something that smells like an orange nearby. Reason means that a person takes what is known in order to reach the next conclusion. I smell an orange. I bought oranges yesterday. Therefore, the scent of the orange is coming from the oranges I bought yesterday. Emotional knowledge comes from what is intuitively known because of how one feels. This creates diverse knowledge because what is known by one person may not be how another person believes the truth to exist. The abortion issue is an example of what people think they know in relationship to how they feel. Two people will not draw the same conclusion with the same information (Lagemaaat 8-9). Areas of knowledge come in various disciplines and facets of life. One can have knowledge in the general sciences which are psychology, physics, mathematics, or any of the science based disciplines. One can have knowledge of the everyday. This would include the knowledge that consists of the places, people, traditions, and social expectations of everyday life (Schlick 4). The ways of knowing are defined as the methods through which knowledge is gained, while the areas of knowing are the types of knowledge that one has and is defined by what they affect. As an example, knowing that the sun does not rise but in fact the Earth spins and rotates in orientation to the sun is learned through being told this by a teacher, book, or parent, as an example. The area of knowing is the science of astronomy, or sometimes various other sciences depending on how the information is used or evaluated. Emotions do not provide this knowledge, but language or reason might. Theories of knowledge also propose the concept of judgments. Judgments about information are how knowledge is gained. Kant presented the idea of judgments in which one type of judgment was developed through citing that the end result of something was the basis upon which a proposal can be judged. In this theory of knowledge, the teleological perspective means to judge a statement by how the outcome is defined (Dicker 20). In this perspective, affecting the weather would be ethically feasible if the end result was positive. From the teleological point of reference, a use of knowledge could not be judged until the result was put into place. As an example, the ability to change the trajectory of a hurricane in the Atlantic might save land and people from damage. What could happen though is that a coast on the other side of the world suffers from a tsunami. One tragedy has been replaced by another that would not have occurred had the original interference not been executed. Ethically, the use of the knowledge to manipulate the weather has been put into question. Kant discussed the problems and consequences of teleological ethics which can be applied to the responsibility of knowledge. One of the problems with teleological perspectives is that the knowledge of the end result is rarely absolute, thus the ethics of the risk must be considered (McDonough 180). Risk is the unknown, which can be considered the opposite of knowledge. Methodism, however, provides for the thinker to begin from a broad generalization of what is known (Lemos 163). Descartes further explored this idea by identifying himself as a thinking man, then moving forward to assert that this meant he was capable of defining what he knew and what he did not know (Lemos 164). Under this framework of the theory of knowledge, knowing something is defined by the reasoning that an individual is aware of what is known within their own mind. Roderick Chisolm proposed ideas about the theory of particularism in The Problem of the Criterion. In this way of thinking the thinker believes that they have an answer for A, thus they are working towards an answer for B (Lemos 161). Another form of this theory is Cartesian particularism where through the experiences that one has had and the mental state that has been achieved; the knowledge that is held has become common sense without the need to extend that into the next phase of thought, or the B side of the concept (Lemos 162). This could be discussed in terms of the weather example by looking at two hypothetical leaders. One leader knows that the weather is a problem and that without a solution his region will be negatively affected during each season. Another leader has the same problem. In Chisolms idea of particularism, the leader knows A, which is that bad weather will lead to damage, and hopes that through exploration of the knowledge of B, methods of manipulating the weather, he can improve the condition of his land. He believes it is ethical to use any knowledge to manipulate the weather because the end result will be that his land goes without the yearly damage that he has had to deal with in the past. The second leader knows that it is common sense that the weather will come and cause damage. Cartesian particularism would suggest that he has experienced this weather, that damage will occur, and that he will face the consequences he knows without pursuing consequences that are not proven. The common sense with which particularism is framed defines how knowledge is applied. Chisolm wrote that “there is something we know and we adopt the working hypothesis that what we know is pretty much that which, on reflection, we think we know” (Kornblith 583). In other words, the leader has made the assumption that what he knows is true and that how he is responding is connected to what he knows. This can be reflected back to teleology where ethics are concerned. One of Kant’s primary assertions is the ends never justify the means if the means creates negative consequences to a human being (Feist, Shukla and Beauvais 113). In other words, never ignore the human costs when achieving an end. Kant is quoted as saying that “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end” (Feist, Shukla and Beauvais 113). Feist, Shukla and Beauvais interpret this by discussing the problem of the ‘negative externality’ that occurs when the consequences of a decision affects people that were not involved in causing the original problem. The use of common sense as a basis for discussing knowledge means that there is some assumption that common sense is always the result of something that is true. However, Paul Moser shows that this is not always true and argues that there is only an assumption of truth when it has been inductively deduced from general knowledge (Lemos 170). The importance of admitting that knowledge is rarely absolute means that applying knowledge to a situation must be done with ethical consideration because the supposition of the truth may not have the result that is intended when a judgment is actually false. The ethics of possessing knowledge and using it is based upon the aspect of risk. While different frameworks of philosophy discuss the ethical idea of using knowledge, the Kantian ideas about not using human beings as an ends is a good place to start in understanding how to apply knowledge in the world. Considerations that assumptions of truth are not the same as the actual truth can protect both people and the world from unethical use of knowledge. The example of the weather shows that knowing how to do something does not necessarily mean that it should be done. Knowing A and the solution to A, does not always lead to B and a solution for that problem. Applying ethics to the use of knowledge means understanding the potential risk and not proceeding if the means will be negatively affected in order to get to an end. Without using knowledge ethically or having a sense of responsibility about knowledge, the outcome is at risk and the impact can cause chaos and damage to the human condition. Works Cited Dicker, Georges. Kants Theory of Knowledge: An Analytical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print Feist, Richard, Rajesh Shukla, and Chantal Beauvais. Technology and the Changing Face of Humanity. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2010. Print. Hardin, Russell. How Do You Know?: The Economics of Ordinary Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. Print. Lagemaat, Richard . Theory of Knowledge for the Ib Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Lehrer, K. Theory of knowledge. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000. Print. Lemos, Noah M. An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Kornblith, Hilary. "Roderick Chisholm and The Shaping Of American Epistemology." Metaphilosophy 34.5 (2003): 582-602. Print. McDonough, Jeffrey K. "The Heyday Of Teleology And Early Modern Philosophy." Midwest Studies In Philosophy 35.1 (2011): 179-204. Print. Schlick, Moritz. General Theory of Knowledge. LaSalle, IL: Open Court Pub, 1985. Print. Read More