Contemporary Theories Of Knowledge - Research Paper Example

 Contemporary Theories Of Knowledge We all assume to know a lot of things that make our life worthwhile and to achieve our purpose in life but not how we came to know such things or whether what we know is true or correct. The title of this essay asks us to explain to what extent knowledge produces both meaning and purpose in our personal lives. As such there are key words that need defining and understanding before proceeding with the task. I will take meaning to refer to something worthwhile, enriching or fulfilling. It makes one feel that their life is valuable. Purpose refers to anticipated outcome or according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “what somebody is trying to achieve or aim.” Meaning and purpose are often taken to mean the same thing but for this case, they will be taken to mean different things. Personal lives may be taken to mean an individual’s account of his/her experience but for the sake of this essay, I will take personal lives as the generalized experience of people rather than the effect on my own personal life. This is because one person’s account of existence cannot explain fully the extent to which knowledge produces meaning and purpose as some knowledge is second-hand. Knowledge for Plato is “justified true belief” (Lagemaat 24; Lemos 9; Russell, n.p). The “whole point” of knowledge as this would mean that the absolute or only point of knowledge is to produce meaning and purpose hence one has to agree or disagree with the statement but not to a certain extent. However, I will argue that knowledge produces meaning but sometimes does not produce purpose in our lives. Although knowledge influences our purpose in life, purpose can be achieved through different ways without knowledge. As stated earlier, knowledge is ‘justified true belief.” However, the concepts truth and belief need explanation as they are controversial concepts. According to Dunn, truth is “things that can be justified and believed in” (n.p). It distinguishes knowledge from belief hence what we claim to know must be true, if mere belief, it is true or false (Lagemaat 24). As such, believing that something is true does not make it true. According to correspondence theory of truth, we can know if something is true through our sense experience while for coherence theory, a proposition must match with what we know to be true. Knowledge can also be true if majority people believe in it (Dunn, n.p). For pragmatists, truth is whatever is useful to us. A belief on the other hand, is “a state of mind of a certain sort” (Russell, n.p). What we claim to know must not only be true but we also must be able to believe it to be true hence belief is subjective while truth is objective. We should be able to believe it beyond reasonable doubt. If we say Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, we should be able to say we know that is what happened. These beliefs must also be justified in the right kind of way by using ways of knowing such as language, reason, emotion, and sense perception (Lagemaat 26). However, beliefs are contradictory and knowledge is not static but keeps changing over time. As such, all knowledge is more or less uncertain and more or less vague. The knowledge question that thus needs answering is, how can we ever be sure that what we think we know is really true and that we possess knowledge and to what extent does this knowledge provide meaning and purpose in a our personal lives? Can we still gain meaning and purpose without knowledge? To answer these questions, I will look at ways of knowing and areas of knowledge. As Bhagarad Gita once said in 500BCE, “man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is” (Lagemaat 3). Since belief is part of knowledge, this simply means that knowledge makes life meaningful, that is, it defines a person. However, this belief must be justified through the eight ways of knowing: emotion, faith, imagination, intuition, language, memory, reason and sense perception (Dunn, n.p). These explain how we acquire knowledge about the external world. Two areas of knowledge: ethics and human sciences will be used to show how this knowledge produces meaning and to some extent purpose in personal lives. Ethics is the study of how to live our lives morally (Dunn n.p). It is the moral principles that govern our behavior. An ethical position is formed through language, reason, and emotion. In order to know what is right or wrong, words are important as they guide us on right way to behave. For example, if someone trips on you and says sorry, you will know they are wrong but at the same time apologetic. In this case, language in ethics helps one to relate well with others hence find meaning in life. It is also through language that different ethical issues such as abortion, drugs, polygamy, gay, and lesbianism are discussed in various forums. Here, one can give his/her opinion and contribute to the formulation of various ethical laws that determine our existence and make life meaningful. Ethics thus makes us understand how other people feel about issues and how to treat them hence help the process of developing moral behavior. It is through language that we get words to comfort those in distress and this makes one feel that life has a meaning and purpose. This is because it creates happiness in other people as well as us. This idea of our actions creating happiness for the whole is contained in the theory of utilitarianism propagated by James Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Bentham even sought to develop a scientific formula for the happiness that results from our actions. Furthermore, ethics borrows much from religion and here language is used to produce laws in Bible and Quran among other holy books. For example, in the Bible the Ten Commandments are followed by Christians to determine what is right or wrong. Following these commands makes life worthwhile as at least one is assured of eternal life if that his life’s purpose. Language is also crucial way of gaining knowledge in human sciences. These include but not limited to: psychology, sociology, political science, philosophy, and economics. Their aim is “to explain human behavior, formulate theories to predict it, and then develop remedies for the problems identified by those predictions” (Dunn, n.p). It involves human beings studying other human beings to get information of how their life can be improved. Language is used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on human issues such as the rate of unemployment. Two schools of thought are apparent in human sciences: naturalists and interpretivists (Dunn, n.p). Naturalists like Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) use quantitative data while interpretivists like Max Weber use qualitative data. Durkheim relies on coherence theory of truth thus bases his social facts on other proven social facts. Weber on the other hand, relies on correspondence theory hence believes in integrating with people and experiencing their issues to judge their actions from their viewpoint. Understanding the issues that affect society and developing remedies for them makes life meaningful. For example, gaining knowledge about the unemployed and addressing the root cause of such problems alleviates poverty thus giving new meaning to personal lives. However, it may not give such people purpose in life as their purpose may be different from what the authorities intend to achieve. Let us say the government increases unemployment insurance or welfare benefits for the unemployed. If one’s purpose was to get a certain kind of job or to start own business, then such remedy would not produce purpose in such a person’s life but it would give meaning to him as he becomes a worthy member of society. Although language is one of the main ways of acquiring knowledge, it can be misleading especially in policy making. This is because it can be misused by politicians and advertisers to mislead people. Besides, different words have different meanings which may be misunderstood by those conveying or gathering information. For example, the Bible is often interpreted in different ways leading to divisions of congregation into Protestants and Catholics. Moreover, different theorists differ of nature or source of language; whether it is inborn or product of environment. For example, Plato believes it is innate whilst John Locke believed peoples mind at birth are blank slates which gain knowledge through experience while Noam Chomsky believed that skills and abilities hardwired into the brain and language is universal (Dunn, n.p). However, this can be solved through Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis whereby understanding of words is dependent on language we use to interact with it (Dunn, n.p). Another way of knowing is reasoning. This involves making sense of the world through logic, rationality, judgment and experience. Reasoning can be inductive or deductive. Inductive reasoning involves use of specific cases to generalize conclusions while deductive reasoning involves formulating specific conclusions from general principles (Pollock & Cruz 5-9). This is where empiricists and rationalists come into conflict. Empiricists like Locke believe knowledge can only be gained through sense perception whilst rationalists like Rene Descartes believe it is through reasoning and that senses cannot be trusted (Mizzoni 27-29).David Hume is more of a skeptic as he cannot solve his dilemma about induction. Immanuel Kant tries to harmonize the two views. Pollock and Cruz conclude that “all our general beliefs are held on basis of induction” (8).They also argue for defeasible rather than deductive reasoning. Reasoning helps us to acquire much knowledge in ethics and is bases for moral code. Reason prompts us to behave accordingly in different contexts and act fairly and justly. If a case is decided fairly, then those involved receive justice and meaning in their personal lives. Combined with emotions, knowledge is gained that helps improve people’s lives. For example, in an earthquake like that of Haiti, reason and emotions directed people to save others and offer humanitarian assistance thus giving meaning to their lives. Conclusion In this essay, I have argued that knowledge produces meaning and to some extent purpose in our personal lives. Various ways of knowing such as language, emotion and reasoning have been explored to show how we acquire knowledge in ethics and human sciences. Language is the most applied way of knowing and helps to express feelings, persuade people and communicate to society as a whole. It sets the laws of conduct to be adhered to and helps in gathering data to solve issues thus giving meaning to lives. Reason especially inductive reasoning and emotion propel as to act in ethical ways and also survival in society. Works Cited Dunn Michael. May 2015 Theory of Knowledge Prescribed Essay Titles (22nd July 2014). Theoryofknowledge.net. Web. 22nd January, 2015. http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/tok-essay/may-2015-tok-essay-titles/ Lagemaat Richard Van De. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Lemos Noah. An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. Cambridge, 2007. Pollock John L and Cruz Joseph. Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. 2ed. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & littlefield, 1999. Mizzoni, John. Ethics: The Basics. UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Russell Bertrand. Theory of Knowledge for The Encyclopaedia Britannica. Web. 22 January, 2015. https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/russell1.htm Read More