What Does It Take to Acquire Knowledge through Testimony - Essay Example

What Does It Take To Acquire Knowledge Through Testimony? Paper type Number of words Knowledge is the platform upon which human beings survive and conduct their daily activities. Knowledge has many definitions and descriptions that end up being similar in certain ways. Nonetheless, somewhat general definition is that knowledge is the state of awareness, familiarity or acquaintance of someone about something(s), truths, principles, ordinances, processes, investigation, condition or facts. Human beings of any status have certain knowledge that guides their reasoning, behaviors and interaction with the environment. Once gained, the memory particular in the brain becomes the temporary or permanent storage point for knowledge. Human beings are usually born with tabular rasa brains, and have to learn or gain knowledge as they grow through experiences. Everything we know (knowledge) are products of testimonies made to us by some other people. In general, testimony refers to the things that people tell us about something or other people. From the definition, it becomes clearer that testimony does not generate knowledge but works to transfer knowledge. Testimonies can become knowledge on the basis of availability of many things that include evidence, belief, and credibility of a speaker, reasoning, perception and introspection. 1For a testimony to become knowledge, the hearers must consider a statement as conveying information, and be willing to acquire the given information. In that case, Leakey provided an example of someone commenting how lovely a day was. If the hearer fails to consider the statement as conveying particular information, the statement remains as a simple filler of conversation. In other words, the hearer will simply consider the statements as an expression of contentedness. In similar fashion, commenting about beauty of place can only be an expression of thought or view bearing that the speakers has no intention to pass information neither does the hearer intend to acquire information2. From the analogy, it is evident that testimonies can only become knowledge if there is intention on the side of the speaker to convey information, and willingness on the side of the audience to acquire information. By intending to convey information, the speaker will be expressing understanding that the audiences have some knowledge gaps that require filing through testimony. Subsequently, the move by the audiences to accept acquisition of information will prove the availability of some knowledge gaps that require filling. With those conditions satisfies testimonies have great probability of becoming channels for transferring knowledge. Testimonies can also become knowledge in the cases where the hearer has previous relevant information about a particular subject or issue3. In such a case, the hearer may use the previous information about the issue to derive knowledge from the just issued testimony. For instance, a speaker can tell a hearer for the fast time that a certain thing is not available in a particular place when, in actuality the thing is in the referred place. On confirming the truth, the next time the audience hears the speaker mentioning about the unavailability of the thing in the given place, he/she will construct knowledge based on the past case that the thing is available in the given place. In such cases, the testimony given by the speaker only works to trigger the hearer into confirming and verifying the information with reference to past experiences to develop knowledge about the behavior of the speaker. In that line, the hearer can conclude and develop a belief that the particular speaker’s statements are not always as he/she speaks. To the hearer, to understand the truth and verifiability of the future statements of the particular speaker, it is important to investigate and confirm the previous of first statement on the same issue. Through the experiences, the hearer may develop knowledge about the speaker and his statements based on how treat statements4. 5In some instances, credibility of a speaker becomes important in making a testimony to qualify as knowledge. For a speaker to be credible to an audience with regard to discussion or presentation of a given topic, the audience has to relate the qualification and competence of the speaker against the area of focus. For instance, it is easier for someone to believe the speeches of a renowned environmentalist about the concept of global warming. A hearer who understands that the speaker has substantial competence and qualification as an environmentalist will take time to listen to the testimony of the environmentalist, and eventually conceptualize the information as knowledge. For example, that competent environmentalist may claim that emission of carbon dioxide is the cause of the problematic concept of global warming. The hearer who confirms the competence may consider the statements and evidences as true, and eventually treat it as knowledge. The situation will be different if a politician known to have no competence and qualification on environmental issues tries to dispute the claims of the renowned environmentalist. In the case that the politician try to claim that other things besides carbon dioxide emission are the causes of global warming, the hearer may trash the claims and treat it as mere expression of thoughts. From the non-reductionists point of view, testimony can become justifiable knowledge the hearers lack reasons or alternative evidences to object the information given. A clear example to support the view is when a person from Syria describes pathetic situation of the country to a person or people who know but lack details about the war. In this case, the hearers will consider the testimonies by the speakers as true and source of knowledge about the details of the Syrian war. It is easy for the hearers to consider the information as justified knowledge because they lack alternative sources or evidence to think otherwise. It is even easier for hearers to treat the information as outright justified knowledge is it is clear to them that the speaker is actually from Syria. To believe is such away means that the hearers accord the speaker higher credibility has no doubt about the authenticity of the information. Considered alongside the reductionists’ point of view, testimony can only qualify to become knowledge based on reasoning, memory, inductive inference, and perception. Memory works to store the knowledge that people gained through the past experiences. Memory store perceptions that people have about the world, through which inductive inference and reasoning can lead to establishment of knowledge in the future experiences. For instance, hearers or audiences can use their inductive inference and reasoning based on past memory to assess justifiability of a report to qualify as a source of knowledge6. Through the non-testimonial positive reasoning and induction, hearers and readers of a report can evaluate the contained information against facts to justify that particular context, speakers or types of reports are credible information source. In some instances, testimony becomes knowledge based on the interpersonal relationship between the speaker and the hearer. This expression is according to the theory of interpersonal view testimony. As per this school of thought, a speaker can successfully present his testimony as knowledge by assuring the hearer that the statements presented are true. 7Though non-evidential, this kind of assertion can convince the hearer to treat the received information as true. In such a case, the hearer bases the gained knowledge on the expressed accountability of the speaker over the information. The speaker on the other hand has to demonstrate acceptance of the responsibility over the purported truth told to the hearer. However, the assurance view of testimony as a means of transferring knowledge is only valid as long as the speaker’s statements are true as guaranteed and not false thereafter. 8Besides simple assurance about a truth, proponents of the interpersonal view based testimony claim that a speaker can use trust view to convince hearers into believing information as true and subsequently basis of knowledge. Under the trust view, speakers can use phrases such as trust me though without evidence to invite hearers into believing particular information and conceptualizing into knowledge. The trust view is only valid as long as the testimony given is a reliable lead to the truth, and that there is to prove that the trusted speaker is untrustworthy. 9According to Lackey, for a testimony to qualify as knowledge, its speaker and the hearer must accept and believe in the information. Accepting a concept of information without belief does not qualify one into knowing the concept10. To demonstrate this basis, Lackey constructed the example of a pro-creationist Mrs. Smith teaching evolution theory. In the example, Mrs. Lackey teaches the evolutionary theory despite not believing in it, and as such lacks knowledge of the theory. This construction is due to the fact that knowledge develops from belief and acceptance. Despite Mrs. Smith being a nonbeliever in the evolutionary theory, her students still learnt from her education, and subsequently gained knowledge. In the example, Mrs. Smith is simply a part of the longer chain of communication through which the knowledge flows to the students. Mrs. Smith as a channel does not have to know the information (believe the evolutionary theory) to be able to transfer it to the end recipients. This entire analogy leads to the understanding that testimony does not generate but transfers knowledge from the speakers to the hearers. In effect, the speaker does not have to believe the information communicated to make a justifiable testimony. Precisely, a person has to accept and believe in testimony given acquire knowledge. In conclusion, knowledge is an important aspect of human life that forms the basis for individual’s survival. Knowledge is the familiarity, awareness or acquaintance of facts, understanding, principles, investigations, and truths. Testimonies are the basis of all knowledge that human beings carry. Testimony refers to the things told to us by other people about some people and something. Everything we know about the world and life base on testimonies of some people. However, testimonies have to pass certain tests or exhibit certain characteristics to qualify as epistemological knowledge. For a person to acquire knowledge through testimony, the information given has to come from a person of substantial credibility. A hearer has to verify and prove the credibility of the speaker in terms of the alignment of his/her competence with the topic of conversation. In addition, a hearer can acquire knowledge from a speaker if the latter asks the former for trust (trust view). In addition, a hearer can develop knowledge from a speaker if the latter assurers the former about the truthfulness of the statement (assurance view). Furthermore, a testimony can qualify to be knowledge if the speaker has intention to convey information and the hearer has the intention to acquire the information. Bibliography Goldman, A., and D. Whitcomb, Social Epistemology: Essential Readings, Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 71-109. Lackey. J., Learning from Words: Testimony as a Source of Knowledge. Great Clarendon Street; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 320. Read More