Knowledge can be anything such as religion or belief this is knowledge because it is what people have thought for millions of years and what people keep thinking this creates a sense that that is correct. My expedition for example is Cristo rei in Lisbon Portugal this has been up since 1959 which is most of our lifetimes this gives people like a reason to believe as why would someone build a statue so large and so time consuming if it had no deeper meaning?
I think this statue was built as a sacrifice of time and resources to show how they want to represent their religion.
Knowledge can also be opinion which what everyone believes this could be caused by not being educate or just never being exposed to things like how some kid which have been surrounded by war ever since they were born then they might not know a world where bombs and gunshots are going of everywhere.
Knowledge can also be facts and be proven by science this include things like how coronavirus is a virus this is proven after extensive testing on characteristic and how the cell is made which many years back couldn’t of been proven this can mean that technology advancing has allowed us to use stuff light x rays and microscopes to see things we would of never seen like little bone fractures or how large a bacteria is very accurately all due to advances it technology which have proven ideas or theories but also have falsified theories and ideas which made new thing been proven.
Knowledge can also be experiences like how maybe one day you saw a squirrel for the first time, and it was a red squirrel so until you found out that there where many types of squirrels whenever someone asked what colour was a squirrel that person that has only ever seen a red squirrel then they will get the image that the squirrel is red and replay with the wrong answer.

In this question I’m going to be exploring the meaning of knowledge, and if we can ever truly know something in order to draw a boundary between things that are known and that aren’t.

To answer this question, we must first consider : what is knowledge? The dictionary defines it as “facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. ” Taking this meaning, we see that knowledge is directly related to experience. In practice, the application of our senses allow us to interpret and know what objects lie around us due to what we’e been told they are called previously, say at school or by our parents. However, this implies we can only know and grasp concepts which fit with our preexisting truths or “knowledge” ( Coherent Truth ). The problem should be becoming clear – how is this knowledge reliable? If I base my knowledge off of what I’ve been taught how do I know what I was taught wasn’t wrong? It needed only to coincide with the teachers’ prior knowledge in order to seem appropriate to teach to me. All over the world, people are raised in different conditions and with different values and different learning processes. Take my painting, for example. I may tell you it is unfinished, but I may be lying because I want it to appear this way. Your social experience and knowledge of paintings and my painting history will have to be used in order to determine whether I am telling the truth or not. This truth validates the knowledge I’ve given you, letting you “know” it as you have evidence for it. In the end, each of you will form a different opinion on whether I tell the truth and thus gain different knowledge.

What I’ve proven is that none of us know things in the same way – knowledge is not a shared in its exact form between individuals – and thus there is no boundary to knowledge. Since we rely on each other’s words, our shared knowledge of their meaning and whether they are telling the truth, there can be infinite interpretations of things we see firsthand and things we are told. It even extends to the imagination. I may know in my mind what something is, but you can’t reliably know if it is the case if I tell you, or exactly imagine and know what describe : there are too many factors of uncertainty.

That painting is my most recent IB artwork, (spoilers, it is actually unfinished!) and I decided to use it since it ties well into opinion and knowledge – visual stimuli always causes great debate and is easy proof that we all see differently, and thus can never know the same things in the same way.

To conclude, if we can’t know things in the same way – our thoughts and concepts are always subjective and influenced – then there is no baseline knowledge and thus no boundary to the interpreted knowledge. We have no way of truly identifying the nature of something in an objective way, thus even the meaning of knowledge itself is speculation. We aren’t limited to what is and isn’t, because we cannot agree on a foundation of knowledge.

Ivan Sproats.

Knowledge is generally classified as what you learn and understand, but also what is true or scientifically proven. Your knowledge can come from numerous places such as friends, family, school or even personal experiences that have impacted you and that you have learned valuable lessons from; these experiences can be positive or negative. But does that mean that all knowledge has to be proven in order for it to be true or reliable? The picture I have chosen to answer this question and reflect upon the discussion is from a castle I have visited last summer at home, in Romania. This relates to history which is an area of knowledge that studies the past; history may contain certain truths, but cannot be 100% proven as we have not lived in the times of the events to have an authentic experience. However, the truth of history is established by reconstructing small events and placing those facts together in order to form truth or something very close to it.

In most cases such as what you learn in school for example an experiment in chemistry will require a stable and precise outcome to what has already been proven by scientists. But what about your personal experiences? The way you behave or speak to an individual can have positive or negative outcomes depending on that individuals perspective on your interaction. For example if during an argument with your parents you choose to raise your voice and disregard their boundaries or views on the subject that is being discussed you may risk getting grounded or having your phone taken off of you. Although this isn’t necessarily proven if it happens you now know that you need to be aware how you treat and behave around others, therefore it counts as knowledge because you have experienced it and you know the outcomes which in most cases are true.

Knowledge also comes from within and this can be things you learn on your own such as the example I gave above. People can also do this by having hobbies that they do often such as painting which is a process that you keep learning from regardless of what you have been taught or how much experience you had previously and in my opinion you can make no mistakes with art its just a matter of perspective and belief; science on the other hand is pretty much exact.

Therefore anything you believe is true due to you experiencing it is ultimately true. It might not be true to others as they have different life experiences that might not prove if the subject is true or not, but that doesn’t make it invalid and in some cases it doesn’t have to be proven for it to be true.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, the noun knowledge means: information, awareness or understanding that has been obtained through a means of study or personal experience. 

The object stimulus of this photograph displays the idea that knowledge can reside within an abstract photograph. For example, geographers can acquire data about the climates of Earth through the distance of tree rings. The utilisation of this data is a useful tool to accumulate knowledge of the current condition of Earth and its predicted path or any anomalies present. Given this, knowledge is recognised as the pinnacle aspect of human society and without it, the world would be full of uncertainties. It is tested, analysed and criticised to the point where it is adamant that it is true, however, that is until new evidence is considered and the cycle continues. 

Photography has been utilised since the early 18th century as a medium for recording historical events, data but also, self-expression within particular time periods. This has led to an abundant amount of acute information that has provided an immense amount of evidence for many years afterwards. For example, evidential footage is available from past events that would not be repeated in today’s society, such as the reign of England’s sovereign Queen Elizabeth II. We are able to get a visual insight into the parades of devoted royalists who gathered for the coronation of her majesty Elizabeth, which arguably captures the current stance of behaviours in society far better then a written document would. 

Previously I used this image as a final piece for my photography coursework, where I learned to theoretically analyse and evaluate my work. I chose this stimulus figure to guide this passage because it highlights the Autumn equinox, marking the rebirth of the Autumn season. Thus, this photograph is a reminder of the empirical knowledge I have acquired through my experience during this season.

One branch of the theory of truth is Empirical knowledge, information that is derived from the faculties of our senses – sight, sound, taste, smell and touch, in which humans and animals experience these stimuli from outside the body. In regards to when I took this photograph, I can recall the autumnal breeze whispering golden aromas and the crisped leaves skittering across the ground. Hence, my suggestion is that knowledge does not have to be derived from material data, but also through personal experiences, extensive research and theoretical debates. 

How can we distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?

One of the most fascinating facets in our diverse and complex world, is the differences in how our brains acquire and value information through different processes. For each and every individual in the entire populace, the defining features for Knowledge, belief and opinion are all intertwined with one another. 

In terms of knowledge, the distinctive feature would be how it is acquired through evidence and experience. It is facts, history and proven information that the majority of people agree with and rely on being true. Whereas, belief tends to be more of a personal, cultural and/or a religious aspect that is believed to be true on a wider spectrum than opinion. It is practically the unknown, it is different in every aspect of life with little evidence to support it. An opinion can belong to a singular individual and is non-subjective. It is a viewpoint that an individual sees to be true while others may not agree.  

In certain areas of the world, the way of life is highly influenced by the religious practices in their culture. Take the Vatican city for an example, it has created its own laws for its citizens to follow and it is an area that is highly devoted towards chistianity. In general, people assess their beliefs to be true and are quite reluctant to alter them. This is relatively similar to knowledge where people hold on to what they know to be true and readjusting what they know would be uncomfortable and perhaps distressing.

This image represents a place that is central to many peoples beliefs and faith; to which they will shape their lives around. I took this image while I was visiting a cemetery at St.Brelades and wanted to catch the beautiful scenery. I have realised that this image raises questions in my essay. Does a belief towards religion take a position of greater importance just because it’s central to faith? I would suggest not, because to acquire beliefs in the first place, this would have had to have been shaped from the foundation of a person’s upbringing and their culture, because both of these factors affect how someone contemplates their ideas. Given this, we can only have a belief once we have obtained a means of knowledge from a source which must be of value first.

Religion is a useful tool that can be used within a society in order to keep a civilization in balance. The incentive of the afterlife and the moral of a saint is a reliable way to ensure the behavior of individuals. This is an example of a pragmatic truth as it is an efficient belief that is widely accepted and followed within a community. 

My object for this blog post is this piece of art I saw in a museum in London. It is a bunch of TVs/radios stacked to make a tower that produces static noise.

Anyway my answer to this question is yes, but it could also be no. I believe all knowledge is useful, but depending on context some is more useful than others. By this I mean for example your plane crashes in some jungle in the middle of nowhere, you’re not going to need to know about some radios stacked on top of each other, or how to make a blog post for your theory of knowledge class, you’re going to want to know how to make a fire and other kinds of survival techniques. This means that depending on the context of your life some information is more useful and therefore more important than others.

But if there is a choice more information is always better even in a situation that doesn’t suit it. Going back to my example about the plane crash if you have survival skills and also how to write a blog post, the skills that you know about technology might help you after the initial crash. If you survive long enough you might be able to use these skills to somehow find a way to communicate with the outside world to hopefully get rescued.

In conclusion, it’s best to accumulate as much knowedge as you can even if it seems futile and silly, you don’t know when you’ll need it. But I agree with the statement that some knowledge is more important than others. this does not mean only try and find the knowledge that suits you or that you think is useful, but try to get a varied and diverse intake to be able to overcome and thrive from whatever is thrown at you. Knowledge is power after all.