The following picture of la Rocco Tower on St Ouen’s Bay provides a stimulus as is one of my most cherished locations in Jersey; I have chosen this photograph to illustrate the empirical view (verifiable by observation), acquired during my childhood as to my passion for the sea/ocean and as such, has fuelled my desire to be near the sea for a means of spiritual contentment.

Firstly, experience is a longitudinal process where there is a need for practical application and exposure to new information so we challenge the knowledge we receive to formulate a thorough understanding. Although experience is unique to a singular person, it cannot apply to all forms of experience; as a group of persons can only claim to have the same experiences on a particular matter. For example, St. Ouen is where many individuals go to, and spontaneously accumulate knowledge but they can only share this experience subjectively. 

Whereas, our knowledge which is accumulated through personal experience and interpretation is what improves our awareness, and challenges our understanding of a given matter thus, improving our confidence as not only repetition of practice, but also applying oneself to a matter. Given this, experiential knowledge is acquired through experience and priori knowledge is necessary to the individual before the experience has taken place. For example, my prior knowledge and perception of Jersey’s coastlines before experiencing St. Ouen was different compared to after a good few years of spending my childhood there. Thus, knowledge is transcended through time, but again, I think this process should be understood respectively as this depends on the inherent distinction between knowers of knowledge.

In conclusion, based on the aforementioned I believe that although experience and knowledge share some similarities respectively, as the Oxford definition for ‘wisdom’ states that it is the ability to execute sensible decisions while it encompasses the understanding and  experience one has acquired, emphasising the mutualistic relationship. However, they couldn’t be any more distinct from each other as we roam in a highly subjective environment where our thoughts and subconscious mind is what influences us to execute actions or pursue matters that permit us to acquire knowledge. So knowledge is highly unique to every being and so this acts as barriers for knowledge to be coherently expressed between us conscious beings because we all accumulate diverse knowledge in comparison to one another.

Most of our knowledge comes from personal experience. Events we go through, weather they are emotional or not are where we acquire most of our knowledge from. To be more exact personal experience helps all of us to understand knowledge better, on a deeper level. Personal experience allows us to store the knowledge and use it for situations that are personally relevant to us, therefore we apply the knowledge to future situations that are unique to us.

To further my point I will use the picture of me and my cousin above as an example. My older cousin and I are extremely close and I honestly consider her as my older sister; she has taught me many valuable lessons through my life and given me some of the best advice I could possibly ask for. I have shared many experiences with her that have provided me with knowledge which is linked to my points from above that knowledge and personal experiences are closely linked. Also as Albert Einstein said “…all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it”, meaning without experience there is ultimately no knowledge; so in order to makes sense and understand the knowledge we accumulate we must use it and apply it to every day life or the experiences that we have.

In my opinion personal experiences are the main sources that shape our knowledge and ultimately provide most the knowledge we currently have. This is mostly due to the fact that we gain knowledge from other people therefore surrounding ourselves with people that are important to us and that we can learn something from is most likely one of the most important things you can do in life. You gain knowledge from experiences that you have with friends, you gain knowledge from experiences that you have with family and also from negative experiences that you might have had with people. And this knowledge comes in all sorts of forms, it can be educational or it may be emotional knowledge on how to deal with certain things that may happen in your life. Therefore the relationship between knowledge and personal experiences is the one you make and create by experiencing all sorts of different situations that you can learn from.

At first glance, knowledge and experience look very similar to one another. By definition, knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience or education. Similarly, experience is defined as the knowledge or skill acquired by a period of practical experience of something. Although the two words are used in each other’s definitions and are seemingly very similar, a distinction can be made between knowledge and experience. Knowledge emphasizes theory and the obtainment of information and ideas. Experience, on the other hand, stresses practice, or the application of knowledge over a prolonged period of time, in order to reinforce understanding of subject matter or a certain task. While further knowledge on a subject or task can be gained through experience, experience cannot be obtained through instruction. Experience comes with time, exposure, and practice. It is based off of practical application rather than supposition. Knowledge, on the other hand, is founded upon the accumulation of information through either experience or education. It can be taught unlike experience. Therefore, here lies the greatest difference between the two. While knowledge is the sum of impressions based off of sensation, experience is the act of exercising or challenging knowledge in order to obtain sensation. So, you gain knowledge from personal experience. Personal experience enables you to internalize the knowledge, apply the knowledge for actual performance, and customize the knowledge for you. I gained knowledge and a personal experience by watching curious George because he taught me lots of valuable life skills and lessons because he is CURIOUS! As child, I watched curious George for a long time as I had nothing else to do and it was my favourite TV show I have fond memories of watching it and brings me heaps of nostalgia every time see it. Therefore this tv show brought me knowledge about not only myself but the world around from my personal experience.

Knowledge is continually growing and an unthinkable amount of knowledge has existed within an unthinkable length of time. This means some knowledge may never be knowable to particular knowers due to the nature of the knower and their perspective.  

For this exhibition, I have chosen a picture of my CAS journal which contains written reflections of past experiences that I had within the IB. From my perspective, my CAS journal is a good source of posteriori knowledge as it reminds me of how I felt during CAS activities. In addition, I may remember some information about the activities making this knowledge more reliable to me. This means that I could say I know how I felt and what happened due to the evidence in the journal and my memory. However, from someone else’s perspective, they may read the journal and have interpretations on how I felt and an understanding of what happened but this knowledge is unknowable to them. This is because of the limitations the journal has in providing the truth. For example, details may have been missed or hidden and the language may be misunderstood. Their perspective also means that these experiences aren’t personal to them, leaving gaps in their knowledge. The knowledge could also become completely unknowable as it could be lost within time. For example, it’s unlikely that the journal would be intact several years later, meaning the knowledge inside could be unknowable to the knowers of that time period.  

The CAS journal shows how subjectivity is an important factor in determining the acquisition of knowledge as it highlights how one knower may know something while another knower can’t know that same knowledge. However, can knowledge be objectively unknowable? For example, reality could be unknowable to everyone. This has caused immense debate especially in philosophy. It’s argued that senses (empirical knowledge) can be deceiving and therefore nobody can be certain of or know reality as most of the knowledge we gain about reality is affected by our senses. Additionally, we may never know if we’re hidden from one single true reality or if that reality exists in the first place. This can cause panic amongst knowers as they may start questioning their existence/truth. 

Overall, some things are unknowable to individuals but also to communities of knowers. This could be viewed positively and negatively depending on the knower’s perspective and could also cause knowledge issues and limitations.