Culture is the ideas, customs and the social behavior of particular people or a society. So how does knowledge relate to this? Knowledge’s relationship with culture is that you will have or earn specific knowledge when you enter a different culture. Different cultures contain different languages, religions, famous arts and monuments. Through culture, you gain a deeper understanding and further knowledge about a place by exploring what the people and different landscapes are like.

For example, the difference in knowledge gained in Jersey compared to Japan is greatly different. In Jersey, tradition does not seem to have such a big importance, considering how Jèrriais died out and is no longer spoken as a main language. In Japan, on the other hand, traditions are strongly long living. Jersey’s culture is now mixed Franco-British as a lot of Brits moved over here, there are also many Portuguese, and this means Jersey has a wide variety of mixed cultures living on the island. Despite Japan being slightly westernized over the years, they still like to preserve their rich cultural heritage. This means knowledge of culture can change over time, think about travelling back to Jersey 1000 years ago, it would be completely different, it wouldn’t even be its own island!

Japan has aimed to keep this heritage by practicing tea ceremony, wearing kimono, and teaching the young about traditional arts and crafts from an early age. Peace, harmony, and politeness is very important to Japan. Although in Jersey you may have been taught your pleases and thank yous growing up, Japan takes a whole different toll on manners. Japanese people tend to praise others for showing modesty and humility, so bowing to show respect is highly praised; the longer the bow the more respect given.

This shows that the relationship between knowledge and culture is that you depend on cultures for knowledge about a certain place. If you went to Japan for example, it would be useful to know that Japanese people are respectful and quiet when it comes to public places and public transport. This way you can use the knowledge you’ve researched and be able to respect the place you are visiting due to the prior knowledge you’ve already learned, and learn more about their culture when you get there.

I think we can distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion by using scientific methods in order to establish evidence and find out what’s a fact. The definition of fact is “a thing that is known or proved to be true.” and in order to prove its truthfulness objective evidence is needed, which can be obtained through science. For example, it has been acknowledged that the sky is blue, that is a fact. We know this is a fact because it has been scientifically proven blue light is scattered in all directions of the Earth’s atmosphere and is scattered more than any other colour light as it travels in shorter, smaller waves. However, blue-purple colour blind people see the sky as purple. To them, this may be considered a fact, but it is rather an opinion. What makes this an opinion is that the statement “the sky is purple” is true to them, because that’s what they see and therefore think , but it has not been scientifically proven. On the contrary, it has been scientifically proven that this person is colour blind, which is a fact, so although they may think the sky is purple, there is no proof, as their “proof” relies on the fact they’re colour blind and get blue and purple mixed up.

On the other hand, belief is not based on what you know or think, it is purely based on what you have faith in. It may be an acceptance that something is true, however, there is no evidence or proof confirming this which leaves it to be a belief rather than knowledge. For example, some may believe heaven is above us or in the sky, hence the phrase “they’re looking down on us” when referring to a passed love one. Nonetheless, there is no evidence that heaven is above us, as we cannot see it or prove it to be true using science; we are completely unaware of what happens to us when we die. Because there is no evidence it cannot be knowledge, but it isn’t opinion because it’s not something you think and that is specifically your take on something, it is belief as you have faith in it rather than assuming it is a straight fact.