Neither Art nor Science can give us a complete knowledge of the world. Discuss.

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Skagerak International School IB2 2003/2004

Subject: Theory Of Knowledge

Teacher: Mr. Noakes

Student: Robin Dominik Havre

Neither Art nor Science can give us a complete knowledge of the world. Discuss.

The most formal and probably also most correct (in TOK sense) way to define knowledge is something like “something to regard as true beyond doubt”, or in other words something which is true. Personally, I believe that since the definition of knowledge says that what you know has to be true, it is incorrect to say that you know something. Who are we to claim what’s true and what’s not, when even the greatest of scientist and thinkers have claimed to know something which some hundred years later has been proved false? To simplify it, as Manuel in Fawlty Towers would have said; “I know nothing”.

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This discussion, I believe, is not specifically about art or science, but it is a discussion about knowledge in itself. In order to gain complete knowledge of the world, “knowing” must be possible. Thus I believe that the first question to be raised is, can we know anything? My answer to that would be probably not. There are two main requirements for knowledge, the first is that something which is universally true must exist, and the second requirement is that you find this universal truth. Those ‘requirements of knowledge’ leads us on to a very important sub-question, does truth ...

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