Are some ways of knowing more likely than others to lead to truth?

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Phillip Jøhnk Juel Nielsen        TOK        Herlufsholm Skole

2IB        Essay        08-02-2010

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Tok Essay: Are some ways of knowing more likely than others to lead to truth?

        This is indeed a very interesting question, because in Theory of knowledge you have many ways of knowing, but all different from each other, and they all represent a different way of knowing and all have different accuracies at finding the truth. There are for example; emotion, reason, language, and sense perception. In middle class English the question is asking, “Which ways of knowing are more precise to find the truth than others?” My guess would be that places where you use reasoning would be the most precise, and yes this is without a doubt an assumption I have made.

        The reason I think “reason” is the most precise way of knowing to find the truth is because, you can relate “reason” to very precise and accurate subjects such as maths, chemistry, and physics where in general you are seeking one precise and accurate answer. The only exception would be in maths where you can find two answers when looking for the X intercepts of a coordinate graph in quadratic equations. To back up my assumption I have an example in maths, if you take a simple equation such as 2+2, it would not take too much thinking to realize the answer is four, but to prove the answer is four, you use reasoning. To show reasoning you could say for example, “Johnny has two apples, his mother gives Johnny two more apples, and therefore he now has four apples.” When you calculate the answer four, you have the only possible answer for the equation, and therefore you are a 100% precise in your way of knowing this. In physics, we mostly have devices to support our answer, devices which calculate the precise information we seek. For example we know for a known fact that gravity is 9.8 m/s, we used devices with the ability to calculate this precise number, and therefore we are leaving our trust to these computers to give us one precise answer. Even though there might be an uncertainty of 0.1 m/ in my view it is the most accurate of the way of knowing, even though Science and maths use other ways of knowing than just reason and logic.

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        The reason I think emotion is not the most precise way of knowing is because, one emotion, for example sadness, can be explained in so many different ways that it is impossible to have just one answer for what sadness is. Everyone can have a person opinion on what sadness is and how it is to be dealt with, and their answer is somewhat true, but not precise enough, whereas natural sciences have one correct answer and no other. In general, I am trying to prove that emotions can be explained in so many ways, that it is hard to ...

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