Natalie Rose Sullivan 13SAW                                                                                                                                                 T.O.K. Final                                                                                                                      Word count: 1,585

TOK Essay

“The knowledge that we value the most is the knowledge for which we can provide the strongest justification.” To what extent would you agree with this claim?

 

When asked what the knowledge you value the most is, some might say the knowledge learned has a strong justification, and/or proof. While others may state that, their own inner knowledge and personal beliefs, and what you believe to be ‘right’, is the knowledge that they find the most valuable. This might mean that people will not solely rely on knowledge provided in something like a textbook or by a person regarded an ‘intellectual’. In most cases, people will probably use whatever knowledge that they have previously learned and use it as a base or support of a new way or theory that they may come up with.

This essay will focus on two ways of knowing in particular that can influence the knowledge we have and believe to be most valuable; reason, thinking about things that make sense and are proven, and emotion, acting on things or believing in things that are mostly spur of the moment and based mostly on how you are feeling at the time. In areas of knowing there is evidence of both of these ways influencing value, though this differs from subject to subject.

The most valuable knowledge in Science, some might say is when we look for something more than what has already been found. Others may believe that the knowledge that has been taught to us via textbooks and teachers, and so is thought to be proven is the most valuable.  

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When in science, experiments are conducted to either prove that someone else’s theory is correct, or to see whether or not your own theory, which fundamentally has been based on another person’s theory, is correct or makes sense. Many of the great scientists, for example Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, the theory finally emerged by him coming up with a new way of thinking, while still having some previous knowledge of the subject. Einstein, like many scientists, looked at the world in a different way, and tried to find solutions to how things work in our world. ...

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