That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. (Christopher Hitchens). Do you agree?
“That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” (Christopher Hitchens). Do you agree? The idiom, “seeing is believing” has been inspiring the human race of how powerful evidence is in shaping our beliefs. Therefore, it is a norm in the human culture that any information must embody explicit evidence before it can only be said as true. The same conception was proposed by Christopher Hitchens as he quoted, “that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence”. I personally believe that this statement is a false analogy and is rhetorical as it is persuasive in demanding people to perceive in a one-way manner. Knowledge covers various fields and grounds, with each ground constitute different measures in order to validate information as a source of knowledge. In other words, the need of evidence may also differ between areas of knowledge. Hence, to justify my assumption on the statement quoted by Christopher Hitchens, thoughts with consideration of counter-arguments are assembled to address the relevance of evidence in natural science and religion. Living in the millennium century has enabled us to witness numerous scientific discoveries have been made by scientists. From one of the biggest breakthrough in chemistry through the uncovering of the atomic theory by John Dalton to the controversial theory of
That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. (Christopher Hitchens). Do you agree?
“That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” (C. Hitchens) K.International School Tokyo TOK Essay “That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” (Christopher Hitchens). Do you agree? Samkit Shah DP Candidate No.: 002120-028 Supervisor: Mark Cowe Date of Submission: Word Count: 1594 ________________ Should statements that are asserted without evidence, be dismissed without evidence? Throughout my school life, I have been taught that evidence is very important. Through studying Science extensively, I have come to realize, that this is in fact true: evidence provides support for a theory and makes it very hard to refute. Even the most absurd claims, if backed by evidence, forces others to consider these claims. So for me the notion of a claim without evidence seems absurd and invalid. However upon studying Einstein’s theory of relativity, I began to doubt this notion. Furthermore through the theory of knowledge course, I have learned to think more deeply about the subjects I have encountered, for instance I learned to look at the history/development of various disciplines in science, and hence have come to realize that the above statement is not true. The objective of asserting statements is to spread knowledge, which Plato defined this knowledge as justified true
Reason and emotion
0."There can be no knowledge without emotion... until we have felt the force of the knowledge it is not ours"(adapted from Arnold Bennett. Discuss this vision of the relationship between knowledge and emotion. Theory of Knowledge Natalie Sullivan Candidate number 0650-035 Word Count-1.595 St.Dominics International School May 2009 Some believe that emotions are what provides us with a reason to live. Arnold Bennett a famous novelist who established an important link between English literature and realism states, "There can be no knowledge without emotion... until we have felt the force of the knowledge it is not ours". However the relationship between knowledge and emotion is more complicated. The importance of emotional input varies from subject to subject, depending on the level of personal intervention required. This argument will be evaluated using the following areas of knowledge; biology, History and Art. By analysing certain aspects of these areas of knowledge and providing examples the significance of emotional contribution will be evaluated. Some may argue that in biology the importance of having a stronger emotional association with the information might be considered helpful. Using reasoning can only take you so far in understanding information; sometimes it can help and strengthen if there is an emotional input. When you learn something new you make
Reason And Emotion
Is emotion a barrier to reason or is it reasons' companion on the path of knowledge? Reason and emotion are, most of the time, two conflicting forces. Emotion itself sometimes acts as a barrier to reason, and can even manipulate your rational thought processes. Reason as a way of knowing is usually independent of emotion, and tends to work better that way: "The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control their emotions by the application of reason"1. However, it is also apparent that these two forces can complement each other in becoming the justification behind the moral ethical system. Knowledge is the psychological result of facts, information and skills acquired through a variety of different ways of knowing. In order to answer the topic question, one must assess different areas of knowledge to see how these two areas of knowing work in relation to each other. In the case of mathematics, when these two ways of knowing are compared, it is blatant that reasoning serves the most prominent role, and emotion seems to not play any role at all. For example, when one is trying to deduct or prove a statement, one goes about using sequential and logical steps to reach the final consensus. However, emotion can in fact have an effect on this rational process and even change the outcome. Taking for example two students that possess equal intellectual capacity, and have
Are reason and emotion equally necessary in justifying moral decisions?
Are reason and emotion equally necessary in justifying moral decisions? Decisions have always been tough issues to tackle. Deciding what one wants to order from a menu, what kind of candy to choose, whose heart to break and whether or not war is wrong are all complex decisions in their own right. However, this essay focuses upon the latter decisions - moral decisions. How does one know whether reason or emotion is the compass from which to follow to make the right decisions? To examine this, an analysis of the role of reason and emotion is necessary. However, the issue often arises as to what, even with reason and emotion, is a right decision composed of. Kant and Hume have independent views on the role of emotion and reason in making moral decisions and their opinions can, and are, extrapolated into science, politics and eventually into our own human perceptions. Instead of intertwining the two, the study of ethics has isolated reason from emotion which is ironic as both are necessary in making a solid moral decision. Reason has typically been interchangeable with logic in moral decisions. Reason is characterized by being the systematic comparisons of differing views and weighing out their consequences in relation to the moral dilemma at hand. When, for example, I was deciding which high school to attend in grade 9, a clear logical approach was necessary. I evaluated the
Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth (Pablo Picasso). Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form.
International baccalaureate THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE “Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso). Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form. Art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. Consequently, relating the truth in an artwork depends on how aesthetically an author wants to show his work. Truth is something that has conformity with fact or reality. “An author corresponds his artwork through literary imagination, as a way of getting his message across to the audience. Literary imagination is an aesthetic object offered by a writer to a lover of books.” Samuel butler said ‘Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.’ A literary work has some subjectivity in it so my knowledge issues are “Can subjective communication of thoughts hide the truth of an art? Or truth is such a thing that cannot be fully revealed through subjective medium.” Emotions, reasoning and language play a major role in spreading truth through a literary work so with regard to my knowledge issues I am taking emotion, reasoning and language as my ways of knowing and exploring the knowledge issues in the area of knowledge art. With literature, at times
Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the TOK diagram
"Josip Broz - Tito" High School International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Skopje, Macedonia TOK Essay Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the TOK diagram Candidate Name: Number of words : Alkan Nuredinovski 1268 Candidate number: D000897-009 Faith is a common word which refers to something inner in the soul of people. Very often, in a case of difficulties or unresolved situations when we aren't able to do anything, only thing which existing in our minds, in these moments, is a faith. We think that even our human life is not imaginable without the faith. Actually, faith is crucial element of hope. As we know hope give us energy needed to endure many things. For examples, in prevailing of any kind of health problems, especially when medicine is not able to solve all aspects of recovery, we needed to have faith that everything will be fine. Many scientists agree that hope or faith is really another name for something that is associated with the God, and therefore many great hopes lay in Him. Consequently faith and hope are base for each religion. Not accidentally religions in their teaching are dealing with these issues so frequently. Even they developed particular areas of preaching that
Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram
TOK Essay Title Number 8: Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram. Using faith as a method for gaining knowledge was always questionable and unconvincing. As defined in the bible (English standard version 2001), Faith, a vital aspect in this area is “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” However, faith is an assured credence that is not dependent upon substantial testimony or rational data. My intention is to exhibit that faith is a justifiable method of gaining knowledge in Religion but has confines and precincts in the more corroboration based Natural Science. Religion is a divine sphere of influence that depends largely upon the axioms consequential to faith. This faith can be derived via absolute belief in an authority (like a prophet) or through a sacred anxiety, rather than evidence or rational grounds. Of late, people have started relying largely upon matters that are supported by the existence of proof or a reasonable explanation to verify its validity and assurance. Faith is now a ‘fallible’ suggestion as people plainly do not regard it to be a fundamental method of gaining knowledge with the lack of any supporting evidence. This is what makes faith a contentious theme in the first place. On the other hand, there
Evaluate the role of intuition in different areas of knowledge
Evaluate the role of intuition in different areas of knowledge Intuition is the hunch to turn left at a crossroads when you're lost or the gut feeling that you should choose the third queue in the supermarket because you "feel" that it's the best one. There are those who argue that intuition is in fact not a feeling and but a reasonable and logical choice that your subconscious makes for you. For example when a fireman is inside a burning building and has two seconds to decide if he should turn right or left. He thinks that it's his intuition telling him to go left when it could be argued that his subconscious has made a logical calculation of his surroundings and decided that it's safest to go left. It could also be argued that intuition is an instinct. If attacked by a bear, your intuition and instinct become the same; both telling you to get away as soon as possible. This is also a decision and action based on reason. Reason tells you that if you that the bear is bigger, more lethal than you and possibly dangerous and so logically it would be better if you left. But then again the fear that you experience when seeing a bear is an emotion and fear usually makes you want to get away. So is intuition based on reason or emotion? Intuition is used in the different areas of knowledge. For example mathematics is an area of knowledge where logic and reason are frequently
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing.
Theory Of Knowledge Topic 3: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing. Name:Ayush Rungta Vishwashanti Gurukul IBDP session: 2009 Candidate Session Number: 002767-031 Candidate Code: csv758 Word Count: 1274 Topic 3: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing. "Reason is a way of thinking characterized by logic. It is the ability to think, understand and draw conclusions. It is often contrasted with emotionalism, which is thinking driven by desire, passion, or prejudice."[1] Reasoning is very important in our daily life. Every time we do something there is a reason behind it. Reasoning is a way of knowing, which will bring about a logical conclusion to what we are doing. Whether what we are doing is right or wrong. For example: A casual smoker can reason whether smoking is good for him or not by reasoning out. As he knows that smoking will affect his health and he will ruin his life. There is no gain in smoking but he is wasting his time and money which is not worth it. He is risking his life for few minutes of pleasure. So he can clearly see that what he is doing is wrong. Reason gives you more confidence to work ahead and achieve your goal. When ever you reason, you have expectation which keeps a fire aflame. For example when a businessman is working in an organization he is working to make maximum profit. That is