Theory of Knowledge

Title 2: “We know with confidence only when we know little; with knowledge doubt

increases” (adapted from JW von Goethe). Discuss this statement with reference to

two areas of knowledge.

May 2018

Word Count: 1600

 “Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.” The

observation by the French writer, Voltaire, successfully encapsulates the essence of

this essay. The undeniable truth behind the generation of knowledge is the

persistence of uncertainty; no knowledge can be generated without a certain quantity

of doubt. However, doubt, for humans, is a discomfiting condition. At the outset,

knowledge may be defined as “justified true belief”. Confidence, or certainty on the

other hand is an invented state, and humans can rarely achieve it, as a certain

amount of doubt always persists. This observation is similar to the quote by the

German philosopher, Goethe, who says that confidence, or complete certainty can

be achieved with limited knowledge, as knowledge becomes increasingly

comprehensive it would only lead to one being doubtful and uncertain of the

knowledge that has been previously generated. Although Goethe’s statement

appears to celebrate the existence of certainty over doubt, the indisputable fact

remains that humans have evolved with an innate quality of doubt, which leads them

to view the world subjectively, or in a way that is dependent upon their minds for

existence in order to gain confidence about the world (King). This creates

opportunities, possibilities, and freedom to generate knowledge (King). Therefore, it

can be said that all knowledge is generated to decrease doubt and increase

certainty. Thus, the question arises, is the purpose of knowledge: to gain meaning

and confidence or to be aware of the subjective realities of the world?

To begin with, Religious Knowledge System, as an AOK, is a fitting example

where knowledge has been generated to answer the questions of meaning, origin,

and purpose that trouble all human beings. The foremost WOK associated with

religion is faith. RKS as an AOK is heavily reliant on hypothesizing the answers to

the questions concerning topics such as origin and purpose of life, ideal moral and

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social conduct, metaphysical deities, and creation of the universe. The religion that

we are familiar with today is an amalgamation of seven dimensions, or features-

ritual, mythological, doctrinal, ethical, social, experimental, and material (Nicholas

and Henly 190). There is no single religion, but various interpretations of religious

texts; and there is no singular answer to the question that religion answers

(Lagemaat 536). Therefore, the sub KQ is, how does faith in religion increase

confidence in knowledge?

The idea of God is used to draw meaning behind the unknown. Theists or

pantheists would view the world with goggles of divine power that could increase

their certainty about the cause of an event that has a very low possibility of

occurring. A miracle can be defined as an extraordinary event, which is bought about

by God’s intervention in the natural order of things (Lagemaat 517). For example,

Lightning and thunder have been a matter of debate for over 2500 years.

Throughout the history of ancient Greece, thunder and lightning have been explained

with reference to Zeus, who used violence to get his way, or terrorize humans. As

the God of the sky, Zeus had the power to hurl lightning bolts as his weapon of

choice. Lightning is quite powerful and deadly, thus when lightning struck it was said

to be a bold sign of Zeus’s wrath (Hartston). Lightning was thought to be

‘miraculous’. In the late nineteenth century, it was found that photographic plates

kept in total darkness became exposed (Nicholas and Henly 202). At that time, the

phenomenon was inexplicable and was termed ‘miraculous’. At that time, the answer

to the unknown was God, to the opponents of miracles this is termed as ‘God of the

gaps’ approach (Nicholas and Henly 202). When science progressed and Benjamin

Franklin explained the process of lightning and thunder (Semigran), God seemed to

have stopped being the reason behind lightning. Similarly, the photographic plates

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opened the gates to a whole new field of radioactivity (Nicholas and Henly 202).

Throughout recorded history God has been proposed as an explanation for

everything that is otherwise in inexplicable. Hence in RKS knowledge is generated to

quench the doubt that arises in any field. God will remain the answer to many such

inexplicable situations till we learn to explain more and more phenomena through

Sciences, and generating meaning. Thus, to respond to my sub KQ, faith as a WOK

singularly quells doubts, thereby increasing confidence and acceptance to the

prevalent knowledge, thwarts pursuance of any new quest. Therefore, faith along

with the emotion, here one of confidence and contentment, is central to knowledge

production in the RKS.

On the other hand, Natural Sciences provide the understanding that

generation of knowledge to gain meaning does not necessarily lead to the

assumption of confidence. NS is the study of the physical world through scientific

observations and experiments. The main WOK associated with Science is reason.

This implies that, unlike religion, NS is completely based upon empirical evidence

and data. NS relies on the scientific method to generate new knowledge based upon

experiment, hypothesis, law, measurement, observation, repeatability, and theory

(Lagemaat 347).

Formation of knowledge in NS is extensively dependent upon the formation of

theories with the aid of inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning in science moves

from specific to general example, and plays a central role in the scientist’s thinking.

Claudius Ptolemy, developed a geocentric model of the universe, where the Earth

was in the center of things and the sun, the moon, and the planets were going

around it (Lagemaat 349). His model started to become increasingly complicated in

order to accommodate the new and improved observations made by astronomers.

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Finally, this lead to the falsification of the geocentric model and led to Nicolaus

Copernicus to suggest a model with the sun in the center of the Solar System and

therefore, the geocentric model theory was discarded (Lagemaat 349). Many years

ago, Aristotle was the main purveyor of the theory of spontaneous regeneration. His

theory was based on the fact that maggots seemed to appear out of thin air on dead

animal carcass. Louis Pasture was able to prove that maggots, in fact, did not

generate spontaneously, as they did not appear on meat kept in the sealed

container. The scope for generating new knowledge only to assume meaning in

natural sciences is limited. As knowledge in science is generated based upon facts

and empirical data. However, the history of natural sciences is filled with examples of

falsification of theories that lead to the generation of new knowledge and so, in

natural sciences when there is an increase in knowledge there is a decrease in

confidence, and an increase in doubt, and hence in complete concurrence with

Goethe's observation.

However, the scope of doubt with the generation of knowledge does not

always depend on falsification of previously generated knowledge which raises

another question, is all knowledge that is generated provisional; therefore, the

falsification of an idea or a theory invite doubt and thus decrease confidence?

In the area of NS, newer theories or ideas need not always falsify the ones that were

previously generated- advocated by Karl Popper’s scientific method of conjectures

and refutations (Lagemaat 358). The lack of knowledge in a discipline does not

disprove the knowledge generated, but it adds to that knowledge. For example,

Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier, was working on an intriguing question of astronomy:

Mercury’s orbit. Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation should have easily explained

the discrepancy, yet Verrier’s predictions of the orbit were off (Andrews). After many

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efforts Verrier came up with the hypothesis of the existence of a new planet ‘Vulcan’,

which had not been seen before due to the glare of the sun. A similar situation with

the planet Uranus, had to the discovery of Neptune, yet no one could attest to the

spotting of Vulcan (Andrews). This was finally resolved when Albert Einstein

explained his Theory of General Relativism, which illustrated that the gravity of the

sun was powerful enough to bend space and time (Lagemaat 362). Thus, as the

AOK of NS increase in knowledge would not invite doubt, and hence would not

decrease the confidence.

When talking about religion it is imperative to mention the variety of religions

that exist in the world and many adherents. Religions at face value clearly contradict

one another. Here are many different and differing views on metaphysical concepts

such as death, afterlife and the nature of God itself (Lagemaat 531). In Hinduism

worships three Beings of ultimate power through infinite representations of Gods and

Goddesses- creators of the universe (Adamson). Islam believes in one supreme

Lord Allah, who is superior to and transcends humanity. Allah is the creator of the

universe, source of all good and evil, and everything that happens is Allah’s will

(Adamson). Buddhists, however, do not worship any God. They follow the teachings

of Gautama Buddha, who had attained spiritual environment and with it the freedom

from continuous cycle of life (Adamson). Thus, sub KQs arise, can a religion be

chosen to be more accurate over others? How can the claims made by a religion be

proven? Knowledge in religion cannot be falsified and thus it is not provisional. When

provided with the knowledge of many religions it would increase the doubt within the

adherent and decrease the confidence in one religion.

Generations of knowledge is like building a house of cards, addition of

removal of any card, where card symbolize knowledge, shakes the rest of the cards

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above and thus the foundation of that house, which is akin to the confidence. The

falsification of previously generated knowledge would always decrease confidence.

As humans, we are always curious, and are eager to know more and new knowledge

is always generated due to the innate curiosity of humans. When knowledge is

falsified, or proven wrong it always results in the curiosity rather than doubt, or

uncertainty about all the knowledge that has been generated. Thus, we would know

with certainty when we know little, and thus with knowledge curiosity would increase.

Works Cited

Adamson , Marilyn. “Connecting with the Divine.” everystudent,

www.everystudent.com/features/connecting.html. Accessed on 25 Oct 2017

Alchin Nicholas, and Carolyn P. Henly. Theory of Knowledge: for the IB Diploma.

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Andrews, Evan. “Vulcan: The Famous Planet That Never Existed.” history, A&E

Television Networks, 21 Oct. 2016, www.history.com/news/vulcan-the-famous-

planet-that-never-existed. Accessed on 24 Oct 2017.

Dombrowski, Eileen, et al. IB Theory of Knowledge: for the IB Diploma. Glasgow,

Oxford University Press, 2013.

Hartston, William. “Weather: Flashy Theories of Ancient Greeks.” independent,

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2017.

King, Georgia Frances. “A Neuroscientist Explains Why We Can't See the World

Objectively-and Humanity Is Better for It.” qz, Quartz, 3 May 2017,

www.qz.com/973116/a-neuroscientist-explains-why-we-evolved-to-be-curious/.

Accessed on 18 Oct 2017.

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Semigran, Rachel. “The True Story Behind Ben Franklin's Lightning Experiment.”

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