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Prüfungsvorbereitung­ Hochschule

TOK Essay - Knowledge and confidence

1.567 / ~3 sternsternsternsternstern_0.2 Matthias N. . 2018
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TOK 11

TOK Essay

We know with confidence only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

Us humans rely on our ways of knowledge and ways of thinking to help us get through daily life and to do the simplest things. We all have distinctive qualities which define us but what we all have in common is the capability to use our knowledge to the best of our abilities.

Knowledge and confidence are two of our most important qualities which one can poses. These two qualities complement each other. The reason for that is because knowledge is the product. It is what is formed inside of our brains and expressed through our voice. Confidence comes from our method of delivery.

Once you know something, you’d want to deliver it, therefore resulting in confidence coming out through your voice.

I have had personal experiences regarding this topic. I am very certain that we all have. In my case, it had to do when I was presenting a presentation about the use of steroids in athletes a while ago. An example of a famous athlete that used steroids was Asafa Powell who was a very talented sprinter which was the world’s fastest man at one point.

Due to his misconduct and misbehavior, he used steroids, cheated, and won awards without anyone knowing, breaking many ethical boundaries. He was caught and stopped running. Because I did not do enough research and had limited knowledge on the overall topic, I was very biased and believed there was only one correct answer and that runners should of course not use steroids to enhance performance because it is unfair.

Because that was the extent that my knowledge went to, I did not consider whether physically disabled athletes could be allowed to use them or even if everyone used them, would it still be fair? The class asked me many questions but due to my lack of knowledge my confidence kicked in and I believed that my reasoning was correct and no other options or situations they gave me would work.

This turns out to be a perfect real- life example or situation as I have personal experience relation to the topic.

As for my thesis, which is a short answer to the title, I do believe that the title is accurate and that knowing little knowledge does make the knowledge that we already have, allow us to deliver it with confidence. I also am in agreement with the second half of the statement that when we know a lot, we doubt more, and question more.

The claim that is question is making is very clear. The knowledge question is split into two. The first knowledge claim is that when we know something of like knowledge or understanding, we elaborate our knowledge with confidence. And when we know something with a lot of knowledge and have looked at the topic or subject with great depth, then we tend to doubt ourselves because we know so much that there are too many perspectives to look at and questions to answer.

It all comes down to the psychological side of things. When you don’t know much, we speak with confidence because the one being spoken to, usually believes the speaker as they sound convincing and doesn’t ask questions.

An excellent example of the claim which is given at the top of this essay is what Bertrand Russell says. “…fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” Many people say these types of things which is the truth because their sayings gain prominence because all we need is determination and confidence to break the deadlock, however, knowledgeable people are not ready to take that required risk because their doubt increases.

When you know little, all of your opinions and perceptions are limited which is why people have much more confidence whilst knowing less. It leaves you to believe that there is only one way to look at or define a certain something.

I will be looking at how two areas of knowledge are affected by this claim. The first area of knowledge is history and the second area of knowledge is religious knowledge systems. The reason for history is because it is simply inconceivable to try to understand the present without reference to the events that have brought us here.

Just as we look back on our own personal pasts in order to take stock of where we are, so society needs to study its collective past in order to understand its present state. History also provides several ways of knowing like emotion, memory and imagination. This is very similar with religious knowledge systems as many are based upon historical events.

As for history, one’s perspective plays a large role on the facts and figures which are presented from that topic. History has such a wide range of topics which allows many people to express different opinions and thoughts on such a topic. Now, for these “people” I would like to look into the role of historians.

Historians are “experts of history, especially that of a particular period, geographical region, or social phenomenon.” Historians not only do they know a lot about the topic they study in, but they also know many other things in relation to a certain topic whether it is direct or indirect information.

However, historians are questioned often because of how much they know. They have a large amount of knowledge but due to the fact that they have so much information, more people cause doubts because there are an immense number of factors. History is generally passed down from generation to generation which means the information that is transferred has a sense of emotion and imagination to it.

However, when one knows much about their subject, doubt increases. If someone does not believe about some historical facts, this would cause him to search information to find the truth. The person may not believe about the fact as he did not see the event by himself.  History is the story about the past, the person could not move the time backwards.

Therefore, the person can only start searching for the information through the historical books, journals, and other related materials to get a better understanding about the event and to prove that the event really happened. And this eventually leads the person to gain extra information than he needed.

There are many different religious groups out there which present many different perspectives and opinions on how the world came to creation, who was Jesus or their own god like figure, and the most effective way to eternal salvation. There is an ongoing subject which has to do with the belief in religion in relation to science.

Does knowing more knowledge lead to believing less in religion? Many people claim that religious belief led to people will lower intelligence and less knowledge. There have been claims that “more intelligent” people would not want to associate themselves with any religious system.

Religion was, and still is a way that some people would rather connect themselves with rather than knowledge. According to the statement then, religious people would represent the first part (“we know with confidence only when we know little) and the non -religious people would represent the second part (with knowledge, doubt increases).

The non- believers have increasing doubts because they do not know much about any religious knowledge system as they do not associate themselves with a certain faith. They need to find other ways to explore the systems of religion.

We have seen that how doubt works as the key to knowledge in History and the religious knowledge systems. Sometimes having doubt does help in order to gaining knowledge and information. Doubt is very important to bring the knowledge closer and closer to the truth. However, we must not doubt too much in both History and other subjects.

We might ignore the excessive doubt that we have and finally no new knowledge will be discovered. Therefore, we must have an equal level between doubts and confidence before accepting and believing the truth. Hence, doubt can be considered as the 'main' key in gaining knowledge because it allows us to explore and delve into deeper areas of knowledge.





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