Knowledge, Truth and Belief Nature of Knowing Knowledge, Truth and Belief The Thinker (1879-89) by Auguste Rodin

Lesson Objectives Familiarize yourself with important TOK concepts – Knowing, Knowledge Claim, Ways of Knowing, Knowledge Issue Brief look at the Origin of Western Knowledge Define Knowledge. Distinguishing between belief, knowledge, opinions and facts. How to test the truth of a claim – the 3 truth tests

Ice Breaker Identify something you have been told, which you believed at the time but which you now recognise is false. How did you find out the truth? Can you give an example of something you are absolutely certain of? Is anyone else certain as well?

Important TOK Concepts Knowledge - a product. Knowledge is presented in the form of a knowledge claim.. “I know that . . . .” Knowing is the process by which knowledge is produced. We call this process the Way of Knowing. A knowledge issue refers to the uncertainties, biases, problems with accepting a knowledge claim.

The Origin of Western Knowledge Two Important Ancient Greek Thinkers Socrates Plato Plato (left) (Aristotle on the right)

Socrates (469-399 BC) A teacher Socratic method – Critical Thinking Charged with corrupting youth and sentenced to death. Socrates proclaimed that “the unexamined life was not worth living”. What do think he meant by this? Greek from Athens A teacher well known for his way of discussing everyday life. Became known as the Socratic method. Unlike his peers he wrote no books. Was well known in Athens for attending every party he could and engaging people in discussions. Questioning techniques involved asking students for definition of concepts and if their answers were uncertain or ambiguous he encouraged them to deepen their enquiry by thinking again about the answer. Today we call this critical thinking. His questioning methods did not go down well with the leaders of the time and he was charged with corrupting youth. He refused to stop his questioning and was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. Socrates everyday thinking about the relevance of everyday life. Socratic Seminar – thinking /discussing everyday life. He liked to go to parties engaging anyone he could in discussions.

Plato (428-347 BC) Student of Socrates Founded the Academy in Athens – a school for the advancement of knowledge, math, science and logic. Published a number of books on knowledge, written in the form of a dialogue. - The Republic Aristotle – one of Plato’s most famous students. Founded his own school called the Lyceum. Widely published.

The School of Athens (the Academy) painted from 1510-1511 by Raphael (1483 – 1520). Found in the Pope’s Private Library, Vatican. Plato and Aristotle are in the center Ancient mosaic depicting students at the Academy

Plato's definition of Knowledge Knowledge by description or propositional knowledge. Leads to: eternal truth, and absolute certainty. The knower is a disinterested observer – their experiences do not affect knowing. All knowledge had a starting point call first principles.

Knowledge by Description Before you can claim to know something the claim has to pass three tests. You must believe it Your belief has to be true The true belief must be justified Knowledge is a Justified True Belief

1. You must believe it Beliefs can be personal and public Relative to life experiences True or false

2. The Belief has to be True Truth distinguishes knowledge from belief. To claim to know something what you claim must be a true. Beliefs can be true or false – personal or public but Knowledge is true for all You know that Paris is the capital of France but you can’t know that Rome of the capital of France. This is because it is a belief that is not true.

3. The true belief has to be justified For a true belief to become knowledge it must be justified. Justification involves providing strong/good “evidence” or “reasons” for believing it is true. This evidence is called a way of knowing (WoK).

Back to Justified True Belief If person A believes that “x” is true and they can give good justification for their belief then A can claim to know “x”. If A cannot justify why they know “x”, A is free to believe or disbelieve “x” but A cannot claim that it is knowledge. When we claim to know something we are taking responsibility for it being true.

Opinions Opinions should not be confused with knowledge. Opinions are not normally justified and so we cannot claim they are true. However, some opinions are better than others. if properly supported an opinion can become a belief and even knowledge. Anyone can have an opinion but in TOK try and refrain from having an opinion unless it is well supported. A doctors opinion on when to start playing soccer after a broken leg will be better than that of a lay person because the doctors opinion is based on experience and reason.

Facts Facts are disputable knowledge but they do have a right and wrong answer. We can dispute the number of iPods sold in China in 2006, but there is a right answer. ‘3 million people ride taxis each day in Shanghai’ is a fact. It can be disputed but there is a right answer. Touch Media is the company that is putting all the LCD TV screens in Shanghai Taxi’s

Activity Can you think of a factual claim that you had a dispute over with maybe a friend, teacher, or family member. What fact was the dispute over? How did you find out who was right?

Testing the Truth Truth can be defined as: The quality of being true or correct according to some ground or test. Truth means “true for all”.

Truth Tests There are three types of evidence we use to test if a claim is True. Called the truth tests Correspondence Coherence Pragmatic These tests are not used to classify a claim as absolutely ‘true’ or ‘false’ but help place claims alone the true-false continuum and provide some justification for doing so. True and false are tidy categories but they are simplistic. Truth is actually very complex. Rejecting obvious nonsense makes its easy to identify something as false, but most knowledge claims do not earn such an easy ‘fail’ grade. Most knowledge claims fall somewhere between true and false.

1. Coherence Test Where have you used this test? Does this fit with what I or others already know? The fitting together of knowledge claims without contradictions. Does the claim make sense - it is consistent with what I know? You test the truth of the claim on the basis of other claims you already believe are true. Where have you used this test? Coherence: We often think is this claim plausible

2. Correspondence Test Go and check! The claim matches or corresponds to what is happening or already exists. You go and either look for yourself, or check what others have reported to see if there is enough evidence to support the claim. Where have you used this test?

3. Pragmatic Test Does it work? The claim has to work or be able to be applied in practice. Where have you used this test?

Different view of Truth Modernism – Ancient Greeks – Truth does not depend on the knower. Is independent of anyone's beliefs. Truth is eternal – a true statement will always be true. Absolute truth exist. Post Modern Relativism – Truth is subjective. It depends on the knower. We only see what our assumptions, and experiences want us to see. As a TOK student DO NOT FALL INTO THE RELATIVISIM TRAP – and think there is no such thing as truth. In TOK weuse a pragmatic approach to truth, that which is formed through consensus building. Individuals come together and from mutual interests and discussion, identify the issues and solve problems in order to reach agreements as to what is considered true.

Activity - Three Truths & a Lie The Trick The Interrogation The Rules The Reflection

Bibliography Theory of Knowledge Course Companion, Dombrowski, Rotenberg and Bick, OUP Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma, van de Lagemaat, Cambridge Theory of Knowledge, Alchin, Hodder Murray Dr Steve Hreha, Champlain Regional College, Québec, Canada <http://www.digitalbrain.com/roztru/TOK/Theory%20of% 20Knowledge.db_psc>accessed August 3, 2007