The theory of knowledge

The theory of knowledge IN EXPANDING THE FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE WE BUT INCREASE THE HORIZON OF IGNORANCE (HENRY MILLER). IS THIS TRUE? Knowledge is the antonym of ignorance. When we are faced with two opposites, the general notion is that if one increases the other is bound to decrease. Take a pigment for example. The darker pigment you add to your paint, the less lighter it would get. To understand this stance, we must first understand the definition of knowledge and ignorance. However, knowledge is too extensive to be defined in one sentence and discussed in one essay. Therefore, I will be limiting my writing to few areas of knowledge such as religion, language, science and mathematics to enforce my evaluation. Henry Miller talks about the increase in the horizon of ignorance and I feel that horizon is the perfect word for describing ignorance. Karl Popper stated that, Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. I support his premise because the scope for ignorance is as vast as that of knowledge. As we obtain more knowledge, we only find more fields that could be developed even further, thereby, increasing our ignorance. Barring few exceptions, we can connect this to almost all areas of knowledge because, just like the horizon, as we get closer to it and we think that we have found the final answer, only to realize that, in reality, we are still far away from the end point. A common opinion is that as we increase our knowledge, we get less ignorant because we learn more. Citing environmental science, as we learn more about global warming, we find out the detrimental effects of objects which we were unaware of before, thereby, decreasing our ignorance on this issue. However, we realize that we are oblivious to so many other issues, which we never knew about before, only to discover that our field of horizon has increased. The more acquainted we get with religion, the more aloof we get to the prevailing norms in society. To gain religious knowledge one has to lose, till a certain extent, contact with the outside world. This is because if one actually has to follow one of these books diligently, he ought to compromise with the present customs of society. Looking at Hinduism, there are so many traditions such as Sati that have been abolished by society. Most religions stress the importance of simplicity and abbreviation from materialistic goods. The great sages and priests of the twenty-first century stay as far away from civilization as possible, to get away from the existing crimes and seek solace in the isolated areas. The main reason for this is that these books have been written so many years back that it is impractical for most of the people to follow most, if not all, traditions encrypted in these books. Hence, in gaining this knowledge one gets ignorant and becomes unaware of the scenario in the real world. Looking at a simple arithmetic problem; since kindergarten we have learned that when one and one is added, the end result is two. However, as we study further on and learn about other base theorems such as the Base two theorem where one plus one is not two, it is ten. Only then do we discover that we have so much more to learn about, like other base theorems and how we were ignorant about other base theorems apart from the base ten theorems used primarily in daily life. On learning more theorems, we realize that there are so many fields that we have not even looked at. Hence, arent we ignorant? Isaac Newton discovered Calculus in the seventeenth century. Only after this discovery did we learn the significance of this discovery in other fields such as science, engineering and even mathematics itself. Calculus enabled us to mathematically describe the dimensions of the physical universe and lead to the discovery of Modern science. Once the great scholars of the renaissance period understood the working of Calculus, it opened up doors to aspects of Mathematics and Science that were never even dreamt about before. The further development in these areas of knowledge facilitated us to expand our knowledge in computer science, business studies and engineering. On discovery of these relatively new fields of knowledge, we now understand the potential that lies in front of us to expand our knowledge even more, but this would only open up new areas that we would be ignorant to. As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious. This statement byAlbert Schweitzer is apt for nearly all areas of knowledge. As our knowledge increases we do understand so many new concepts and theories. Space has always been connected with mystery. The development in the field of space science has been tremendous. Forty years back, Man went to the moon for the first time. Since then, we have developed some amazing space shuttles and rockets to boost the advance in the field of astronomy. But as we discover more about our Solar System, we only realize that we are ignorant to so many issues about further planets that we would never think about if our knowledge had not increased. Citing the example of the first space shuttle to land on Mars, when we barely had enough knowledge about the planet, we always thought that life on Mars would be impossible and discounted life on any other planet, beside Earth, too. However, on more research and expeditions, Man found traces of water on Mars that could indicate the possibility of life in Mars. Thereby, increasing our field of knowledge has shed light on so many issues. We learn about so many new aspects as exemplified in the above examples tha t we only get more confused because of the enormity of knowledge or potential knowledge that could be acquired available to us. Looking at the flipside, we must understand that even before acquiring more knowledge, we were still ignorant to all the possible developments that increased our horizon of ignorance. It is only that we were aware of what we are ignorant about, after gaining more knowledge. The only difference is that we now know that we are ignorant about these new fields we do not have any knowledge about. Human beings have constantly evolved from premature cavemen to sophisticated and complex men. The reason for this is the thirst for more knowledge as we only get more curious to learn more. Our curiosity has been the main motivating factor for us to question our intellect and discover more. This drive to know everything pushes us to acquire more and more knowledge. The only way we can expand our current knowledge is by knowing more about those fields that we are aware about but are ignorant of. As we try to learn more about these topics, we ultimately reduce the ignorance that increased when we first discovered about these subjects. Language is one area of knowledge that goes against Henry Millers opinion, particularly when we improve our vocabulary. As we stumble across new words, all we need to do is look up a dictionary to find the meaning of that word and we have acquired new knowledge without getting more ignorant. After finding out the meaning, we have gained knowledge about that word and our quest is over. Knowledge is the expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. It is the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Experience is a journey from the womb to the tomb. Hence, throughout our life we keep on acquiring knowledge, it is a never-ending process. Analysing both sides, I comply with John F Kennedy that, The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. I feel that when we span across new areas or develop any existing theory or knowledge, we only find new paths that could lead to more developments. Only then do we realize that we are ignorant to so many subjects that we would have never come across before, if we had not increased our knowledge. We probably would never be ignorant of anything if we had not started our quest for knowledge because if we were unknowledgeable we would not be ignorant to anything, we would probably not know the meaning of ignorance itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY: answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080404212819AAxaEPM 53k answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080517080546AAv8hzF 62k forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/expansion-of-knowledge-29878.html 35k http://www.math.wright.edu/People/Richard_Mercer/Classes/Common /WhyCalculus.html http://www.thinkexist.com http://www.wikipedia.org The Theory Of Knowledge The Theory Of Knowledge Option 3; Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. (Albert Einstein) Do you agree? Alexandra Albers Einsteins quote is essentially a tautology, as it says the same thing twice. The statement defines, to a certain extent, both knowledge and imagination in such a manner that the claim is true by definition, making imagination the more important of the two definitions. The claim can be seen as logical as it defines both issues; knowledge as being limited to all we now know and understand and imagination as embracing the entire world. Although both definitions can be seen as true as they are logical, does it make the statement true? And more importantly, does it make imagination more important than knowledge? The statement speaks of the relative importance of knowledge and imagination, raising the question whether imagination is more important than knowledge. In order to address the issue effectively, we need to understand the issue of importance. Importance can be defined as something of great significance or value  [CITATION Alb29 l 7177]  , something that should be noted and paid attention to. This definition suggests that knowledge is more important than imagination as knowledge is reality. Everything we know and see as reality which to us has been confirmed through knowledge. Imagination can be defined as the formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses  [CITATION Alb29 l 7177]  this suggests that imagination is an extension of knowledge rather than a replacement thereof. Knowledge is defined as The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered or learned.  [CITATION Alb29 l 7177]  Thus knowledge cannot exist without the necessary information and data that needs to be processed in order to acquire this knowledge in questioning its validity, truth and reliability. Einsteins full quote starts as follows; I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination  [CITATION Alb29 l 7177]  this suggests that he was not saying that imagination is always of greater importance but rather that it played a vital role in his life as Einstein was a creative person this is emphasised by the fact that he says I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.  [CITATION Alb29 l 7177]  This also shows the importance he sees in imagination and much of his work is probably reflected by his love for music. Imagination plays a large role in the thought process, as we perceive things with perception and therefore the use of our senses. We then remember this thought in our minds and can then re-imagine this perception when we require the knowledge associated with the sense. Once we have this base of knowledge, we can then apply creative imagination to the original thought or prior perception for example when imagining an image of a flower for which you have acquired the knowledge of how it looks, only afterwards can one use creative imagination to add to this initial image when painting a picture or something similar and then using imagination to change the way it is seen in reality. Hence imagination can be used as an extension to knowledge. This suggests that knowledge is a base for imagination as imagination often stems from knowledge. For example, fairy tales and other fictional stories are as a result of the authors imagination. The imagination which originated from the authors basis for knowledge- their sense of perception. After the writer has acquired the base of the story, a firm grasp of language to communicate the imagination and other knowledge issues are required, without which the story would not exist. Many of these stories were also written with an underlying purpose or message. For example in little red riding hood the moral lesson of the story is not to talk to strangers and to be careful who you trust. Suggesting that this way of knowing provides the basis for the story. Ethics are an area of knowledge which In the case of fairy tales are described using emotion and language as these stories are designed to relate to the reader. In order to write this story effectively, the author needs to have an understanding and knowledge of moral issues that he plans to address with his childrens book. Generally speaking, in order to have moral and ethical values, one needs knowledge of what is right or wrong. Although this is subjective knowledge and people therefore have different moral and ethical views, this is still an area of knowledge and something that one is taught as a child and can therefore be considered knowledge. These underlying messages can also be linked to emotion, as the writer must have felt strongly about this theme or message and this is a way of knowing and because he has emotions regarding the issue, it can be considered a form of knowledge. According to Einstein, the use of creative imagination to overthrow existing scientific theories when they become outdated and fail to cover known knowledge, imagination plays a role as it takes this base of knowledge and can improve upon it. Einstein is a conceptual physicist and therefore comes up with new scientific concepts using imagination and then develops it using knowledge. For example Einstein noticed the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his theory of relativity was a result of his attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with those of the electromagnetic field. Dealing with statistical mechanics and problems merged with quantum theory, leading to Einsteins Brownian motion theory. Einstein would have not have been able to do without his prior knowledge and areas of knowledge, including; science, maths and history of the atomic structure and the knowledge he gained from scientists before him. This suggests like in the case of Einstein, imagination requires a basis o f knowledge, without which this imagination would be useless. Knowledge can be seen as a basis for imagination. Thus there are still certain cases in which imagination exists without former knowledge, for example Einsteins theory of the relativity of time. Which suggests that time is relative and that time seems to go faster when one is doing something enjoyable than it does when one is simply waiting for time to pass. Einstein established this theory using his imagination. This shows that although there are only few such examples, there are still counterclaims to the argument that knowledge is more important than imagination. Imagination might be part of knowledge, and vice versa, thereby suggesting that these terms are not separate, in which case, knowledge is not everything we now know. We acquire knowledge through the ways of knowing, which include emotion, reason, perception and language. For example, subjective knowledge is involved in emotion, as well as in imagination, therefore because everybody interprets an issue in their own way, knowledge cannot be limited to all we now know. Even Einsteins definition of imagination includes the word know suggesting that imagination is a part of knowledge. Although imagination is in fact more flexible than knowledge, this does not make it of greater importance. For example, someone who is blind from birth and has never seen what we perceive as reality will not be able to imagine something that is normal for someone with perfect sight. This emphasises that knowledge is gained through perception and in this case sight, because we have this knowledge, it is easy for us to imagine an image that we have seen before. As the blind person would never have seen this image, they cannot imagine it. Therefore without this knowledge, imagination is of little importance. Thus a blind person Might imagine things differently as a person with full sight suggesting that they might even have a broader imagination as theirs is not limited to imperial knowledge, for example there are several extremely talented blind artists who make use of their heightened senses other than sight to produce an image of their imagination without the knowledge from sight. Th is shows that to a certain extent imagination can also be transformed into reality. As explored throughout they essay it seems that although imagination and knowledge go hand in hand in most cases, imagination cannot exist without knowledge whereas knowledge can exist without imagination. Especially in the past where imagination was less important. Such as in tribes where the main objective was to sustain life by looking for food , as they did not have the necessary scientific apparatus, to investigate whether or not it was edible, people could only find out by eating the unknown plants and observing the effects on the people of the tribe. The tribes also observed the food that other animals in their environment ate and could then using logic derive that they could probably also eat the same plants. From these experiments and observations, the tribe people gained purely knowledge as they learned whether or not this plant can be eaten in the future. In conclusion, I do not agree with the Albert Einstein quote as i find knowledge to be more important than imagination because in essence, as explored throughout the essay, imagination, unlike knowledge does not necessarily define or create an image of reality, but is rather an aspiration. Something that we imagine to be true rather than something that is true in reality. Knowledge on the other hand, is something true. Some confirmation of reality that we can accept to be true. Suggesting that reality is of greater importance than the ideal, which is imagination. Thus as shown throughout the essay, there are limitations and counter claims to both opinions of the relative importance of knowledge and imagination. This shows that they are essentially related.