Abdulrahman - Theory of Knowledge - University of Portland - Essay

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Mathematics

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Feb 20, 2024

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“Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Word count: 1425 Trust is the reliance on the character, ability, strength, or authority of someone or something. It can be identified as the gap between what we think and what we know is true. I believe that the Holacaust happened. I am one hundred percent certain that parallel lines do not meet. The first statement includes elements of reason and faith, showing that I trust the opinion of certain historians. The second statement, on the other hand, revolves around an axiom in mathematics, showing pragmatic certainty, which means that the meaning of an idea or proposition lies in its observable or practical consequences. ‘ Accepting knowledge claims’ is the action of assessing a knowledge claim to be true, such as assessing that the Holacaust is real. However, ‘ An element of trust’ is the part of the title that interested me the most. I discovered that the reason behind referring to trust as an element is to treat the concept of trust as an essential characteristic when accepting knowledge claims. Eventually, I began to question the validity of this claim. I started hypothesizing different scenarios, such as trusting something or someone based on authority, or evidence. After that, I formed by opinion on this title: I personally disagree with this claim because it includes an absolute ‘always’, as I believe there are certain Areas of Knowledge (AOKs) where trust can be uninvolved in the process of accepting a knowledge claim. In order to further explore the applicability and validity of this claim, I chose History and Mathematics as my areas of discussion, where I will aspire to discover whether or not trust is always an element of accepting knowledge. I chose History and Mathematics as my AOKs because each AOK contains different methodologies to one another, which allows for different perspectives to be explored. Before diving into History, one must clarify what history is about. History intends to explain historical events and link them together. Historians intend to study the recorded past 1

“Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Word count: 1425 for several different reasons, one such as understanding the past to clarify current events and/or the reasoning behind the current status and ranks of societies. Historians tend to base their findings on evidence. Evidence in history is very mostly physical evidence such as scriptures and buildings (Hands On history, n.d.), as well as eyewitnesses. However, the interpretation of historical evidence can be volatile and therefore dependent on the historian’s interpretation. Accepting a knowledge claim will always include a kind of trust of authority, the historian’s or the authoritarian’s interpretation of evidence and shared knowledge, based on one’s personal beliefs and values on the historical facts. The authorial interpretation of evidence can also fundamentally influence one’s decision to trust a knowledge claim in History. An example of this can be the different viewpoints of what is known as the ‘Armenian genocide’ allegedly perpetrated by the Ottoman emprie in 1917. One may disagree with the use of the term ‘allegedly’. However, since the current Turkish government and a large segment of the Turkish population do not accept the term ‘genocide’ (Bora Bayraktar, 2016), it may be inappropriate to explicitly say that this genocide was perpetrated by the Ottomans. Without examining the validity of the historical events, this enforces multiple perspectives, which makes the act of conforming to either perspective dependent on the trust placed on one single interpretation of evidence presented by those perspectives, therefore validating the claim proposed in the title. A great influencer of leaning towards certain perspectives is emotion, which is an instinctive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge. However, it can be argued that historical knowledge can be enforced using social and political pressure exerted by Historians or Authoritarians or even societal cultures and beliefs on an individual without having to trust the knowledge claim. This means that although an 2

“Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Word count: 1425 individual may not agree with or trust a historical knowledge claim, they will still accept it, or at least conform to it, due to high societal and authorial pressure. With that being said, I still hold on to my opinion about this title’s claim because historical evidence is volatile in its interpretation, which immediately places trust on the Historian’s interpretation. However, this is not the case for other AOKs such as Mathematics. Mathematics has drastically different uses and formats compared to History. Mathematics is a tool that both models the real world and is used to understand the abstract relationship between numbers. Unlike History, Mathematics is considered indisputable by some. The reason behind this is that Mathematics is often based upon reason, as well as it aims to diminish the cultural or contextual influences in the process of generating knowledge. Mathematics is viewed by many people as a language/method used to model phenomena around us, as it lacks volatility. Axioms in Mathematics are statements that are taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. An example of an axiom can be: parallel lines do not meet, or a square has 4 sides. These examples have been proven to be true as Axioms are self-evident and require no proof. Axioms are used to explore other aspects in Mathematics without manipulating the laws and nature of Mathematics. Therefore, within the level of mathematical operations, if they are correctly carried out, there should not be an element of trust in Mathematics because they have been assumed and proven true. it is important to examine whether these assumptions apply to proven mathematical theorems. Proof in Mathematics is a starting point of something that is assumed true (axioms), allowing a logical structure and reasoning to generate new knowledge. It can be said that mathematical theorems are initially generated by Human creativity, which can then 3

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