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The Arts And Shared Knowledge

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The natural sciences and the arts are two areas of knowledge that play a prominent role in producing knowledge. Shared knowledge refers to procedural (knowing how) or propositional knowledge (knowing that) which is agreed upon and accepted by groups of people; it evolves over time as methods of justification change. For example, the Areas of Knowledge are considered shared knowledge because many people contribute to them. Personal knowledge differs between individuals; it includes personal skills, acquaintances and procedural knowledge that have been acquired through experience. It is much harder to communicate personal knowledge because it is based on personal experiences that differ between individuals (Knowledge in ToK). Although they can …show more content…

In the essay prompt, ‘shaping’ refers to the idea that shared knowledge has a direct impact or influence on the acquisition of personal knowledge. It implies that we rely on shared knowledge to gain personal knowledge. In the natural sciences, reason is heavily used to gain personal knowledge; shared knowledge is therefore required to form assumptions and premises in reasoning models. The more people rely on reason, the stronger the influence of shared knowledge on personal knowledge. In the arts, shared knowledge also impacts the gathering of personal knowledge. Intuition plays as initial role in knowledge acquisition and does not require a framework of shared knowledge to function. However, other ways of knowing like sense perception, language and imagination can be also used to produce knowledge. Such ways of knowing rely on shared knowledge and thus imply that personal knowledge in the arts is shaped by it. The extent to which personal is shaped therefore depends on the ways of knowing being employed. Perhaps the key consideration is that shared knowledge in the natural sciences (eg. the periodic table) is in general, universally accepted. In the arts however, opposing forms of shared knowledge can exist due to there being different perspectives on art. Maybe this explains why shared knowledge is more readily relied upon in science compared to art. In conclusion, shared knowledge can shape personal knowledge in both the natural sciences and the arts to varying

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