Lesson Summary - November 13th

Language and Theory of Knowledge
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This lesson we were informed of the relevance between language and the ways of knowing.
We had to understand the issues raised by the existence of several languages (isolating others who don't understand it) and we began to appreciate the possible links between language, experience and identity.

During the lesson we recognized that language is incredibly rich but complex at the same time.

One key issue we had to think about was whether or not we felt that our mother tongue is important and what would it mean if it was Welsh, English or Chinese. Some of us suggested that their language was their identity and reminded them of their cultural heritage.

Practical Exercises

• We were introduced to the limitations of language as a way of knowing by having to do an exercise by writing instructions to teach someone how to tie their shoelaces, which proved quite difficult and time-consuming.
• We had to describe the person next to us with both phrases of positive connotation and negative associations. Such as 'Confident/Arrogant'
  

History

Pick a GCSE subject, and write about what sort of knowledge and/or ‘truth’ this subject conveys.

Subject: History

From the subject history, we are able to gain all sorts of different knowledge and truths. Not only do we learn about events of the past, but we are also able to learn about human psychology and the complex system of our society.

If you’ve never learned history in detail, it would seem like a subject with full of accurate facts and truths. But actually in some cases, the ‘truths’ that we think is true, is not as true as they seem to be. This is because all the facts that we learn about comes from the compilation of stories and opinions told/written by various people who were involved in that certain event. And although those stories and opinions seem reliable, everyone has different ways of perceiving things, and there is nothing to ensure that the stories aren’t exaggerated or made up. After people experience horrific events, they tend to exaggerate what happened in the event and make it seem even worse than it actually was. Take the Nazis for example. They didn’t always tell the truths, especially if they brought negative consequences. When the Reichstag building burnt down, it was reported that a Communist had set fire to the building. But after the Nazi rule were over, they confessed that it was actually them who set the fire.

Although the things we learn in history are true, the proof that we are given can deceive us to perceive things differently than how it actually was. So in the end, it is up to us to determine what is true by carefully looking through the knowledge that makes up the fact and finding its faults and proofs until there is nothing else to find.

Biology

Biology conveys many "truths" that have been proven by numerous scientists through experiments and observations. Most of what we learn in biology is propositional knowledge as we seem to always be given facts and figures to study, learn and memorize. Of course that is not to say that propositional knowledge is the only type of knowledge conveyed in biology. There is plenty of experiential knowledge we gain from our own experiments and field work. For example, I learned that beaches contain much more life (in the sand) than I previously imagined when we visited Starfish Bay last year for our biology field trip.

The "truths" that biology conveys are predominantly solid objective facts that are either right or wrong. There can be nothing in between (unlike in humanity subjects). However, opinions do still matter for some areas of biology. For example, in the debate over whether stem cell research should be allowed, there is technically no correct answer. But for the major part of biology, there is only one verdict (see exam questions). Therefore biology leaves less space for us to speculate and wonder about in comparison to other non-scientific subjects.

L'histoire

Both knowledge and thruths are conveyed through history. The type of knowledge conveyed is everything we learn, including people's deductions and views of different aspects, so this knowledge is actually quite ambiguous as there may or may not be a 'correct' knowledge. It is based on opinion.

However, the truth side of history is all about the facts, things that either did or did not happen. Therefore we can trust in these truths of history as a lot of these 'truths' are recorded and there are proofs of the events that have occurred.

But funnily enough, although the knowledge and truths of history seem so clear cut, they are actually intertwined quite complexly, for history is a fairly ambiguous subject. What i mean is that, take the example of an exam. The sources provided, like pictures, speeches or articles are all truths. They are stuff that are real, stuff that have proof, stuff that has occurred. However, the knowledge that stems from these truths can be so far from the truth because what you see can't always be trusted. With knowledge we have to read between the lines of truth.

Therefore history is a very ambiguous subject, providing solid truths that produce opinionated knowledge.