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TOK ESSAY How can the different ways of knowing help us to distinguish between something that is true and something that is believed to be true? Author: Luka Dremelj Mentor: mag. Matev� Rudl Word count: 1005 Date: 28/5/2009 Our quest of finding truth in life, which is a journey of a thousand miles, begins not with a step, but rather a thought. It is the miracle of the human mind to be able to think emotionally as well as rationally about the acquired information from our senses and later even being able to express ourselves through language. These are the four ways of knowing, all of them tell a great deal about ourselves on their own, but in combination, they may just help us obtain the real truth, if such a thing even exists. So what is truth? Truth has to this day not yet been specifically defined, but there are several ways of explaining it. One of them is the common truth, which is usually presented upon us by the society we live in. Such an example would be that prostitution is immoral. One would see this as human trafficking and sexual abuse with no benefits to the society. ...read more.


Reason is but more than just an acquaintance of emotion, which is a mental and physiological state associated with a mixture of behavior, feelings and thoughts. To put it simply the two are in love. As is with love, a couple may cuddle or quarrel, depending on the current situation their relationship found itself in. Unfortunately, most relationships tend to have a dominator and a submitter, meaning that we can rarely come across a fulfillment of both. Or in some cases, there is a form of harmony where they seem to have an agreement on who reacts to and decides on what. Regardless of their struggle, they pose another two ways of knowing. Reason may be a useful thing whenever time is plentiful and conditions right, but it is usually emotion that makes decisions regarding our well being in everyday life. So with that in mind, a safe bet on trust should be with reason right? I would now consider this as getting ahead of myself. There is a reason why no one prefers one from the other even after an eon of human contemplation. I would plainly put it that we are built in such a way that we conflict with ourselves; this might be a reason why our brain is so well trained in solving problems. ...read more.


As I hope you have come to understand, experience is the driving force behind all the ways of knowing so far. Experience is the only thing we can be sure is real to us and seems like a certain path towards the truth. Yet somehow I find that it is flawed, due to the fact that we acquire it through our fourth way of knowing, which are our senses. I am going to assume the position that everyone is familiar with the possibility that our senses are deceiving us. Each and every single one is wired to present us with a reality most compatible to that of others. People are known to think outside the box, can we expect ourselves to sense outside our senses. Evaluating the data passed to you I see we have yet to concretely determine the sure way of knowing. As I have presented, each in itself is incapable of providing an answer to us, but when all of them are used in collaboration with each other, we can get a clear idea that it is true for us to know that we don't know what is true and I gain my certainty that I have to believe what I know to be true. ?? ?? ?? ?? II. GIMNAZIJA MARIBOR International Baccalaureate __________________________________________________________________________________ Luka Dremelj IB 2008/2010 Theory of Knowledge 28/5/2009 Essay ...read more.

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