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#3: "Doubt is the key to knowledge" (Persian Proverb). To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?


nour918

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Well... Doubt makes us aware and allows us to assess the reliability of the source of knowledge we are using.

In Science, this could be a weird result of an experiment and this would be confirmed by repeating the experimental procedure.

History has lots of doubts in the field as most of the facts and stories are as a result of evidence that has been interpreted. It could have been read wrongly and many people doubt History when they haven't seen things with their own eyes.

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I also chose this topic and used math as my second area of knowledge. I found it easy to find an example to support my claim but it was difficult to find a counterclaim example. History could also be another area of knowledge besides science.

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I also chose this topic and used math as my second area of knowledge. I found it easy to find an example to support my claim but it was difficult to find a counterclaim example. History could also be another area of knowledge besides science.

Maybe religion also could work out as a counterclaim to history. Because its all about doubts and beliefs.

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Doubt is the key to knowledge” (Persian Proverb). To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?

my view about this topic is: yes doubt is a key to knowledge but till wat extent? if i doubt that i am going to flunk in ib then is it a seriously a key to knowledge? i guess it is not. so i wuld tell you that doubt is only a key to knowledge in certain situation.

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Doubt is the key to knowledge” (Persian Proverb). To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?

my view about this topic is: yes doubt is a key to knowledge but till wat extent? if i doubt that i am going to flunk in ib then is it a seriously a key to knowledge? i guess it is not. so i wuld tell you that doubt is only a key to knowledge in certain situation.

Thats a nice thought, it does actually make sense too! Doubting sometimes give you the will to explore things, and that will usually result in knowledge. But your example shows a different side. I didn't think of that! :D So thanks

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I've written a rough draft on this topic already, and recieved a reasonable mark on it from my teacher.

The AOK's I used were Science and History, and then I supported the claim with my own examples of how doubt is applied to real life.

WOK's were reason and a little bit of perception.

Best advice I think is to have good examples that apply to you, because that is where you can score many points.

Best of luck!

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As a start, try to consider what "doubt" is, or how you can define it and perhaps "knowledge". Then consider what you think means "the KEY to knowledge"

That should give you a direction to go with the essay.

If you think doubt is a form of questioning things, then do you think questioning things is the key to knowledge?

It seems possible use almost every AOKs in this matter, but as the question states use 2- I'd say choose what you like, but try and make them somehow contrasting. Perhaps science and religion, or science and history, something of that sort.

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Oh I like that title! You should try discussing the significance of doubt in ethics - for example if someone is used to following a certain ethical code, they might follow it even if it isn't actually ethical. In order for society to progress, someone needs to have some doubts about whether they are doing the right thing - take major historical events like black civil rights in america or the anti-war protests during the vietnam war. Without doubt no one can know what is right or wrong.

Also I agree with the person above who wrote that you should use examples that apply to you - but make sure they're relevant to the rest of the essay and that you didn't just stick them in there! you have to make sure you integrate those really well so that it doesn't seem like the essay is just a story of your life :D

Good luck!!!

(I like TOK now that it's over. you will too if you don't already! haha)

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  • 4 weeks later...

we need to submit our first draft essay on this coming friday, May 7. And it's a bit torturing for me since it ruin all my plan in this weekend. But whatever it is, i need to get it done as soon as possible. :')

So my dear friends, I would like to ask you, is mathematics need doubt? Because for me,if I doubt in this AOK,for example in calculating or solving the math problems, I might not get the answers and most probably I become mad afterwards.Haha..perhaps?

But then for the mathematicians, were doubt helped them discover the theories?? Or is it curiosity?

Ok.Enough with math.Fullstop.

:')

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I think you can argue both, winnie. In math like in other subjects, you build on things you previously learned or proved. If you have doubt on a fundamental assumption, how can you gain knowledge on the steps that come after this?

But then again, having no doubt can lead to error in some cases. There are weird things that go on in math when you get to more complicated things, I think. A little sense of doubt can mean that you're open minded and help you discover an anomaly. Also, do you have experience with syllogisms in logic? We did this in math, but it's not math per se. Sometimes to prove something, you assume the opposite is true/valid and then show that this opposite cannot be true/valid, meaning your original thing is true/valid, if that makes sense.

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Doubt on mathematics can be brainstormed like following:

1. In pure mathematics, everything (logic, axioms, mathematical structure...) is within the laws and conventions. Everything is deductively reasoned, and once the conjecture is proved, it is true for all time regardless of space and time. Therefore, it seems it is not possible for us to have a doubt in Mathematics. Therefore, doubt is not the key of knowledge.

2. But is it? depending on how you define 'doubt', it can be defined as 'introspection of what has been found'. If we 'doubt' that something in mathematics is missing and trying to find it, we will certainly bring the development of the knowledge.

For example, Godel's Incompleteness Theorem (find it in the wiki or something, not the rigid mathematical proof of it!)

3. But again, can we argue this as 'doubt'? or shall we call this as another branch of 'following logic'?

I think tackling the fundamental flaws and difference in axioms would be too difficult in TOK essay. So in here, underlying assumption would be 'following peano's axioms'.

(for the full marks, discovering underlying assumptions is essential!)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi ive chosen the same question, and i used social sciences as the first area as an argument (with phychology and physics as examples) and natural sciences as a counter argument (with biology and medicine as examples)

hope you find it usefull

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hi everybody

Im also writing an essay about this topic and i was wondering if i could use rene descartes' theory because he says that in order to find truth you have to doubt everything.. Is it a problem when truth intervenes in the essay? Because truth and knowledge aren't linked per se..

does anyone have thoughts about this? please help me beacause the deadline is tuesday :yes:

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hi everybody

Im also writing an essay about this topic and i was wondering if i could use rene descartes' theory because he says that in order to find truth you have to doubt everything.. Is it a problem when truth intervenes in the essay? Because truth and knowledge aren't linked per se..

does anyone have thoughts about this? please help me beacause the deadline is tuesday :bawling:

The deadline is tuesday? wow that sucks...

from what i've heard, you can definitely use Descartes' theory, as they're all about doubting... Otherwise ask Joyce, she might be able to explain it to you in a more understandable way :bawling:

Question: does anyone agree on the fact that knowledge can be defined as the ideas about anything that are more or less universally accepted, but by doubting this knowledge is in constant development?

Edited by sweetnsimple786
Use the Edit button to add more to a post. =)
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hi everybody

Im also writing an essay about this topic and i was wondering if i could use rene descartes' theory because he says that in order to find truth you have to doubt everything.. Is it a problem when truth intervenes in the essay? Because truth and knowledge aren't linked per se..

does anyone have thoughts about this? please help me beacause the deadline is tuesday :bawling:

I think that'd be fine, as long as you do make the connection. In his treatise [i can't remember which one..] he said he doubted everything and worked his way up to two outstanding conclusions, that God exists and "I think, therefore I am." You don't have to agree with the conclusions, but if you can understand the logic he used, you can analyze that instead. You can connect his idea of systematically doubting everything to find knowledge. I can't really define truth. I see how you'd want to separate knowledge and truth, but you also have a link. You can't have knowledge of something that's not true because it's not knowledge if it's not true. From Descartes, you can take the idea of systematic doubt and run with it. Should be fine.

Question: does anyone agree on the fact that knowledge can be defined as the ideas about anything that are more or less universally accepted, but by doubting this knowledge is in constant development?

Sure, I think you can make a convincing argument about that. Key thing is that you haven't limited knowledge. You said 'can be defined as.' So you're saying that doubt is the impetus for further study/scrutiny/thought and can lead to more knowledge, yes?

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