Knowledge Claims

• I know how to speak French
French is the language that originated in France and is spoken in France and many other Francophone countries. Having studied French as a second language for a duration of three years for my IGCSE exam, I can communicate with people to a certain extent in French – I can speak in a language which is considered to be French by the world, I have successfully passed an IGCSE French oral examination, I can communicate with French-speaking people in their language, I can therefore say that I know how to speak French.

• I know stealing is wrong
This is purely a matter of belief and opinion – it is a moralistic belief, so to speak. Stealing is defined as ‘taking something that belongs to another person without permission or legal right, and usually secretly’ in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. I have been brought up to believe that stealing is against my moral principles, and against what society perceives as right – I therefore ‘know’ that stealing is wrong. However, there is a section of society (here again, it would be inaccurate to address them as a section of society, because this belief of theirs itself makes them social outcasts) that sees nothing morally wrong in stealing – in fact, many of them cannot afford to see it as morally wrong, as it is their livelihood. Some even regard stealing as an art to be mastered! Everyone is brought up with a set of beliefs, but sometimes, experience forces one to change one’s opinion and to alter one’s set of beliefs. It would be inaccurate to say that ‘I know that stealing is wrong’, because this cannot be classified as knowledge – it should be replaced by the statement ‘I believe that stealing is wrong’.

• I know God exists
This can be definitely identified as the most controversial statement on this list – this is an extremely personal belief. As I have mentioned in my previous post, each person’s definition and perception of God is likely to be different – the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines God as ‘a being or spirit that is believed to have power over nature and control over human affairs; the Supreme Being, Creator and ruler of the universe’. My definition of God is completely different from these two definitions listed in the dictionary - as one of my co-students, Avichal said in class, I believe God is a driving force within us, that God exists within all of us. I don’t think of himself as an external being or some sort of formidable spirit. God and religion have always been inevitably connected – I am not a religious person, and do not believe in any one religion. People often tend to label me as an atheist for this reason, which is absolutely untrue – I just don’t agree with their perception of God, and their way of honouring God. For the people who think God exists, they ‘know’ that God as they define it exists, they might have some personal proof or experience whereby they ‘know’ this. Atheists opine that there is nothing like God (that nobody has managed to come up with concrete evidence to prove that God exists, they probably take as proof that God doesn’t exist) – they believe firmly in it and for that section of society, it is knowledge for them. Therefore, this is again something that cannot be classified as knowledge, and it would be more accurate to say ‘I believe that God exists’.

• I know it is raining
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines rain as ‘water that falls from the clouds in separate drops’ – as I mentioned in my previous post, the origins of all knowledge lie in opinion. It was someone’s opinion that rain is water that falls from the clouds in separate drops, and when this opinion was accepted by the world as fact, it was established as knowledge. If I am walking on the road, and feel water falling on me, and look up and see water droplets falling on me, I presume that the water is falling from the clouds, and that it is rain. There is no way I can prove, while looking at the water droplets falling and feeling their wetness on my skin, that they have fallen from the clouds above. In fact, that rain is water that falls from the clouds above is an opinion that has been ‘proven’ to be fact and is accepted as knowledge now – a few centuries down the line, someone might prove that rain is actually some other type of substance that arises out of nothing.

• I know my mother is older than I am
My mother, as a human being in this lifetime, has lived for a longer period of time on this planet than I have – she did give birth to me after all. She is therefore older than I am. Now I address the question; what is age? In human society on planet earth, if person A existed for longer than person B in his body, person A is considered older than person B. Maybe on some other planet, life goes backwards – one is born old and one dies a baby, therefore, my mother having lived for longer than me, would still be considered younger than me! I also believe in the concept of cycle of lives and rebirth – I can vouch for my mother having lived longer than I on this planet only in this lifetime. Perhaps, in my last birth, I was older than she was, or maybe we were of the same age. I don’t even know whether we were human beings in our last life, or if we lived on the Earth at all! Therefore, I would therefore like to alter this statement a bit – ‘I know my mother is older than I am in this lifetime, according to human society on planet earth’.

• I know my tooth hurts

• I know she doesn’t like me

• I know 2 + 2 = 4

• I know I will pass the test

- Priyal Chitale.

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