Value Of Knowledge Essay

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4. “Without application in the real world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished.” Consider this claim with respect to two areas of knowledge.
Introduction

The value of knowledge is the amount of usefulness within it. Application is the way to measure this value through the real experience. According to my interpretation of the question above, the claim suggests that if knowledge cannot be applied with purpose by anyone in the world, then this knowledge has no real value. This implies that the value of knowledge is determined by the number of individuals for whom this knowledge is applicable since if it is not applicable, it is useless. However, the question that I would like to address is what it is that determines this value for …show more content…

If it cannot be experienced, then there is no real benefit of this knowledge. If there is no benefit, then logically, the knowledge is not valuable in terms of the individual purposes of any human. Therefore, the value of knowledge is diminished if it is not applied and it would be fair to say that the use with purpose is the only way to develop and maintain knowledge. Furthermore, how can any knowledge that cannot be used be useful? Indeed, if some information is not applicable to any aspects of a particular person’s life, then this person is extremely likely to forget it. This implies that the value of knowledge is relative to each individual knower and always depends on his/her own perspective. Therefore, the application does determine the value. Whereas, without application in the real world the knowledge is just a belief since it cannot be experienced and thus cannot be …show more content…

For example, in the modern society, everyone has access to various time showing devices. In prevailing number of situations somebody who wants to find out the current time will simply look at their watch, whether it is digital, or a hand-watch or a clock on the wall. Modern people have no need to learn other ways to determine the time, so we do not learn. However, what if a person gets lost in the forest with no watch and nobody to ask? The skill of determining the time by looking at the sun and shadows would suddenly become highly useful, but the person does not have the sufficient knowledge for that, whereas, somebody living in an indigenous community in the forest will easily be able to estimate the time at that very moment. The knowledge that various indigenous nations possess is entirely different from what we know because they use a different approach to knowledge. ‘Indigenous knowledge representative are more unique, considering even the variety of their languages’ (www.theoryofknowledge.net). Similarly, as long as their religion is meaningful to an individual knower, it has value, because it allows the knower to view the world differently. Therefore, even the knowledge that is not applied in the everyday lives of the majority of people still can be highly valuable and the amount of

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