Ways of knowing.

We had a discussion and listened to a case study on whether the words in your language give you knowledge or the ability to have certain knowledge or if having certain knowledge is separate from having language to express that in. We were also asked how perspective and reason work with knowledge. Here are more of my thoughts.

For myself, there are many people who can have knowledge in something that isn't spoken. Math is a language that you can't completely express in spoken words, visual art is a form of communication, and people who have knowledge of how to track people through the woods have a knowledge that they didn't learn completely from someone telling them. It was primarily from trial and error, seeing something, reasoning it out. Language does not lead to knowledge, it just is the most outwardly showing form of knowledge. Challenge this if you want, but someone who speaks in lectures of quantum physics is going to be thought by many people to have a large amount of knowledge but an artist who paints in a certain style and maybe spent years perfecting it isn't going to be seen to have knowledge in the same way because what they do they can't truly be expressed in words but in their art. They are seen as artistic not knowledgeable. They still have knowledge.

As for perspective and reasoning. I argue that a persons perspective warps or changes their reasoning. Someone who supports the Liberal party will have different reasoning as to where money should be spent by the government than someone who supports the Green Party. Certain reasoning may be the same for some people but their perspective is different. People who come from different cultures are influenced to consider certain areas of life more important than others and this alters their reasoning. So I don't believe reasoning and perspective are completely separate. Also I think Language alters a persons perspective. An example of this is the case study we listened to of the people in South America who only have vague numbers in their language for one and two. To them numbers aren't important, their perspective on things like economics aren't going to be the same as someone who from kindergarten has learned that 1 comes before 2 and 3 comes before 4 and 5. Their perspective is different because of their language and their reasoning will be different because of their perspective.

My thoughts.... ish

Unfortunately the last ToK class I took was almost a week ago and my mind is in a million different places right now but I hope I can explain myself clearly.

The quote I am most going to digress on is the quote "Who does not know another language cannot know his own."
In this I feel very strongly being bilingual and at the moment being in a situation with francophones, bilinguals, and anglophones all in one place mashed together. In the area of knowledge, Language, whether your first or your second gives you more than one perspective on a topic and broadens your knowledge of it. Two people don't translate a sentence exactly the same way, there interpretation is differnt because they have learned something about their own language or their second language that differs from someone elses. I also feel that you need to know and truly understand another language not just be able to say a few phrases in order to gain knowledge of your own language. When I was young, I knew how to count to ten in Japanese, that knowlegde of those words in that language gave me no further insight to English, and yes I was very young but it never did even when I retained that knowledge through the years. Now that I am fluent, or at least was and now am gaining it back, in French, I feel more in tune with English, and can say that it has given me new perspectives.
That is all I have time to write today... Another time I suppose then. toodles.