"The whole point of knowledge
is to produce both meaning and
purpose in our personal lives".
RLS
Shintoism - rebuilding
of temple
Getting rid of empirical
evidence (which provides
knowledge) and yet
produces meaning in
personal lives
Without the knowledge of
destroying and rebuilding the
temple they would not be able
to gain their meaning of rebirth.
Need the knowledge from the
empirical evidence -symbolic
people don't necessarily need knowledge to
provide their own meaning and purpose in
their lives - existence or religion which is
based on the lack of sense perception
However the knowledge passed down serves to
provide the meaning and purpose
Aesthetic movement
(art and literature)
Knowledge which is based
upon the lack of meaning
yet provoked social revolution
in terms of morality
Oscar Wilde
The picture of Dorian Grey
Explored idea of living purely
for the aesthetic - without
meaning and the downfall of
this. Result of aesthetic movement
The importance of being
Ernest
Seems trivial but
expressed political and
social ideas
Both contain aesthetic
structure but provide
meaning which can be
applied to personal lives -
allegory
the lack of meaning allowed
social development in morality;
lead to people gaining meaning
of hedonism in personal lives
and warned against it
WOKs
Faith
Language
sense perception
AOKS
Religion
Shintoism
Shinto temple as
sense experience
Faith as a developing
knowledge and gaining
meaning from
knowledge
Art
Aesthetic movement in art
and literature
language used in the
aesthetic literature
movement
Knowledge questions
To what extent can knowledge be
valued/ have a point without
providing meaning or purpose?
To what extent can the lack of
knowledge provide further
meaning and purpose in a
persons personal life?
To what extent can knowledge exist without
providing meaning? Is there such a thing?
Assumptions
Knowledge is pointless without
providing meaning or purpose
You can only gain meaning and
purpose using knowledge
Knowledge is pointless without
providing meaning and purpose
Definitions
meaning : how your
paradigm is impacted by
the knowledge
Purpose; gives you an
emotional or tangible aim
Produce; causes or
creates
Implications
Agree
then without knowledge can we still gain
meaning and purpose - huge implications for
those with false knowledge e.g. north Korea
dictatorship. Meaning and purpose
manipulated? Free will and access to
information
Religious knowledge - more valuable than e.g.
scientific knowledge because of the meaning and
purpose in peoples lives? Mean that religion is
more important than science?
Disagree
could mean that religion loses validity:
if knowledge doesn't have to does that
mean we alienate ourselves? could
hold implications in terms of morality?
no meaning - robotic
Moral implications provided by the
picture of dorian grey - hedonistic society?
Can society function like this? do we need
the meaning in order to make sense and
function within the world?
Knowers perspective
as an agnostic - the idea of
religion vs science in which is
more valuable: impact on
medicine
In IB English - reading literature; for its
own enjoyment? Or to analyse the political
and social context behind it? could argue
we need meaning and the lack of meaning
appreciation of English
aesthetic literature - yet no
meaning. Shows that it is
valued to an extent