IB Theory of Knowledge Essay

The traditional TOK diagram indicates four ways of knowing. Propose the inclusion of a fifth way of knowing selected from intuition, memory or imagination, and explore the knowledge issue it may raise in two areas of knowledge.

The traditional four ways of knowing are sense perception, language, reason and emotions. Imagination is a subset of the four ways of knowing. My imagination can help guide my emotions. For example, if I were to imagine what I was going to have for dinner I would feel both excited and hungry. As for sense perception, it can also be affected by imagination. If I came home with the smell of something delicious, I would imagine that it would be a food I like, however it may completely be different. The smell of the food could also be something of which I do not enjoy eating. Reason is also affected by imagination, we often imagine what the consequences of our decisions are. The reason behind the decision made is the result of the imagined consequences. The knowledge issue of this topic is how dependable is imagination as a way of knowing, and to what extent does imagination guide us on our pursuit for knowledge. Imagination is the innate ability to combine more than one memory in order to create a subjectively unprecedented visualized experience not necessarily limited by the physical laws of reality. Memory is an experience from which perceptions and emotions are retained. The four ways of knowing accurately describe all knowledge. However because the four ways of knowing fail to encapsulate all forms of thought, a fifth way of knowing, imagination is an essential device in the search of knowledge. The qualifier for this way of knowing is the necessary use of skepticism to follow. The effectiveness of imagination combined with skepticism as a way of knowing is most easily implemented in the knowledge areas of the arts and mathematics.

Sense perception refers to the immediate recognition of the physical experiences of a knower, the basic senses being sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. No inference is made during the perception process; no thought is given to the significance of what perception detects. Sense perception is therefore not in itself a way of knowledge; it is an essential component of the pursuit of knowledge but a knower's cognition cannot record and preserve this knowledge without the processing of reason, emotion and language.
Language is the expression of knowledge through symbolic representation. All knowers must apply language in some form. Language is necessary to preserve and organize knowledge. Reason is the logical inference made from one's perception. Reason attempts to distinguish true from false by reaching conclusions based on observations of physical happenings. As knowers implementing reason we “associate causes and effects.”[1] Reason relies on consistencies and ideals, to prove knowledge correct or incorrect. Emotion is a wide collection of sensations experienced in reaction to knowledge. Emotion is an innate sense which has not been found universally measurable or concurring among knowers. The sensations which constitute emotion are generally considered the foundation of knowing what should and should not be.
The foremost problem with this system of knowing is its exclusion of two classifications of knowledge: potential knowledge and false knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge constitutes only attempting to discover true knowledge; this means that all potentially false knowledge must be doubted until proven true.

Imagination does not reject some knowledge claims to achieve other knowledge claims because imagination does not have to be realistic. In this way imagination allows for more diversity in knowledge, but also contradicts itself and is extremely fallacious. Were this the only step in the process of knowing of imagination, it would be too inconsistent and simply put would be a terrible way of knowing. Only by distinguishing logical from illogical can logic be established. Skepticism is why imagination is an effective way of knowing. Skepticism is always the necessary step after imagination in the pursuit of knowledge. Skepticism is defined in this essay as the attitude toward knowledge claims that they are false until supported as true, and even then it may not necessarily be true.

When applying imagination to the areas of knowledge in the theory of knowledge diagram, the most significant one would have to be the arts. An artist is require to have different perspectives of the world which require imagination. Any form of art is subjective, and is the product of the artist's imagination; based on their emotions, thoughts and perceptions. If an artist is painting a picture of any sort, they need to imagine what they would like to paint, the colour that best represents their emotions, the technique they would like to use to achieve their desired perception of the piece of artwork and what they want to the painting to look like. The same idea goes for pottery and sculpting. Without this idea no art would be made. For example, I was drawing a picture for an extracurricular program, and the theme was winter. First I imagine what characteristics winter has; snow, trees without leaves on them, white etc. I imagined these characteristics together and create my drawing; first started drawing the tree and then drawing the snow onto the tree. Without imagining what I wanted the picture to look like, I would not have been able to create this drawing.

Unlike imagination, math is purely logic. There has to be logical proof before any theorem becomes true. An answer to a mathematical problem can either be right or wrong. You cannot imagine what the answer to a question and think it to be correct. However, imagination is also needed in mathematics as it takes creative thinking in order to find new approaches to difficult problems which allows for further mathematical understanding. For example, the story of the mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss who found the sum from 1 to 100 in a short period of time. He used his imagination to find new ways of approaching this problem, instead of adding each number one by one. There needs to be an amount of creativity and imagination to be able to imagine a complicated problem or graph. Another concept is imaginary numbers, it even has the word imagine in it. The concept is a number that results to negative one when it is squared, which is known to be impossible and do not exist in the real world, however it does exist in the area of mathematics. Imagination allows for critical thinking and problem solving skills, which increases the knowledge of the individual. Using an example of a perfect circle, it does not exist in the physical reality. However, one can imagine a perfect circle.

Imagination is the beginning of any concept, as it gives an opportunity for people to be able to think of the many possibilities to go with the idea. It can be an addition to the four ways of knowing in the theory of knowledge diagram, however there are some limitations. Imagination depends on the knowledge that one holds as it cannot go pass the knowledge that one carries. Imagination expands as one gains more knowledge, which may not be suitable using it as a way of knowing. For example, Albert Einstein once said that “Imagination is more important that knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”[2] Albert Einstein was well known for his theory of relativity, and is known to be a genius himself; genius being defined as a person who demonstrates high intellectual abilities, in other words, a person whom has more knowledge. Since Einstein had more knowledge, it allowed his limit of imagination to be greater compared to others. Imagination is a combination of two memories to create a third memory, something that the knower has not experienced before. Therefore including imagination as a fifth way of knowing to the traditional theory of knowledge diagram may not be probable.

To conclude, the four ways of knowing alone are inefficient because they depreciate the use of doubt in the pursuit of knowledge. Including imagination as a fifth way of knowing to the traditional theory of knowledge diagram; sense perception, reason, language and emotion makes the diagram stronger. Skepticism and imagination are closely linked to each other. Through the areas of mathematics and art, imagination can be seen to enhance the knower's knowledge and as a subset of the four ways of knowing. The knowledge issues that raises with imagination, can also be applied to the traditional four ways of knowing. Imagination allows one to have a new perspective of the world and therefore, imagination should be included as a fifth way of knowing to the theory of knowledge diagram.

Bibliography
[1] Dombrowski, Eileen, Lena ,. Rotenberg, and Mimi ,. Bick. IB Diploma Programme: Theory of Knowledge Course Companion. Oxford [etc.]: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
[2] Albert Einstein