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TOK Essay - Grade: A
Theory of Knowledge
IB
High School - Global
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‘Disinterestedness is essential in the pursuit of knowledge’. Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
Word count: 1600
Humans have always pursued knowledge. From early religious knowledge systems attempting to explore and justify the existence of a higher power, to Beethoven trying to capture the feel of a thunderstorm through music 1 , to Einstein developing the theory of relativity, individuals and societies have strived to explain their emotions and the world around them. Study and development in a discipline usually goes hand-in-hand with a personal engagement with or love of the discipline, meaning much of the pursuit and attainment of knowledge is a direct result of interestedness. However, disinterestedness, or objectivity, can also be considered essential in the pursuit of knowledge as it prevents bias and ulterior motives warping what we hold to be true, or telling one side of complex stories. Before the scientific method was developed and academic journals could criticise, repeat and second experiments’ claims, disinterestedness may not have played such a large role. But as the Enlightenment progressed, as multinational corporations became more powerful, as ‘fake news’ today repeats ad nauseum to overwhelm people’s reason with misleading language and the guise of authority 2 , the issue of objectivity while pursuing knowledge 3 can be considered essential to preserve the integrity, applicability and development of the discipline in question.
The pursuit of knowledge means different things in different Areas of Knowledge. The Arts allows interpretations as a form of knowledge, while for Natural Science the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of ‘truth’. In this way, biased parties involved in research in the Natural Sciences tend to be viewed more negatively 4 than partiality of artists, authors or musicians 5 - truth, like reason, exists separately from humans and their varying interpretations (through Ways of Knowing like emotion, imagination and memory), and thus
1 Richard Will, ‘Time, Morality, and Humanity in Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony’, Journal of the American Musicological Society 50, no. 2/3 (Summer-Autumn 1997): 279, jstor/stable/831836. 2 Emma Jane Kirby, ‘The City Getting Rich from Fake News’, BBC News, 2016, bbc.co/news/ magazine-38168281. 3 Michael Schudson, Discovering the News (United States of America: Basic Books, 1978), scribd/doc/196435346/Schudson-Michael-Discovering-the-News-pdf. 4 Roberto A. Ferdman, ‘How Coca-Cola has tricked everyone into drinking so much of it’, Washington Post, 2015, washingtonpost/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/05/how-coca-cola-gets-its-way/? noredirect=on&utm_term=. 5 Paul Fussell, ‘George Orwell’, The Sewanee Review 93, no. 2 (Spring 1985): 232, jstor/stable/27544441.
claims about scientific truth can be proved or disproved. But the word ‘pursuit’ also implies that the knowledge in question does not have to be attained - so even subjective researchers whose biases undermine their findings are still legitimate, because even if they did not attain knowledge, they pursued it. Another issue is that the question poses an absolute - that pursuing knowledge without disinterestedness is impossible, therefore claiming that every bit of human knowledge was obtained with disinterestedness. Like most things, it is unlikely to be so clear-cut.
Natural science has a reputation for being rigorous and exact: qualities necessary for the discoveries of fundamental truths - universal facts like the law of gravity. This requires objectivity - enforced by putting ideas under scrutiny in peer-reviewed journals and including multiple researchers on projects to balance interpretation of outcomes. Placing high levels of trust in the scientific community to challenge claims and hold each other to account takes a certain amount of faith in scientists. Hence, the moral consequences of scientists allowing incorrect or exaggerated research to affect drug production, travel safety, or chemical products means scientists’ impartiality has a huge role to play in ensuring human livelihoods. A lack of disinterestedness causes problems when pursuing knowledge as scientists can be misled with financial incentives, as seen with funding bias. For example, ‘research on secondhand smoke conducted by researchers with industry ties is 88 times more likely to find no harm’ 6. This shows that scientists, even if subconsciously, may alter their conclusions - their knowledge - to suit their sponsors’ financial interest. Conversely, even if the results had not been downplayed through omission of values, there would still be considerable doubt in the results due to the funding’s origin - adding public bias to industrial bias as a concern when pursuing knowledge. Funding can affect the pursuit of knowledge by the public as well: oil company ExxonMobil ‘gave more than $75,000... to secretly support the work of Willie Soon, a contrarian climate researcher... [seeking] to downplay the human influence on global warming.’ 7 Large companies therefore find scientists whose claims match their business interests, and make their findings more amplified in the public sphere. Normal research projects may take years securing funding, then lack advertising for the results of their
6 Jennifer Washburn, ‘Science's Worst Enemy: Corporate Funding’, Discover Magazine, 2007, discovermagazine/2007/oct/sciences-worst-enemy-private-funding. 7 Suzanne Goldberg, ‘Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry’, The Guardian, 2015, theguardian/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon- funded-energy-industry.
indicates yes.
The Arts - music, dance, literature, visual arts - are much more subjective. Because art enables people to express their passions, dislikes and emotional reactions to issues, their quality is entirely based on the emotion and sense perception of viewers - reason plays a much smaller part than in natural science. Most pre-20th Century art can be considered aestheticism - a pursuit of beauty, and striving to depict and share that, whether as a piano sonata, a pastoral painting, or a statue of Venus. If contemporary society predictated beauty conventions then artists’ work can be considered disinterested; however in many cases, especially after the 20th Century, art and the judgement of its quality has become far more individualised. Disinterestedness is present - to recognise technicalities, complexities and themes - but, especially with modern art, subjectivity of artist and viewer are central to the pursuit of artistic knowledge, and disinterestedness may even detract from the pursuit of knowledge in these cases. Within the arts knowledge is difficult to define: pursuing the perfect depiction of scenes? Evoking particular emotions? The lesson gleaned by the audience? Art can change meanings over time - Erik Satie’s ‘Gymnopedie’ 11 was insignificant to me until years after hearing it, when it took on sentimental value. Similarly, Van Gogh’s artwork went unappreciated during his lifetime, and today sells for $80 million 12. Because interpretation and appreciation of art evolves, the ‘knowledge’ being pursued - the audience, context and comparisons to subject matter - is never concrete. Thus, judging whether that pursuit is disinterested relies on historical, current and future information, making a conclusion impossible. Furthermore, familiarity bias favouring famous artists may increase our perception of their quality, prejudicing even seemingly disinterested people. Bias in literature is usually easily identifed. Language reveals artists’ intentions more explicitly than other art forms - like Orwell’s ‘Burmese Days’ 13. From studying the text, it is evident that Orwell opposed Britain’s colonial actions abroad. Despite being a subjective social commentary, its disinterestedness was an attempt to counter the pro-Empire bias of his English intended audience. Therefore, he pursued knowledge - writing - interestedly, with the purpose of making his readers’ pursuit of knowledge - about the Empire - more disinterested.
11 Erik Satie, ‘Gymnopedie No. 1’, YouTube, accessed January 27, 2019, youtube/watch? v=S-Xm7s9eGxU. 12 ‘Vincent Van Gogh – Getting the Recognition He Deserves’, Art Pro Motivate, accessed January 26, 2019, artpromotivate/2012/05/vincent-van-gogh-getting-recognition-he.html 13 George Orwell, Burmese Days (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934).
Bach is similar in that his church music was inspired by his religion. This makes interestedness essential to his pursuit of knowledge - his work. Despite this, his non-choral work has little recognisable relation to religion, especially for modern audiences unfamiliar with Bach’s life, so knowledge pursued using his music is unaffected by Bach’s views. Accordingly, if the inspiration is ‘flawed’ - interested - pursuit of that knowledge is not necessarily flawed.
While disinterestedness is important to preserve the integrity of the natural sciences, it is not as necessary in art as emotion, intuition and imagination. Disinterestedness in art helps counteract perception and perspective shifts over time and between cultures, but can detract from the creative process, whereas in natural science the objective, disinterested truth remains constant. However, pursuing and attaining knowledge alike is often involuntary, through sense perception. This shows we do not have to be disinterested to reach an understanding of the world around us, whether scientifically or aristically, as we are inherently interested and involved in our environments. That being said, disinterestedness - balancing inspiration, incentives, sources and their effects on us - must play a part in pursuing knowledge that will ultimately inform life-changing decisions.
Bibliography:
Art Pro Motivate. ‘Vincent Van Gogh – Getting the Recognition He Deserves’. Accessed January 26, 2019. artpromotivate/2012/05/vincent-van-gogh-getting- recognition-he
Ferdman, Roberto A. ‘How Coca-Cola has tricked everyone into drinking so much of it’. Washington Post, 2015. washingtonpost/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/05/how-coca-cola-gets-its-way/? noredirect=on&utm_term=.
Flourens, Jean-Pierre. Examen du livre du M. Darwin sur l'Origine des Espèces. Paris:
Will, Richard. ‘Time, Morality, and Humanity in Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony’. Journal of the American Musicological Society 50, no. 2/3 (Summer-Autumn 1997). jstor/stable/831836.
TOK Essay - Grade: A
Subject: Theory of Knowledge
IB
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