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1. “Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust”. Discuss this claim with

reference to two areas of knowledge.

I grew up as Catholic, but articles such as Five Mistakes in Your Bible Translation made

me doubt my faith (Hoffman, 2011). Still, listening to people sing can feel spiritual, these

spiritual experiences have shaped my religious beliefs. Spiritual experiences are important in

religious belief systems and so is shared knowledge. For both personal and shared knowledge,

trust is important. While hearing the song, I trusted the singer; not doubting their intentions.

“Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust”, has many concepts to

define such as “accepting knowledge claims” which may involve agreement but does not need

to. For example, I do not believe in the Christian God, but I still accept my Christian friends’

personal experiences. The beliefs are real to the believer and a non-believer accepts them, even

if they do not share the same view. However, my Christian friends also accept my belief, since

one cannot prove the existence of God. The second part of “Accepting knowledge claims

always involves an element of trust” that stands out is “always”, which means without

exception. The statement thus declares that you can never accept knowledge claims without

trust. “Trust” is very similar to believing in something. Belief has many layers: honesty or

reliability for example. Trust is present in most areas of knowledge that utilize knowledge

communities, such as religious knowledge systems. On the other hand, art has a less clear

connection to trust. These areas of knowledge – religious knowledge systems and arts – are

examined in this essay.

TOK example essay M21

Theory of Knowledge