RELIGION AS AN AREA OF KNOWLEDGE 2

GOD MATTERS XS IB CLE 2012-2013 Full Name Daniel Ng 4B Section LC#

Note: This is your digital worksheet. You will nd the instructions for todays module here. Perform the requested tasks using this Pages le. In other words, make it your own. Thank you!

Part One: YOUR Epistemological World Views Summarize here your ndings (even if tentative!) about your philosophies of knowledge: Absolutist, Relativist, or Rationalist? Domains Natural Science Item #s 1, 5, 14 YOUR Philo of K Rationalist Brief Reason + Remarks In Science, there maybe two possible answers, but one will always be better than the other. When it comes to Humanities, there are always exceptions and certain things that cant be explained because of the fact that they cant be controlled and experimented on. It would depend on the background of the person, how he/she is brought up, the culture that a person has. You would also have to take into account the experiences of a person, so there is truly no correct answer. Morality is a domain, wherein there are many possible choices, however one will always be better than the other, as it will entail the conscience of a person and how a certain action affects the majority. There are a lot of different types of religion and we arent sure as of now, which ones are really true. We just rely on our faith, so we cant really say one is better than the other.

Social Science

4, 8, 12

Relativist

Art

3, 7, 10

Relativist

Morality

6, 9, 11

Rationalist

Religion

2, 13, 15

Relativist

Part Two: Ways of Knowing How important are the different Ways of Knowing in the different domains? Rank them from 1 to 5 according to importance, with 1 as MOST IMPORTANT. If you think there are other ways of knowing/judging, use the last column and specify.

Domains Natural Science Social Science Art Morality Religion

Sense Perception 1 1 1 3 4

Reason 3 2 4 1 3

Language 2 3 3 4 2

Emotion 4 4 2 2 1

Others?

Part Three: AUTHORITY and/or EVIDENCE/ARGUMENT When you justify claims, how much do you actually rely on External Authority and Direct Evidence for every domain? Assign a percentage to each one per domain (Just make an estimate, so NO decimal points--e.g., 25.2321%!). Make sure both total 100%.

Domains

% AUTHORITY 40%

% EVIDENCE/
ARGUMENT

Brief Reason + Remarks

Natural Science

60%

100%

This is because theories and laws which will be applied to experiments will be coming from the teacher (authority), in order to prove the lessons in class, we do experiments to be able to justify what we learned in class

Social Science

35%

65%

100%

Authority is a little thing when it comes to Social Sciences as it is seen in our lives frequently, it is the study of humanity. So, explaining would be really hard as we have not fully understood it. Therefore, I would believe in in more if I were to see evidences.

Art

25%

75%

100%

This is because Art is different to the rest of the areas of knowledge as it requires that you see/hear/etc the certain piece of art work. Morality is something taught to us, and will shape how we act and how we decide on things. This will rely on authority as this is usually taught by teachers and parents. I rely on authority more than on evidences as religions dont really have proof that they are truly real. Most of them are depended on the faith of the people believing in them. So people have to be guided in maintaining that faith.

Morality

75%

25%

100%

Religion

65%

35%

100%

Why do you think there is no OPINION in Part Three? Opinion isnt part of part three because opinions are open ended, they are usually just thoughts of people based on experiences, recent readings, and arent factual at all. So it cant be trusted and relied on compared to authority and evidence. But opinions are also important as those are were facts come out of, however saying this, both Authority and Evidence are under Opinion.

Some other learnings, comments, connections... I would honestly say, I had a hard time answering this because these are intangible ideas which I dont usually ponder on, but just know it. It also gave me a chance to reect on what I believe in, see what I rely on, which of the ways of knowing are important to me, etc.