Courtney Chin
IB Theory of Knowledge
Puryear 1
TOK Essay
Prompt: The possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility. Evaluate this claim.
Knowledge is something that this world cherishes. The possession of knowledge can lead to power. But the possession of said knowledge carries with it an ethical responsibility of how to handle the knowledge. Knowledge cannot be simply tossed around to anybody yet it also can’t be withheld from everybody. Ethical responsibilities will always arise from the possession of knowledge and must be dealt with carefully in order to create a functioning society.
There are a few things that first need to be defined before moving on. These are “ethical responsibility”, “knowledge” and “possession of knowledge”. Ethical responsibility can be derived from a number of things. A person’s own beliefs about what they think is ethical can contribute to how a person feels they are ethically responsible. Their personal ethics as well as their past experiences can lead a person to have a certain perspective about what is ethically correct. Culture or religion can play a major role in what a person believes is ethical. Depending on what a culture or religion teaches, that person may take on those beliefs as their own and live their life according to what the religion says. As said before, a person’s past experiences or their personal history can affect how they go about situations in the present. If something happened in their past that dealt directly with an ethical responsibility they will have a different perspective on the situation. Ethical responsibility can also be viewed as objective or subjective. It may depend on who the person is and what they have experienced. Not everybody has experienced the same things in life and no two people are exactly alike, therefore the definition of ethical responsibility is different for everybody and is affected by aforementioned topics. Knowledge is based on a few things and may follow certain criteria. First off, what counts as knowledge? Knowledge can be a number of things. There can be knowledge in experience, knowledge from the senses, knowledge from others, etc. Knowledge can be acquired in many different ways. But the knowledge that a person knows may not always be right. Sometimes experience can be blurred by memory, the senses can be distorted by perception, and knowledge from others may not always be the correct knowledge. So this then becomes an issue of how to know which knowledge is credible and which is not. It is more reasonable to trust a person’s knowledge on a topic if they are specialized in that. Say for example, a doctor. A doctor would know about the human body and the different diseases and illnesses that are affecting a person better than a child who has only briefly acquired knowledge about these topics. So it is obvious that the doctor’s knowledge is more credible than the child’s. Possession of knowledge may include a personal point of view and does not include just the facts. The possession is not necessarily as important as what is done after the possession. Once a person possesses knowledge, it is crucial that they decide what to do with the knowledge. They must “own” the knowledge in a sense and find a use for the knowledge in order to do what is ethically right. Therefore the possession of knowledge implies that there is some value judgment in how to handle the knowledge and what to do with it.
We can use these definitions to help evaluate the statement that the possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility using some examples. Some books have a theme of the censorship of knowledge. In Brave New World, the government is the sole possessor of knowledge. They control everything, even human life. Everything is left up to the government to decide. Social classes are created by the government even before conception and humans are no longer created the natural way but rather through test tubes and machines that control everything in order to provide the government with complete control. In our world today, these conditions are unfathomable and quite disturbing according to our present ethical beliefs. Cloning and genetically modifying the people to fit a standard carry an ethical responsibility are crucial examples of how this kind of knowledge – the ability to create a “perfect” person – is dangerous to a society and therefore does carry an ethical responsibility. The book Fahrenheit 451 is similar to Brave New World in that the government is the sole possessor of knowledge. There is strict censorship of any knowledge and the government controls everything that the people see, hear, breathe, touch, smell, everything. They had all books burned and then they created a world where books were bad and any knowledge that could come from them was harmful and dangerous to the people. In this book we see an ethical responsibility to share the knowledge because the restriction of knowledge to the public can lead to a lesser society. It also means that there isn’t a possibility of improvement or innovation because only the government knows the whole truth and therefore it takes away the chance of the brilliant minds creating a new gadget that could better the society. However, it can also be said that the censorship of knowledge is for the better of the people and that without said knowledge, the people could be happier and live freer; that sometimes knowledge is what hinders the world and that there isn’t an ethical responsibility that people must hold if they are in possession of knowledge. They could argue that the possession of knowledge does not always lead to positive results. An example of this could be the possession of the knowledge of how to build an atomic bond. This type of knowledge should not be given to just anybody because if it is caught in the wrong hands then the world could end up being destroyed. Therefore sometimes sharing knowledge is not always the right thing to do; which then leads back to the fact that the possession of this kind of knowledge must be handled responsibly and with great care.
The sciences carry with them many ethical responsibilities. In the natural sciences, there are many topics that carry an ethical responsibility. There are tests that can be run on a child to know if the child carries or is at risk for a genetic disease. The parents of these children have an ethical responsibility of testing their children because the children should be able to know if there is a possibility of having a genetic defect. It is the child’s life, not the parent’s life and therefore the child should have the right to know the possibility that they contain a certain genetic disease. However there are people that say that knowing that the child has this disease can also bring about negative effects to both the child and the parents. It can cause stress, angst, fear, etc. In this case it is important to note that the knowledge can outweigh the negative effects in that the child can get the necessary treatment or be carefully monitored for the disease in the case that it appears and it can be diagnosed early. The child will then be able to know how their life will play out and how long they may live. Psychology is a social science that also carries an ethical responsibility. Clinical psychologists obtain tons of knowledge about a patient. It is crucial that the psychologist present the information to the patient in a certain way to help the patient’s recovery. They may not always tell the full truth and leave out certain information that they feel would hinder their patient’s recovery. In this sense it is important that the psychologist know what to do with the knowledge they obtain and how to relay it to their patients. If a psychologist were to tell their patient everything they know, it could lead to stress and fear within the patient. These things would affect the patient negatively and may lead to a worsening of the situation. But the psychologist also carries an ethical responsibility to share information to the patient that is crucial for them to know. If there is something majorly wrong and the patient really needs extensive aid then it is the psychologist’s responsibility to let their patient know what they think.
There are some counter-arguments to the idea that the possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility. Some have been said previously. Some people say that there is no ethical responsibility with the possession of knowledge and that it is not the responsibility of the knowledge holder to share the information they know. Not all information has to be shared to the public. And it is completely up to the individual as to whether or not certain information should be shared. Many say that they should not be ethically bound to share or not share the knowledge they have obtained but rather they should be able to do with it what they like.
Overall, even when considering the counter-arguments, it always leads back to the idea that the possession of knowledge does carry an ethical responsibility. In all of the examples explained above, some type of action is required of the knowledge acquired and when dealing with what the action should be, people will always look to ethics as a way of justifying their actions. No matter what situations may bring, any type of knowledge can be used and it is up to the knowledge possessor to be ethically responsible and handle the knowledge in the correct way. And while there is no single solution in dealing with the knowledge, there are many different components that affect the right solution for the situation.
![order now](https://nursinghomeworkhelps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/order-now.jpg)