Essay on Areas of Knowledge: Uniformities and Knowledge

This essay explores the statement: 'without the assumption of the existence of uniformities there can be no knowledge.' It delves into the theory of knowledge (TOK), emphasizing the importance of evidence-based knowledge. The essay analyzes two key areas of knowledge: religious knowledge and indigenous knowledge. Religious knowledge is examined through the lens of faith, ethics, and cultural diversity, while indigenous knowledge is considered in terms of community-developed systems and sustainable practices. The essay argues that the existence of uniformities is crucial for knowledge acquisition, discussing how language, cognitive processes, and experiential knowledge are linked to this concept. It references various scholars and their perspectives on these topics, concluding that experiential knowledge might not always require uniformity but that a basic level of uniformity is vital to draw on past experiences. The essay highlights the interconnectedness of uniformities and knowledge, offering insights into how humans acquire and apply knowledge.

Running head: AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
Areas of Knowledge
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge refers to the things which are authentic and genuine in contrast to opinion.
Information is considered as appropriate to knowledge which can be always backed up by
evidence. A statement cannot be considered as knowledge if it is not supported by evidence.
Simply, knowledge can be regarded as the facts, information and skills which are acquired either
through prior experience or education and the theoretical or practical accepting of the subject. In
this assignment, the two areas of knowledge will be analyzed to throw light on the statement,
‘without the assumption of the existence of uniformities there can be no knowledge’. Theory of
knowledge plays a major role by providing an opportunity to reflect on the nature of knowledge
and how the knowledge is gathered based on information. By delving deep into the purposeful
enquiry into the different areas of knowledge, TOK or theory of knowledge consists of questions
only. The primary question will be “how do we know?” and others include what counts as
evidence? How do we judge? What does the theory mean?
Theory of knowledge or TOK helps in thinking to a real- life situation, while the essay
takes the shape of a more conceptual beginning. It can be taken for instance that the essay can
ask for claims that the methodologies were used for reproducing knowledge and dependent on
the use of knowledge. The theory of knowledge intends to make us aware of the interpretation
underlying in knowledge which includes personal ideological biases and those can be retained,
revised or rejected. The theory of knowledge The areas of knowledge put stress on the division
and categorization of knowledge that is possessed. There are eight areas of knowledge but for the
sake of the given claim, religious knowledge and indigenous knowledge are the two significant
points of discussion. Ferguson had written in his article that the line connecting religious
freedom and discrimination is vague and often debatable. As per the common saying, religious
knowledge is the belief and faith in God or an extreme power. Religion is an integral part of

2AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
many human’s lives as it provides with the opportunity to learn about various thinking processes
and the reason behind the global diversity in the society. With respect to religion, the knowledge
question might be the arguments between the inseparability of ethics and religion and the extent
to which knowledge about religion can be gained apart from faith. It has been mentioned in
"WHAT IS RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE ? » 22 Aug 1941 » The Spectator Archive" that there
are various expressions of religious ideas with regard to music, architecture, painting, literature
and sculpture. In terms of scope, religious knowledge has a number of common features such as
holy books, places of worship, followers, sacred sense and so on. While applying the religious
ideas, it can affect the behavior for further scrutinizing the role of religion and ethics. In terms of
concept, language can be considered for depicting the elements and theories which are common
to all religions such as prayer and worship. Again in terms of historical development, focus can
be given on the origin and development of the religious knowledge system to consider the timely
development of religious ideas. It can be contradicted that the religious knowledge system can
pose an important effect on the personal knowledge of individuals (Wiebe).
The other area of knowledge, i.e. indigenous knowledge refers to the knowledge system
that is developed by the community in contradiction to the scientific knowledge. The indigenous
knowledge forms the base for local level decision making within many communities. The
knowledge that is inherent of the region or tradition is also termed as modern knowledge. The
knowledge is applied in the form of indigenous methods such as weather forecasting by the
farmers planning activities. This knowledge is passed on from one generation to the other
generally by word of mouth or cultural rituals which form the basis for agriculture, health,
education and many more. The people who use indigenous knowledge have an idea on
sustainable living. The main objective behind using this knowledge is to appreciate the

3AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
indigenous perspectives on the methods of combined living and using sustainable resources. This
particular knowledge is embedded within the local communities which are crucial for subsistence
and survival (Kovach).
The statement that is made by Mulkay in his book that knowledge bears a long history. It
can be considered appropriate in relation with the given claim. There is no knowledge without
the assumption of existence of uniformities and it is also a very important part of cognition.
Moreover, existence of language is also impossible without the existence of uniformities.
Language which is composed of words picks out classes instead of any particular entity. For
instance, with the mention of a specific term such as ‘dog’, a variety of the same species is
referred who share the same common features. Therefore, all the items in the specific category
are uniform in some way or the other. The characteristics can be specified with the addition of
qualifiers or adjectives but these specific words are counted as categories. Therefore the common
characteristic such as color is only used in language as it is perceivable in various situations and
circumstances. In the science of knowledge, such characteristics are known as concepts,
universals or invariant representations. The last term out of the three is preferable as it forms a
bridge between idea and knowledge. Such simple idea can be one of the strong ideas in science
as it leads the society to seek for invariants in the universe. The human brains also let the
individuals find and make invariants in the n the world as well as within them.
It was argued by Ostrom that similar situations occur on diverse scales and the issues in
commonness are no more settled by many individuals. There are certain types of knowledge that
the brain tackles which do not involve language and sometimes not even uniformities. Another
point that can be taken into consideration is that the cognitive processes of young people might
involve such kinds of knowledge which will not be understood by the others. In the brain of the

4AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
human beings, the process of viewing and remembering is compared to the system of anything
stored beforehand in the memory. The content of the memories can be either true or false and are
used as a substitute for the new memories. But it can be mentioned that there are few memories
which are basic in form and that is the place where the memories of childhood is present.
Fowler mentioned that in the human brain there is no empty space to include new ideas
but that is not the same in case of children. Children have empty neurons and circuits where the
memory can be stored. The individuals are born with plenty of neurons and most of those are
used in the childhood for storing the incidents of lives. It can be mentioned that when the
individual reaches in his teens the unused part of his neurons gradually wearies off. In the early
life of an individual he is able to learn from knowledge that is not associated to the existing
knowledge as there are spare neurons for doing the task of depiction. He individuals do not
realize the formation of his childhood memories but it can be assured that the childhood
knowledge does not involve words. However, the non- verbal memories or knowledge might
have little contribution in the adults’ life and these same memories are the one that can be
verbalized or easily thought about (Greco).
There is a possibility that very early memories are not dependent on the existence of
uniformities. Moreover, the individuals should not be assumptive with the insistence that the
uniformities do not exist as there is not much knowledge about the operation of childhood or
adult memories. When the adult moves way from the phase of childhood, the hypothetical
memories can be a substitute for the future memories so that the experience of knowledge
without uniformities can exist. Neither there is any argumentative statement about the non-
existence of the memories nor there is any proof of authentication. It can only be mentioned that
wherever knowledge is lacking there is no scope of finding amazement (Palacios and Castorina).

5AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
The statement on the existence of knowledge without the assumption of uniformities is
interesting. It can also be argued that the experiential knowledge does not need assumption. For
instance, if an individual puts his hand on a burner, he learns that a disastrous burn will be the
expected outcome. In such a case no knowledge of uniformity is required. This can be
considered as indigenous knowledge too. But there is no scope of the individual to gain
knowledge about the fact that the same incident might not happen again or it might happen with
another burner. A minimum knowledge is required if the individual wishes to make an
upcoming application of the painful experience that he had. To gain knowledge about the
uniform behavior of the universe, experiential knowledge can be gained by the individual or
from a trustworthy and acceptable source. Thus, uniformity can be regarded as reality and
knowledge is holding reality into useable forms for attaining goals at a higher level. The
uniformity in behavior leads to production of knowledge. In support and contradiction to the
given claim, a lot of assumptions have taken place along with the belief that uniformity exists as
similar to the religious belief of the individuals.

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Bibliography
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Discriminatory Tendencies Of Adults Affiliated With Various Faiths." (2016).
"WHAT IS RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE ? » 22 Aug 1941 » The Spectator Archive." The
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religious-knowledge-.
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