TOK Essay
Alexa Garza
“The quality of knowledge produced by an academic discipline is directly proportional to the duration of
historical development of that discipline.” Explore this claim with reference to the two themes.
This essay will explore the phrase “quality of knowledge”.The main argument for this claim would most
likely be presented as “If something has been known for longer, it must logically produce knowledge of a
higher quality and standard as there has been more time for people to develop it”. This can be a valid
argument for many situations, however certainly not always and not for all.
In this prompt it is being said that the longer an academic discipline has existed, the more quality the
knowledge produced in that area has. But is it really the case? Quality is a trait of knowledge that is
determined by its usefulness. Knowledge can not be assigned a quality like most things as the way in
which we use it, varies according to circumstance alongside the thing that makes it more important than
others.
A historical development needs time. Naturally, any kind of development takes a long time. However, the
total time taken by the development of the history of any discipline is directly proportional to the quality
of the knowledge from that discipline. With the development of time while creating history of any
discipline, knowledge is added to that discipline for advancement. The knowledge should be valuable in
nature otherwise, it would be not possible for the advancement or progression of that discipline.
Quality is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “how good or bad something is”, but how can
we determine if our knowledge has in fact quality? there’s no specific quality attached to knowledge.
There’s no such thing as good knowledge or bad knowledge. It’s a very simple and straightforward aspect.
Knowledge can be a fact or an information or a skill acquired through experience or education.
Knowledge doesn’t differentiate/judge the quality of the person imparting it. Does it?