Theory of Knowledge Essay - Assigned Knowledge Question: “It is only knowledge produced with difficulty that we truly value.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

My assigned knowledge question ponders whether or not we only truly find value in knowledge that was obtained through great difficulty. Tackling this question will inevitably lead to the evaluation of what we may define as valuable knowledge; and what characterizes difficulty in the producing of said knowledge. Especially in terms of deciphering what valuable knowledge is; it is essential to define from whose perspective this value is being perceived. Looking back at the assigned knowledge question, the collective “we” is utilized when addressing the reader. Due to this collective term, I will define the intended perspective of this knowledge question as the world’s human population. This seemingly broad assumption may seem misguided at first, however, while it is true that everyone on earth will individually and uniquely define what value and difficulty means to them; it is possible to group every individual in the world in the same animal species. What does our human species define as valuable? What does our human species classify as difficult? This perspective is how I will interpret and thus tackle the assigned knowledge question. I will look through the lenses of emotion and human sciences in order to answer what I have questioned above.

Claim: An emotional response of appreciation may only be elicited when the means to achieve this response were difficult.
Emotions are divided in two factions: primary and secondary emotions. A primary emotion is classified as a very simple or basic emotion, such as happiness, anger, and sadness. These primary emotions are easily recognizable in everyone, as they are associated with a common facial expression. For example, when someone feels happy they smile. A much more general and extensive subset of these primary emotions exists, known as secondary emotions. Secondary emotions are commonly referred to as blends of primary emotions, in the same vein of primary colours creating secondary and tertiary colours. An example of said blend of primary emotions could be relief, which is a secondary emotion blended from happiness and surprise. All emotions are invoked by a stimulus, which then creates a feeling and followed by arousal. The emotion in question is appreciation, a secondary emotion. The feeling of appreciation may only be invoked by a stimulus that causes a sense of relief and happiness. This stimulus is the completion of a difficult task, or in this case the acquirement of sought after knowledge. Only when the task is difficult the appropriate feeling of appreciation is elicited, meaning that only knowledge that must be obtained by treacherous means, is the knowledge that we can truly appreciate.

For example, lets imagine two teenagers who are passionate football fans. Both of these individuals desire to watch the cup final in the stadium, for this reason they must acquire tickets. Wealthy parents bless one teen and for him to achieve his goal of attending the cup final, he must ask his parents for money. The other teenager does not have the luxury of the other and must work overtime to garner enough money to buy a ticket. The second teen had to work much harder than the first teen, for him to get the ticket to the final. This is the aforementioned difference in stimuli, which lead to the positive feelings of attending the game. The second teen will appreciate the experience much more as he had to endure extra long work hours to afford the ticket, unlike the first teen that did not work for the experience. This phenomenon is also present in young children. Children who receive everything they want without having to work at all often become spoiled and unappreciative. This response will not happen to a child how rarely receives gifts, as he recognizes the individual value of each gift as he or his parents had to work to obtain said gift. From these examples it is obvious that knowledge obtained through difficulty is knowledge that we can truly appreciate.

Counterclaim: The secondary emotion of appreciation is culturally dependent; therefore knowledge obtained effortlessly may in fact be greatly appreciated.

For someone to find value in something they must appreciate it. This emotional response is culturally dependent and due to this fact appreciation of knowledge and difficulty of acquirement of said knowledge are not mutually inclusive. The fact that a sense of value differs throughout cultures may be attributed to the fact that each culture holds separate beliefs. For example in our modernized western culture, the things we perceive as valuable are very materialistic, or a means to gain said materialistic wealth. This includes expensive sports cars, large houses, fancy shoes and of course money. The things that we define as valuable are materialistic; this however is not true for every culture on our planet. A less modernized culture, which has different priorities from our culture, will place value in things that people from our culture would consider inexpensive. So an African tribe’s man will not find value in the latest designer brand shoes, he would prefer a dozen sweet potatoes to feed his family with. His priorities lie in a different place than most western civilians; the sense of wealth and therefore value is different. Because of this appreciation is culturally dependent.
A possible example of this could be identified if once again we imagine two people in the same situation. The first of these two people is from a deeply religious culture specifically a Buddhist, whilst the second person is not from a religious culture and an atheist. If these two individuals were faced in front of the Dalai Lama, who will provide them both with some religious knowledge. The effort or difficulty of obtaining this knowledge is minimal and the same for both individuals. The difference lies in the fact that the Buddhist admires the Dalai Lama much more due to his culture. This will lead him to value the knowledge given much more than the atheist. This example demonstrates how the value of knowledge is determined by culture and not by the difficulty in obtaining said knowledge.

In conclusion, the definitions of value and difficulty are paramount when interpreting this knowledge question. The importance of determining this is that by doing so we can pin point what we call knowledge that we find valuable. From this essay we have learned that valuable knowledge is defined from the secondary emotional response called appreciation. For someone to truly appreciate something they must recognize the difficulty in obtaining this something. While this is true the sense of value of something may also be caused by a cultural factor and not the difficulty obtaining the knowledge. So to answer the question: “It is only knowledge produced with difficulty that we truly value.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

I agree with this statement, however the statement is dependent on what culture the person in question is from, as this determines what they individually define as valuable.