The main reason knowledge is produced is to solve problems.
Before truly unpacking the significance and truth of such a statement I believe it is necessary to unpack the statement.
One of the first things that sticks out to me is the mention of knowledge being produced. I already have a post about my learning philosophy, which is intertwined with my idea of what knowledge is, but a brief description would be an understanding that is garnered over time through experience. When thinking about knowledge I always go back to the concept that knowledge is an understanding rather than just memorization.
This is what makes that statement interesting, and almost paradoxical in my eyes. The idea that something that must be earned through life experience or through experimenting due to one’s human nature is “produced” causes one to ponder not only the extent to which they truly understand knowledge but also how this production occurs. This can easily be connected with the discussion of whether information is discovered or invented.
The second significant part of the statement regards solving problems. While this should be straight forward I can’t help but wonder what it means to solve a problem in our world. The idea of solving a problem is easily applicable with math as we generally relate problems to textbook questions and answers. However, this can be questionable itself, as it seems as though the only reason the problem exists is to be solved as if the problem comes from the answer. I also assume that problems can arise due to looking at the world in a scientific method-esk way, where one would have a question and would derive a problem from the said question.
The main reason I dwell on such simple words that are quite common in the English language is because they are so simple. I feel that solving a problem is so black-and-white, where knowledge revolves around an understanding that is full of color.
But really, when looking at the statement in its entirety, how true is it, especially regarding knowledge of mathematics?
I don’t particularly agree with the statement. This, however, contradicts with my previous self, as I have a note from January 20, 2021, that reads, “[Math] is about understanding how we can manipulate numbers or ideas to function in ways that can solve our problems.”
While I generally agree with myself at the beginning of my statement, I fall weary as I begin to talk about using manipulations solely to solve our problems. I feel as though I use knowledge as a portal to help me think and as a way to work my brain. To me, this is why we yearn for knowledge, that is to have an advanced understanding as well as the sense of accomplishment that comes with it. The capability of solving problems simply comes along with understanding.
Throughout our study of mathematics multiple people have stated that they believe math is solely theoretical, a thought that aligns with the statement that knowledge is produced and later used to solve problems (many of which would have been created by humans in the first place under the scenario that math is theoretical). Despite having multiple discussions regarding this I simply can not agree.
I make the assumption that those with this view align under a nominalist mindset, however, such a view really comes across as a fictionalist mindset (Due to the fact that when one states that math is theoretical is seems to be in the sense that math is consisting in theory and generally impractical, as though the concepts and theorems themselves do not truly exist).
Through saying this I paint myself out as a platonist, which I truly wouldn’t say that I am, however, when I see knowledge in the area of mathematics I see beauty and I see the world. This sparks the question of whether or not I see perfection in math. I’m not sure whether or not I see perfection, but I do see qualities that are inhuman, or greater than man to produce, strengthening my faith in knowledge being discovered. When asked about beauty or elegance my first thought was something that is clean, or pure. This leads me to the concept of clean/pure math.
For some, including Max Tegmark (a famed physicist), the world and the way we live revolves around math, and therefore knowledge. Some could come to the conclusion that math is discovered bit by bit whilst it envelopes our world.
While all of my thoughts are a bit jumbled I truly feel as though they all revolve around the statement in a beautiful mess. This leads up to the fact that rather than believing that math is produced to solve our problems, the craziness that is the knowledge garnered in the subject of mathematics is used to understand the world. This could be on a big scale as humankind advances or on a smaller scale of people just trying to learn as their life progresses.
The ability to solve problems that arise during the process that is living is always nice. But overall, I don’t believe our purpose in achieving (note that I prefer the word achieving over the word producing) knowledge throughout a lifetime is just to solve problems. I feel and hope that we live and learn in order to do more.
The Cons of Writing 
Emily, I really love this response. It fits into my understanding of what an essay ought to be, at its core (the word essay comes from the French, essai, which means “to try.” This is what you are doing so nicely through this blog–you are sort of trying out tentative claims to see what sticks, or how they fit or don’t fit together.
I also love to see you drawing so meaningfully from your earlier notes and thoughts and activities. That is a really awesome thing to be able to do.
I think that you are right to identify the problem of “knowledge production”–though this is an important element of the TOK curriculum, the language that surrounds it does feel a little off. Suffice to say that even if new knowledge is “discovered” at its most basic level, their is an element of production in the way that such knowledge is tested, verified, packaged, and communicated to others. Some call university professors “knowledge workers” for this reason–they are basically doing research in order to establish new truths or verify or refute old truths. In this sense, when a new research study comes out that concludes that “students learn better in groups” or something, this is “new knowledge” that has been produced, even if the FACT that students learn better in groups was already always TRUE before someone produced the knowledge about it…in a way, we didn’t KNOW it in the same way. Maybe we KNEW it through intuition, but even that–thinking about what our intuitions suggest about patterns in the world–is a sort of knowledge PRODUCTION in our own minds and experiences.
I like your brief reference to the scientific method, too. One thing that this blog could USE MORE OF, if you were to revise it into something a bit meatier, would be more concrete examples. Here, when you mention the scientific method, it would be nice if you worked through an example of some sort to demonstrate what you are meaning. Don’t get me wrong, there is a certain power to how much you are requiring of your reader here—you are really nicely alluding to all sorts of more complex relationships, but at times it would be nice for you to try your hand at “applying your thinking” to some solid real-world situation.
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a rose for emily,
i rly loved this quote “I feel that solving a problem is so black-and-white, where knowledge revolves around an understanding that is full of color.” i have no explanation as to why.
i favor the statement because it uses the phrase “main reason”, which leaves a relatively large amount of wiggle room for other reasons, however i take issue with the “solving problems” choice of phrasing. i do believe that the inspiration behind many scientists or other ppl who gain knowledge for funsies have the goal of solving a problem, however a better way to phrase this might be to provide a solution to a problem. i know the change is slight, but to say that knowledge is produced to solve problems suggests that it does. though, this obviously isn’t always the case and a lot of people are inclined to reject newly gained knowledge on their vested interest bias. therefore, a lot of knowledge goes without achieving the status of “problem solver”. rather its a problem solution.
if that doesnt make sense , just pretend it does xx.
best of luck on ur adventures,
coraline jones
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