“Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust.

” Discuss this claim with

reference to two areas of knowledge.
An element of trust is what matters as per our thought process when it comes to acceptance of

knowledge claims but it does not mean that we are subjective. Trust being the base creates the

relationship required between the one accepting the claim and the one claiming. Knowledge

Claim is itself a contradictory statement which knowers believe (as the knowledge claim is

valued when we are satisfied with the justification and have a degree of belief in it due to

evidence provided) but it is still debatable as it is based on the value and trust of the one who

wants to accept. Here evidence is directly proportional to accepting knowledge. For example, for

an experiment the scientist makes hypothesis which is actually based on knowledge that is made

a thesis. This justification and belief come from the process of the knowledge claim in some

specific areas of knowledge. The element of trust is not the “always” factor which would lead to

accepting knowledge claims as in areas of knowledge like natural sciences and history. Even if

trust then it is built up of elements like competence, reliability, integrity and communication. All

these lead to a question-to what extent the involvement of an element of trust is always there

when it comes to accepting knowledge claim?

In natural sciences the process of formulating knowledge claim involves empiricism which

brings in hypothesis and then the hypothesis is supported by the empirical means of experiments.

The experiment become gullible when sufficient and valid evidence is collected. Evidence being

a crucial factor becomes the base and required to be accurate. But the instruments used are never

accurate actually they lack in precision. There lies an error in it. The errors make the process of

formulation of knowledge claim a question. The knowledge claim is the involvement of trust in

the use of instruments for the experiments. The element of trust is involved in the use of standard

instruments. Trust does not involve now for the acceptance easily. These make the purpose and
the aim of the experiment false though the experiment is correct. Thus, the knowledge claim

made on the basis of trust involved in it, in any mean make the common people to think. For an

example, when I studied physics in class tenth, I came across the topic of pendulum and to

measure its time period. I had to experiment on finding the gravitational force action on the bob.

Trust is developed from validity and this is gained from the resource person or links like the

NCERT books and the books published by Selina publications. Here we used an instrument

called the Vernier Calipers which measures the circular diameter of bob. The reading in Vernier

Calipers includes an instrumental error which occurs when the scale does not match at zero when

the jaws are closed. It depends on the companies which produces the instrument. Mitutoyo (Top

Ten Brands, Suppliers & Manufacturers of Vernier Calipers) is an ISO 9001:2015 (Certifications

& Accreditations) certified company but involves the instrumental error in the instrument thus

the calibration is at stake. A certified company brings in trust but trust is hindered here with the

instrumental error by the companies.

Similarly, it happens in the other branches of natural sciences like biology. One of my friends is

pursuing his extended essay in biology with an aim to check the rate of growth of plant affected

by the use of fertilizers. While discussing, I came to know the instrumental error in measuring

cylinder which differs in milliliters and can change the amount of fertilizers or water given every

day makes the aim of experiment to measure growth is null and void. And the trust on the

measuring cylinders and its company is at stake.

However, the scientists know about the problem and they do not accept any knowledge claim

without its further checking but the general public always do not have other option than

believing. To check the problem in the instruments like Vernier Calipers there are other process

involved which includes the knowledge by the authority here authority can be anyone who is
known in that field or the council of the science association or the certification of companies by

ISO which keeps regular checks. The PEER review actually checks the process minutely for the

authenticity of it and PEER’s can be the competitor of the company. Even after that we have a

process of multiple readings which makes the results more precise and we become certain about

our result. The experiment will be done by many PEER groups in the same way but with

different instruments so the instrumental error would get nullify in that case.

Even after the PEER review there are errors and the competitors may be doing it for the

competition. The process of multiple reading has a flaw as at the end we need to take up the

average of the entire reading for result which might be too low or high with comparison to the

exact result and there is no acute justification to it thus, true belief is involved in it.

In history the process of the formulation of knowledge claim depends on the evidence collected.

Trust plays a major role in the context of history as the process of getting the evidence in history.

In history after we get evidence, claims are made and based on the interpretations made by the

different historians on the evidence. There are historical perspectives and it needs to be

understood which requires social, cultural and intellectual ideologies. The interpretation done

from the evidence collected are based on various studies of past languages of civilizations, their

standard of living, social culture and some background research on it. Even there are publications

with the contents and they follow different historian and perspective. The claim is, in history an

element of trust is always involved in historians or the publications when a knowledge claim

needs to accepted. Post-World War-II, Treaty of Versailles was made for the peace in the world

and there are many claims made on that which makes us aware with the implementation

accordingly. It leads to the clash in the publications who follows different historians’ perspective

as trust on the historians forms a base. Author Sheila Gordon claimed- “There were two
conflicting motives underlying their decisions: the wish to provide a new political and

geographical framework that would ensure a peaceful and prosperous Europe, and the desire to

punish Germany.” (Treaty of Versailles). Whereas the author Terry, Copp in his book “No Price

Too High” means that the treaty is not that harsh, terrible and overly extreme how it was made

by the people (Treaty of Versailles). This is a difference in opinion and interpretation of the

history.

Likewise, during the time of Indian Independence Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose took help of

Japanese army to defeat British troop but was unable. As per the West Bengal Council of Higher

Education due to the defeat of Japan in World War II the army retreat and was unable to achieve

its goal (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose). As per India Today’s picture of Nehru’s note to Subhash

Chandra Bose, made him to think about the attack by the army and they were not able to achieve

its goal (Kanwal). Accepting knowledge claim made by different historians cannot be always

accepted based on evidences as it needs interpretation of historical evidences and it differs from

person to person. An element of trust on the curriculum can be there as they are profound in

India and the author who has given the interpretation can also be trusted. Thus, an element of

trust is involved in the process of acceptance but now always as many of evidence are simply

understood.

The acceptance of the claims of the historians also depends on factors of knowledge based on the

specific area of the war and the different evidences collected and understanding of the situation.

The treaty was accepted by all the countries involved in it and they must have thought about it.

Then only they have approved it in the conference with the delegates from each country. There

must be some research done by the historians, council, news article companies to know about the

fact then only they can reach to a conclusion. If the council publishes something, they must know
the authenticity and the panel to discuss on and they are knowledgeable in the field. The

acceptance can be based on the factors like this and the trust may not be involved in it.

Trust has a major role in the process of acceptance but not an always factor involved as the other

factors like justification, validity subjectivity also matters in the process. Moreover, in the above

examples we found out that trust is involved in the process of either the formation of knowledge

claim or the acceptance but there is no certainty whether trust is always a factor involved. It

cannot involve every time as the field experts have their viewpoints on it even critics are there to

comment on and after the entire process of evaluation a claim is accepted. Even some can say

that the trust is built by the experience too and thus it is not trust. By providing thee justifications

with the help of areas of knowledge I tried to prove that to accept knowledge claims trust is not

always required as interpretation and perspectives even matters.

Word Count- 1551

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