In what ways do our values affect our acquisition of knowledge?

In my exhibition I will be elucidating the relationship between our core values and how we
humans then gain knowledge. The term “production of knowledge” conveys the collective
general knowledge in our society and more specific knowledge that we acquire through
individual research in our everyday lives.

Object 1. Small, sharp micro blades. (Magdalenian culture): 11,000 to 17,000 years ago.
(Image source: https://www.history.com/news/hunter-gatherer-tools-breakthroughs)

My first object is a small sharp micro blade. This ancient tool was created by humans in the
Magdalenian culture. It is estimated to have been first made 11,000 to 17,000 years ago in a time
period named Upper Paleolithic by anthropologists. It demonstrates the framework of stone to
produce an extremely precise therefore powerful tool to kill animals from an important distance.
As humans needed to hunt in order to survive, they attached these blades to handles made of
bone and antler to then use them as projectile weapons. According to many historians this
invention played a fundamental role in results of the hunt because before this humans would have
to get extremely close to the animals presenting a great risk for their life. Due to all of these
specificities it was revolutionary and declared to be one the the most elaborate objects that
primitive humans created.

This object is linked to the prompt because it demonstrates how one of the most important human
values, survival, drove them to produce new technology. The search for technological innovation
produced knowledge that allowed them to take away some of the risk when hunting therefore
protecting themselves. At the time, surviving was never a guarantee therefore acquiring more
knowledge to improve their hunting technique was the only way to minimise the risk. This
killing tool proves that values can be a positive motivation for the production of knowledge and
can increase human’s attempts in exploration and creation. This motivation comes from the
willingness to preserve each other so therefore protect their future.

Object 2. The official guillotine which was used by the state of Luxembourg from 1789 to 1821.
(Image source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/kfnsmx/the_official_guillotine_used_by_the_state_of/ )

My second object is the official guillotine which was used by the state of Luxembourg from 1789
to 1821. The government particularly used it during the French Revolution as a symbol to
promote the violence of the Reign of Terror and to exhibit their power to their people. It was
invented by a French surgeon, Antionce Louis, and consists of two wooden uprights completed
by a horizontal beam with a sharp blade attached at the top. The guillotine was a death
punishment said to be the least painful due to the speed of the blade. Due to this statement that it
was excessively used so in 1821, but for many reasons this mass killing was declared to have to
stop.

This object is connected to the prompt because it portrays how a tool made as a result of an
acquisition of knowledge, needed to be stopped because it was deferred for human values. The
guillotine started to appear as a savage way of killing someone and therefore went against human
values later. It was seen as extremely cruel to lead a condemned person to a huge object that
would end their lives within milliseconds. This opposition between the produced knowledge and
human values became too important so this process was discontinued. Furthermore this case
shows how values can also create obstacles to producing knowledge, even if they can be useful.
Altogether, for these reasons and due to many protestations, the guillotine was claimed to be
barbaric to keep using it. So as a conclusion human values were an obstacle and prevented them
from using an object that was produced by humans when using their knowledge.

Object 3. The first of the ten cards of the Rorschach test.

(Image source: https://web.archive.org/web/20070820233339/http://ar.geocities.com/test_de_rorschach/ )

My third object is the first card out of the ten produced by the Swiss psychologist Hermann
Rorschach. The objective behind this artwork was to test the psychologist of a person based on
what they saw first. At the time, using the responses, judgements on your personality are going to
be possible and examine a person’s emotional functioning. The particularity of this test was the
asymmetric figures that were perfectly symmetric to one another forming an artistic composition.
Each element was targeting a different part of your personality and therefore the test was
supposed to shed light on many different aspects of your psyche and give you a better
understanding of yourself.

This object is related to the prompt because it demonstrates how our values can deeply affect our
psychological intentions and therefore affect our perception of knowledge. The art piece
exemplifies the idea that two different people that have different values are not likely to intercept
the data the same way. Therefore the acquisition of knowledge is not done the same way for any
human depending on their values. This shows how deeply our values have a major impact on
how we acquire and produce knowledge on the level of the simplest acts of perception.

In conclusion our values are mainly responsible for how humans acquire knowledge. They can
act as a strong motivation, as an obstacle and can act as a filter through which knowledge is
recognized. As explained with the third object the same data can be interpreted differently
depending on your inner self. Even when data is already present, human values may shape the
way we use it. Furthermore, values are not only “motivation” or an “obstacle” in the acquisition
of knowledge but also determine the way to use it.

References:

For object 1:

A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). HISTORY | Watch Full Episodes of Your Favorite Shows.
History.com. https://www.history.com/.

Peterkin, G. L. (2008). Upper Paleolithic. Upper Paleolithic - an overview | ScienceDirect

Topics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/upper-paleolithic.

For object 2:

Andrews, E. (2014, September 15). 8 Things You May Not Know About the Guillotine.
History.com.
https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-guillotine.

Fabricius, J. (n.d.). History of the guillotine. https://guillotine.dk/pages/history.html.

For object 3:

Inkblot test: Harrower-Erickson Multiple Choice Rorschach Test. (2019, May 21).
https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/HEMCR/.

What Is The Rorschach Test? Online Rorschach Inkblot Test. (n.d.).

https://www.rorschach.org/.