What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge?

The TOK question I have chosen is: "What is the relationship between personal experience
and knowledge?" In the exhibition I explore this question pondering the true meaning of
knowledge and if it can be acquired through personal experience, if so, what quality and
how much value would such knowledge have. In addition, it is analyzed if personal
experience can be a negative, partial factor, since it is something lived by an individual with
foreign interests and a different context. Would it be correct to recognize a personal
experience as totally true information? Finally, it will talk about the difference between a
personal experience and knowledge, experience as a fragment of truth and knowledge as
an objective and absolute truth.

Object 1
Red wine: Riunite, Lambrusco Emilia

Our object is an alcoholic drink, a red wine made in a vineyard in Emilia Romagna, Italy,
near the sea. Made with lambrusco grapes, with a total amount of alcohol of 7.5%. This red
wine is characterized by its sweet and refreshing flavor of red fruits, its sparkling texture and
its slight scent of cherry and apricot. It is usually a companion to lamb and pasta dishes.

Now, is there a difference between someone who personally tasted wine and someone who
only listened to the criticism? Yes of course.

As Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest, mentions: "No one has ever gotten drunk studying the
word wine." This means that the personal experiences that one acquires are much more
rich and valuable than listening to the account of the experience of another. Because in
short, knowledge is nothing more than the experience of another (or one's own).

When you taste the wine for yourself, you get a more complete experience since you put all
your senses into practice to learn and absorb as many details as possible (the cherry smell,
the sparkling texture, the sweet taste, etc. ), that is why every day we learn new things
(consciously or unconsciously); Every time we go out for a walk in the park, we try a dish,
we have contact with another person ... these are experiences where we use our senses to
interact and learn. That is why through personal experiences we acquire knowledge.

Object 2
George Floyd protest posters in Minneapolis, USA

Our object is the different posters that were carried to the George Floyd protest in the city of
Minneapolis. The citizens who attended the demonstration aimed to abolish the police in
the United States by leaving their messages on cardboard, they claimed that the judicial
system was racist after George Floyd's personal experience.
On May 25, 2021, George Floyd (a black-skinned man) was resisting arrest and was pushed
off the ground while he was under the influence of psychotropic substances, under a lethal
dose of fentanyl. After 9 minutes of being "crashed" to the ground, held by Officer Derek
Chauvin, George Floyd died.

This personal experience of George Floyd went viral and the media promoted a narrative
describing the entire judicial system as systematically racist, not just the police officer guilty
of this case.

This is a clear example of how a personal experience does not always reflect something
that is true. The following is a knowledge: There are an estimated 375 million interactions
annually between the US police and citizens. In 2019, 999 ended in deaths from police
violence, 14 of them were unarmed blacks, and only 1 of them did not attempt to evade
arrest (0.0000003%). George Floyd was the exception, it was his personal experience and
he gave us to a certain degree knowledge, but not an objective and absolute truth.

When we speak of "facts", of "knowledge" there is no room for "doubts" and "exceptions"
because, although what happened to George Floyd is true, personal experience cannot be
used to replace knowledge. Not only is it unethical because it is spreading a fallacy, this
damaged the image of numerous people around the world working in the judicial system, it
created fear and division among citizens and it created a problem of racism where there
was not one.

The posters show popular opinion about the judicial system and only George Floyd's
personal experience is found on the ground, not objective knowledge.

Object 3
Solar eclipse of December 14, 2020

Our object is the solar eclipse of Monday, December 14, 2020, the eclipse is part of the
chain of Saros 142 cycles, and lasted approximately 2 minutes and 10
seconds. It was seen totally in the Southern Cone area: Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina,
Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, etc.

Those who lived in Villarrica (a Chilean town) were able to appreciate the total solar eclipse
(100%), Temuco had the peculiarity of witnessing a total and a partial eclipse (depending on
where you are in the city).

A person in Villarrica can personally witness an eclipse

Knowledge: A solar eclipse happens when the moon gets in the way