Maria Camila Sánchez
11R
TOK
January 2014
Faith As A Basis Of Knowing
Faith is very often a delicate topic. The first connection our brains make to faith is religion and even though they are strongly related, it is not all there is to it. Faith as a matter of fact, has two definitions: the first relates to the trust a person has for someone or something, and the second has a more transcendent connotation, referring to spiritual conviction and religious doctrines. Many would argue faith is opposite to knowledge but even if it seems contradicting, we can establish Faith as a basis of knowledge.
In general, knowledge is based upon reason and experience but then, how are our beliefs justified? There might be a thousand answers for this question but personally I think faith is the form of knowledge that strengthens our beliefs. Faith is not an exact science, but if we observe from a subjective point of view, neither is any other form of knowledge.
faith
Faith, allegory by the Spanish sculptor Luis S. Ca...
Fire the FaithI do acknowledge the fact that faith is more ambiguous and it carries a chain of situations and relationships that define it.
Because of the extensive content of faith and the mechanism of belief, there are three main theories that help categorize faith and its components. First is foundationalism which justifies a belief with a set of previous beliefs and this set, with a previous one and so on, until it stops at a set of "core" beliefs that are self justified and need no further explanation. Faith is a mixture of belief and intuition because having a strong conviction in something and someone depends on previous background knowledge and some further feeling of trust without an explanation. For example, I have faith in my future: I have a strong feeling that I...