IB Theory of Knowledge: Consider the extent to which knowledge issues in ethics are similar to those in at least one other area of knowledge.

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Topic One - Consider the extent to which knowledge issues in ethics are similar to those in at least one other area of knowledge.

It seems natural to assume that knowledge cannot be treated similarly in different areas of knowledge (AOK): Natural science and mathematics are more reliable areas of knowledge than ethics, for example, because a claim's line of thought can be more objectively tracked. We place great value on the kinds of methods used to collect data in the area of science, for the quantitative numeric representation is universal and objective. It seems to be the case that the natural sciences are free of uncertainty and error. However, this is not necessarily true.

The Journal of Ethics

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Dietmar Mieth, professor of catholic theology, lea...

An individual knowledge claim or a full-blown theory proposed in the area of natural sciences may be wrong or incomplete despite the use of quantifiable data. Many think that science only uses the way of knowing (WOK) of reason to reach clear-cut conclusions, but unlike common belief, knowledge claims in the area of natural science are not free from the implications of language and emotion. Similar to the area of ethics, the natural sciences are also, to some extent, prone to knowledge issues (KI) that derive from the previously mentioned WOK's, language and emotion.

Language is a possible pit-fall when dealing with the acquisition of knowledge in the area of ethics (Appiah 44). When two people have a disagreement in the area of ethics, it may be because that they hold different definitions of the subject they are discussing. For example, if two people have dissimilar opinions...