Treatise on Tomatoes, Mutant Goats, and Wrinkles

Welcome to the Agglomeration

It's that time again. Time to eat some food. So go away, and satisfy your hunger alright?

Ah, you're back, lovely. I hope that which you consumed can sustain your mind, because it's time for another TOK journal entry. This time I examine knowledge, wisdom and strength of truths. Again, as previously stated, feel free to show me how much of a cynical and jaded person I am. I won't care, I'll just think you're lying.

TOK Journal Entry 3 – Knowledge, Wisdom and Truths in Subjects

The difference between knowledge and wisdom might initially seem the interest of only etymologists and social pedants with no life outside of pondering metaphysical ideals that could potentially have no bearing on one’s life for some, but I personally believe that establishing a clear boundary between these two idealized concepts, although simply done, is quite important.

Knowledge is the agglomeration of all our true, justified beliefs – if we should abide by this definition that puts it weight under most scrutiny, although it is still vulnerable to metaphorical snails wielding metaphorical stun guns, but I digress – and this collection of facts, opinions and beliefs form the framework through which we live our daily lives. But one can know much but still not be wise. ‘How is this so’, I hear nobody in the distance ask. The fact remains that many people with strong foundations of knowledge claims chose to act as if that didn’t exist, much like a man armed with a Colt Commando Rifle who decides to fight a three-armed, seven-legged mutant goat with a lead-lined tree branch instead. Some vaguely important individual who has outlasted his fifteen minutes of fame once said, “Knowledge is realizing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not including tomato in a fruit salad”.

In other less metaphorical and tangential words, wisdom is the application of knowledge, and is a skill that is hard to obtain, because it involves time and experience. With age comes something beginning with the Letter ‘W’. Yes, wrinkles. But in some case, wisdom is a byproduct too, if one hasn’t been too foolish in his earlier years. But let’s forget our onions and our frittatas and move onto the focus of tonight’s reflection.

The key question which doesn’t seem to unlock the door is ‘Can we rank subjects in order of strength? If so, what are our criteria and what are the strongest subjects?’
The inherent flaw with these sorts of questions is that if you answer ‘No’, then you nullify the need for any further response, unless you fill obligated to comment because you’re just some ranting lunatic who seems to be the I-do-not-need-to-stop-to-breathe type of person. I love how Microsoft Word counts that as one word because it’s hyphenated. Don’t we all just love exploiting the shortcomings of technology? No? Neither do I.

But what I don’t understand is how you can rank truths in subjects to be more valuable than in other subjects. Surely just because truth is different and has different applications, it doesn’t necessarily detract from the validity and impetus that it can provide. For example, a good friend of mine who shall remain unnamed disputed the importance of truths in English. While I respected his opinion, I vehemently disagreed because in some literary subjects where truth is subjective as opposed to objective truths in the sciences, I believe there is more capacity for self-reflection and enrichment, because each person can have a truth that is true to themselves, as opposed to accepting a truth that is true for everyone. Yes, we might be unique because some of us are uglier than others, but perhaps there can be an artificial man-made uniqueness that can exist separate from genetic cursing. Call me cynical, but humans seem to disrespect the natural order of everything else, why stop at ideology – a concept that could possibly disrupt the linear flow of existence?

Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations.