Knowledge is best defined as a justified true belief. The shared knowledge, as I see it, is the knowledge that a group of people share as a whole. The personal knowledge on the other hand is the knowledge acquired individually through the personal experiences, perception and way of thinking. The shared knowledge is somehow responsible for the cultural atmosphere in a society, hence affecting the personal knowledge. The main knowledge question being discussed in this TOK essay is: how shared knowledge, including culture and religion, shape the personal knowledge? In this essay the roles religion and culture play as shared knowledge exemplify the extent to which they shape the personal knowledge leading to our knowledge issue: how belonging to a cultural/religious group can provide us with a certain viewpoint that restricts our approach to knowledge. Religious knowledge systems, is an area of knowledge that clearly exemplifies the way shared knowledge shape the personal knowledge. The word “religion” means to bind fast and it comes from the …show more content…
There, I went to an international school where I found new friends with various nationalities and religions. I learned many interesting things about other religions through my sense perception. This then led me realize, how poor my knowledge on other religions have been before this immigration, from a society with a shared knowledge based solely on Shi’a Islamic views to a society with a more open and multinational shared knowledge. This was when I understood how my parents’ shared knowledge with the society have shaped my personal knowledge on religion, which I believe is to be the most private and fundamental aspect of an individual’s life. How I eat, play, talk, write or even sleep are all limited to my religious beliefs. This shows the great extent to which the society’s shared knowledge on a specific religion can shape the personal knowledge of