To What Extend does Language and Intuition
Shape Certainty in Different AoK (especially natural sciences in this example)?
Uncertainty is always inevitable at the
frontiers of knowledge. This is due to different types of language a person experiences
while learning facts, along with the individual’s unique sense perception.
For example, in the article “Why Do Many People
Doubt Science?” by Joel Achenbach, he describes how scientists believe it is
safe to consume food containing GMOs while some people oppose the idea that
food should contain GMOs. Scientists who learn the basis of body functions in a
theoretical way and spent a great deal of time researching the effects of GMOs
start to think of biological functions in a very concrete manner. They ask
questions such as what hormones will GMOs trigger? or What cell types will
react? Due to the type of language they experienced when learning about how the
body works, if they do not find any physical evidence they become certain that
GMOs are safe. On the other hand, people who learn about body functions in a
more fluid and expressive way have a harder time believing that food containing
transferred genes from other species using artificial and unnatural methods could
possibly have no effect on their health.
Furthermore, some people intuitively believe
in the holistic nature of food they put into their bodies or have naturally
more observant characters automatically think of GMOs as harmful matter.
Whereas people who are not so invested in the idea of natural food can have a
much easier time shaping certainty that GMOs are safe.
Therefore, how a person learns about the
world through the language presented, along with the intuitive and natural
feeling he/she has on different subjects shapes that person’s certainty toward the
knowledge proposed in a specific AoW. Since no argument can be fully opposed
and each person reaches a conclusion based on different measures and experiences,
all or none of these arguments might be true. Thus, always leaving uncertainty at
the frontiers of knowledge.
