Yash

=**Can we have beliefs or knowledge which is independent of our culture?**=

Belief is “Something that one accepts as true or real”. It is basically the mental act, or we can say mental condition or habit, of placing trust or confidence in another. On the other hand there is knowledge, which is the fact of knowing. However, culture is not the same as knowledge.Any individual can have knowledge outside their culture. Culture is the way things are done and the way we behave along with any expression of it. It is more or less language dependent. Knowledge can be very personal next to common knowledge to which all agrees but doesn't need to be true knowledge. Shared knowledge or needs among groups within a society can lead to subcultures that have their own expression. There is a story of an orphaned teen that had lived on the streets for about half his life and had a superior ending by being a doctor. **Culture heavily affects the way we perceive different morals and ideas** **(Claim)**. Culture can greatly affect your knowledge but it is not needed. Knowledge is knowledge. It may be independent of culture. For example, if we drop a ball, it will fall on the ground no matter what culture you come from. How we frame and give meaning to knowledge is very dependent on culture because all people have culture and different beliefs and our beliefs help us interpret knowledge. For example, whether we believe the ball drops because of gravity or because earth is reclaiming it. In either culture, the ball still falls on the ground only.
 * Knowledge Issue: To what extent does culture affect our reasoning?**
 * To what extent can culture act as a way of knowing?**
 * Ways of knowing:** Knowledge can be acquired through sense perception, logical operations (reason) and emotional reactions.
 * Areas of Knowledge: Natural Sciences and Arts. **

Can knowledge be acquired independently of the culture where the knowledge itself is originated? For example, China was defeated in the history various times. Firstly, British invaded in 1840 A.D. and China was defeated. Then in 1890 A.D., eight most powerful countries of the world invaded China all together and China defeated. Japan, being less powerful than China, also defeated China just because lack of management of Chinese military.

Unquestionably, culture has a role to play in knowledge but is different from one area of knowledge to another, and it is also different from person to person. The knowledge here can be the knowledge that one chooses to pursue and the knowledge that one receives via education/reading/discussions. Here, culture may affect what type of knowledge he or she decides to pursue may influence how one understands or interprets the knowledge. I believe that all people have culture the way they are raised etc. I also believe that all knowledge comes from some particular culture and that therefore there is no knowledge that doesn’t come from culture. I would like to put some examples on the same. The culture in which a person is brought up in usually affects the person in several ways: From the above, it can be seen that culture has a bigger role to play when dealing with human relationships and perception. The AOKs (Area Of Knowledge), in this case, is chosen to be Natural Sciences and Arts. There are WOKs (Ways Of Knowing) also amongst which Perception and Reason are selected. In Natural Sciences, the knowledge is objective and is hardly affected by culture and individual perception. Whatever a person’s culture or background, he or she will see the same thing, record the same data, same analysis etc. Even in the sciences, there can be cases where your culture plays a role i.e. the knowledge can at times be dependent on your culture. Remember that these are exceptions, not the norm. For example, in conducting research, a scientist might decide to stay away from areas that are culturally sensitive or taboo e.g. abortion. So this scientist’s knowledge is hindered by culture. In the arts (literature as an example), more often than not a person’s knowledge is dependent on culture, Again, whether you are the author “producing” the knowledge or the reader “receiving” the knowledge, culture plays an important role. This is because the knowledge is subjective and personal (meaning it is unique to the individual in how they interpret the knowledge).
 * 1) 1. How the person views the world
 * 2) 2. How the person interacts with others
 * 3) 3. How the person makes decisions
 * 4) 4. How the person lives his life