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Can literature tell the truth better than other Arts or area of knowledge??

Can literature tell the truth better than other Arts or area of knowledge?? i'm a spanish girl and i've none idea about what to doooo!! i need help...sorr if my english is horriblee!! :s-smilie:

Reply 1

Ayreon

I remember writing an essay for philosophy about pretty much the same matter. I guess I answered somewhat that another form of art is not better than other, different people just experience different forms of art individually. Some just see more in literature than in painted art, or hear more in music than see in a sculpture.

Reply 2

sp2007

haha im doing that topic for my TOK essay!
as much i love literature and the arts. the essay has been giving me such hell.
TOK makes my head hurt.

Reply 3

sdawood

I would avoid this question, to be honest. You run the risk of getting into some very complex questions, such as: what is literature? who decides what literature is? can there really be literature?

Reply 4

-=seakin=-

so, what would you put in this essay!! i have no ideassssssssss!! thankssssss

Reply 5

~Lc~

-=seakin=-

Can literature tell the truth better than other Arts or area of knowledge?? i'm a spanish girl and i've none idea about what to doooo!! i need help...sorr if my english is horriblee!! :s-smilie:

First of all I think it's great that you chose this question, because i'm a fan of both literature and arts, and i think that you can explore alot in terms of TOK with this topic.

Both literature and arts are subjective. Because they are open to various interpretations depending on people's paradigm'e and culture. so you can't really give a solid claim on which one is better, what you should do is try to give a logical argument about which one you personally think may lead you to the truth. Try exploring the limitations and strengths of both areas os knowledge in terms of ways of knowing. Is literature more reliable because it has the advatange of being presented in language? or does art have the advantage of manipulating our emotions? or our senses? what about people who can not read? do they nt have a better chance of reaching the truth portrayed in a painting rather than in a piece of literature they can not read? Does the use of reason help you understand literature or art more?

don't forget to relate them to other area's of knowledge it'll help boost ur grade up.

Reply 6

andy_cole2

search the forum there was a massive thing i wrote about this a while back before i knew it was a TOK question for this session, but yeha some last year sessioners were on about it a few months back.

Reply 7

metaphysical

I chose this topic too, as i love literature! :biggrin:

Basically wrote pretty much what Lc said. Explore the limitations and also that fact that the arts and literature provide truth differently from say natural sciences, and neither is better. I also talked about history being a branch of literature and how closely they are interlinked. About author's bias and perhaps their initial aim. You can look at the degree of intuition used in science but also in the way we interpret art.