Optional theme
Knowledge and religion
How religious knowledge systems establish, transmit and revise their claims, and what standards of justification, authority and interpretation operate within them.
IA prompts that fit this theme
The wording is the guide’s, exactly. A student who changes a word of it loses marks, so quote it as it stands.
- IA prompt 08To what extent is certainty attainable?Religious knowledge systems often locate certainty differently from empirical ones, which sharpens the prompt.
- IA prompt 11Can new knowledge change established values or beliefs?The relationship between new knowledge and established belief is the historically contested case here.
- IA prompt 18Are some things unknowable?Several religious traditions hold that some things are unknowable in principle, which is a substantive epistemic claim.
- IA prompt 19What counts as a good justification for a claim?Revelation, testimony, tradition and authority are justifications with their own internal standards.
- IA prompt 27Does all knowledge impose ethical obligations on those who know it?Many traditions hold that knowing carries obligation directly, which is the prompt's strong reading.
A school selects two of the five optional themes alongside the core theme. All six themes.