"“It is only knowledge produced with difficulty that we truly value.”To what extent do you agree with this statement?The way of acquiring knowledge differs on situation as well as subject. Sometimes, we convertthe difficult and complex knowledge to simple and sometimes we try to convert the simpleknowledge to the complex one. Hence, the value of knowledge too differs from situation as wellas subject. I will explore the statement,“It is only knowledge produced with difficulty that we truly value” in my essay. The first thing we need to be clear is about how the knowledge or information is generated andthen categorized. This process is not an easy task but rather it is a very complex one. The veryfirst part is to think of any idea to bring up any knowledge and then move to the next process.The process can be as long as possible and sometimes takes years and decades to build the wholeknowledge. Then the research depends on which subject does the idea belong to. If it belongs toscience or mathematics it needs to be experimented and be proved as well. If it belongs toHistory, it requires evidence. Most of the time these researches and the acquisition of knowledgeneeds to be associated with any large institution as along with time it may require too much offund as well as different resources. Only after they get confirmation through their studies do theypublish it for it to be acceptable bring it in public. For us it could be knowledge without anydifficulty but for “knowledge finders” that whole process is laborious and challenging. Gaining knowledge and understanding the value of the same differs from person to person. Fromthe beginning itself the most important point is the value of knowledge. Hence, we can put aquestion here, that what makes the knowledge more valuable? Is it that the only knowledge produced only by difficulty is valuable? We need to discuss on the value of knowledge andshould explore different possibilities such as understanding of knowledge. The understanding ofknowledge can be different for different people but the value of knowledge or statement remainsthe same. Each of us has a different perspective, a “point of view” to understand. For example ifwe explain a subject to five +people and then try to understand the same from each of them wecan find five different perspectives. The most important thing is the way of thinking of each andevery person and along with it their situation also plays a vital role in it. The statement istherefore highly questionable and cannot be answered easily. In Plato?s Meno we can understand the question much clearly of “why knowledge is valuable”?As it has a very important historical precedent. Here the same question is been raised bySocrates, that is, “why knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief”? In the beginning wemay claim that mostly knowledge helps us in our daily life that is practically rather than just truebelief in it so that we can value them. But, according to Socrates the claim is very different afterdoing close inspection. For example, the truth or the belief regarding Larissa?s correct way isvery much of practical use as the same to Larissa?s knowledge. Both of them will bring us to thesame point. Therefore, here we become clear that we value knowledge more after we gain withdifficulty, even though there is no explanation to the point. Hence, this can be called as the MenoProblem. The most important point is that here the knowledge just being the true belief gives usthe confidence which cannot be lost easily and will be valuable. This is the property whichaccounts for the most different as well as distinctive value. If here we know the correct way howto go Larissa instead of truly believing about the way we seem to have the full confidence andreach our destination. In contrast, if a person does not know the correct way and moves on byjust believing the way will not have the same confidence and might be a chance of moving from the track without reaching the destination. But at the same time we will again never forget theway and will value it more because we will gain it with difficulty. Here, the statement“It is only knowledge produced with difficulty that we truly value” seems to be correct. We need to first understand the nature of knowledge because without understanding the nature ofknowledge we cannot understand its value. Therefore, we take a basic number to understand.Here we need to take something which is very basic and understandable. For example if we takethe number zero. If we start to learn the numbers from zero we learn them very fast but as wemove further our speed of learning decreases. It takes more and more effort as we move on.Therefore, as the basic knowledge required less effort we tend to give them less value. When wemove on and try to gain our higher knowledge, we need too much of effort to understand andlearn them so the value increases. Therefore, the effort and struggle to gain knowledgesometimes increases the value of knowledge. When I think of the subjects I study or the chaptersof particular subjects the concept becomes very clear. But, again here I would like to crossquestion my own points. Is it really that we value those subjects or the chapters more which weunderstand by putting more effort? No! The answer is that all our subjects and chapters areequally important and valuable. Hence, “The value of knowledge has nothing to do with itsdifficulty of learning or gaining”. All of us want to hold a special position in the society and hence we acquire more and moreknowledge. When we acquire knowledge through difficulty we value it much more. Thus, aquestion arises here: Define difficulty of knowledge? We take for example, gravity. Whateverobject we throw or falls, all of them falling towards the ground. The reason behind this is knownto all of us, that is gravitational pull of the Earth. This knowledge has just become an idea andwe think we only need to see the falling objects towards ground and do not think of the difficulty in bringing up this idea. Now we all find it so common and think it?s so simple and use of ourcommon sense, but earlier when this idea was brought into light it took too much time to acceptthe fact. This holed many theories such as, Eratosthenes?s idea of having the objects that had the „naturalplace?. This theory existed before people accepted that every object had to fall towards groundbecause of the gravitational pull of the Earth. Newton?s theory of gravitational pull was veryimpressive and we study it till now. But is it that Newton came up to the gravitational pullthrough difficulty? In many old stories we find the falling apple where the gravitational pullseemed to be clear but this could not taken as source through which it could be proved. Thisagain does not mean that it was just logic thinking and not a difficult task. Whatever it was noneother than Newton could think about it bringing the knowledge to the whole world? Therefore, I believe that this is an open mind question because at some points the value of theknowledge remains the same even though it has not been achieved through difficulty and at somepoints the value of knowledge increases after it is gained through difficulty. This is again linkedwith two ways of knowing, one is emotion and the other one is reason. These play a very vitalrole in bringing up or valuing the knowledge. Reason at some points is very justifying in valuingthe knowledge whether it has been gained through difficulty or not.Work Cited:1. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-value/2. https://www.quora.com/“It-is-only-knowledge-produced-with-difficulty-that-we-truly-v3. www.ibsurvival.com › International Baccalaureate › Theory of Knowledge4. www.ibtokessaytutor.com/ibtokessaytopics/May2017/ibtokessaytitlesMay2017.shtml"