Analysis Of Franz Kafka´s The Metamorphosis

In my IB English class, we are studying Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in which the main character, Gregor Samsa awakes one morning “from agitated dreams” and finds “himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). In the first pages, as Gregor contemplates his reformation personally before revealing himself to his family and boss outside his door, the fact that he has transformed into a bug remains known solely to himself, therefore existing as personal knowledge. In this case, one could argue that, because no one else has yet viewed his condition with their own eyes, his new bug body is not supported by shared knowledge, and is therefore simply a belief….Maybe he is even dreaming. If no one else has witnessed Gregor’s …show more content…
In my Pre-AP Chemistry class, one of the most important lessons that we learned was about the structure of an atom, a model which was proposed by Ernest Rutherford in 1911. Based on his extensive gold foil experiment, Rutherford determined that most of the mass of an atom is concentrated into a compact nucleus, which holds all of the positive charge, and that electrons occupy most of the leftover space (Davidson). While Rutherford’s experiment illustrates the vast discoveries which the natural sciences have enabled us, scientific discoveries and updates are essentially never-ending, so there is no way to fully know when a specific conclusion is completely correct. Similar to many other scientific explorations, before Rutherford 's discoveries were published, his model of an atom was a belief based on personal knowledge and justified by his own experimentation and reasoning. Until Rutherford 's experimentation process was published, no evidence based on shared knowledge existed to support his claim about the “true” structure of an atom. Most would agree that an attempt to share his newfound model without publishing the process by which he derived it would have been a silly, futile action if he wished to receive immediate acceptance. Without evidence to support his claim, its truth would be doubted. In this case, in order for shared knowledge to be true, it must be supported by some evidence that is also shared knowledge. I believe, in numerous cases, that the same holds true for personal knowledge. Regardless of whether evidence exists in the realm of shared knowledge, personal knowledge can, indeed, be true if it is supported by another piece of personal