Are some things unknowable?

I answered this prompt in depth as part of my Theory of Knowledge (ToK) exhibition for the IB diploma recently, and I have some thoughts on the concept of what is knowable and what may be never knowable.

1. The concept of knowability is limited to a certain span of time.

To understand what may be unknowable, we first must understand the criteria of unknowable. I defined it as something which is limited to a certain timespan—having the past, present, and future as three separate timeframes and which knowledge may be unknowable in one timeframe but knowable in another.

Knowledge, as a knower, is something which is also only obtainable through the passing of time. Every fact we know about a historical event was learnt in a certain timeframe, whether conscious or unconscious.

With this, we can now try our best to understand what may be knowable and what might not be knowable.

2. There is knowledge which were unknowable before, and are still unknowable now.

But we will never know when they may be finally known. There have been many historical events where something was left unknowable for a long period of time, until someone finally uncovered the truth, only many years later. The knowledge behind the truth, for the majority of knowers, was unknown until it was finally uncovered.

Individuals were not able to know what happened in the certain event, and they also did not know when they may know about the event, given that they will ever know.

3. Knowledge that were previously unknowable may now be known.

As a child, you may never know what you will end up to be like as a grown up. As a grown up, you may also never know what job you'll walk into next, and what you might be doing after the next 10 years.

We often find our lives with surprises which are unknowable until after we experience them, which is once again something that is limited by time. We live everyday knowing that every upcoming event is unknowable (somewhat predictable, yes, but unknowable until fully confirmed).

Knowledge on our own destiny and own future is something which will always be an uncontrollable factor in our lives.

4. Is there knowledge which will never be known?

Perhaps. There is no firm answer to this question as there is yet to be something which is confirmed to never be known—maybe we've given up on searching an answer for it, but it has not made it entirely unknowable.

One great question to ask when it comes to this is:

If an event occurs and there is no-one to witness it, can we consider it to have happened, or not? If it left no trace, will we ever know if it happened or not?

Knowledge is only considered when a knower is in possession of the knowledge. If that knowledge is not saved in a physical form or passed on through communication with others, it will be lost once no knowers are in possession of the knowledge.

If something is already considered knowledge, then it has been known. If a knower has no known way of obtaining said knowledge, then it can be considered something that will be unknowable to that knower. To use "never" is too extreme though, as we are simply unable to predict what may happen in the future.

Theory of Knowledge in the IBDP is a very abstract and highly philosophical course—and I don't think that I have entirely grasped the idea of what I'm trying to explain here when it comes to unknowable—there are simply too many examples and situations where unknowability applies.