...IB Theory of Knowledge Essay In what ways may disagreement aid the pursuit of knowledge in the natural and human sciences? Cherno Okafor 000747-034 Weston Collegiate Institute February 20th, 2013 Word Count: 1598 In this TOK Essay, I will be conducting an analysis illustrating how disagreements can be used to aid the pursuit of knowledge in both the natural and human sciences and in some cases, hinder the pursuit of knowledge in these areas. First, it is necessary to define the key terms in this topic, which are “pursuit of knowledge”, “natural sciences”, and “human sciences”. “Pursuit of knowledge” is the act of obtaining knowledge. Natural science refers to the study of natural phenomena of the universe. Fields associated with this are: chemistry (elements), biology (contrasting ideas between Lamarckism and the Darwinian concept of evolution), and physics (gravity). On the other hand, human science refers to the study of people themselves and their behaviours which includes matter in history, literature and philosophy where “man is the measure of all things and human nature” as uttered by the classical Greek philosopher Plato. There is also anthropology, economics, and ethics; for example the explanation of criminal behaviour in cognitive and social psychology in human science. The term “disagreement” is ambiguous in the sense that it can represent a variety of things. For instance, it can refer to a difference of opinion between two people or groups...
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...IB Theory of Knowledge Essay The traditional TOK diagram indicates four ways of knowing. Propose the inclusion of a fifth way of knowing selected from intuition, memory or imagination, and explore the knowledge issue it may raise in two areas of knowledge. The traditional four ways of knowing are sense perception, language, reason and emotions. Imagination is a subset of the four ways of knowing. My imagination can help guide my emotions. For example, if I were to imagine what I was going to have for dinner I would feel both excited and hungry. As for sense perception, it can also be affected by imagination. If I came home with the smell of something delicious, I would imagine that it would be a food I like, however it may completely be different. The smell of the food could also be something of which I do not enjoy eating. Reason is also affected by imagination, we often imagine what the consequences of our decisions are. The reason behind the decision made is the result of the imagined consequences. The knowledge issue of this topic is how dependable is imagination as a way of knowing, and to what extent does imagination guide us on our pursuit for knowledge. Imagination is the innate ability to combine more than one memory in order to create a subjectively unprecedented visualized experience not necessarily limited by the physical laws of reality. Memory is an experience from which perceptions and emotions are retained...
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...Name: Einar Ragnar Jónsson Session: May 2010 Candidate Number: 000975-‐009 Theory of Knowledge #2: Examine the ways empirical evidence should be used to make progress in different areas of knowledge. Candidate Name: Einar Ragnar Jónsson Candidate Number: 000975-009 School Name: Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð Session: May 2010 Word Count: 1595 words 1 Name: Einar Ragnar Jónsson Session: May 2010 Candidate Number: 000975-‐009 Empirical evidence has been viewed as a very prominent method of attempting to ‘prove’ something and can be applied to many of the areas of knowledge. The human sciences and natural sciences, for example, use empirical evidence to support theorems and laws, but is empirical evidence as applicable for, say, the Arts? To explore what is ‘true’ in the areas of knowledge, empirical evidence is applicable with certain limitations. ‘Empirical’ means “originating in or based on observation or experience”1 and ‘evidence’ is defined as “a thing or things helpful in forming a conclusion or judgment“2. From this, we can roughly define empirical evidence as ‘a thing helpful in forming conclusions/justifications based on observations and experience’. To attain empirical evidence, we rely on our sense perception, which provides the observations, reason, which allows for induction, and language, for communication to use the evidence. Emotion plays an...
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...areas of knowing, one may find that there's not a single subject that solely deals with knowledge on the theoretic level; similarly, one can never find a subject which only focus on the practices of real-life application. However, the intended goals of subjects may differ. Some seek to describe the world more; in other words, the initial purpose is to simply depict the already existing things, explain how they function and convert them into theories. Some others are more engaged with the physical world, seeking to transform things and promote major changes to the society. This leads to the knowledge question: to what extent do different areas of knowledge seek to describe the world and to what extent do they seek to transform it? In this essay, I am going to explore how Mathematics and Economics (as a Human Science) and their relationships with knowledge compare and contrast with each other. Mathematics has always been praised by people as the "language of the universe". That is to say, math describes the world, using a language that everyone can understand, regardless of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It is descriptive in nature, having been initially created because it was a necessary tool for human production and activities. The set of well-defined symbols of mathematics makes abstract ideas concrete for people to understand, utilize and therefore know about the world. Our ancestors tied knots on the ropes for counting, because there was a need to describe...
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...Topic 3: Periodicity (6 hours) Essential idea: The arrangement of elements in the periodic table helps to predict their electron configuration. 3.1 Periodic table | Nature of science:Obtain evidence for scientific theories by making and testing predictions based on them—scientists organize subjects based on structure and function; the periodic table is a key example of this. Early models of the periodic table from Mendeleev, and later Moseley, allowed for the prediction of properties of elements that had not yet been discovered. (1.9) | Understandings: * The periodic table is arranged into four blocks associated with the four sub-levels - s, p, d, and f. * The periodic table consists of groups (vertical columns) and periods (horizontal rows). * The period number (n) is the outer energy level that is occupied by electrons. * The number of the principal energy level and the number of the valence electrons in an atom can be deduced from its position on the periodic table. * The periodic table shows the positions of metals, non-metals and metalloids.Applications and skills: * Deduction of the electron configuration of an atom from the element’s position on the periodic table, and vice versa.Guidance: * The terms alkali metals, halogens, noble gases, transition metals, lanthanoids and actinoids should be known. * The group numbering scheme from group 1 to group 18, as recommended by IUPAC, should be used. | International-mindedness: * The development of the...
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...knowledge can shape personal knowledge. “How do we know what we know?” That is the question epistemology rotates around, and the best way to describe what the theory of knowledge is. This question has been studied since the era of the ancient Greeks and still is being discussed today. As we dealt with this question in TOK class, I began to wonder how shared knowledge may shape my own and others’ personal knowledge. There is a clear correlation between shared knowledge and personal knowledge seeing as one shapes the other, which can be seen through the different ways of knowing. As straightforward as this sounds, this topic is far more complex, since there are different manners this can occur. Both an engaged biology student and a music/art enthusiast, I chose to analyze the natural sciences and the arts as they show differences in their knowledge framework and creation of knowledge decidedly. How reliant is the shared knowledge we use everyday in the context of these two AoKs? In the arts emotion, sense perception, and reason; shared knowledge can shape the personal knowledge of an audience in a consistent manner and according to the TOK curriculum the arts “encompass the creative production of humans with the purpose to explore the experience of being human”. But why do we enjoy what we enjoy? Artistic knowledge is received by the audience through sense perception and evaluated with reason and emotion. When we look or listen to an art piece we evaluate it...
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...“The Possession Of Knowledge Carries An Ethical Responsibility.” Evaluate This Claim. –Seo Yeon Choi- Theory of Knowledge Essay Topic: “The Possession of Knowledge Carries an Ethical Responsibility” Evaluate The Claim. School: Auckland International College School Number: 001495 Candidate Name: Seo Yeon Choi Candidate Number: 001495-010 Session: May 2013 Teacher: Beate Wiebel Word Count: 1480 “The Possession Of Knowledge Carries An Ethical Responsibility.” Evaluate This Claim. –Seo Yeon Choi- After reading the claim, „The possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility‟, I first thought what does „ethical responsibility‟ means. Considering that ethics is the study that debates what is right or wrong and thus govern one‟s behaviour1, I have decided that „ethical responsibility‟ is the obligation of a person in making moral choices which lead to a better society. For example, if one person saw a hit-and-run case and the victim is shouting for help, then that person has the ethical responsibility to rescue that person. I, also, once experienced a dilemma whether to bear an ethical responsibility or not. I saw a person beating a dog, but even though I had that knowledge, I did not call out for help or call the police. As one of a wide array of people who ignored the „ethical responsibility‟ even though one carried the knowledge at that particular period of time, I sometimes admired, but did not fully understand those who chose to help others or make better...
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...Theory of Knowledge Essay Eric Sheldon 4-25-13 Kennewick High School “It is more important to discover new ways of thinking about what is already known than to discover new data or facts.” To what extent would you agree with this claim? Before one can agree or disagree with the above statement, a few terms must be defined. “New ways of thinking” is thinking from a point of view that has not been considered previously, or an unproven idea. For the purpose of this essay, “facts” and “data” will be defined as: a series of empirical evidence, or a proven idea. I think that new ways of thinking and the discovery of new data and facts are equally important. If no one ever thought differently than the currently accepted way of thinking, than nothing new would ever be discovered. They are each no more and no less important than one other because, one cannot exist without the other. If one cannot exist without the other than their symbiotic relationship makes both equally important. It could be argued that discovering new ways of thinking is more important than the discovery of new data and facts. Someone arguing this point may make the point that many useful inventions that we (humans) have today come from an inventor who dared to step outside the norm, and look at a problem differently. One example of an invention is the nuclear reactor. Nuclear power would not exist today if no one had considered fission as a source of energy. Someone who disagrees...
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...“The knower’s perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.” To what extent do you agree? On a hot Saturday afternoon, I was walking around downtown in desperate search of a place to buy a birthday card when I came across a small, shabby looking ice cream shop. You could hardly see it from the street, but the inside was nearly packed with people. Curious and exhausted, I decided to enter in order to escape the heat of the sun. When I tasted the homemade ice cream, I immediately understood why it was so busy. The discovery of a delicious treat, while completely unintentional, altered my perspective on how my day was going and the ability to discover things without using the internet to locate the best new dessert place. This new knowledge was not what I set out to find. I originally wanted to find a greeting card shop, but I ended up with a different knowledge – the location of an amazing ice cream shop. I later shared this personal knowledge with friends and family to spread the news of this quaint shop, and it turned into shared knowledge as word spread not only from me and who I told, but as other people discovered it on their own. However, this makes me fallible to cognitive biases, like the confirmation bias. Ignoring anyone who says the ice cream shop I found was only “alright” or “not the best ice cream ever” and only listening to those who told me it was “outstanding” strengthens my preconceived notions about the store. My accidental discovery in the pursuit of...
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...The traditional TOK diagram indicates four ways of knowing. Propose the inclusion of a fifth way of knowing selected from intuition, memory or imagination, and explore the knowledge issues it may raise in two areas of knowledge. The study of Theory of Knowledge (TOK) indicates four distinct ways of knowing: sense perception, emotion, reason and language; however, in this essay I will argue for the inclusion of intuition as a fifth way of knowing. Intuition is that moment of enlightenment that is unexpected in which something is revealed to give one a greater understanding on a problem or puzzle or issue of concern that is perplexing. A knowledge issue worth examining in relation to the role intuition plays in these areas of knowledge is: How does intuition lead to knowledge acquisition in the natural sciences and in ethics? Personal intuitive insight has to be in some form of communication which conforms to requirements of public knowledge, natural sciences conforming ...
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...IB Diploma Programme Theory of Knowledge Essay Topic: Can we know when to trust our emotions in the pursuit of knowledge? Consider history and one other area of knowledge. Candidate Name: Akanksha Vardhan Candidate Number: 002602-064 School Name: BD Somani International School School Number: 002602 Word Count: 1597 Can we know when to trust our emotions in the pursuit of knowledge? Consider history and one other area of knowledge. Bertrand Russell, the 20th century British philosopher, once said, “Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” [1]In our daily conquest to acquire “justified true belief”, [2]it is important that we are aware of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ influences that contribute to the experience, the pursuit of knowledge, in a way that we are able to consciously weigh the validity of our knowledge claims. Many romantic writers and poets in the early nineteenth century emphasized the importance of emotion in making sense of the world. John Keats once said, “Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon by our pulses” [3] referring to the superiority of our core emotions (happiness, fear, anger, surprise or even disgust) - the strong feelings deriving from our moods, circumstances or relationships with others[4], in gaining an accurate picture of the truth. However, is it possible that the ‘truth’ itself is more complex and what...
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...TOK – Aasir Osman Question – “There is no such thing as a true belief.” Discuss. A belief is a conviction based on cultural or personal faith, morality or values. They are not based on facts or other evidence. They cannot be disproved or even contested in a rational or logical manner. They are inarguable. They cannot serve as a thesis of formal argument. An example of a belief is that God created the world we live in today and everyone who resides on Planet Earth. Knowledge has traditionally been understood as “justified true belief”. This is the idea of people initially having faith in something they believe to be true and then logically thinking about in order to justify their belief. Once agreed it is a justified true belief it becomes common knowledge between everyone. This later introduces the idea of Epistemology which is how beliefs can be verified. Some beliefs are justified through epistemology making them a true belief thus disproving the fact that there is no such thing as a true belief. People who believe them have good reason to believe them. For much of what we believe however, we do not have any good reasons: we make guesses; we take things on faith. Epistemology is important because it is fundamental to how we think. Without some means of understanding how we acquire knowledge, how we rely upon our senses, and how we develop concepts in our minds, we have no coherent path for our thinking. Some beliefs would appear to be justified solely by the use of reason...
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...2/11/2016 School name: Seedling IB World SchoolSession: 2015-16 | Piyush Tejwani | TOK Essay | “In gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge. | 11 FEB, 2016 IB Theory of Knowledge “In gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge. Knowledge is the basis of living in our generation, knowledge can be anything like if we know what type of combination in clothes we should wear, or what type of food we should eat and even if you know how to propose a girl or a boy then that can be known as knowledge too. But where the focus goes on is the place where the knowledge comes from, it can be taken as an important question while pointing at the ways of knowing. Ways of knowing are the origins from which we gain knowledge such as TV, newspaper, radio, books, internet, family, etc. These were some examples of ways of knowing with which we can relate our daily life. But as far as I studied the main points for ways of knowing are: * Emotion * Faith * Imagination * Intuition * Language * Memory * Reason * Sense perception Now we must know what the areas of knowledge in Theory of knowledge are. Actually it is the division of knowledge into different areas: ...
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...TOK ESSAY: SENSE PERCEPTION To what extent can we rely on our sense perception to give us knowledge of the world around us? Before I start going into the sense perception of different individuals and what ‘knowledge’ really means, I’m going to start by dealing with the question as a whole. Although there have been many philosophers, thinkers and in deed, curious people willing to challenge the world around them throughout history, up to date all the questions we have come up with can only be classified into three main groups: those with one correct answer, many possible correct answers and those with no correct answer at all. The title of this essay of course fits into this third category which is – I find – the one to which the most interesting questions correspond to. Now that I have acknowledged that I do not expect to come up with a definite correct answer to this essay’s title, in fact don’t think any one ever will; I want to address a key word in this question – ‘knowledge’. The broadness encompassed in the definitions of abstract nouns such as ‘knowledge’ make it very difficult and practically impossible to pin down their meaning and are thus very complicated words to discuss. Not only are abstract nous very subjective, meaning their full definition varies depending on each individual, but – as it happens with similar words like ‘love’ or ‘hate’ – we barely know as much about them and their meaning as we don’t. This brings us to a very complex and controversial...
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...| 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | Knowledge Issues | very little treatment of knowledge issues that are relevant to the prescribed title; AOK and/or WOK are mentioned if at all | some treatment of knowledge issues that are relevant to the prescribed title with rudimentary understanding, Few/ineffective links to AOK and/or WOK | Treats/some understanding of knowledge issues that are relevant to the prescribed title; some effective links between AOK and/or WOK | Focused on knowledge issues that are relevant to the prescribed title, good understanding. Effective links/some comparisons between AOK and/or WOK are drawn | Focused on knowledge issues that are relevant to the prescribed title. Effective links/some comparisons between AOK and/or WOK are elaborated, sophisticated understanding of knowledge issues | Knower’s Perspective | no evidence of independent thinking, limited personal engagement, no attempt to acknowledge or explore different perspectives, no appropriate examples. | very little evidence of independent thinking, some personal engagement, different perspectives may be mentioned but with no attempt to explore them, examples chosen are sometimes appropriate. | some evidence of independent thinking, some personal engagement, awareness that different perspectives may exist, although there may be little attempt to explore these. Examples chosen are appropriate, may be little variety in their sources | adequate evidence of independent thinking; thoughtful, personal engagement...
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