Why TOK?
0 Intellectual Journey
0 Develop our skills as reflective thinkers
0 Richer understanding of the world
TOK Terminology-1
0 Justified:
shown to be fair, right or reasonable
0 True:
logically consistent, honest, correct or accurate
0 Belief:
a feeling that what you think is true
Knowledge Claims
0 «the universe is 13.77 billion years old»
0 Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the
moon»
0 «knowledge can be based on faith and reason»
0 «I know Burma is now called Myanmar» - claim of
personal certainty
0 «I believe Burma is now called Myanmar» - recognises
a personal uncertainty
0 I know = I am claiming to be certain about it.
KC
0 Difficulty of certainty
0 Insufficient evidence
Types of Knowledge
0 What is knowledge?
0 2 types:
0 Priori: before experience
0 Posteriori: after experience
OR
0 First hand: we gain for ourselves
0 Second hand: we acquire from other sources
Types of Knowledge
0 3 types:
0 Practical knowledge: how to do things, like how to swim,
play a violin or read a book
0 Knowledge by acquanintance: first hand. Knowing
ourselves, people we have met, places we’ve been to, taste of
things etc.
0 Factual knowledge: about events that have actually occured
or things hat have been verified as true (collection of KCs
about the world in all AOK)
0 True by definition: «my parents are my mother and father.»
(fact of the English)
0 No guarantee that a truth by definition entails existence
0 e.g. unicorns
TOK Terminology-2
0 AOK:
branches of knowledge that have
0 A distinct nature and different methods of gaining
knowledge
0 Maths, NS, HS, Arts, Ethics, religious knowledge systems
and indigenous knowledge systems
0 Valid:
well-grounded or justified
0 KQ:
an open question that explores issues of knowing
Activity
0 Discussion on KCs
0 Page 5
Knowledge Questions
0 Explicitly about what knowledge is
0 How we know what we claim to know
0 e.g. To what extent might one WOK be more reliable
than another?
0 To gain a better and deeper understanding of what we
hold as true and why
0 We may lose some of our certainties
TOK Terminology-3
0 Ways of knowing:
how we know what we know. Language, sense perception,
emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition and memory
Assignment-1
0 Presentation task: Consider how you might develop the
following KQ for a presentation. What RLS might your
developed question apply to?
0 To what extent does our willingness to rely on eyewitness
accounts depend on our emotional responses?
0 Extended writing task: write 500 word on one of the
following questions;
0 1. how important is it that we are certain about what we claim
as knowledge?
0 2. to what extent might it be more important for knowledge to
be useful rather than accurate?
Justification and Evidence
0 «Is the KC supported by substantial evidence and/or
valid reasoning?»
0 Justification often relies on evidence
0 Neither coincidence nor correlation implies causation
0 When we have enough evidence to be able to claim sth
as true, we may view this as proof of its truth.
TOK Terminology-4
0 Valid reason:
a reason that is well-founded and convincing; a valid argument is an argument that follows
the rules of logic
0 Evidence:
information that is interpreted to support a particular argument
0 Proof:
enough evidence to claim something as true
0 Anectodal evidence:
evidence that comes from personal stories
0 Coincidence:
when two or more events happen at the same time independently of each other
0 Correlation:
when there is a relationship between two or more events, but t is not necessarily a causal
relationship
0 Causation:
when one event leand to another event, for example kicking a football causes the ball to
move
TOK Terminology-5
0 Shared knowledge:
what we know as part of a group or community; for example, what
we learn through the curriculum at school is a set of skills and
information agreed on by educators, politicians and other as
important knowledge for our society.
0 Distributed knowledge:
the combined knowledge of all the individuals in an organisation,
society, nation or the world
0 Personal knowledge:
the knowledge we have through our own experiences and prsonal
involvement; this can include knowledge by acquaintance, practical
knowledge and factual knowledge
0 Tacit:
understood or implied without being explicitly stated
Assignment-2
0 Presentation task: choose one of the following KQs below. Consider
how you might develop the following KQ for a presentation. Select
some RL examples that you might use as evidence to support and to
counter your argument.
0 To what extent do we evaluate evidence before making a judgement, and to what
extent do we look for evidence to support our judgements?
0 How does the importanca of justifiying our beliefs differ across different AOK?
0 Extended writing task: write 500 word on one of the following
questions;
0 1. to what extent are we persuaded by the quantity of evidence rather than the
quality of evidence?
0 2. how can we justify beliefs that do not seem to agree with available evidence?
0 3. to what extent can we justify beliefs that rest on very flimsy or anectodal
evidence? And why might we want to hold or justify such beliefs?
WOK in shared and personal
knowledge
0 Explore
0 Language
0 Emotion
0 Sense perception
0 Reason
WOK-LANGUAGE
0 Languages evolve in different societies and cultures
0 Can only function as a means of communication as far
as it is shared
0 Meaning must be shared so that it can be understood
0 Without shared knowledge, there could be no
language
0 How we interpret and hear language is also deeply
personal
WOK-EMOTION
0 Intensely personal way of knowing
0 Shape our thoughts and behaviours
0 Influence our interpretation of the world
0 Positive and negative words may affect the way we
respond to circumstances
0 May ultimately determine how we interpet language
and sense peception
0 How we respond to issues of faith and how we apply
our reason
0 Emotive language
WOK-SENSE PERCEPTION
0 Help us to understand the world
0 As good as our sensory apparatus and our brains’
interpretation of the data it receives
0 Music, book, conversations, foods, aromas and so on.
0 Perceptions may still have in common
0 Confirm with others
0 «Did you see that?», «can you hear the noise?», «does
this milk smell off to you?»
0 Believe if shared by the others
WOK-REASON
0 Socially accepted definitions of what constitutes
reason and what does not.
0 We use reason to construct an argument or justify a
belief, to assess our intuition and imagination
0 Valid reasoning
0 Formal logic (deductive reasoning) can never lead to
certaity except in so far as the premises it starts with
are certain
0 Inductive reasoning is inherently fallible
TOK Terminology-6
0 Argument:
ability to persuade using reason and evidence
0 Premise:
a proposition assumed to be truei on which an argument
is based
Assignment-3
0 Presentation task: Presentation task: Consider how
you might develop the following KQ for a presentation.
What RLS might your developed question apply to?
0 How do shared and personal knowledge complement each
other?
0 Extended writing task: write 500 word on one of the
following questions;
0 1. how do we decide which knowledge claims to trust when
our personal knowledge is at odds with knowledge that is
widely shared?
0 2. when, if ever, should society allow personal knowledge
claims to change shared knowledge?
Why Assignments
0 To prepare yourself for
0 Presentation (IA)
0 Essay
0 To let me find out your misconceptions
0 To let me give you feedback for your improvement