IB THEORY OF KNOWELDGE
Course Essential Questions 2012-2013
GOAL 1: The Nature of Knowledge-The Knower, Knowledge Claims and Knowledge Issues
1.01: What is ToK?
1.02: What is a knowledge issue? What distinguishes knowledge from information?
1.03: Is it possible to know something without believing it? Is it possible to know something that is
false?
1.04: How can truth be obtained?
1.06: To what extend does personal or ideological bias influence our knowledge claims
1.05: Does making a knowledge claim carry any particular obligation or responsibility for the
knower?
Goal 1 Vocabulary Terms
Truth
Belief
Certainty
Knowledge
Justified True Belief
A priori knowledge
A posteriori knowledge
Primary knowledge
Second-hand knowledge
Authority worship
Moral/cognitive
absolutism/relativism
Skepticism
Gullibility
Evidence
Correspondence Theory of
Truth
Coherence Theory of Truth
Pragmatic Theory of Truth
Proposition
Law of the Excluded
Middle
Law of Non-contradiction
Knowledge issues
Knowledge claims
GOAL 2: Ways of Knowing-Language/Area of Knowledge-History
2.01 What is language?
2.02 What do we gain, and what do we lose, when we name something?
2.03 If people speak more than one language, is what they know different in each language? Does
each language provide different framework for reality?
2.04 What is the role of language is creating and reinforcing social distinctions, such as class,
ethnicity and gender?
2.05 To what extent does language generalize individual experience, classifying it within the
experience of a linguistic group? On the other hand, to what extent do some kinds of personal
experience elude expression in language?
2.06 Should offensive language be censored?
2.07 How much of history is solely based in language?
2.08 What is the role of memory in our understanding of the past?
Goal 2 Vocabulary Terms
Vagueness
Ambiguity
Secondary Meaning
Denotation
Connotation
Euphemism
Weasel Words
Labeling
Classification
Stereotype
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Linguistic determinism
Symbols
Evidence
Bias
Significance
Propaganda
Pluralists
Selection
Hindsight Bias
Theory of Knowledge Course Essential Questions: Page 1
GOAL 3: Ways of Knowing-Sense Perception/Area of Knowledge-Natural Sciences & Human
Sciences
3.01 To what extent do our 5 senses actively structure reality around us?
3.02 How do our senses deceive our understanding of the reality around us?
3.03 How do we use our sense perception in the scientific method?
3.04 How do we distinguish what is a “real” science and what is a “pseudo science”?
3.05 To what extent should we buy into the philosophy that “seeing is believing”?
3.06 What about natural sciences and human sciences make them more easily believed than other
areas of knowledge?
Goal 3 Vocabulary Terms
Common Sense Realism
Empiricism
Figure and Ground
Phenomenalism
Scientific Realism
Sensation
Visual Agnosia
Visual Grouping
Anomaly
Conjectures and refutations
Controlled Experiments
Falsification
Paradigm
Principle of Simplicity
Pseudo-Science
Rationalist
Relativism
Science Worship
Reductionism
Reductive Fallacy
Holism
Verstehen Position
Trends and Laws
GOAL 4: Ways of Knowing-Emotion/Area of Knowledge-Visual Arts and Literature
4.01 To what extent can we control our emotions? Which is emotion is most difficult to control?
How might this explain emotion as an essential way of knowing?
4.02 What are the roles of beliefs in shaping our emotions and our emotional reactions to different
scenarios?
4.03 Are emotions always rational? If not, how do we define an “irrational” fear?
4.04 To what extent are the arts a way of experiencing rather than a way of knowing?
4.05 How do we classify art from non-art?
Goal 4 Vocabulary Terms
Primary Emotions
James-Lange Theory
Empathize
Social Emotions
Emotional Energy
Emotional Coloring
Biased Perception
Fallacious Reasoning
Emotive Language
Apathy (the Stoics)
Intuition
Debugging intuition
Romanticism
Way of Experiencing
Imagination
Art vs. Non-Art
Value Judgment
GOAL 5: Ways of Knowing-Reason &Logic/Area of Knowledge-Mathematics
5.01According to rationalism, reason is a more important source of knowledge than experience. Is
this correct?
5.02Analyze the following claim: “All generalizations are false—including this one.”
5.03 To what extent can inductive logic lead to a lack of knowledge?
5.04 Are all fallacies bad?
5.05Which is easier: having the courage of your convictions, or having the courage to question your
convictions?
5.06To what extent is mathematics a practice in absolute truths?
5.07 To what extent is mathematics a discipline of discovery or a discipline of creativity
Theory of Knowledge Course Essential Questions: Page 2
Goal 5 Vocabulary Terms
Premises
Rationalism
Fallacies
Syllogism
Truth
Validity
Belief Bias
Venn Diagram
Deductive Reasoning
Enthymeme
Induction
Confirmation Bias
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Ad hominem
Vested Interest
Circular Reasoning
Special Pleading
Equivocation
Ad Ignorantiam
False Analogy
False dilemma
Loaded Questions
Laws of Thought
Prison of Consistency
Lateral Thinking
Infinite Regress
Goldbach’s Conjecture
a priori
a posteriori
Empirical
Idealization
GOAL 6: Areas of Knowledge: Ethics, Faith and Religion
6.01 How to we justify our moral reasoning?
6.02 To what extent are ethics and moral created by the society that shapes us?
6.03 How do the different theories in ethical reasoning demonstrate the various ways of knowing?
6.04 What is the purpose of religion? To what extent does it serve this purpose?
6.05 While the various religions include contradictions to one another, do they point to some
underlying truth?
6.06 How do our religious beliefs define and shape personally and in society?
Goal 6 Vocabulary Terms
Altruism
Cultural imperialism
Duty ethics
Egoism
Golden Rule
Moral Absolutism
Moral Principle
Moral Relativism
Other-Regarding Desires
Relativism
Rights
Rule Worship
Self-Interest Theory
Self-Regarding Desires
Special Pleading
Utilitarianism
Value-Judgment
Veil of Ignorance
Agnosticism
Anthropomorphism
Argument from Design
Atheism
Core Intuition
Cosmological Argument
Free Will Defense
God of the philosophers
Leap of Faith
Logical Positivism
Metaphysics
Omnaiamorous
Omnipotent
Pantheism
Paradox of Omnipotence
Pascal’s Wager
Problem of Suffering
Theism
Wish Fulfillment
GOAL 7: Paper and Presentation Review
GOAL 8: HOTA Review-Paper III Topics
Theory of Knowledge Course Essential Questions: Page 3
Long Term Plan:2012-2013
IB Theory of Knowledge
Course Overview and Timing
Unit
Unit Length
Unit Dates
Unit 1: The Nature of Knowledge-The Knower,
Knowledge Claims and Knowledge Issues
10 days
September 5-October 1st
Unit 2: Ways of Knowing-Language/Area of
Knowledge-History
8 days
October 3rd-October 24th
Unit 3: Ways of Knowing-Sense
Perception/Area of Knowledge-Natural
Sciences & Human Sciences
9 days
October 25th-November 27th
Unit 4: Ways of Knowing-Emotion/Area of
Knowledge-Visual Arts and Literature
7 days
November 28th-December 17th
Unit 5: Ways of Knowing-Reason
&Logic/Area of Knowledge-Mathematics
7 days
January 2nd-Februrary 1st*
Unit 6: Areas of Knowledge: Ethics, Faith and
Religion
6 days
February 4th-February 20th
Unit 7: Paper and Presentation Review
13 days
February 21st-March 28th
Unit 8: HOTA Review-Paper III Topics
9 days
April 8th-May 1st
Important Dates to Note
Holidays
9/3: Labor Day; 11/12 Veterans Day; 11/21-23
Thanksgiving Break; 12/21-1/1 Winter Break; 1/21
MLK Jr.; 2/18 President’s Day; 4/1-4/5 Spring
Break; 5/27 Memorial Day
Teacher Workdays
10/29, 11/6, 1/22, 3/29
Dates of Significance
12/20/2012-Extended Essay Due
2/25, 2/26-TOK EA Uploaded
3/11-3/28-TOK Presentations
December 18-20 We will work on EE Revisions
*Semester Exams in the middle of Unit 5—Have
presentation practice
Theory of Knowledge Course Essential Questions: Page 4
Theory of Knowledge Course Essential Questions: Page 5