Theory of Knowledge Diagram
Mathematics
Ways of
Knowing
Ethics
Natural
Sciences
Sense
Perception
Reason
Knower(s)
Emotion
Areas of
Knowledge
Arts
Language
History
Human
Sciences
TaK - Emotion
What do you think of
when you hear the word
‘Emotion’?
TaK - Emotion
Emotion (noun)
• A mental state that arises
spontaneously rather than through
conscious effort and is often
accompanied by physiological changes;
• a feeling
• “movere” Latin – to move
TaK - Emotion
How are you feeling now, at this
moment? How do you know?
Why do you think you are feeling
this way?
TaK - Emotion
What are emotions for?
TaK - Emotion
Do you think that Emotion
is often looked at
with suspicion?
If so, why?
TaK - Emotion
What role does emotion play in
producing knowledge?
Knowledge:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Knowing that (theoretical) ….
Knowing how (practical) ….
Knowing someone (familiarity) ….
Knowing what is right (moral) ….
TaK - Emotion
To what extent are we able to
control our emotions?
Has anyone ever said to you,
“Stop crying, you’re being irrational!”
“You have no reason to be angry!”
“There is no reason to be afraid!”
Which emotion is the hardest to control?
TaK - Emotion
You are walking down a dark alley ...
there are footsteps behind you …
TaK - Emotion
Emotion
Reason
Opposition?
TaK - Emotion
An enemy of reason?
or
An important precondition
for knowledge?
TaK - Emotion
Charioteer:
Reason
Emotion
Reason
Opposition?
Horses:
Boldness & Desire
TaK - Emotion
TaK - Emotion
"Reason is, and ought
only to be the slave of
the passions"
David Hume (1711-1776)
TaK - Emotion
“Nothing great is
accomplished in the
world without passion”
Hegel (1770-1831)
TaK - Emotion
As we swim along in our sea of
experiences and impressions, how do
we decide what to notice and
therefore what to value?
TaK - Emotion
TaK - Emotion
Without emotion …
We would feel neither approval nor
disapproval; attraction or repulsion; like or
dislike…
Everything would be of equal value
No part of the world would be more
important than any another…
There could be no interest in any human
relationship, in any work, in any play…
With no emotions, can there be goals?
TaK - Emotion
Emotion
Reason
Balance?
TaK - Emotion
Emotion
Reason
Balance?
TaK - Emotion
Emotion and Reason
Emotion
Reason
Furious Getting
annoyed
Solving a
maths problem
Not ‘either – or’,
but ‘more - or – less’
TaK - Emotion
Why are we attracted to some human faces
but not to others?
TaK - Emotion
Knowing emotion
through perception
•
How does she feel?
•
How do you know?
•
The title is ‘Absinthe’
•
Does that affect
your interpretation
of the picture?
TaK - Emotion
Primary or Universal Emotions
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Surprise
Disgust
TaK - Emotion
Secondary or Social Emotions (Socially conditioned)
Embarrassment
Jealousy
Guilt
Pride
TaK - Emotion
Secondary or Social Emotions (Socially conditioned)
TaK - Emotion
Background Emotions (frequently not conscious)
• Well-being / Malaise
• Calm / Tension
• Fatigue / Energy
• Anticipation / Dread
Rationalisations
TaK - Emotion
Biased
Perception
Experiences
Fallacious
Reasoning
Powerful
Emotions
Emotive
Language
 Bill sees some people he assumes are immigrants standing on the street corner…
 He feels irritated and angry …
 He notices only lazy immigrants and overlooks hard-working ones …
 He makes hasty generalisations from his own experience…
 He concludes that immigrants ‘are idle’ and ‘don’t know the meaning of hard work!’ …
The above factors reinforce the original prejudice and
make it difficult for Bill to be objective.
TaK - Emotion
What role does Emotion play
in shaping knowledge?
ToK - Emotion
Emotions as a source of knowledge
Have you ever been in a situation where
you had to choose between two
equally attractive options?
How did you come to a decision?
TaK - Emotion
What role do you think is usually
played by emotion when
people decide which universities
to apply to?
TaK - Emotion
Paul has arranged to meet Tom at 3pm.
Tom arrives at 3.02pm and apologises
for being late.
Rather than accept the apology, Paul
starts screaming and shouting about
Tom’s lack of consideration and
completely loses his self-control.
TaK - Emotion
The hospital phones Jane with terrible
news. Her husband has been assaulted and
is lying unconscious in Intensive Care.
“Oh dear”, she says, “that is annoying! I
was hoping to play tennis this afternoon,
but I suppose I had better come
and visit him.”
Showing too little emotion is, perhaps,
as irrational as showing too much
TaK - Emotion
“Anyone can be angry – that is easy.
But to be angry with the right person
to the right degree,
at the right time,
for the right purpose
and in the right way – that is not easy.”
Aristotle
What does he mean?
TaK - Emotion
Intuition
•
Core intuitions - our most fundamental
intuitions about life the universe and
everything.





All human beings are created equal
My friends are not aliens
Murder is wrong
Life is not a dream
The laws of Physics will not break
down tomorrow
Things we consider to be ‘obvious’
TaK - Emotion
Intuition
We sometimes appeal to intuition
to justify our knowledge claims in
various areas of knowledge about
which we perhaps know little, but
research suggests that such
‘uneducated’ intuitions should be
treated with caution….
TaK - Emotion
Intuition
•
Subject-specific intuitions – the intuitions
we have in various areas of knowledge such
as science and ethics
Imagine you are standing on a flat plain holding
a bullet in one hand, and a loaded gun in
the other.
If you fire the gun horizontally, and drop the
bullet at exactly the same time which of the
two bullets will hit the ground first?
TaK - Emotion
Intuition
•
Educated Intuition
 ‘Eureka!’ moments
TaK - Emotion
Intuition
•
Social intuitions – our intuitions about other
people, what they are like, whether or not they
can be trusted etc
TaK - Emotion
Imagine that you are presented with a special gift: a
machine - the “Happiness Machine” – that can give
you wonderfully positive emotions.
All you have to do is hook yourself up ... and switch it on.
But there’s a price: once the machine is switched on, you
will not remember anything that happened before
switching on the machine. Ever again.
Do you want to switch the machine on?
Why?
TaK - Emotion
What is the role of Emotion
in your IB subjects?
TaK - Emotion
Some key points:
• The emotions are relevant to the search for knowledge
because they provide us with energy, affect our thinking and
are sometimes used to justify our beliefs
• The six primary emotions of happiness, sadness, fear,
anger, surprise and disgust are found in all cultures
• Emotions are sometimes an obstacle to knowledge. Strong
emotions can color our perception, distort our thinking and
inflame our language
• Rather than think of reason and emotion as opposites, it
may make more sense to say that our emotions can
themselves be more or less rational
• Intuition is an immediate insight into something –
sometimes valuable, sometimes to be treated with caution.
TaK - Emotion
Questions…
• How might it be said that all decisions and therefore
actions are based on emotion? Why is it we rely on
these feelings as a higher form of certainty than raw,
objective empirical data?
• What are the flaws in relying solely on emotion as a way
of knowing?
• Despite these flaws, how do we integrate emotion to
create justified true belief?
• In what areas of knowledge is emotion important?
TaK - Emotion
ToK Essay Prescribed Title 2008:
“There can be no knowledge without
emotion .... until we have felt the force
of the knowledge, it is not ours”
Discuss this vision of the relationship
between knowledge and emotion.
TaK - Emotion
Reason
Language
Are we driven
more by reason
or emotion?
Is language used
more to persuade
or describe?
Maths
How important is
intuition in
mathematics?
Natural
Sciences
Ethics
Is ethics more a
matter of the
heart than the
head?
Emotion
Human
Sciences
Arts
Do the arts
provoke emotions
or purge them?
What does
biology tell us
about the
emotions?
History
What role does
empathy play in
the historian’s
work?
How much of a
problem is bias in
the social
sciences?
TaK - Emotion
“The most beautiful emotion we can experience
is the mysterious.
It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the
cradle of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no
longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as
dead, a sniffed-out candle.
To sense that behind anything that can be experienced
there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose
beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly:
this is religiousness.
In this sense, and in this sense only,
I am a devoutly religious man”
Albert Einstein
Extras
TaK - Emotion
An Emotion Wheel
designed by Robert
Plutchik in 1980.
Eight basic emotions with
their opposites.
Combinations:
Optimism is composed of
Anticipation and Joy. It’s
opposite is Disapproval.
etc
TaK - Emotion
Happy
Helpless
Hopeful
Lucky
Content
Guilty
Sleepy
Bored
Tired
Irritated
Relaxed
Surprised
Amused
Proud
Nervous
Joy
Sadness
Anxious
Envy
Gratitude
Confident
Awe
Relief
Wonder
Energetic
Disgust
Stupid
Ashamed
Hungry
Instinctive
Inward
Looking
Outward
Looking
Social
Inward looking: such as ‘fear’ where we are
‘drawn into ourselves’
Outward looking: such as ‘wonder’ where we are
‘drawn out of ourselves’
Instinctive: such as anger, love
Social: such as guilt, shame
TaK - Emotion
“Above all else, guard your
heart, for it affects
everything you do”
Bible
TaK - Emotion
Henry Moore
Giacometti
Why do we want to touch some sculptures
and stand away from others?