TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Mathematics
Ways of
Knowing
Ethics
Natural
Sciences
Sense
Perception
Reason
Knower(s)
Areas of
Knowledge
Emotion
Arts
Language
History
Human
Sciences
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
In medieval universities the faculties were divided into:
Law, Religion, Medicine & Arts
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Wrote:
•
•
Wealth of Nations
The Theory of Moral
Sentiments
Considered himself a
‘Moral Philosopher’,
not an ‘Economist’
Adam Smith 1723 - 1790
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
… but if Newton
was a botanist …
A–ha!…the stem
of an apple is not
permanently
fixed to the tree!
Isaac Newton 1643 - 1727:
Physicist, Mathematician,
Astronomer, Philosopher
and Theologian
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“The rubber tree won’t yield latex.
The biologist blames the sapling;
The geologist blames the soil;
The contractor blames the unskilled labourer;
The environmentalist says the tree is fighting
back against being controlled.
If different Ways of Knowing yield
contradictory statements about the world, on
what basis do we choose among them?”
ToK Prescribed Title 1997
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“The rubber tree won’t yield latex.
The biologist blames the sapling;
The geologist blames the soil;
The contractor blames the unskilled labourer;
The environmentalist says the tree is fighting
back against being controlled.
If different Areas of Knowledge yield
contradictory explanations about the world,
on what basis do we choose among them?”
ToK Prescribed Title 1997
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
To what extent
are the
classifications
separating Areas
of Knowledge
justified?
Mathematics
Natural
Sciences
Ethics
Areas of
Knowledge
Human
Sciences
Arts
History
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Do you think there are
other AoKs which
should be included in
the ToK diagram?
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Mathematics
Natural
Sciences
Ethics
Areas of
Knowledge
Human
Sciences
Arts
History
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Perhaps we can think of the AoKs
shading into one another rather than
being totally separate
Natural
Sciences
History
Mathematics
Human
Arts
Sciences
Ethics
Mathematics
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“This was one of the great events
of my life, as dazzling as first love.
I had not imagined that there was
anything so delicious in the world”
Bertrand Russell
When he recalled his first study of Geometry
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Why do we do
Mathematics?
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
What could be less
ambiguous, more clearly
defined than a
mathematical problem?
A mathematical problem
may not be easy to
resolve, but there will be
a right answer – and
little room for debate.
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Maths gives relative certainty. If it
presents us with reliable knowledge then
we can learn precisely how it does that,
and see if we can apply the techniques
elsewhere.
The techniques of Mathematics may
provide us with a tool that will be central
in our search for reliable knowledge.
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“A mathematician is
cautious in the presence
of the obvious” Kip
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Some key points:
• Mathematics, which can be defined as the ‘science of
rigorous proof’, begins with axioms and uses deductive
reason to derive theorems
• Although proof is the logical matter of deriving
theorems from axioms, mathematicians consider some
proofs to be more beautiful than others
• While some people believe that mathematics is
discovered, others claim it is invented; but neither view
seems to be entirely satisfactory
• Mathematicians and philosophers are still perplexed
by the extraordinary usefulness of mathematics
Natural Sciences
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
All national education systems
take the view that it is
important to study Science.
Why
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
The facts are coming! The facts are
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“Science is built with facts just
as a house is built with bricks,
but a collection of facts
cannot be called science any
more than a pile of bricks can
be called a house”
Henri Poincare
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“We found that the theory did
not fit the facts – and we were
delighted, because this is how
science advances”
O.R. Frisch
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Key to the discoveries and
developments of science have been:
• Proper standards of measurement
• Paper & printing
• A common language
of scholarship (Latin)
• Developments
in instrumentation
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
With telescopes and
microscopes, enquirers
(scientists) have made
rapid progress in
putting questions
to nature, and in
formulating answers
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Can we talk about
‘scientific truths*’
or should we talk about
‘scientific beliefs*’?
*a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle
*confidence in the truth or existence of something not
immediately susceptible to rigorous proof
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“Science is a way of
thinking more than it is
a body of knowledge”
Carl Sagan
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
The Scientific Method
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Observation
Define the question
Gather information and resources (observe)
Form hypothesis
Perform experiment and collect data
Analyze data
Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as
a starting point for new hypothesis
8. Publish results
9. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“You are completely free to carry out whatever research you want,
so long as you come to these conclusions”
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Key Points:
• The success of the natural sciences has led some people to see
them as the most important form of knowledge
• The traditional picture of the scientific method has science
consisting of five key steps: observation, hypothesis, experiment, law,
theory
• Since scientific laws are based on a limited number of observations,
we can never be sure they are true
• According to Karl Popper, science should be based on the method
of conjecture and refutations, and scientists should try to falsify
hypotheses rather than verify them
• (However, a hypothesis can no more be conclusively falsified than it
can be conclusively verified)
• Although scientific beliefs change over time, it could be argued that
each new theory is closer to the truth than the previous one
Human Sciences
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Anthropology
Psychology
History
Economics
Politics
Law
Sociology
???
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
•
First born children tend to be more successful in their careers
•
Hierarchical relationships are inevitable in human societies
•
High inflation causes unemployment
•
There is greater social mobility in the USA than in the UK
•
‘Social Status’ underlies greeting rituals in different cultures
•
Most boys feel jealous of their fathers
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“I am more interested in
how a man lives than
how a star dies”
Sherwin Nuland
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“In carefully controlled
laboratory conditions
animals do what they
damn well please”
The Harvard Law of Animal Behaviour
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Sometimes political debate can look like this
Why?
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
The Person Swap
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
The Milgram Experiment
Social scientists have devised many ingenious experiments,
but ethical considerations limit our ability to conduct
experiments on human beings
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Key Points:
• Since human
beings seem to be different from other
natural phenomena, we may wonder to what extent
they can be studied in a purely scientific way
• Some important phenomena in the Human Sciences
are difficult to measure, and this can make it difficult
to study them scientifically
• Although a great deal of human behaviour is
predictable, it is unclear how far it can be reduced to
law-like regularities
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
1. In the natural sciences, a hypothesis is verified by experiment, but the social
sciences cannot experiment in quite the same way
2. The natural sciences can repeat experiments in order to verify their
hypotheses, and can generalize their result
3. The natural scientist, it is claimed, can isolate what his hypothesis applies to,
so that his predictions are not upset by outside variables
4. Natural scientists can predict with some assurance; Social scientists cannot
predict with any assurance
5. The raw material of the natural sciences can be measured with precision, but
concepts in the social sciences (e.g., "army morale," "equality of
opportunity," "free enterprise," "national character") are inherently vague
6. In the natural sciences, phenomena may be studied without regard to their
past (an inclined plane is just what it is), whereas human beings and societies
are only what they have come to be
7. In the social sciences, explanatory hypotheses may become confused
because there is an unavoidable interaction between the scientist and what
he studies, between his statements and the people to whom he makes them
8. In the natural sciences, it is claimed that the facts dealt with can be
unambiguously isolated; whereas the social sciences face problems in
establishing their hypotheses not only because the concepts used are
qualitative and vague (which is claim #5), but also because social facts are
contextual and holistic
Selected claims of the Verstehen Position excerpted from Chapter 11 “The
Social Sciences” Man is The Measure: A Cordial Invitation to the Central
Problems of Philosophy by Reuben Abel; pgs. 109-120
© 1976 by the Free Press, a division of Macmillan Publishing Company.
Arts
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
What can be known
through the arts?
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Velazquez
Bacon
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Artists allow us to
imagine ourselves in a
variety of times, places
and psychological states
through their art.
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Art evokes feelings
and also stimulates
intellectual awareness
by Gillian Wearing 1992
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Art and Knowledge
• Art as Communication
• Art as Education
• Art as Imitation
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Art and Knowledge
Art as Communication
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Art and Knowledge
Art as Education
‘Still Life’ by Paul Cezanne 1890
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Art and Knowledge
Art as Imitation
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
What counts as Art?
The intentions of the artist
The quality of the work
The response of the spectators
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Some key points:
• The Copy Theory says the purpose of Art is to copy reality.
But it could be argued that art is not so much a slavish
reproduction of reality as a creative reinterpretation of it
• A second theory sees Art as a means of communication
which enables us to imaginatively project ourselves into new
situations and communicate emotions that lie beyond
everyday language
• A third theory says that the Arts have an educative role and
at their best broaden our awareness, develop our empathy
and sharpen our moral intuitions
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Some key points:
• Art of one form or another can be found in all cultures, and
the desire to make aesthetically pleasing objects seems to be
universal
• Among the criteria for distinguishing art from non-art are the
intentions of the artist, the quality of the work, and the
response of the spectators
• It could be argued that great art stands the test of time and
is inexhaustible – in the sense that it constantly reveals new
things to us
History
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“Historians are dangerous people.
They are capable of upsetting everything” Khruschev
“He who controls the present, controls the past.
He who controls the past, controls the future.” Orwell
“If you do not like the past, change it.” Burton
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
What is history?
• Is it enough to define it as “the study of the
past”?
Concerned with:
• Evidence (the present traces of the past)
• Significance (concerned with significant
events)
• Explanation & Understanding (not only
describing the past, but also explaining it)
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Some Problems of Bias
 Topic choice bias
 Confirmation bias
 National bias
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Why study history?
 History gives us a sense of identity
 History is a defence against
propaganda
 History enriches our understanding
of human nature
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Some key points:
• History seeks to study and explain the significant events of the past on
the basis of currently existing evidence
• The study of History can be justified on the grounds that it contributes
to our sense of identity, is a defence against propaganda, and enriches
our understanding of human nature
• History is based on primary sources, but since they are selective they
cannot always be taken at face value
• In seeking to explain the past the historian has the benefit of hindsight
which can sometimes result in hindsight bias
• We can perhaps get closer to the truth by exploring the past from a
variety of perspectives
• Historical events rarely have a single cause but are usually the result of
a combination of factors
Ethics
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
“What should I do?”
“How do I know what is the
right thing to do?”
“How should human beings
treat each other?”
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
The Study of Human Action
• Ethics studies not how human beings do act
(human sciences) ...
• nor how they have acted in the past (history) ...
• but how they should act
________
Seeks to give general perspectives that
can apply to particular cases
All public and private actions (whether of thought, speech
or deed) have a moral and ethical dimension ….
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Definitions:
• Morality is our sense of right and wrong
• Ethics is the area of knowledge that
examines that sense of morality and
the moral codes we develop from it
_________
Both words, ‘Ethics’ and ‘Morality’ have their
roots in words that mean ‘Custom’
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Some key points:
• When
we argue about Ethics we typically appeal
to various moral principles, but we might wonder
how these principles can be applied
•According to moral relativism, our values are
determined by the society we grow up in, but it
could be argued that some core values are
universal
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Environmental Ethics
(for ToK Boats)
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Environmental Ethics:
Our ethical rights and responsibilities
towards the environment
How do you think of yourself in relation
to “all that stuff beyond your skin?”
__________
• Value-based approaches
• Psychologically-based approaches
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Environmental Ethics:
Value-based approach
Instrumental Value
• Useful to human ends
• Short-term gain through changing
and using nature
• Unrestrained resource use leads to
depletion
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Environmental Ethics:
Value-based approach
Intrinsic Value
• Having value in and of itself – regardless of whether
of use to humans
• Organisms which have moral standing have rights
and are owed certain duties
• Awareness-based ethics: (“Can it suffer?”)
• Life-based ethics: All living things – the entire biosphere is
seen as an interconnected system with moral standing
• Cosmic purpose ethics: include evolutionary and
theological arguments about the ultimate ends of
evolution, or the nature of God’s purposes.
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Environmental Ethics:
Psychologically-based approach
• Sense of identification
• Deep ecology
• The central problem in human ecology is the
relationship of mind to nature.
• Concerned with the process of understanding
• Concerned with the relationship between thought
and action, where actions are informed not so much
from a sense of moral duty, as from an inclination
arising from an expansive conception of self
Religion
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
• Why are there religion(s)?
• How do we assess the claims
of religion?
• Should religious belief be
exposed to rational criticism?
• What is religious knowledge?
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
The Evolution of Mythology and Religion
Early religion was the
science and technology
of its time – inasmuch
as its stories sought to
explain and predict;
and its practices were
designed to influence
natural forces
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
It is hard to be indifferent to claims
which offer explanations about the
nature of right and wrong;
the purpose of life;
and what happens to us after death.
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Faith: a definition
“Faith is the confident belief or trust in
the truth or trustworthiness of
a person, idea, or thing.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith
Faith, by definition, demands belief
without a need for supporting evidence.
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Key points:
• Religions are concerned with questions of meaning and
purpose which trouble all human beings
• Faith plays an important role in religion, but people have
different views about what faith is and whether or not it is
rational
• The fact that there are many different religions in the world
raises the question of whether they all contradict one another
or whether they all point towards the same underlying truth
• All religions are founded on a bedrock of personal
experiences, but opinions differ about how such experiences
should be interpreted
• Since we will never have the answers to the deepest
mysteries, it may be wise to hold our religious beliefs with a
degree of humility
TaK – Areas of Knowledge: An Overview
Imagine the following situation:
It has become possible to send messages
backward in time.
Yet due to the limits in the technology, only
brief messages can be sent.
Your job is to prepare such a message to be sent
back 1000 years.
(Assume any recipient would understand the language
you use)
What knowledge would you transmit in
your message and why?