Theory of Knowledge (ToK)

What is it?

Theory of Knowledge is a two semester course spread over junior and senior year. It is required of all Diploma Students and open to any interested student with instructor approval.

This course asks students to reflect on the nature of knowledge, how we construct knowledge and how context and culture can impact how we understand the world around us.

ToK is different from traditional high school courses in that students are asked a lot of questions, and very few answers are provided. Students spend a lot of time discussing the questions to cultivate a greater understanding and awareness of their personal and ideological assumptions, as well as learning to appreciate diverse cultural perspectives.

Students will be assessed through an oral presentation and a 1600 word essay.

Knowledge in ToK

Knowledge is the raw material of the TOK course. It is important that students and teachers have a clear idea of what might be meant by the term “knowledge”, however, this is not such a simple matter. Thinkers have wrestled with the problem of a simple definition of knowledge since before the time of Plato, without substantial consensus. How can we expect students to be able to tackle this question satisfactorily?

The ToK course identifies eight specific ways of know (WOKs). They are: language, sense of perception, emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition and memory.

How do we know things? We know things because we use a range of methods of inquiry that incorporate ways of knowing to help construct knowledge in different areas of knowledge (AOKs). The theory of knowledge course distinguishes between eight AOKs: mathematics, natural sciences, human sciences, history, the arts, ethics, religious knowledge systems, indigenous knowledge systems.

Sample ToK Essay Titles

• "The quality of knowledge is best measured by how many people accept it." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• "Disinterestedness is essential in the pursuit of knowledge" Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• "The production of knowledge requires accepting conclusions that go beyond the evidence for them." Discuss this claim.