WOKs

WAYS OF KNOWING

The IB suggests studying 4 of the 8 Ways of Knowing in-depth.  This is a difficult task in some ways because these areas are not exclusive.  In other words, there is a great deal of overlap between all 8 WOKs; we do not rely purely on reason or memory to construct our knowledge of the world around us. We generally use a combination of these facilities every single day.  

The first four items in this list (reason, memory, language, and sense perception) stood alone in the TOK curriculum for a long time.  Not long ago (2013), the IB added the last four items (intuition, faith, emotion, and imagination) to the list, which has been a rather controversial decision.  We will address this controversy as we study the Ways of Knowledge. 

To view the IB page explaining WOKs, click here.

REASON 

• What is the difference between reason and logic?

• How reliable is inductive reasoning? 

• Are we predictably irrational?

Reason allows us to go beyond the immediate experience of our senses. It is closely linked to logic— the deducing of valid conclusions from given starting points or premises. Human reasoning can also be inferential in nature, allowing conclusions to be drawn that cannot be strictly deduced from their premises. It then becomes an interesting question of whether standards of rationality and norms of reasoning are grounded in culture. Areas of knowledge might set their own requirements for the types of reasoning that are accepted.  (2015 Subject Guide, p. 24-25)

For more information about Reason, click here.

MEMORY

• Can we know things which are beyond our personal present experience? 

• Is eyewitness testimony a reliable source of evidence? 

• Can our beliefs contaminate our memory?

Many discussions of knowledge tend to focus on how beliefs and knowledge are formed rather than on how they are remembered by the individual. However, most of the knowledge that individuals have is in the form of memory and therefore how we retain information and how past events and experiences are reconstructed is an important aspect of how personal knowledge is formed. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 26)

For more information about Memory, click here.

LANGUAGE

• How does language shape knowledge? 

• Does the importance of language in an area of knowledge ground it in a particular culture? 

• How are metaphors used in the construction of knowledge? 

Language can refer to the mental faculty which allows people to learn and use complex communication systems, or it can refer to those systems themselves. Language consists of a system of signs with agreed or conventional meanings combined according to a set of rules for the purposes of communication, formulation of ideas, storage of knowledge or as a medium of thought. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 23-24)

For more information about Language, click here.

SENSE PERCEPTION

• How can we know if our senses are reliable? 

• What is the role of expectation or theory in sense perception? 

• What is the role of language in sense perception?

Sense perception is the process by which we can gain knowledge about the outside world. Traditionally, there were believed to be five senses: sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. However, many now argue that there are others such as a sense of heat, sense of pain, sense of movement, sense of balance and the senses of hunger and thirst, or a sense of where our body parts are. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 24)

For more information about Sense Perception, click here.

INTUITION

• Why are some people considered more intuitive than others? 

• Are there certain things that you have to know prior to being able to learn anything at all? 

• Should you trust your intuition? 

Intuition is sometimes described as immediate cognition, or knowledge which is immediately evident without prior inference, evidence or justification. Intuition is often contrasted with reason, as it is regarded as knowing without the use of rational processes. Jung (Psychologische Typen 1921) famously referred to intuition as perception via the unconscious, highlighting the idea that intuition is often seen as beliefs which are known without understanding how they are known. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 26)

For more information about Intuition, click here.

FAITH

• Should humanism or atheism be described as a faith? 

• Can theistic beliefs be considered knowledge because they are produced by a special cognitive faculty or “divine sense”? 

• Does faith meet a psychological need?

The term “faith” is most frequently used to refer specifically to religious faith, but can also be used in a secular sense as a synonym for trust. Although most associated with belief in a God or gods, faith can be religious without being theistic, for example, in Buddhism. Alternatively it can be seen as a commitment to a particular interpretation of experience and reality which is not necessarily religious at all, such as humanism. Logical positivism claims that statements of faith have no meaningful cognitive content, so it doesn’t make sense to speak of faith as a way of knowing. However, for many people faith is a key way in which they try to understand and explain the world. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 25)

For more information about Faith, click here.

EMOTION

• Are emotions universal? 

• Can/should we control our emotions?

• Are emotions the enemy of, or necessary for, good reasoning?

• Are emotions always linked to belief?

The naturalistic view of emotions is that they are the products of natural processes, with physiological causes and effects. One supporter of this view was Darwin, who believed that emotions are purely physiological and therefore universal and experienced across all cultures. However, there seem to be many examples of culturally bound emotions, for example, the Chinese notion of “sad love”. The opposite view is therefore that of the social constructionists, who argue that emotions depend on a social consciousness, and have no natural basis at all. For example, emotions such as shame seem to presuppose a notion of right and wrong. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 24)

For more information about Emotion, click here.

IMAGINATION

• What is the role of imagination in producing knowledge about a real world? 

• Can imagination reveal truths that reality hides? 

• What is the role of the imagination in understanding others?

Imagination is often identified in a narrow sense as the capacity to form a mental representation of something without the stimulus of sense experience. Traditionally imagination has been associated with imagery and making a mental image of something. However, more recently interest in the imagination has also focused on exploring propositional imagining, or “imagining that”. The importance and power of the imagination is highlighted by a number of medical conditions which impact upon it, for example, conditions which can impair imagination such as severe autism, or conditions which can cause delusions  such as severe schizophrenia. (2015 Subject Guide, p. 25)

For more information about Imagination, click here.

*Added 2013 (for 2015 testers): imagination, faith, intuition, emotion