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Introduction: True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance." Akhenaton
Introduction: True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance." Akhenaton
Reflection:
What kind of things would you probably have accepted as knowledge if you had been born 500 years ago?
What would you, most likely, have rejected?
What does this imply?
In TOK classes, you have to study one compulsory core theme and two optional themes. The themes are primarily assessed through the TOK exhibition, in which you will demonstrate how TOK manifests itself in the real world.
Throughout the lessons on the core theme, you will explore what it means to know and what knowledge is.
You will examine the factors that shape how you make sense of the world.
You will also discover where your values come from and what shapes your perspectives.
In addition, you will reflect on how you engage with the knowledge around you. In this respect, it is important to acknowledge that the communities you belong to play an important role within how you construct, share and evaluate knowledge.
As a thought experiment, you could ask yourself whether you would accept, let's say, the Theory of Evolution if you had been born 500 years ago, or currently lived in a remote mountain village the other side of the world.
Alternatively, you could wonder how you would have engaged with the #MeToo movement be if you had grown up in a community with very different (religious) values, or if you were of "the other" gender (if we can speak in binary oppositions, that is)? Or, ...what would the international education system look like if you, your teachers and the IB community as a whole, primarily communicated in Swahili?
What you accept as knowledge may well depend on your perspective, language, values and the community of "knowers" you are most familiar with. You may well possess assumptions and even bias you were previously unaware of.
What you accept as knowledge may well depend on your perspective, language, values and the community of "knowers" you are most familiar with. You may well possess assumptions and even bias you were previously unaware of.
By exploring the core theme, you will hopefully learn to think more carefully about the validity of knowledge and avoid accepting things face value.
Unfortunately, people can be manipulated and deliberately misinformed to serve political, religious, idealist or economic agendas.
Powerful people and entities might use unreliable sources and dubious research to present things as good quality knowledge or even fact. For example, it seems obvious that medical research into the effects of tobacco (albeit indirectly) sponsored by a tobacco company is less likely to be trustworthy. However, in reality, these kinds of practices occur more often than you think. It is important to check your sources and to fact-check claims about knowledge you come across
In theory, the current availability of (digital) technology should allow us to "fact-check" more easily. In addition, our current access to vast amounts of information should, arguably, make us more knowledgeable than "the average medieval Joe". However, with the expansion of (social) media, false information and erroneous knowledge claims can spread incredibly fast whilst reaching large amounts of people. When we are confronted with such information, we do not always check our sources. The "visible" nature of this information can exacerbate the situation, because we place (too) much trust on what we can perceive through our senses.
The current phenomenon of "deepfakes", for example, illustrates (in an albeit extreme way) that "seeing is no longer believing". Technology allows us to manipulate images and videos, select "convenient" information (whilst leaving out the rest) and quickly find some "evidence" (from bad sources) to support silly claims.
By evaluating wrong and potential harmful knowledge claims, you may become wiser, more knowledgeable and even more tolerant and open-minded.
You should not dismiss the blatantly obvious as "fake news" simply because it does not suit your agenda, or use concepts such as "alternative facts" to avoid blame for what you have done. This can be equally dangerous and manipulative. When we are confronted with a wealth of evidence that shows the earth is round, it would be foolish to claim that it is flat because this suits your intuition better. Likewise, when it is beyond reasonable doubt that climate change is happening, you could question the sincerity of people who brush this fact off as "fake news".
What does it mean to know?Activity: How do you translate "to know" or "knowledge" into other language(s) you speak/learn?
What does it mean to know?Activity: How do you translate "to know" or "knowledge" into other language(s) you speak/learn?
Which aspects of "knowing"or "knowledge" do these translations highlight?
What does this imply?
Theory of Knowledge classes centre around the question 'How do we know what we know?'. In TOK you are invited to wonder and wander, to reflect upon knowledge you have gathered throughout the years and to analyse yourself as a knower. Throughout your exploration of the core theme, you will explore knowledge questions on the four elements of the TOK course: scope, perspectives, methods and tools and ethics. The whole course will be interspersed with such questions about knowledge.
Questions
What community/ies of knowersdo you belong to?
How has your culture, upbringing, gender, point of time in which you live etc influenced how and what you know?
Which words do you use in your language to express knowledge and knowing?
What does it even mean to know?
How might we possibly begin to define what "knowledge" actually is?
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