Of Ethics, the Workplace, the IB Mission Statement

For a few weeks now we have been dwelling upon Ethics.   Perhaps more than any other unit of TOK, Ethics is taught from the inside out.  To avoid a purely academic exercise, one devoid of personal import, one treating ethical systems as if they were maps of purely abstract concepts, we must first become aware of our personal convictions and  instinctive reactions, whatever these may be, however contradictory they may be.   Once aware of these personal convictions, we can begin to examine them in the light of different ethical doctrines.

We have investigated the implications of using religion as a basis for Ethics, and we have had several conversations upon issues raised by specific ethical dilemmas in which we must make a  judgment,  select a course of action, and articulate a justification for our judgment and action.   In discussing the cases we have looked at Egoist (self-interested), Utilitarian, Christian, and Kantian codes of Ethics.      

Is it not interesting that there is no Authoritarian School of Ethics?   In Ethics one must be actively thinking, not following.  Obedience for the purposes of economic survival perhaps can be treated under Egoism.  Recently it has caught the interest of experts concerned with ethics in the workplace.  Improper business practice, always for the cause of greater profit, can have a forceful negative impact on society, leading to great economic duress or a terrible poisoning of the environment.  In the wake of numerous recent scandals many are now demanding the study of business ethics at university.  There is a desire that people be more conscious of their larger ethical responsibilities.  The workplace can take on a factory-like ethos: do your work, don't speak up, don't contradict, don't think: you are an indian, not a chief.  What is the right thing to do (besides read Dilbert)?

In examining the dilemmas our classroom discussion actually became quite heated at times, providing an opportunity to learn that meaningful human discussion requires restraint, a blast of emotion will usually and unsurprisingly summon an opposing blast.  Rather than circumventing discussion, we have learned to exercise more self-restraint  in order to share passionate ideas and feelings.  All the conversations, I think, have been memorable learning experiences.

Most student responses to the dilemmas (and I hasten to say the responses were a little varied, but speaking generally) would probably find echoes from most adults placed in analogous situations.   In fact the continuity with the world of adults made it clear that  conventional ethical norms have been well observed and assimilated.   At times there was generosity towards a friend, perplexity and inertia at the dilemma of a stranger, indifference at an action that was unethical but had no personal impact.   Comparing and contrasting our responses, and looking at them in the light of different ethical codes, is one genuine way for learning to take place, although complex and urgent experience is the better teacher.  Our best learning is life.

Besides conventional ethical dilemmas, we have looked at new issues in Bioethics as well, stimulated by a remarkable and memorable talk given by Paul Root Wolpe to an audience at TED.  We have also watched an instructive session at TED with Michael Sandel, the most popular teacher at Harvard.   Sandel teaches by the case method, first telling a brief story presenting an ethical dilemma and then asking students for their responses.  He guides a soft collision of opinions by asking students to respond to each other and to give the reasons for their judgements, and then he seeks to clarify the ethical principles that underlie the collision of judgements.   One can see his entire course on the internet (two students in our class have watched all the episodes!).

How do we arrive at our values?  How do we justify them?  The IB Mission Statement is marked by carefully selected values:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

Let's look at that last paragraph again:  it says other people can be right and not other people are right.  What distinction is being made?  Is the door open to an ethical relativism?  If it were, would this be fine?  If the door is closed, should it be opened?

Due: January 10, 2012

Choices, Choices: Ethics

We have begun Ethics, the area of knowledge concerned with understanding the principles of right and wrong.  How do we really know what is right and wrong?   Is the ethical what we feel is right?  Is it following what everyone does?   Is Ethics the same as religion?   Is there an innate understanding of Ethics?  Do we learn a cultural code that is specific to our society?  If we just follow the law, are we being ethical?   Is authority always right?  Is there a universal system that all acknowledge and respect?  If not, how do we resolve conflicts between analyses of right and wrong?  What ethical issues will we confront in our daily life?

We will confront ethical issues daily.  For example, is it right for animals to suffer to improve human life?  Is capital punishment right?  What should we do if our government goes to war and we do not agree with the justification of the action?  Can a society justify the torture of individuals for the greater good?  What do we do if coworkers are maligning and mobbing a colleague? 

Our first section concerns Christian ethics and we have isolated issues that arise in using a religion as the basis of ethics.  Let us reflect on our own experience.  How has our religion taught us right and wrong?  Has it been effective on a daily basis?  Has it avoided issues that you confront in your life? Do you believe that religious people behave more ethically?  Can religion, in some issues, become a barrier to ethical behavior? 

If we are not religious or do not wish to be so confessional, what do we think about religion and ethics?

Address the questions to your own level of comfort!

Due: November 14 

Learning from which past?

For some students history is fascinating and enthralling, an essential key to the mystery of the present; for others it a dull subject filled with a confusing flurry of names, dates, battles, treaties. It's a tempest in a library.  Yet history is a hotly contested topic in many countries. All agree that history is a vitally important story for the identity of a nation--but whose point of view should be told? Which version should be communicated to the younger generations?

Early this year, for example, a group of conservative Italian parliamentarians loudly attacked the selection of history textbooks commonly used in Italy. They demanded scholastic texts that are impartial and objective in vision. They questioned whether public money should be spent on textbooks that are partisan and, in their view, are indoctrinating the young in leftist ideology. Among the passages reproached as biased are laudatory descriptions of Palmiro Togliatti, Enrico Berlinguer, and Alcide De Gasperi, each an undeniably important statesman in postwar Italy.  The members of parliament branded the textbooks as communist and requested the opening of a formal enquiry.

In the United States, similarly, history can be contested territory. The late Howard Zinn, a professor of political science at Boston University, wrote A People’s History of the United States to give an alternative version to the narrative found in most  American textbooks (you can find the entire work here). He viewed the story as dominated by the economic interests of the wealthy and wrote with consistent sympathy for those who suffered unjustly, the Native Americans, the African slaves, the impoverished immigrants, people in foreign countries (e.g., the Vietnamese), women, and laborers. For the political left, this is the unvarnished and unattractive truth of American history; for the political right, it is only a simple ideological fable pitting the rich against the poor. Who is right? Do you have to decide? Can you ignore the debate?

For one more example, let's look at the UK.  In recent years the United Kingdom has watched with concern a decline in the number of students taking the history GCSE exam.  The curriculum has been revamped, yet critics still think and feel the course is not challenging students and telling the right story.  Nial Ferguson, for instance, wants the narrative to focus on why Europe gains ascendancy after 1500.   The president of the Royal Society termed Ferguson's suggestions ideological; some liberal commentators more bluntly said they were rightwing.

Let's consider some questions.  Can a textbook treating national history avoid charges of patriotic propaganda?  Can history step out of politics and become objective? Can history remove itself from value judgements? If not, whose values should be promoted?  Is there a neutral language and manner for writing history? Are you conscious of your own political ideas? Do you think that you don't have any political ideas? Is it desirable for a student to be wholly apolitical? Have your history classes at Marymount clarified your own sense of cultural and political identity? 

Select a question or two, or formulate a related one of your own, and make a comment. Due: 4 November (coincidentally an important date in Italian history!) 

Education as a Human Science: Sir Ken Robinson

In TOK we are drawing near the end of our Human Science unit.  We have touched upon the Human Science that arguably influences us everyday most powerfully: Education.   How do we learn?  What are different theories of learning?  What are learning styles?  Are we really divided, for instance, into visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners?  Are these innate predispositions or acquired preferences?  What are other kinds of intelligence?  What is the best way to teach?  How do we best measure learning?  Is standardized testing useful or is it a reductive tool to channel students into narrow categories?  Is there a business of standardized testing seeking to objectify a process that is much more dynamic and multidirectional?  Can we, for example, really measure the fluid process of learning to read in tiny graduated steps?  Is homework necessary after seven hours of school?  Should staring into the pictures in a plastic box increasingly occupy the center of the educational process?  Is an authoritarian model of learning most effective?  Do we study too many subjects?  Should we emphasize competition or cooperation? Is religious formation effective in building character and values?

The questions go on and on and on.  Education is a complex human science, a crossroads of developmental psychology, sociology, economics, politics, and more.  Debates on these issues quickly become heated.  The brief RSA video of Sir Ken Robinson raised significant questions.   Urbane and charming, erudite without becoming pedantic, Sir Ken is an educational activist, a man who advocates diversity, creativity, and practicality.   In his talk, which we saw in an abbreviated format (see the entire talk here), he explains how the educational system we use is a child of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.   It was made for a former age, and the stimulating 21^st Century requires a different model that engages contemporary children and, instead of seeking to instill obedience and passivity, even through the use of drugs, prepares them for an ever shifting and dynamic present.

How does one do this?  How would you do this?  What would you change in the process of learning?  Do you know your own learning style or preference?  What would be your ideal learning experience?  More freedom?  More structure?  Fewer subjects?  Less homework?  More work in groups?  More individual work? More variety in assessment to measure learning?  Oral examinations?  More work connected with the world beyond the walls of school? Please do not be facetious in making a comment below. 

Human Science: Experimentation. The Stanford Prison Experiment

A Human Science, we have seen in class, is a strange hybrid beast. Social scientists are imbued with the Scientific Method and its elements of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, the collection of data, analysis of the data, and the formulation of a conclusion regarding the initial hypothesis. With this Method they attempt to study the behavior of human beings, but problems in application can quickly surface. How does one accurately measure human behavior? How can one predict an outcome without influencing it? How can one isolate exactly what causes complex human behavior? Are there ethical considerations that inhibit experimentation?

The problems are thorny. We see them in a famous (or infamous) experiment conducted at Stanford in 1971. Professor Philip Zimbardo created a prison simulation with undergraduate students, male, white middle-class students. He wished to determine whether a brutal and hostile environment determines behavior, or whether an individual's own personal characteristics determine it. Were prisons conditioning people to behave sadistically, or was this sadism an innate characteristic? Is it nature or is it nurture?

In class we watched a BBC documentary on the experiment (the link is also on Edline) and are familiar with its details. After six days Zimbardo shut down the experiment. Please respond to one of the statements below:

• The Stanford Prison Experiment was a daring and creative simulation that revealed that human behavior is substantially determined by environment. If one places several well-adjusted subjects into a degrading authoritarian environment, they quickly lose their sense of personal identity and become utterly submissive. The Scientific Method was well applied for the most part and, whatever the faults in application, these did not compromise the findings. Environment powerfully shapes behavior.  In retrospect we undertand more about the ethics of experimentation and, through subsequent reflection, can apply better guidelines to prevent duress in experiments. We saw the very same phenomenom with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that erupted in 2004. If the military had been aware of the 1971 experiment, that scandal could have been prevented.


• The Stanford Prison Experiment was a poorly conceived work of improvised theater with unprofessional actors. The guards were told at the beginning to abuse the students psychologically, and true prison conditions were not replicated. One student guard admits to acting out a sadistic role seen in Cool Hand Luke. If students and the professor himself were merely playing roles learned from Hollywood movies, there was no true scientific study, it was improvised theater. Moreover, there was no neutral observer, no independent variable, nothing was measured, the results were impressionistic. The conclusions articulated in the documentary seem to manifest Confirmation Bias.  Does one really need to determine that studious well-behaved unconfrontational middle class young men will be submissive in prison? Can one generalize about human beings from such a small group? The naiveté of the study was extraordinary. 

New Year, New Challenges

In May, having received your high school diploma, you will stand on the lawn and toss your tasseled blue or white academic caps spinning into the air and you will rejoice that one long stretch of schooling has finished. Rowdy cheers, tears, laughter, hugs.

But there is still a lot of work for the next nine months.

In TOK this means finishing the curriculum (Social Sciences, History, Ethics), writing the TOK Essay (topics already posted on Edline), and giving the TOK Presentation. All of this we will introduce and begin to address in our first class. It also means giving as much as we can of ourselves in class discussions, listening actively, responding appropriately, weighing what we hear and say.

Before we begin, let's look again at the Mission Statement of the International Baccalaureate Organization:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
To this end the organization works with schools, governments, and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with all their differences, can also be right.

Let's take a look at the last paragraph. What does this paragraph mean to you? Please write a brief reflection of about 200 words.

Art: What has been the most powerful experience for me?

Art as a way of knowing is an enormous topic. Living in a city like Rome that teems with masterpieces can give another dimension to our classroom discussion. Whether we wish to look at a Neolithic fertility goddess, an Egyptian obelisk from the time of Ramses the Great, an Assyrian battle relief, a Hellenistic bronze of a beaten boxer, an Etruscan terracotta statue of a deity, a Roman imperial portrait, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, a medieval church and its mosaics, a graceful Renaissance masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, or Michelangelo, a haunting biblical scene by Caravaggio, an elegant and dynamic sculpture by Bernini, the cooler Neoclassical beauty of a Canova statue, the patriotic scenes of the painters of the Risorgimento, the abstractions of the Futurists or Rationalists, the thought-provoking contemporary architectural works of Zaha Hadid, Richard Meier, Renzo Piano, or Massimiliano Fuksas---Rome has these and much, much more. It's a tough act to beat.

And if we think of the poets and other writers who have lived or sojourned here, the list continues. Picking up the list from after 1800, we can mention Leopardi, Keats, Byron, Shelley, James Joyce, Hans Christian Andersen, Alberto Moravia, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dacia Maraini, and the list can go on and on.

And if we think of film, the list continues: Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Passolini, Fellini, Sergio Leone, Elio Petri...

But if we ask what work of art has been most important to you, how would you respond? Would it be a work from the past? Would it be a work of literature, a dance performance, a song, a film, a cartoon, a painting, a sculpture, a building? What makes it so powerful to you? Is it the emotion? Is it an insight into the human condition? Was it something else?

Please answer these last questions in an entry below of about 400 words. This is due at the beginning of class on May 20.

Math / Presentations

It has been a while since we have posted! In the intervening weeks--which encompassed the ten day hiatus of Easter vacation--we have done the Mathematics unit and again begun to work on presentations. In the Mathematics unit we examined the axiom-theorem structure which the Greeks invented and how logic operates in this system. We also made connections between math and the arts. For example, we looked at fractals and watched a brief video of Benoit Mandelbrot, their creator/discoverer. Students in groups also presented different math/art topics including the Golden Section, the art of M.C. Escher, Linear Perspective, and the relationship of math to music that in the West began with Pythagoras.
We looked at how math can be creative. Finally we spoke of how Kurt Goedel (a friend of Einstein) proved that not all mathematical truth can be proven, that is, that there are true theorems that cannot be proven from the given axioms, a curious situation for a discipline that is so rigorous and precise.
With all this done, it is time to turn our attention to presentations. Could someone from each group record the real-life situation and the knowledge issue that have been selected. What problems have you encountered? Sign with the initials of the people in the group.

Article and a Knowledge Issue

The crucial and most difficult part of TOK, arguably, is making the leap to seeing Knowledge Issues in daily life. As a part of the course work, this skill becomes very important for internal and external assessment. Like any skill, it becomes easier with habitual practice.

This week each student brought in an article and briefly discussed a knowledge issue present in the article. I was continually impressed by the creativity of the selections, and how personal each choice was. Could each of you summarize your article in one or two sentences (not a paragraph!) and record in the form of an open question the knowledge issue you have found.

Due: 25 March

Variety in Presentations!

The TOK Presentation is a not an easy task, it cannot be thrown together after reading something hurriedly. It must be personal, well-researched and well-structured, addressing a real-life situation and focussing on the inherent knowledge issues.

The Guide to the course says that "presentations may take many forms, such as lectures, skits, simulations, games, dramatized readings, interviews or debates. Students may use supporting materials such as videos, MS Powerpoint presentations, overhead projections, posters, questionnaires, recordings of songs or interviews, costumes or props. Under no circumstances, however, should the presentation be simply an essay read aloud to the class" (page 47).

Keeping this in mind, be creative! Take a look at this film on teen dating made by a group of TOK students in California. It is a real-life situation and the students are focussing on Knowledge Issues. Write a reaction (250 words) to the short video below by Monday, March 21.

More on Knowledge Issues / The TOK Presentation

For the TOK Presentation and Essay students must clearly and directly address specific knowledge issues. What does this mean?

In the first semester we explored the inner part of the TOK diagram, that is, the Knower(s) and the Ways of Knowing (language, sense perception, emotion, and reason). We observed that human beings have many ways of knowing and understanding, and that each way has distinct advantages and disadvantages, possibilities and limitations. When we seek to understand through written or spoken language, this imposes possibilities and limitations. Our senses permit us to receive information, but this too can be delimited or expanded depending on different conditions. Emotion can color our sense perception and reasoning. Reason itself can be logical or illogical, deductive or inductive, and it can be mislead through the logical fallacies. All of these Ways of Knowing interact.

For the TOK course a knowledge issue will be formulated in relationship to these issues as well as to issues of belief, certainty, culture, evidence, experience, explanation, interpretation, justification, truth and values. It also can be focused on one of the Areas of Knowledge (Natural Sciences, Human Sciences, Mathematics, The Arts, and Ethics).

The IB does not prescribe but recommends that knowledge issues are:

• "Formulated as open questions that allow more than one possible answer
  
• Explicitly about knowledge itself and not subject-specific claims
  
• Expressed in the language of TOK
  
• Precise in terms of the relationships between these concepts."

The challenge of TOK is to assimilate a new way of understanding how we know. The presentation must deal with a real-life situation and then discover in this a clear and explicit knowledge issue. For example, Al Gore has been campaigning for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in order to reduce the greenhouse effect. In the documentary An Inconvenient Truth we see him presenting his argument to myriad audiences around the world. That is a real-life situation. But if we simply debate on carbon dioxide emissions, this would not be sufficient. For TOK it is not enough to debate the persuasiveness of the argument. The knowledge issue must be expressed at a higher level of abstraction. The knowledge issue, expressed as a question, becomes: What makes a scientific explanation persuasive?

The challenge is to express the knowledge issue at this level of abstraction and then to keep the examination of the knowledge issue in focus and grounded in real examples. One must demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of the knowledge issue. Keep in mind, as we continue in preparing the first presentation, the four areas in which you will be assessed (I have given you these criteria in class):

• Identification of Knowledge Issues
• Treatment of Knowledge Issues
• Knower's Perspective
• Connections

The first semester, we can see now, is fundamentally important in highlighting the issues in knowing. As we go ahead with focusing on the specific Areas of Knowledge, we must also begin to apply these concepts and questions to life. This is what makes the TOK perennially fascinating and relevant.

Richard Feynman and Science as Knowing

We are now turning to science as a way of knowing.

One of the most extraordinary people of the 20th century was Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who left an lasting impact on science. His impact was in part due to his discoveries, and in part due to his amazing ability to teach science. Unconventional and creative, he engaged people in viewing the world in a manner at once poetic and scientific, balancing rigorous thought and enormous awe.

In class we began watching a video on Feynman. Please finish watching the video outside of class and record a reflection here. What does Feynman say about science as a way of knowing?

The Pyramids in Bosnia and Testing for Truth

In class yesterday we watched a brief news clip about the discovery of pyramids in Bosnia. How can we evaluate the validity of this claim? In previous classes we have seen that different tests can be applied to knowledge claims. We can test by reasoning, by observation, by seeking a reliable source, by emotion. What tests are used to validate the claim in Bosnia? What tests can invalidate it? What do you personally think about the claim?

Knowledge and Wisdom

In the last two classes we have isolated and discussed briefly three categories of knowledge:

• Experiential Knowledge
• Factual Knowledge
• Skills Knowledge

We also turned our attention to wisdom. In reflecting upon what constitutes wisdom, several students articulated that it encompasses all three categories, but emphasizes experiential knowledge. It also requires reflection.

Students too mentioned specific classmates who seemed wise in that they firmly and compassionately understood what was important and meaningful in specific situations.

Can wisdom be taught? If it cannot, what does this tell us about learning? If it can, could you create a course on wisdom and what would you teach? How would you teach it?