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
The article i found was written on the 6th of January 2010, published by the British Newspaper "The Guardian." The article, titled CLIMATE SKEPTICISM, deals with Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change, warning, that by allowing skepticism to delay action on global warming would endanger the lives of the world’s poorest people. The article may be linked to the TOK diagram, as it tackles the Sensory Perception in the ways of knowing, and natural science in the areas of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteMy article talked about Guttenberg, the german politician that was caught copying his final dissertation. The plagiarism cost the German Defense Minister his job. The Germans are not so happy about his dismiss even though they find it inevitable. The article may be linked to many of TOK's ways of knowing such as emotions and self perception. One could evalute the issue of plagiarism, how people consider it, what people consider plagiarism to be and other isseus reguarding it. It could be a really interesting topic for the TOK presentation.
ReplyDeleteMy article was about the concept of global warming and whether it really does exist, or whether people exaggerate a lot to get attention. Apparently, the scientists in the article, claim that global warming has happened before, and it goes in cycles. Our planet was warming up for periods lasting tens of thousands of years, a long time ago. The TOK knowledge issue that I connected to the article was reason. Each person reasons in a different way, therefore thinking differently about the topic. How does reason affect the validity of such information?
ReplyDeleteThe article that I discovered, discusses about celebrities and their impact on our world today. Specifically on one celebrity in particular: Charlie Sheen. The article discusses about his popularity over the internet. It states that there's an option to block him off your web browser, this blocks his name and anything having to do with "Charlie Sheen". This blocker was named the "Charlie Sheen Blocker". An article such as this one, is connected to the T.O.K. Diagram in various ways. It has to do with emotion, because if a pop-blocker is being made, then this means that people are being affected by the situation. It also connects to sensory perception because people are listening and seeing facts, articles, videos and other kind of media, all over the internet about this celebrity. Therefore, we can ask ourselves: "How can one's freedom of speech have a great impact on it's surroundings and can it affect it so much, that people's emotional states can be disturbed?
ReplyDeleteMy article talked about mind to mind connection and how its used in the real world. When people try and sell or persuade into a certain decision some use mind to mind connection applealing to the emotions and reason. Therfore as a theroy of knowledge question i would propose: To what extent does the mind affect reason and emotion?
ReplyDeleteMy article is from la Repubblica online and it focused on psychology. Based on a study from Cambrige University the types of music we listen to provides information on our personality. The characteristics of our favorite songs are interpreted in order to define some of our traits. So my knowledge issue is: to what extent does sensory perception affect our personal preferences in our musical tastes?
ReplyDeleteMy article was about a man and his wife in Italy that were being called to court for disturbing their neighbors by letting their dogs park. The neighbors reported that the owners of the dogs wouldn't quiet their pets and now want them in jail! Now in trial, two poor aged people might be sent to jail for dog barking! From this situation I derived a knowledge issue: To what extent can emotion and reason be used to justify our actions?
ReplyDeleteMy article discussed an experiment recently conducted by the University of Queensland. A certain number of participants were essentially asked to remember a moment they felt guilty about, whereas a certain number were just asked to remember daily life. The participants were then asked to put their hands into ice buckets and buckets containing hot water. People who felt guilty left their hands in each bucket for a much longer time than people who did not feel guilty. My knowledge issue is: How does the power of the suggestion influence the relationship between pain and guilt?
ReplyDeleteMy article spoke of the outburst of revolutions occurring in Libya during this period. It did not focus on the government's point of view, but rather on the people's perspective. The revolutions in Libya are losing organization and control because the rebels have decided not to follow their leaders, and are now creating chaos in the cities. The Libyan youth is also being greatly affected by the revolution: many teenagers and adolescents are becoming more opinionated and violent. They are rebelling out of frustration rather than having a purpose. My knowledge issue was: How can the Libyan youth use emotion and reason before acting out in frustration?
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ReplyDeleteMy article made claims regarding the March 11th earthquake along the eastern Japanese coast and the resulting tsunami. According to the article, the earthquake was caused by HAARP. HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a research program focused on enhancing technology for radio communications by studying the effect of mild atmospheric irregularities created through the excitement of the ionosphere. The article claimed the technology available to HAARP allowed it to create earthquakes, whirlwinds and tsunamis. The article also identified HAARP as the cause of the 2009 Haiti earthquake and other natural disasters. From the way the article was written and its absurd claims, it became clear to me that it was not to be taken seriously and that it had been written solely for the purpose of being inflammatory (i.e. trolling). Reading this article made me think of the following question: How can reason be used to discern information from misinformation?
ReplyDeleteThe article i brought to class was called "Critically endangered monk seal pup rescued". It wasn't the information in the article that gave me a knowledge question but the lay out of the article. when reading it i realized how much picture have an effect on the reader and how it is more to the readers emotions that a picture goes not having to by pas the brain. So i devised my question from that: to what extent does sensory perception effect the emotions of the viewer more than words?
ReplyDeleteThe article I found was about futurology, which means using science to predict the future. The author talks about how things that we now condiser normal, 20 years ago would have seemed impossible; things that humans may use 20 years from now may seem impossible and God-like to us now, but be average to people who live in those times.
ReplyDeleteThe knowledge issue would be: to what extent can humans use the natural sciences in determining the future?