Helpful Reading for TOK: Suggestions

If one wanted to deepen one's understanding of Theory of Knowledge, where would one look?  I have a couple of suggestions.

First, while one can stumble upon small online islands of information in surfing the internet, one more substantial site is theoryofknowledge.net.  It covers all the different aspects of the course and goes into sufficient detail, being neither too superficial nor too erudite that one is left behind coughing in a cloud of library dust. 

Next, I very highly recommend Nigel Warburton's Philosophy: The Basics.  A senior lecturer at the Open University in the UK, Warburton writes with admirable clarity and has the natural teacher's gift of making complicated ideas understandable.

Another great resource is Stephen Law's The Philosophy Gym, a book presenting a series of playful and imaginative dialogues on philosophical problems and issues.  Law is on the faculty of Heythrop College, originally a Jesuit school and since 1970 a part of the University of London.  Like Warburton, he writes lucidly about philosophical problems and makes them understandable and accessible. 

Julian Baggini has written many books, but Making Sense:  Philosophy behind the Headlines seems expressly written for TOK.  He explores philosophical issues raised by news stories.  As the publishing blurb states, "The discussions interweave philosophy and current affairs to create a compelling narrative that challenges how we make sense both of the world around us and of our own beliefs."

Baggini, Law, and Warburton have written other accessible books on philosophy, and also have websites and blogs.  Inevitably perhaps, but also very fortunately, they are more and more present on Youtube through recorded lectures and debates.  Civil, insightful, and always clear, they are very enjoyable to listen to, even if one may disagree with what is said. 

This extra reading is not mandatory, BUT if one wanted to pursue many of the topics and issues further, one could dip into these books and continue a journey in philosophical thought.

Show More

Show Less

Alone Together

Recently in class we watched a TED talk by psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle, who is a professor at MIT.  She studies the interaction of human beings with technology, and uses hundreds of interviews to gather data for analysis and interpretation.  Her most recent book is Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (2011).  Her TED Talk reviews some of the findings of this recent book, raises some interesting questions, and makes some challenges.

Please write a reflection on the talk below.  Some questions for consideration (you need not answer any of them, these are just to stimulate thought!):

• Do you agree with what she says?  If not, would you say that her sampling of people was too limited (how does it break down, for example, by age group?  Should she have interviewed more teenagers?)?  Did she fail to take into account alternative points of view?
• When did you get your first cell phone?  Do you think that it has generally enriched or impoverished your daily life?  Does it distract you from your life or connect you to it?
• What challenges does she make at the end of the talk?
• In relating her research, Dr. Turkle is very emotional.  Clearly this work means a great deal to her.  How do you think empathy is present in her research and interpretation of her findings?
• Does her "pre-technological" value system (her values having been formed before the advent of personal computing and mobile devices) precondition her to view the more intense use of technology in a negative manner? How have values guided her interpretation of the data?
• Do the human sciences put more emphasis on emotion, empathy, and values?

Human Science 1

Introduction

Let's try to answer three questions:

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? 
................. cents

2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
 ................. minutes

3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch  doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
................. days

These three very short questions have sent smoke reeling through the ears of many people, as if mental gears were colliding, and in fact mental gears are colliding.  This test, along with other experiments, have persuaded many psychologists that human beings have two systems of thinking.  The first is quick, intuitive, emotional, and given to generalizing.  The second is slow, deliberate, logical, and given to making distinctions.

Many stumble on the three questions because System 1 leads them quickly and directly to the obvious and incorrect answer.  Those few who get them correct have resolved the problems with System 2.  These two systems of thinking have recently been explained in an engaging book entitled Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 (I suggest reading his short autobiography at the Nobel site!).

Have you learned something about human beings? 

Welcome to the world of Human Science!

What are the human sciences?

The area of human sciences encompasses a large number of disciplines that includes  anthropology, archaeology, economics, education, game theory, law, linguistics, political science, sociology, and psychology.  These disciplines seek to apply the scientific method to understand how and why human beings think and feel, behave and interact, as they do.

But unfortunately the scientific method, which already gives rise to issues when applied to natural phenomena, has even more issues when applied to the study of human beings.  The Austrian philosopher Karl Popper argued very well that a scientific theory should be falsifiable and if it were not, then that theory was pseudoscience.  Therefore, psychoanlysis was pseudoscience:  Dr. Freud was always right and could not be proven wrong.  Would this be true for many human sciences?  Are theories in the human sciences like theories in the natural sciences?  And while one can speak of natural laws, such as the four Laws of Thermodynamics (elegantly explained in a brief book by Peter Atkins), are there any laws of human nature? 

Early pioneers of the human sciences, such as Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim, believed the scientific method could be applied to the study of the behavior of human beings.  But when we begin to think about it, every step of the scientific method will have issues in this new application.     

The human sciences present much food for thought in a TOK class.

What methods can be used?

In the Natural Sciences the scientific method (Observation, Hypothesis, Experimentation) can lead to results and insights that can be explained with a scientific theory.  One proceeds inductively from observations to generalizations.  Unvarying regularities in nature are known as physical laws.  A scientific theory (i.e., a scientific explanation) is based on evidence and a chain of reasoning, it is falsifiable and has predictive powers.  As Galileo first discovered in his study of mechanics, mathematics is a very helpful tool for precise measurement and analysis of data.  Theories that fail to explain adequately natural phenomena are discarded and one can witness a complete paradigm shift.  Any currently accepted theory is tentatively accepted as the best explanation at this moment.

Methods in the human sciences, on the other hand, can be divided into two categories:  quantitative methods and qualitative methods.

• Quantitative Methods
• These include experiments, surveys, questionnaires, and tests that provide numerical data that can be analyzed for frequencies and trends.  Mathematics is used as a tool of analysis, but statistics that are produced need interpretation. 
• Qualitative Methods
• These include interviews and case studies.  These studies can provide more textured and nuanced data, but it is not precisely measured. 

Experts will often use both quantitative and qualitative methods.  In the next classes we will explore these methods more closely to understand their purposes and their issues.  Already one can see that linguistic interpretation is integral.

What is TOK? Why is it challenging?

Theory of Knowledge, at first, can be difficult to frame as a course because few students have followed a similar class in the past.  While you have had language and literature, math, science, history, and art classes, you have never had a class on the Theory of Knowledge.  It is new and at times abstract, and these qualities combine to make the experience challenging. 

So, at the beginning of a new academic year, we should review the aims and objectives of the Theory of Knowledge course.  Each student and parent should clearly understand its purpose and basic content.   The course guide outlines five aims: 

1)      develop a fascination with the richness of knowledge as a human endeavour, and an understanding of the empowerment that follows from reflecting upon it

2)      develop an awareness of how knowledge is constructed, critically examined, evaluated and renewed, by communities and individuals

3)      encourage students to reflect on their experiences as learners, in everyday life and in the Diploma Programme, and to make connections between academic disciplines and between thoughts, feelings and actions

4)      encourage an interest in the diversity of ways of thinking and ways of living of individuals and communities, and an awareness of personal and ideological assumptions, including participants’ own

5)      encourage consideration of the responsibilities originating from the relationship between knowledge, the community and the individual as citizen of the world.

The course guide further specifies six outcomes.  That is, after taking the course, the student should be able to:

1)      analyse critically knowledge claims, their underlying assumptions and their implications

2)      generate questions, explanations, conjectures, hypotheses, alternative ideas and possible solutions in response to knowledge issues concerning areas of knowledge, ways of knowing and students’ own experience as learners

3)      demonstrate an understanding of different perspectives on knowledge issues

4)      draw links and make effective comparisons between different approaches to knowledge issues that derive from areas of knowledge, ways of knowing, theoretical positions and cultural values

5)      demonstrate an ability to give a personal, self-aware response to a knowledge issue

6)      formulate and communicate ideas clearly with due regard for accuracy and academic honesty.

In class we will put these aims and outcomes into our own language.  But one can see that TOK is an ambitious course.  In simplest terms, it is a course on thinking critically about our experience as learners and knowers.   We gain an awareness of how we learn and know as human beings in different academic classes and in different cultures.   TOK's fundamental question is, How do I know?   

The TOK Diagram clarifies the scope of the class.  In the center we see the Knower, then the Four Ways of Knowing (Sensory Perception, Emotion, Language, Reason),  then the subjects of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Art, Human Sciences, History, and Ethics.  Taking the fundamental question of TOK, we examine in class how we know through each of these interacting ways of knowing and subjects. 

 

In short, we take a comparative overview of how knowledge is created.  Each subject creates knowledge in a different manner:

• The Natural Sciences (e.g., Biology, Chemistry, Physics) use the Scientific Method (Observation, Hypothesis, Test) to create knowledge.  Each step of the method can raise knowledge issues.  Key concepts include hypothesis, theory, and law (which is most important?).  Many other questions can be raised, but to take one:  how do sensory perception, emotion, language and reason condition the creation of scientific knowledge?
• Mathematics is a body of knowledge, a system of ideas, and a tool.  It constructs knowledge through axioms and theorems (what are these?).  It uses proofs to demonstrate the validity of the theorems.  How does math become creative?  Is mathematics value-free?
• The Arts use a variety of media for a variety of purposes.  What is the purpose of art?   Is it to create beauty?  Is it meant to teach society?   What should it teach?  Is it for self-expression?  Is there truth in art?  Can we test it?  Is there an ethical dimension to art?  Can art harm an individual or society?
• The Human Sciences (e.g., Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Education) use the Scientific Method in order to understand human beings and their behavior.  How well can this be done?  Observation and description are central activities, but testing can be difficult or impossible.  If a theory in human science cannot be tested, is it a scientific theory?  Or if a theory has little consistent predictive value (as can happen in economics), why consider it scientific? 
• History is the study of the past.  Why can we not consider this a human science?  Are all perspectives on history equally valid?  Is there a best method in writing history?   Is there an ethical dimension to the writing of history?
• Ethics is the study of how right and wrong are determined.  Are right and wrong purely cultural constructs?  Can there be a universal understanding of right and wrong?  What are the most common moral philosophies?  Does Ethics impact the other areas of knowledge?

Many more knowledge issues can be raised.  There is a sense in which every subject teacher is a TOK teacher because the subject teacher can make you more aware of the subject-defining concepts and methods, as well as the common knowledge issues of that particular way of creating knowledge. 

Last year in the first semester of TOK, you examined the Knower and the Four Ways of Knowing.  In the second semester you investigated Natural Sciences, Math, and Art.   What remains this year are the Human Sciences, History, and Ethics.  Finally, we must complete the course assessment, which is based on an internally assessed presentation and an externally assessed essay.

Why is TOK Challenging?

The IBO describes  the Theory of Knowledge class as its flagship course.  But why do students find it so challenging?  In part, it is challenging because you must take an aerial view of learning and knowing while at the same time peering into yourself for your own convictions and assumptions.   You must compare and contrast how one learns and knows in different areas, noting the advantages and disadvantages of each.  You examine very profound and complex questions.  And this is why  TOK is especially challenging:  it often focuses on open questions that do not have one correct answer. Much of elementary and secondary school education, often for quite proper motives, is focused on obtaining the single correct answer.  TOK is not like this.  There can be many correct answers, or many answers with different degrees of correctness, and one must make a well-reasoned argument, taking into account the counterarguments, in support of one's own conclusion. 

In ltalian licei there is an excellent three year course in the history of philosophy and students have the opportunity to survey the great philosophical thinkers of the past.   The IBO's course in TOK is applied philosophy.  One will find the names of great thinkers and their concepts judiciously present in the course, but the emphasis is consistently on learning to think critically about learning and knowing.  The roots of the IBO's TOK class stretch into the Informal Logic and Critical Thinking movements, but more than a general course in critical thinking, which is required and popular in many American universities, TOK is focused through the IBO's mission statement.  The aim is to develop critical and compassionate members of the global community.

TOK Essay = Argumentative Essay

The Theory of Knowledge Essay can seem like a slippery and intimidating task.  But in reality, once its terms and structure are clarified, it is not difficult to brainstorm, outline, and write a TOK Essay.   Let's look at the IBO's instructions, then define some terms and present suggestions for structure.  Lastly, we'll review the IBO assessment criteria.

IBO Instructions

These are the instructions for the TOK Essay:

Your theory of knowledge essay for examination must be submitted to your teacher for authentication. It must be written on one of the six titles (questions) provided below. You may choose any title, but are recommended to consult with your teacher. Your essay will be marked according to the assessment criteria published in the Theory of Knowledge guide. Remember to centre your essay on knowledge issues and, where appropriate, refer to other parts of your IB programme and to your experiences as a knower. Always justify your statements and provide relevant examples to illustrate your arguments. Pay attention to the implications of your arguments, and remember to consider what can be said against them. If you use external sources, cite them according to a recognized convention.
Note that statements in quotations in these titles are not necessarily authentic: they present a real point of view but may not have been spoken or written by an actual person. It is appropriate to analyse them but it is unnecessary, even unwise, to spend time on researching a context for them.
Examiners mark essays against the title as set. Respond to the title exactly as given; do not alter it in any way.
Your essay must be between 1200 and 1600 words in length.

Comment:  The instructions are clear in stipulating that the student must address one of the assigned titles and write a paper whose personal point of view is well-reasoned and justified with evidence and examples.  There should also be consideration of the implications of your position and what can be said against it.  All of these stipulations are characteristics of the argumentative essay.  Let's look at three basic terms, how they apply in the TOK context, and then proceed with an overview of the structure of an argumentative essay.

Basic Terms

There are three basic terms to understand: claim, issue, and argument.

1. A claim is a statement expressing an opinion or belief that is true or false:  Paris is the most beautiful city in the world.
2. An issue phrases the claim as a question to be examined:  Is Paris the most beautiful city in the world?
3. An argument will examine the issue taking into account evidence and counterarguments.
1. Is Paris is most beautiful city in the world?  I define beauty as.... and I think Paris is the most beautiful because....(evidence:  examples, statistics, personal experience)
2. On the other hand, one can argue that Paris has significant flaws...for example.......(evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience)   
3. Nonetheless, the municipal government is seeking to address these shortcomings and so....  

TOK Essay: Examines a Knowledge Issue

As the IBO instructions make clear, the TOK Essay is an argumentative essay examining a knowledge issue suggested by the six titles published by the IBO. A knowledge issue is a question about the nature of knowledge.   Some examples of knowledge issues:

1. Does one learn more about human behavior from literature or from psychology?
2. Does intuition have a role to play in making ethical decisions?
3. Can one speak of beauty in mathematics?
4. Does art have an ethical dimension?

What you must first do, then, is read the TOK titles, which will be published later in the year, and then brainstorm for knowledge issues and how you can treat one in a personal manner.  We will explore in class different ways of brainstorming, such as concept mapping.  Once you have reflected on the knowedge issue, referring to your TOK notes as necessary, you should write an outline of your paper.  This brings us to structure.

Basic Structure

Let's look at the basic structure of the argumentative essay.  The argumentative essay will present an issue, select a thesis (a point of view) and then argue its validity and truth, taking into account  significant objections.   Like most academic essays, the TOK Essay will have an introduction, body, and conclusion:

• Introduction:  Here present your knowledge issue without simply restating the title given by the IBO.  You can phrase this as an open question.  State your thesis (point of view).  At times, depending on your issue, you may have to define terms.  In any case, the introduction should not be lengthy.   Avoid sweeping statements, solemn appeals to eternal verities, etc. 
• Body:  Here make your argument.  The structure of the argument can vary according to your issue and thesis.  I will outline three possible forms, but there are more.  Also, keep in mind that your issue, the number of premises you have, and personal treatment will determine the number of paragraphs. 
• Form 1: 
• Paragraph 1:  Main Argument (Premise supported by evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience). 
• Paragraph 2: Strongest Objection (Premise supported by evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience).
• Paragraph 3:  Reply to Strongest Objection (Premise supported evidence: [examples, statistics, personal experience).
• Form 2 (compare and contrast in block method)
• Paragraph 1:  Likenesses (Compare, using evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience)
• Paragraph 2:  Differences (Contrast, using evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience)
• Paragraph 3:  Summarize
• Form 3 (compare and contrast in point by point method)
• Paragraph 1:  Point 1 compare/contrast, using evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience
• Paragraph 2:  Point 2 compare/contrast, using evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience
• Paragraph 3:  Point 3 compare/contrast, using evidence: examples, statistics, personal experience
• Conclusion:  Conclusions bring your findings together.  You can summarize cogently, but a good conclusion will have more pizzazz than a dry point by point summary.  Make it interesting and make it clear to the reader why your issue is important.

Nota Bene

The TOK Essay is not difficult to brainstorm, outline, and write.  Keep in mind the IBO titles are divergent questions, which means that there is not one correct answer.  This does not mean that anything goes, but that you must make a well-reasoned and informed argument for your thesis. 

IB Assessment Criteria

During class I will distribute the criteria for assessment and we will examine and discuss them in detail.  The essay is marked out of 40 points.  There are four criteria:

1. Understanding knowledge issues (10 points)
2. Knower's perspective (10 points)
3. Quality of analysis of knowledge issues (10 points)
4. Organization (10 points)

The final TOK grade consists of the externally assessed essay (40 points) and the internally assessed presentation (20 points).  This gives a score out of 60 points, which is then placed within grade boundaries determined by the IBO and a letter grade is assigned. 

The TOK letter grade is then linked in a matrix to the letter grade assessed for the Extended Essay.  A number of points is then attributed (0-3 possible points). 

TOK Presentation Groups

These are the presentation groups.   Presentations begin on February 27.  The Planning document must be given next week.  The next classes will be devoted entirely to planning the Presentation. 

Single Presentations (10 students)

1.       Alessandro

2.       Alessia

3.       Alessio

4.       Chrystel

5.       David

6.       Flavia

7.       Kim

8.       Leopoldo (?)

9.   Mattia

10.   Ryota

Two-Person Presentations (14 students)

1.       Aisling, Chloe

2.       Audrey, Gopika

3.       Benedetta, Flaminia B.

4.       Ginevra D., Ivan

5.       Giulia, Laura

6.       Nikki, Vittorio

7.       Tove, Wendy

Three or More Person Presentations (22 students)

1.       Brando, Chiara, Flaminia A.

2.       Camilla, Flemina, Lucrezia

3.       Caroline, Lexanne, Marija


4.     Chiara V., Ginevra B., Vittoria

5.       Federica, Isabella, Rylie

6.       Friedrich, Francesco, Natnael, Tengiz

7.       Ginevra P., Greta, Virginia

TOTAL STUDENTS: 46

2/6/2012

TOK Presentations

As we have said in class, we will begin the TOK Presentations on February 27.  The planning document for the presentation is due by February 16.

We have gone over the guidelines for the presentation.  Students may work alone or in groups.  Please post the first names and last initial of each member of the group in a comment below!  Thank you!!

Due:  25 January