Intro to TOK World Gr11 W1

Why TOK? Intellectual Journey Develop our skills as reflective thinkers Richer understanding of the world

TOK Terminology-1 Justified: True: Belief: shown to be fair, right or reasonable True: logically consistent, honest, correct or accurate Belief: a feeling that what you think is true

Knowledge Claims «the universe is 13.77 billion years old» Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon» «knowledge can be based on faith and reason» «I know Burma is now called Myanmar» - claim of personal certainty «I believe Burma is now called Myanmar» - recognises a personal uncertainty I know = I am claiming to be certain about it. May or may not be true Claim made about knowledge We may not be able to say with certainty But we can say that it is a claim accepted by the majority of the society

KC Difficulty of certainty Insufficient evidence

Types of Knowledge What is knowledge? 2 types: Priori: before experience Posteriori: after experience OR First hand: we gain for ourselves Second hand: we acquire from other sources

Types of Knowledge 3 types: Practical knowledge: how to do things, like how to swim, play a violin or read a book Knowledge by acquanintance: first hand. Knowing ourselves, people we have met, places we’ve been to, taste of things etc. Factual knowledge: about events that have actually occured or things hat have been verified as true (collection of KCs about the world in all AOK) True by definition: «my parents are my mother and father.» (fact of the English) No guarantee that a truth by definition entails existence e.g. unicorns

TOK Terminology-2 AOK: Valid: KQ: branches of knowledge that have A distinct nature and different methods of gaining knowledge Maths, NS, HS, Arts, Ethics, religious knowledge systems and indigenous knowledge systems Valid: well-grounded or justified KQ: an open question that explores issues of knowing Prepare tok vocab wall on cardboard strips

Activity Discussion on KCs Page 5

Knowledge Questions Explicitly about what knowledge is How we know what we claim to know e.g. To what extent might one WOK be more reliable than another? To gain a better and deeper understanding of what we hold as true and why We may lose some of our certainties

TOK Terminology-3 Ways of knowing: how we know what we know. Language, sense perception, emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition and memory

Assignment-1 Presentation task: Consider how you might develop the following KQ for a presentation. What RLS might your developed question apply to? To what extent does our willingness to rely on eyewitness accounts depend on our emotional responses? Extended writing task: write 500 word on one of the following questions; 1. how important is it that we are certain about what we claim as knowledge? 2. to what extent might it be more important for knowledge to be useful rather than accurate?

Justification and Evidence «Is the KC supported by substantial evidence and/or valid reasoning?» Justification often relies on evidence Neither coincidence nor correlation implies causation When we have enough evidence to be able to claim sth as true, we may view this as proof of its truth.

TOK Terminology-4 Valid reason: Evidence: Proof: Anectodal evidence: a reason that is well-founded and convincing; a valid argument is an argument that follows the rules of logic Evidence: information that is interpreted to support a particular argument Proof: enough evidence to claim something as true Anectodal evidence: evidence that comes from personal stories Coincidence: when two or more events happen at the same time independently of each other Correlation: when there is a relationship between two or more events, but t is not necessarily a causal relationship Causation: when one event leand to another event, for example kicking a football causes the ball to move

TOK Terminology-5 Shared knowledge: Personal knowledge: what we know as part of a group or community; for example, what we learn through the curriculum at school is a set of skills and information agreed on by educators, politicians and other as important knowledge for our society. Distributed knowledge: the combined knowledge of all the individuals in an organisation, society, nation or the world Personal knowledge: the knowledge we have through our own experiences and prsonal involvement; this can include knowledge by acquaintance, practical knowledge and factual knowledge Tacit: understood or implied without being explicitly stated

Assignment-2 Presentation task: choose one of the following KQs below. Consider how you might develop the following KQ for a presentation. Select some RL examples that you might use as evidence to support and to counter your argument. To what extent do we evaluate evidence before making a judgement, and to what extent do we look for evidence to support our judgements? How does the importanca of justifiying our beliefs differ across different AOK? Extended writing task: write 500 word on one of the following questions; 1. to what extent are we persuaded by the quantity of evidence rather than the quality of evidence? 2. how can we justify beliefs that do not seem to agree with available evidence? 3. to what extent can we justify beliefs that rest on very flimsy or anectodal evidence? And why might we want to hold or justify such beliefs?

WOK in shared and personal knowledge Explore Language Emotion Sense perception Reason

WOK-LANGUAGE Languages evolve in different societies and cultures Can only function as a means of communication as far as it is shared Meaning must be shared so that it can be understood Without shared knowledge, there could be no language How we interpret and hear language is also deeply personal P25’deki task

WOK-EMOTION Intensely personal way of knowing Shape our thoughts and behaviours Influence our interpretation of the world Positive and negative words may affect the way we respond to circumstances May ultimately determine how we interpet language and sense peception How we respond to issues of faith and how we apply our reason Emotive language

WOK-SENSE PERCEPTION Help us to understand the world As good as our sensory apparatus and our brains’ interpretation of the data it receives Music, book, conversations, foods, aromas and so on. Perceptions may still have in common Confirm with others «Did you see that?», «can you hear the noise?», «does this milk smell off to you?» Believe if shared by the others

WOK-REASON Socially accepted definitions of what constitutes reason and what does not. We use reason to construct an argument or justify a belief, to assess our intuition and imagination Valid reasoning Formal logic (deductive reasoning) can never lead to certaity except in so far as the premises it starts with are certain Inductive reasoning is inherently fallible

TOK Terminology-6 Argument: Premise: ability to persuade using reason and evidence Premise: a proposition assumed to be truei on which an argument is based

Assignment-3 Presentation task: Presentation task: Consider how you might develop the following KQ for a presentation. What RLS might your developed question apply to? How do shared and personal knowledge complement each other? Extended writing task: write 500 word on one of the following questions; 1. how do we decide which knowledge claims to trust when our personal knowledge is at odds with knowledge that is widely shared? 2. when, if ever, should society allow personal knowledge claims to change shared knowledge?

Why Assignments To prepare yourself for Presentation (IA) Essay To let me find out your misconceptions To let me give you feedback for your improvement