TOK Essays

Ok kiddos, just as a reminder: 

Your holiday homework is to write your TOK essay on the title you chose.  You have until January 14th to write a 1200 to 1600 essay on the prescibed title of your choice.  It must contain page numbers, referencing and a bibliography (preferably one that does not cite TOK lesson material :-)) 

Have a great holiday and we'll meet back on January 8th. 

TTFN

PS -  no bloggy-wog work for the holidays!

Are our senses deceiving us...blip blip blip...

So we've finished off sense perception and I've left you all wondering whether or not our reality is 'real'.  I forgot to tell you that you are to check out the Matrix site I had you copy the address down for.  For those who are interested, here's a list of various sources that're out there to explore how our senses and perception can create different realities:

Film
Memento
The Matrix
The Truman Show
Dark City
The Thirteenth Floor
TV
The Prisoner (1960s tv show - brilliant!!!)
Lost
Star Trek 'The Menagerie'
Quantum Leap
On the Net
Simulated Reality Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality
Simulism Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulism#Precedents_in_popular_culture
Games
World of Warcraft (video game)
The Sims (2 and 3)
Books
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Time out of Joint by Phillip K. Dick

So here's your blog homework for next week.  Answer the following in your blogs:
1)  Which of the problems of perception limit human knowledge the most and the least? Why? Give examples.
2)  How might humans overcome these problems? What forms of technology do we use already? Do these forms have their limitations also? What other ways might we use?
 
TTFN

Perception - Our Senses

Well I think I've managed to draw you all back into loving TOK again with our perception lesson.  We have one more next week and then we get to do some more TOK essay fun...

But for now...let me just give you a bit more to ponder.  For your bloggy wogs this week, I'd like you all to read the wikipedia article on the isolation tank - follow the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank#History

Then, read an article on sense deprivation at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 - follow the link: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/01/27/story484486728.asp

When you've read that, then read about death row in the US and sensory deprivation - follow the link: http://www.mcia-inc.org/resources/wilson_bad_juju_v2.pdf

On your blogs, I would like you to discuss the effects of sensory deprivation - What are its benefits?  Is it a form of torture?  Does the work on sense deprivation lead you to any conclusions about where you stand on the sense perceptions spectrum...are you a realist, idealist, representationalist or phenomanalist now?

TTFN

PS: Here's the colour blind test from today's lesson:
http://www.eye2eyeopticians.com/COLOUR-BLIND-TEST/colour-blindness-tests.htm

Missing TOK again :-(

Well, I completely forgot last week that we were not going to have more TOK loveliness this Thursday because of our Inset.  Big BOO!  And we are just about to get onto the best WOK of all...Perception!!!  Well in lieu of that lesson, here's a nice little 1970s cartoon of the late, great Plato's Allegory of the Cave - perhaps the best explanation of why our sense perceptions are not the best to give us a picture of reality. 

Don't you just love the narrator's voice...classic.

Blog homework for this week - Rank the 5 senses in order from most important to least and explain why you've ranked them in this order.  Reflect on whether or not you think your #1 sense has always been the most important.  Finally, ask your subject teachers which of the senses is most important in their line of work. Make a record of this in your blog - names of teachers do not need to be included, just subject areas.

TTFN

Knowledge Issues

Ok kiddos, I think we ended on a sour note as you were definitely not buzzing after that lesson.  The KI's are intimidating when you begin, but like I said in class, the more you practice with them, the more comfortable you'll start to feel.  Just think, in a few weeks time, you will be recognising the KI in everything  :-)

So on to your blog work...guess what...more KI!  In your blogs, I'd like you to replicate the table we did in the lesson with the exam title you chose to plan.  Work it up through the table to write what your KI is.  I'd also like to make this a bit of a workshop homework, so please take a look at what each other has done, give some feedback in the comments bit below each other's posts.

TTFN 

I can't stop thinking about being an observer...

I think it's because although we had a TOK day this week, I'm feeling a little lost without my regular Thursday fix of TOKkyness.  So I've been searching the internet for the name of a book I used as an example in the break out session to illustrate some of the more complex ideas Mr. Fletcher brought up in the lecture.  The book I mentioned is called Quarantine.  I don't expect you all to rush out and buy or run to the library to get this book (we have one copy in our school library though if you wish to give it a go). 

Its all about the idea of us controlling the universe as observers, until one day someone stops us...with an impenetrable shield.  Human observations of the universe were reducing its diversity and potentiality (for instance, by rendering it uninhabitable to beings that relied on stars being something other than the enormous nuclear fusion-powered furnaces human astronomers have observed them to be).   Hence it is suggested that the shield was constructed to prevent humanity from wreaking massive destruction on the rest of the universe through the process of mere observation.


So if the stars go out someday...we know what caused it :-)  See you all next week.

Wonderful TOK

Today was pretty awesome in terms of TOK, wasn't it kiddos?  It was nice to get out of the classroom and get some well deserved brain entertainment.  I thought it very cool to see the Multiverse drop in and it was really cool to get the idea that maybe the big bang was caused by a black hole in another universe...and as Gwen and Alex pointed out...does that mean that black holes in our universe create other universes?

Plus, it was nice to see that all you Beaumont babies were more than happy to let your voices be heard from the get go in the break out sessions - you made me proud!

Now, back to our normal TOKkyness.  I do apologise that it wasn't very clear in last week's blog that you were just to blog the last four questions under the Bloggy Wog work, the rest was to be written into your actual paper notes, just like you would in our normal class sessions and to be discussed with each other/unsuspecting bystanders/confused strangers.  But that's my fault for not being clear and not realising what absolutely wicked students you are to just go for an assignment, regardless of its length or difficulty. 

You also need to be working on your presentations, which lucky you, you're going to have an extra week on.  Again, I will not be in for our Thursday lesson.  In case I haven't let you all know, I've not been very well and I have yet another doctor's appointment to figure out what's wrong with my particles :-)  So...here's what I'd like you to do for me.  From previous essay prescribed titles, I'd like you to pick one from the list that follows and write a plan for how you would tackle that particular question. 

Titles:
1. To what extent is truth different in mathematics, the arts and ethics?


2. Examine the ways empirical evidence should be used to make progress in different areas of knowledge.

3. Discuss the strengths and limitations of quantitative and qualitative data in supporting knowledge claims in the human sciences and at least one other area of knowledge.

4. How can the different ways of knowing help us to distinguish between something that is true and something that is believed to be true?

5. “What separates science from all other human activities is its belief in the provisional nature of all conclusions” (Michael Shermer, www.edge.org). Critically evaluate this way of distinguishing the sciences from other areas of knowledge?

6. All knowledge claims should be open to rational criticism. On what grounds and to what extent would you agree with this assertion?

7. “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.” Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing.

8. “People need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events" (adapted from John Gray, Heresies, 2004). In what ways and to what extent would you say this claim is relevant in at least two areas of knowledge?

9. Discuss the claim that some areas of knowledge are discovered and others are invented.

10. What similarities and differences are there between historical and scientific explanations?

What does your plan need to include?
1.  Brief discussion of what you think of the title (your first impressions) - Is there anything about the vocabulary used that you think is important in addressing the question? 
2.  Outline of some ideas you would like to use to address the title - What is the logical way to address your question?  What concrete examples would you use in this question?
3.  A short (no more than 10 sources) bibliography of research you would use to address the question.
 
Additionally...Wikipedia articles were due last week, but as I wasn't in class and as I won't be in on Thursday, and we have so much to catch up on, we'll leave that for 3rd December.  Your presentations are for next Thursday, 19th November and we'll do them during the 1st session.
 
Okee doke, that sounds like it is plenty to keep you going for the week as far as TOK goes.  I want real focus to be on those essay titles, your presentations and WIKIPEDIA articles so no Blog work this week.  You will also receive your marks for the blogs so far.
 
TTFN

Work for November 5th - Apologies for my absence kiddos...

Hey all my tokrophers,
Unfortunately we'll not be able to meet this Thursday morning, I know you're very disappointed :-)  In lieu of our regular session, I've got a few tasks for you to complete before our meeting next week.  And before I forget, will all those coming along on our happy trip on Tuesday next week be sure to read the articles you were given in preparation for the conference?

Ok...so here come the tasks.  First, I want you to examine language and thought.  Answer the following in your TOK notes and discuss with anyone you happen to come into contact with today (we're going to be Socrates on a Thursday):

• Can we think without language? 
• Do people who speak different languages think differently about the world because of their langauge differences?
• If French is the language of love, what is English?
• In what language do you talk to your pets (if you have them...if not, random animals you may have encountered in your life???)

Here's what some more intelligent people than I have said about language's influence on our thoughts:

• “Speech is the representation of the experiences of the mind.” ARISTOTLE
• “Man lives with the world about him, principally, indeed exclusively, as language presents it.” WILHELM VON HUMBELDT
• “We see and think as we do, mostly because of our language community.” BENJAMIN WHORF

According to Linguistic Determinism, the languages we use determine what we can think.  The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that our thoughts are completely limited by our language.  If your first language is not English though you are completely bilingual, what language do you think in?  What language do you dream in?  How did George Orwell use this idea in “1984”? <-- Let's just say, when you encounter any questions in this blog entry, you write about it in your TOKky notes.

Let's now think of technical languages.  Can a doctor actually be competent before he learns the words associated with his profession?  Could a mathematician solve complex problems without employing the symbolic language of algebra?  Can two computer experts converse without “techie-speak”?

Now, I think we can all agree that our mental world is far richer than our vocabulary.  Can you think of any feelings or thoughts for which there aren’t any words in your first language?  If you are multilingual are there any words in one of your languages which do not exist in your other language?

Second task:  Identify some mental concepts for which there should be words. Why is this difficult to do? What implications does this have for the relationship between language and thought?

So, to what extent does thought rely on language?  To recap:
Linguistic Determinism: the view that our thought, and therefore our knowledge, is determined and limited by our language.

Linguistic Realism: the view that our language is determined by our needs and by the world we experience around us.

That would conclude things for our first session, Period 2.  Now, let's get into some really subversive stuff :-)

Before I set you to your next task, I want you to ask yourself the following questions - think of it as a mental warm-up before you're set your next mental exercise.

Without a word, does a thing exist?
Did ‘road-rage’ happen before it was named?
Once the word was used and the act defined, did it become an accepted act?
Could this particular classification of violence be discussed without the creation of a name?
To eat meat do we kill animals, do we murder/butcher/slaughter or simply process them?

Now comes the time for your mind to sweat a bit...I'd now like you to read a few things on the internet to help us delve a bit further into Language's hold on our thoughts.  First, please read the appendix from 1984. 
Next, I'd like you to discuss the following with other Tokrophers:

What do these statements mean?
Globalisation; They are trying to destroy our way of life; The West; Weapons of mass Destruction

What is the difference between these words?

Joy Riding - Death Riding

Plant - Factory

Self-Confident - Arrogant (Loughborough springs to mind :-))

Affirmative action - Racial discrimination

Dedicated - Fanatical

Revolution - Civil War

Collateral Damage - Civilian Deaths

World Community - World Order

Great, now...are you paranoid yet?  Is Big Brother watching?  Here's your homework for next Thursday:

You must make a presentation lasting one minute telling the class about either a food you particularly like or dislike, explaining:

1) What is the food?

2) Do you like or dislike it?

3) Why do you like or dislike it?
You may not use any form of spoken or written language. You may, however, use up to five objects which you must bring with you.

During the presentation, the audience will not be allowed to ask questions. They will attempt to write down the answers to the three questions above.
It would be sensible to choose a food which is relatively simple to describe – most sensible would be one which you can bring as one of your five objects. Careful preparation and significant thought should go into choosing the objects and devising a way to communicate about them and the relationships between them. Without this the task will prove impossible.

And your bloggy-wog work for next Thursday:
Reflect on the following questions...
What is the role of language in creating and reinforcing social distinctions, such as class, ethnicity and gender?

What is the role of language in sustaining relationships of authority?

Can control of written language create or reinforce power?

How do the words we use to describe an idea affect our understanding of the world?

Well kiddos, that's all for now.  I really apologise for not being in today, but it couldn't be avoided.  I am looking forward to hearing how these tasks go over the next week and will see quite a few of you on Tuesday.  TTFN

PS - If you haven't ever read 1984, I suggest grabbing yourself a very old, well worn in copy - can be found in most used books shops or from a quirky relative - and emersing yourself in Orwell's dystopian classic.  I spent the better part of a walking trip through the French countryside during the summer of 2003 fretting over Winston and Julia's fates...I couldn't read and walk at the same time, so when forced to walk by my PE hubby and his PE fanatic family, I would fret...when given 15-20 minutes breaks, I would read!

We've finished! Sort of...

Well, that lesson finished us off for Knowers and Knowing.  Now we get to explore the WoK!  Ways of Knowing here we come.  Just as a little reminder, our ways of knowing are:

1. Language
2. Sense Perception
3. Reason (Rationality)
4. Emotion

In next Thursday's lesson, we will look at the strengths and weaknesses of each of these ways of knowing and then dive right in to language!  So your homework for next Thursday's blog is the following:

Put these statements in rank order of importance and justify your ranking.

1) We cannot carry every object about which we need to communicate.
2) We need to be able to communicate about actions without actually doing them.

3) Abstract ideas which can only be expressed in language are an essential part of human experience.

4) We need to be able to communicate about emotions beyond their mere expression.

Can you think of any other reasons we need language?  Write your other reasons below your justification.

TTFN

What we still don't know

As I said in class today, I watched the most relevant programme this weekend to what we have been studying recently.  The 'Are We Real' episode will also be a great preparation for the ToK seminar we're going to in November.  Below are links to both the accompanying website and the episode itself.  The previous episodes are just as great, but the one I have linked specifically to is perfect in following up on our continuing discussions of the nature of knowledge and whether or not we exist.  Happy viewing!

http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/W/what_we_still_dont_know/arewereal.html

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8018371269760059556

PS - Isn't Martin Rees creepy?

ToK Blog Homework 8/10/09

In class today, I hope you came to some conclusion about our knowledge communities and their inherent limitations.  I think its important that we finished with Sir Ken's words, as his idea of what education needs to be - I write needs instead of ought because there is an urgency to his TED speech that I hope was not lost on any of us this morning -  is exactly what I think we're trying to do in ToK.  I am, in a way, a victim of the very education inflation that Sir Ken referred to and I'd hate to see any of you in the room go down that same road of disappointment and resentment that further education will inevitably lead to if we don't start to think differently. 

In my freshman year at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, I had the real pleasure of going to an evening lecture with James Burke, science historian and tv presenter, in which he warned against a tendency towards specialisms, in which every student becomes more pigeon-holed into a specific category of study - never seeing the forest, for the trees.  He saw this as dangerous and I tend to agree - no doubt because I watched his Connections series as a child and was influenced by his thesis that everything, all knowledge, is interlinked and that true innovation and creativity is come to by those who are aware of these links and take advantage of them.

And so that brings me back to the idea of education from your blogs last week and its institutions that we consider to be perhaps the most influential when it comes to where we get our knowledge.  Your new Blog task is to read over the following questions about knowledge communities and reflect on them in your blogs.  Remember, next week is the 2nd marking of your Blog entries, so let's keep up with them. 

• Do knowledge claims transcend different communities or cultures?
• What differences exist between public and private justifications?
• To what extent might this distinction between private knowledge and public knowledge be culturally dependent?
• Does making a knowledge claim carry any particular obligation or responsibility for the knower?

 PS - some of us haven't linked our blogs to this site - so some of us do not have a mark yet for the last blog mark up.  Get linking guys!!!

TOK Blog homework

For your homework this week:  Write a journal entry based upon the following tasks.

• SCHOOL! What in your opinion is the difference between ‘education’ & ‘indoctrination?’
• Do schools encourage you to question things and think for yourselves?
• Find examples of where school wants you to conform.
• Do you expect your teachers to ‘know’ everything there is to know? Why?

PS - the link to the TED video we were supposed to watch in class is below - look for contributing to knowledge.

Scrambling for time as we explored knowledge!

Well, I have to say that was perhaps the most exhausting lesson I've taught all week. I'm happy with most of the conclusions we came to in the lesson and I've posted a pic of our work below. Let's try in our next lesson to keep the random shouting to a minimum, remember - this is a workshop of sorts and we can only collaborate on our ideas if we listen to what everyone has to say. The thinking stick will make it's way into our next lesson in two weeks time.

Remember to also get those blogs going - Deadline for your first two entries is next Thursday and I will be checking.

We didn't get on to our next topic in lesson 2, which was to look at whether knowledge is certain. Let's plan on that being how we start the lesson on October 1st.

I am excited to see what you all come up with in our Wikipedia exercise - we're contributing to knowledge, which I think is in itself a great way to approach the idea of knowledge. Which means you should be questioning what role information plays in knowledge and perhaps how that role might have changed with the advent of the Internet.

And now I'm going to go for a nap!

TTFN

Brilliant ToK!

Well that was perhaps the best lesson I have had the privelege to be a part of in a very long time. I'm so glad that already I don't have to worry about getting you all to come out of your shells...some of you were throwing those shells across the room like grenades!

So, at the end of our discussion on how you might map knowledge, I hope a little question might have started swimming to the top of your consciousness. We know now how we'd each represent knowledge visually - kudos to Jensen's group for thinking outside the box and modelling how you come to know - but what is knowledge?

For our next lesson I want you to burst into the classroom with the intense need to explain to everyone that you have come up with the ultimate definition for knowledge. Take a look at Plato's definition of knowledge...do you agree?

In our next lesson we are going to examine some of those loose ends we left at the end of the last lesson. In order to do this, we need to investigate the nature of knowing. By the end of period two, I want to examine another question - Is knowledge certain? Your homework will help you in coming to some conclusions on this question...but remember - there are some aspects of knowledge where we may find there is no certainty. Where would be the fun in knowing that everything in life was certain anyway!

Hope you had fun in class today...I really did :-)

TTFN

Every thing I need to know I learned from Animaniacs

In preparation for our lovely ToK lessons this September, I began thinking about all the things I learned as a child; the real foundation of the knowledge I carry today. It brought to mind that wonderful poem by Robert Fulghum 'All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten'. From there, I began to ponder on what I learned in Kindergarten -

1. Don't daydream when you're taking a test because you'll get behind everyone else and won't be able to catch up - even though a daydream is so much better than taking a test.
2. Caterpillars, which are green and kind of ugly like worms, turn into butterflies, which are pretty and can fly.
3. Kids who eat glue are weird. Kids who put glue on their hands, let it dry, and then peel it off like dead skin are tactile.

Weirdly enough, I also began to hear in my head 'Wheel of Morality, turn turn turn, tell us the lesson we should learn...'. Although I didn't watch the Animaniacs until much later in my childhood, I believe quite a bit of sound knowledge can be gained by the Warner Brothers and their Warner Sister Dot.


So here I present you with the beginning of our quest for knowledge - A compilation of all the wheel of moralities brought to your by those lovely Warners.


Happy viewing...see you in September.

Welcome to Theory of Knowledge

Welcome to the wonderful world of Theory of Knowledge at Beaumont School. In this course you will be asked to stretch the limits of your abilities to enquire. Theory of Knowledge is unique in that you will come out of every lesson with more questions than when you walked through the door. In a sense, you will be inviting yourself to engage in a practice of thought provoking, headache inducing, self-imposed reflection on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, you will find that I will not be the most help when it comes to this weekly exercise in mind masochism, as I will the the one person in the room most unwilling to give you the answers you will come to seek with increasing desperation.

So, lets begin with an easy one....What is knowledge?