TOK Definitions PDF

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Definitions about TOK and the key words used in the course...

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TOK Definitions Knowledge Knowledge is something either someone, or a group of people, produced on their own or together to explain different concepts such as the way humans interact and physical nature. When it is a single individual who has come up with the concept it is called “personal knowledge” and when it is a group of individuals working together it is called “shared knowledge” (Lagemaat 16). For example, in my life, personal knowledge would be how I learned to dance or when I first learned to ride a bike. Shared knowledge would be answering the question to whether or not there is life on Mars, or who killed John F. Kennedy. Belief There is no way of discerning whether a belief is true or false because it is something one knows to be true based on the way they feel (TOK Vocabularies). Therefore, beliefs are harder to justify than knowledge because it is different and personal to each individual. However, if someone were to say they know something, that not only means it is true, it means they believe in it as well (Lagemaat 25). For example I used to believe that a certain teddy bear of mine held luck, so for every major occasion such as a first day of school or a dance recital, I would bring the bear with me and it would make me feel more confident and stronger. In the world there are many people that believe in a higher power, and therefore believe they are made stronger when it comes to certain things they may be afraid of. To know The verb, “to know” can be separated into two first person forms, “I know” and “we know.” This is also what separates the difference between personal knowledge and shared knowledge (Lagemaat 16). The difference can be seen through examples such as, I know that I am at times challenged when it comes to math and science, however, we know that the earth orbits around the sun. The first example is something that is personal and unique to me that only I truly know, whereas the second example has been proven and has become common knowledge to most people. To understand The dictionary defines “to understand” as “to know the meaning of” (Merriam Webster). Although, understanding is based on perception and how each individual takes that perception into account. To understand something means the information has been affected by one’s personal interpretation (TOK Vocabularies). For example I understand math best when I turn problems into functions, whereas someone else may understand math by making the problem into something visual.

Belief-Knowledge Continuum Since knowledge and belief are not completely different from each other, we use a beliefknowledge continuum as a sort of scale between impossible and certain to justify the degree of certainty for pieces of information (Lagemaat 25). I know that I am 157 cm tall, so I would place

that at a +10 on the continuum because that is knowledge. However, those who believe in a higher power would place that around the +5 because that information is considered a belief.

Ways of Knowing There are eight different ways of knowing in, and these are used to gain knowledge in each of the eight different areas of knowledge. The ways of knowing are language, sense perception, emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition, and memory (Oxford Skills and Practices). For example when I dance, I know to bend my legs to jump because of intuition. One may use memory when giving an eye-witness testimony. Areas of Knowledge Just like there are eight ways of knowing, there are eight areas of knowledge that allow us to categorize different types of knowledge into groups. There are: mathematics, natural sciences, human sciences, the arts, ethics, history, religious knowledge systems, and indigenous knowledge systems (Oxford Skills and Practices). Different areas may be stronger than others, for example I am much more confident in the arts than I am in mathematics. Knowledge Framework Knowledge frameworks allow us to explore the different areas of knowledge and make links and comparisons between the eight AOKs (Theory of Knowledge Student). There are five different terms that describe the different aspects of each AOK and they are: scope and applications, concepts and language, methodology, historical development, and links with personal knowledge (Oxford Skills and Practices). Often times when I learn something new, in any of my subjects, I use links to my personal knowledge (including books I’ve read or movies I’ve seen) in order to aid my understanding and memory of the topic.

Justification In order to prove that we truly know what we know, we need to be able to justify and prove how we came to know that certain piece of information. There needs to be concrete evidence in order to claim that something we know is certain or even possible. The justifications often fit under one of four categories: perception, emotion, reason and language (Lagemaat). For example, I can justify that the earth has a moon because it can be seen through a telescope and men have walked on that moon.

Evidence Once again in order to justify our knowledge and beliefs we need evidence. We use evidence as proof that something is true or false (Lagemaat 26). For example, I can prove that I am 157 cm and I weigh 54 kilos because it can be measured. However, I can not prove that milk grows on trees because it has never been seen or proven and therefore I have no evidence to support my claim.

Sufficient Condition A sufficient condition is when one thing needs to occur or be satisfied in order to be able achieve the final outcome (University of Wisconsin). For example in order for me to take standard level biology, I needed to get the grade of a 5 or higher. If this wasn’t met, I would not have been eligible to take biology in the eleventh grade.

Expert Opinion We often rely on the findings and knowledge of expert opinions to justify what we know and believe, however there are two things to be wary of when trusting these experts 100%. The first is that sometimes these experts make a mistake and people do not notice until many years later and correct these mistakes. The second is that experts only have “a limited range of competence” and sometimes may know a lot about the arts, but know nothing about astronomy (Lagemaat 33-34). Personally, I am no expert on dance, but I tend to know more than a nondancer would about dance, however I know almost nothing about many other sports, and therefore my knowledge on sports can not be trusted, no matter how confident I pretend to be on the topic. Authority Worship Authority worship, is when we hear a fact or a statement, and automatically believe and trust that it is true due to the reputation of the individual who made the statement. It is also possible to believe something simply because people have trusted the fact for a long period of time. However, despite many people trusting these facts, they can also be proven wrong and therefore we must be careful of what we accept as the truth (Lagemaat 30). For instance, for many years people believed that Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system, however in 2006 it was decided Pluto is actually a dwarf planet. Confirmation Bias Since people hold onto their personal beliefs and preconceptions in the search for knowledge, confirmation bias is a term that describes how these beliefs and preconceptions affect the knowledge we acquire and remember. A person is most likely to remember something when it aligns with their beliefs, therefore causing errors in their knowledge (Science Daily). During the election season, a Trump supporter may be more inclined to believe what Trump says because it aligns with his personal beliefs, despite the possibility he is making a false statement. Gullibility Gullibility is when an individual believes everything they hear and/or read. The danger of this is that once the individual believes something is the truth, they consider it to be knowledge and may invest a plethora of time, effort and money into the cause (Lagemaat 12). A friend of mine in middle school once believed that Hogwarts was real because of an article she had read online, and would constantly try to convince me of it. However, a school accessed by jumping through a wall to a secret train platform, has to be thought about with some skepticism. Healthy Skepticism

Skepticism allows us to discard of information that seems questionable or impossible so that we don’t accept its truth. However, being too skeptical takes away from our openmindedness and prevents us from looking into something that may hold a certain degree of truth to it (Lagemaat 12). For example, the belief that there are other planets exactly like earth far away in the galaxy must be met with some skepticism, however, not so much that the claim is never investigated and never proven to be true or false.

Knowledge Paradigm A paradigm is a group of ideas, or a way of thinking that is commonly accepted by a scientific community. The knowledge paradigm is how a psychologists, philosophers, and intellectuals think about the complex concept of knowledge (Dictionary.com). For example, the connections between truth, belief and knowledge exist inside the knowledge paradigm. Paradox of Cartography The paradox of cartography refers to the theory that while a map may be useful, it is never perfect and shows only one perception of the area illustrated. It is said that, “if a map is to be useful, then it must be of necessity be imperfect.” It is impossible for any map to be both perfect and useful, therefore we have multiple different maps in order to study all areas of the world with more complexity than ever before, as we are not able to accurately study the world as a whole (Lagemaat 7). Before I knew how inaccurate the Mercator projection I assumed that was exactly how the world looked, however, once I realized it was only one perception of the world, it made me think about the world differently.

Works Cited “Confirmation Bias.” Science Daily, www.sciencedaily.com/terms/confirmation_bias.htm. Accessed 18 Aug. 2016. “IB TOK: What Is the Knowledge Framework?” Theory of Knowledge Student, 28 Nov. 2013, theoryofknowledgestudent.com/knowledge-framework. Accessed 17 Aug. 2016. “Necessary versus Sufficient Conditions.” Department of Psychology, U of Wisconsin, philosophy.wisc.edu/hausman/341/Skill/nec-suf.htm. Accessed 18 Aug. 2016. Oxford Skills and Practices. Oxford. “paradigm”. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 21 Aug. 2016....