Aims of the course

According to the IB Subject Guide, the aims of the TOK course are to:
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.

Objectives of the course

According to the IB Subject Guide, having completed course students 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.

Solving Problems Using Critical Thinking (Post 3)

Imagine you are in charge of airport security at an international airport in Florida. An American Airlines counter clerk calls to inform you that a person scheduled to get on Flight 1304 to Dallas has refused to board the plane, claiming that she is psychic and she senses that there is a bomb on board.

You meet with the psychic and recognize her from the Larry King and Montel Williams shows.

You vaguely remember her claiming to have used her psychic ability to solve several important criminal investigations. Aside from being agitated about the bomb, she seems normal. You order everyone off the plane and call in a crew to do a bomb search. No bomb is found but the flight has to be cancelled because some crew members have exceeded their work hours by the time the search is finished. Your action causes hundreds of people to miss their flights. The airline loses money because it has to arrange other flights for the passengers, including one for the psychic.
Did you do the right thing?
In your defense you claim, "In these times, we can't ignore anything." Your boss disagrees. She tells you that to her knowledge no psychic anywhere has ever discovered a bomb using psychic powers. She says that you should not have been impressed that the psychic seemed normal or was famous and had appeared on entertainment programs. She tells you that you should have had the psychic detained and questioned. Your boss considers firing you and sending word to Dallas to have the psychic arrested for making threats against a flight.
Who is the better critical thinker you or your boss?
Why?

Iranian Missle Crisis? (Post 4)

These video clips seems to suggest a serious threat to American allies in the middle east. Stories like these, may have lead America into war, in the past.

A missile crisis turned out to be an exercise in Photoshop techniques.



If this or any other news story was iimportant to you. What would you do to determine the news story was correct?
Please provide a link to a source and a short posting explaining why you like this source. I have place one of my favorite news sources as an example, please feel free to use it. Because it is the world's only reliable news!

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Watch the Youtube clip below and answer the question


In Summary
The Cave is the realm of appearances, for the prisoners see nothing but shadows and take these for real objects. It is a virtual world, like the world of the Matrix where things are not what they seem. All is insubstantial and deceptive. But when a prisoner is released and dragged to the surface, and is shown the sun and all that the sun illuminates, then he knows the insubstantiality of all that he has seen before - recognizes all that he has previously perceived as mere shadow and falseness.

At first he is blinded by the revelation, but soon his senses become accustomed to the real world and he is anxious to return to his erstwhile companions and tell them of the sun-drenched surface. But they think him crazy, think him mad. And why should they believe him if they have no real grasp of what it is he is trying to tell them?

This story was developed by Plato to highlight the difference between belief and knowledge as well as the difference between appearance and reality.


Based on the story, what is the responsibility of the knower to society as a whole?

What risks are involved in being a person who seeks knowledge? What are the benefits?

(EXTRA CREDIT: Write your own Allegory that illustrates the nature of knowledge and the themes represented in Plato’s Allegory)

Questions on the Truman Show

The film focusses upon issues of perception and reality, Plato’s Cave, knowledge and truth.

The Truman Show
1) “We accept the truth of the reality with which we are presented” (Christof) . Can you link the experience of Truman to that of the prisoners in Platos Cave?
2) “We’ve become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions, we’re tired of pyrotechnics and special effects”. How real is Trumans world? How real is Truman within this world?
3) What is real in Seahaven?
4) What is meant by reality?
5) When does Trumans perception of reality alter?
6) Can Truman ever really know anything?
7) What is Truth to Truman?
8) If you think you have knowledge / truth then do you? How far is truth inked to our perception?

Want to watch the entire movie at Graboid's, if you have the time.

Put On Your Thinking Cap

Please read the questions below. Select one and write your thoughts on the question. It should have personal and real world examples that support your thoughts. It should be at least 150 words and no more then 200 words. Your thoughts maybe read in class, by you.

1. How do “believing that” and “believing in” differ? How does belief differ from
knowledge?

2.Is common sense just what is taken for granted in a community? How can we
decide when to question common sense?

3. To what extent can we act individually in creating new knowledge? What are the
strengths of working in a knowledge community? What are the dangers?

4. Do we need to grow up in a human community in order to develop ways of knowing
(sense perception, language, reason and emotion)? Or are we born “hard wired” to
be able to use them? Is community more important in some ways of knowing than others?

ToK Reaction to: Missle Report

Check out one of your classmates finds and place a comment about it. Please be sure to identify which one you are commenting about.

1. Matt F.
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering
2. Ian
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=zeitgesit+an&emb=0#
3. Brandon and Amanda (nice connection to current events)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/us/politics/10obama.html?_r=1&ref=politics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDxumK2ikYg
4. Melissa
http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2003/11/05/Opinion/Biased.Media.Coverage.Causes.Misconception.Of.Iraq.War-548880.shtml /
5. Alyssa D (See how far the deception can go)
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/in-an-iranian-image-a-missile-too-many/?hp&apage=8#comments