Theory Of Knowledge.docx

Theory Of Knowledge How do you know what you know? Personal knowledge: talents, experiences, skills, individual preferences Shared knowledge: information from different groups of people, ethnics, religions Transference of knowledge: interaction between personal and shared knowledge creates our perspectives and world views TOK: Reflects the balance between shared and personal knowledge as too much personal knowledge leads to subjectivity, bias and personal anecdotes without analysis. Too much shared knowledge leads to a lack of individual significance and too great a reliance on arid facts.

Plato’s Cave:

- Represents the human condition

- Comes out of the cave, experiences the world, hence changing his own personal analogy TOK= Epistemology Knowledge:

- Experiential Knowledge: Experience + Reflection (Ways Of Knowing) - Procedural Knowledge: Skills of thinking and acting - what we study (Knowing how)

- Knowledge Claims

WAYS OF KNOWING (WOK) how you gain knowledge:

- language - SENSE PERCEPTION - memory - reason - emotion - faith - intuition - imagination Experiential Knowledge:

- Choosing to share and talk to someone about a subject that they are experienced in - Assuming that people learn from their mistakes Procedural Knowledge:

- Skills that can be experiences, demonstrated, evaluated Questions: 1.

3 new things you’ve learnt from this video

2. 2 questions you’ve heard from the video that you’d like to think about more 3. 1 new question that you have after listening to the video Answer. 1.

Justifying that you know something is true makes it knowledge. Justification: requires evidence, such as visible evidence. Justification connection between belief and fact must be accurate.

2. When is it the case that you know something? What kind of justification is necessary to make something true?

3. READ TOK PAGE 1-29

Traditional understanding of knowledge:

- Justified True Belief - Justified: The knowledge claim is justified with adequate evidence. Justification requires

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Coherence with previous data and Clarity with regard to language and logic. There can

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be no Contradiction or strong Counter evidence

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- True: The knowledge claim is true rather than false. It corresponds to the real world. it is a fact. it is what is the case.

- Believed: The knowledge claim is a matter of conviction. We must own our knowledge. We all have DIFFERENT perspectives, world view, truths, beliefs, values Life script: all our experiences and stories that make us who we are today CULTURE:

- The fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action

- Which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action. - Framework of beliefs, expressive symbols, and values on terms of which individuals define their world.

- Shapes us and changes us as a society - Customs, Beliefs, Language, Food, Art, Attitudes, Faith/Religion, Rituals INDIVIDUALISM COLLECTIVISM Knowledge is immersive. Hence, making a classification of the AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE (where knowledge and content comes from):

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- Human sciences - study of human behavior, truths in likelihoods - Natural sciences - study of nature, truths in facts e.g biology - Arts - History - Mathematics - Ethics - what we believe is right and wrong behavior - Religious Knowledge System - Indigenous Knowledge System - TRUTH CHECKS OF KNOWLEDGE CLAIMS: 1. Coherence: does it contradict with what we personally believe in? Is it consistent?

- 2. Correspondence: Is there evidence for this knowledge claim in everyday life? Does it correspond to the world?

- 3. Pragmatic: Does it work in practical terms? Practical implications KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS:

- Implications of knowledge - Knowledge controversies - Knowledge issues 1st Order Knowledge Questions: knowledge directly about the world 2nd Order Knowledge Questions: how we gain knowledge about the world

- Read TOK TB page 30-51 - Complete given knowledge questions task based on your RLS(real life situation) - Write 2 knowledge questions, 2 WOK, and 2 AOK - Write about how you derived the knowledge questions 1984 RLS AOK:

- Mathematics - Human Science WOK:

- Memory - Faith

- Reason - Sense Perception - Language KQ:

- To what extent does faith influence truth? - To what extent does language govern our knowledge? - To what extent does human reasoning have to be flawed that it causes one to abandon values?

Mahatma Gandhi RLS: AOK:

- History - Religious knowledge system - Ethics - Human Science WOK:

- Faith - Reason - Emotion My answer: KC1: Religion changes people’s existing views of others and beliefs. KQ1: What causes people to abandon their existing beliefs/opinions? KC2: Faith affects what people believe is true. KQ2: To what extent does faith influence truth? Mr Nate’s answer: KC1: Gandhi was an iconic leader of India’s struggle for freedom KQ1: What quantities or characteristics make someone a leader? KC2: Standards of ethics evolve leading to new interpretations of historical figures KQ2: Why do our perspectives about heroes change over time? Resting b**ch face RLS AOKs:

- Human Science - Natural Science WOKs:

- Sense perception - Emotion KC1: Our physical features affect people’s opinions of us. KQ1: To what extent are people’s opinions shaped by sense perception? KC2: People make assumptions of people’s personality based on their appearance. KQ2: To what extent is knowledge based on assumptions?

Dax Center RLS AOKs:

- Human science - Art WOKs:

- Imagination - emotion - memory KC1: Many art pieces are made by people with mental health issues as they use their feelings as inspiration KQ1: To what extent is memory and emotion reflected in art? KQ2: Does emotion play a big role in creating a great artist? HOMEWORK:

- RLS with its description - identify 2 WOKs and 1-2 AOK - write a second order KQ - identify 2 second order KCs and CCs (counterclaims)

REASON:

- the method of thinking in an organized, clear way to achieve knowledge and understanding

- NEEDS CLARITY - Tool for understanding logic, deduction, induction - Understanding and knowledge: criteria for evaluating the use of reason - Reason: tool that allows us to determine how to gather more information and what kind of information we need.

- Reason: used to compare and combine that new information into the rest of our body of knowledge in order to acquire a more complete understanding

- Focuses on fundamentals and requires ideas - Means of integrating those perceptions into concepts

Truth:

- Concerned with what is the case - A property of statements Validity:

- Whether conclusions follow from premises - A property of arguments - Argument is valid if the conclusion follows logically The point is that the validity of the argument is independent of the truth or falsity of the premises. s 5 RULES FOR GENERALIZATION:

- Statistics - Variety: - Exceptions: look for counter examples - Coherence: demand more evidence to support claims - Subject Area

Cause of bad reasoning:

- Fixed habits - Lazy to check - Ignorantly hold on to simple beliefs - Pride - not open minded

EMOTIONS

- Emotion is unique to each of us - It is difficult for others to tell you how you are feeling - Knowing your emotions, personal knowledge, involves the knowledge we share with others

- If you try to explain how you know and why you feel this way, you are probably involving further knowledge using sense perception and reason

INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE: understanding other people and their motivations and implies being able to cooperate and collaborate well with others INTRAPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE: involves similar abilities turned inward toward oneself to be able to recognize one’s own emotions and be able to control them appropriately LANGUAGE:

- We use language as a way of sharing our knowledge - Used to explain: - Hard to describe emotions - Feelings, Mood, Temperament - However… - Differences in language in which a word to describe an emotion is not existent in another language

- Differences in metaphor

SENSE PERCEPTION AND EMOTIONS Reading body language

- Actions: movement of hands, a sigh, playing with hair, shuffling feet - Listening: tone of voice, pauses, silence

- Poker face: reading subtle clues or ‘tells’, such as constriction of lips or dilation of pupils - Danger: misinterpretation, hiding emotions - Humans identify their own emotional states by observing the behavior of others. Truth? ‘CORE’ emotions: Happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear Physical Characteristics: Many have argued that biology is not just the cause, but is the emotion itself. REASON AND EMOTIONS

- Language powerfully delivered may lead to ideological manipulation by a leader who has ‘mind washed’ people

- This is possible because reason and emotion are deeply intertwined. They allow us to build our beliefs and justifications, but also reinforce our beliefs.

- Reason guides emotion: were you ever attracted to someone physically, but come to learn they are not for you when you got to know them?

- Emotion guides reason: when are you finished with a project? When it’s good of quality or when it is completed? Relief (emotion) rushes you to finish project.

- Perspective: how would a slave owner, abolitionist, and slave view Abraham Lincoln at that time?

EMOTION IS DANGEROUS

- Who? Advertisers, Trump, Hitler - When? Direct appeal to emotions and individuals disregard ‘better judgement’ - How? Play on desires: love, security, status, sex, youth - What? Ignite Fear, Hostility, provide a Scapegoat - Manipulate using emotion: - Appeal to pity - Appeal to anxiety of fear - Appeal to belonging - Use other’s words against them - Misrepresentation using association - Cigarette ads HOW TO OVERCOME THESE PROBLEMS:

- Learn cognitive biases - Be rational

- Practice counterarguments and shifting perspectives - Think about people, not just points of view - When people feel their fundamental beliefs are threatened, people strengthen their views in resistance

AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE WITH EMOTIONS:

- Human sciences: psychology - Natural sciences: imagination, intuition, and emotion are used in creation of hypotheses - History: Hitler quote - Ethics: does emotion or reason govern morality - Mathematics: imagination, intuition, and emotion cited as inspiration for mathematical breakthroughs

- The arts: music, activity - Religious knowledge: emotional attachment in religious beliefs - Indigenous knowledge system: Look of silence

IMAGINATION:

- Is imagination just for children? - “The process of growing up is to be valued for what we gain, not for what we lose,” - C.S. LEWIS

- Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning- C.S. Lewis - Imagination is the ability to form a representation of something which is not present to the senses.

- The word imagination can be used to encompass ‘both mental images and the entertaining of possibilities’

RLS: Janel Echelman’s sculptures What AOKs are involved?

- Art - Human Science - Natural Science What 2/3 WOKs are involved?

- Imagination - Sense Perception - Emotion What KQs can you ask?

- To what extent does imagination influence the Arts? - To what extent is imagination a reliable way to gain knowledge? Claims?

- Creative and original art works rely on imagination - Scientific facts, mostly come from imagination, hence imagination is shown to be a reliable way to gained knowledge Counter claims?

- Other WOKs, such as emotion, also inspire well-created and famous art works - The line between reality and imagination is very fine and may cause delusions and inaccurate knowledge gain

When Imagination helps?

- Imagination helps us solve novel problems. - Einstein used thought experiments to perform experiments he couldn't do in reality.

(For example, he wondered whether a clock would seem to move normally if he were observing it while travelling at light speed.) Our brains are great at imagining different

scenarios, giving us knowledge of things, we haven't yet experienced. As Einstein put it imagination is “...the preview for life’s coming attractions.” When Imagination helps Imagination as a surrogate for experience Imagination can both intensify and extend our experience. Without imagination,

- Can we truly appreciate the different realities in the Arts? - Can we truly understand / empathize with another person / see their world from their perspective?

When Imagination helps: Imagination helps in the processing of the day's information, making meaningful connections. Not only during dreaming, but also during daydreaming. Einstein said, "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge" When Imagination helps: Imagination as a guide to possibility You acquire knowledge when you discover if something is possible or not. Imagination can be a useful guide to what is possible although it is not infallible. When Imagination hinders: Illusory patterns projecting our private fantasies onto objects and as a result seeing patterns in data/information/images that doesn’t exist i.e. seeing the face of Satan in the smoke coming out of the WTC

When Imagination hinders Seductive images The obsession with how our public image is perceived has led to a growing divergence between how we imagine people and how they are in reality

When Imagination hinders Blurring of reality and the imagined Imagined fears Our imagined futures can be clouded in fantasy and distorted by bias Over-reaction Anxiety, stress. PTSD (mental illness) Reliability of eye-witness (Imagination & Memory) Imagination is a condition for truth CS Lewis said that imagination actually helps reason. Imagination creates metaphors which in turn produce meaning, and reason cannot function without meaning. For instance, you can use reason to tell your doctor why your toe hurts--"I hit it on a chair." But you need imagination and metaphor to explain how much it hurts--"It feels like an elephant stepped on it!" Imagination is necessary for Faith AOK: Religious Knowledge System We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:18 How can you look at things which are not seen? Only by imagination and faith. Imagination in Indigenous Knowledge System Elder members of indigenous societies oversee the learning process. In addition to acting as guides to the land and its flora and fauna, they also convey knowledge to younger individuals by telling stories. These stories provide wide-ranging information to their listeners, such as how the earth was created, the way in which animals and plants came about, why certain moral rules exist within that society, and so on. They are imaginative stories that not only portray and celebrate the inherent beauty of the environment, but also allow their listeners to relate to the objects of the story, and empathize with them. Those listening to the stories imagine what it is like to be the animals in the story, and experience the world from their perspective. As the Cree Indians put it: The hunter tries to think what the bear is thinking. Their minds touch. The hunter and the bear have parallel knowledge, and they share that knowledge. Creativity: the ability to generate ideas or produce artefacts which are original, surprising and valuable Curse of knowledge: the difficulty that a very knowledgeable person may have in understanding the mind of a novice

Egocentric bias: the tendency to look at everything from our own point of view and think that our beliefs and preferences are the correct ones Empirically possible: consistent with the laws of nature Fantasy: an escapist form of imagination that is only distantly connected with the real world Logically possible: can be described without involving a contradiction Realistic imagination: imagination which is informed and guided by the relevant facts Thought experiment: an experiment carried out in one’s imagination rather than in the world

FAITH Faith as a Pledge or Commitment

- Meaning: Associated with keeping promises, pledging one’s word, ‘keeping the faith’, and loyalty. Deals with ideas such as honesty, honor and resolving problems ‘in good faith’.

Faith as Acceptance of Assumptions

- Meaning: Accepting assumptions without further questioning for the moment. We accept these as ‘givens’. These are pragmatic assumptions that we use until more accurate, more consistent findings are uncovered.

Faith as Subjective Commitment to Belief

- Meaning: - Belief that rejects the need for justification. You believe it without doubt or evidence. - Justification that is based on other justifications. A commitment to belief after having taken the merits of other justifications into account such as religious texts. These do not convince everyone, but are persuasive to the believer.

- This interpretation of faith is fundamental to many worldviews. However, this interpretation to others seems irrational, baffling and even threatening. Personal and Shared knowledge

- In a sense, faith leads only to personal knowledge as it is a subjective commitment of belief without the evidence that would compel universally shared agreement

- However, it is shared within communities, which provide both a body of beliefs and a cultural connection with other people Faith and religion

- Teaches values, beliefs, validation, justification and predictions

- What role does this play in Indonesia? - If God tells us what to believe and what to do, does subjectivity or objectivity matter? - Intelligent Design Weaknesses of faith

- Refusal to accept reality - Creates doubt - Similarities and variations - Belief or indoctrination? - Brings people together and tears them apart - How do you ‘make someone see reason’ when they use faith as their primary WOK? KNOWLEDGE FRAMEWORKS 1.

Scope/application  What is the area of knowledge about?  What practical problems can be solved through applying this knowledge?  What makes this area of knowledge important?  What are the current open questions in this area-important questions that are currently unanswered?  Are there ethical considerations that limit the scope of inquiry? If so, what are they?

2. Concepts/language  What role does language play in the accumulation of knowledge in this area/  What are the roles of the key concepts and key terms that provide the building blocks for knowledge in this area?  What metaphors are appropriate to this area of knowledge?  What is the role of convention in this area? 3. Methodology  What are the methods or procedures used in this area and what is it about these methods that generates knowledge?  What are the assumptions underlying these methods?  What counts as a fact in this area of knowledge?  What role do models play in this area of knowledge?  What ethical thinking constraints the methods used to gain knowledge? 4. Historical development  What is the significance of the key points in the historical development of this area of knowledge?  How has the history of this area led to its current form? 5. Links to personal knowledge?  Why is this area significant to the individual?  What is the nature of the contribution of individuals to this area?

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What responsibilities rest upon the individual knowledge by virtue of his or her knowledge in this area? What are the implications of this area of knowledge for one’s own individual perspective? What assumptions underline the individual’s own approach to this knowledge?

Human sciences key concepts such as opportunity cost in economics • use of mathematical language to suggest intellectual rigour • problems with wording of questionnaires and the difficulty of neutral language

Arts role of language and convention in the arts • language of an art form is often non-verbal—frees the arts from being limited to propositional knowledge

MEMORY To what extent does language influence memory?

To what extent is memory reliable? To what extent can we trust memory? AOK: human science and natural science WOKS: memory, reason, imagination, faith, emotion

LANGUAGE - Primary connection between personal and shared knowledge - Children learn from language communities: ‘mouth noise’, ‘marks on paper’, sign language - B.F. Skinner: Language acquired through general stimulus, response, and reinforcement. Form of behaviour, imitations, practice and correction

- Chomsky learning language is innate. Feature of the brain. No need to be formally taught…you are immersed in language

- What impact would this have on education? Nature vs Nurture? Environment? Intellectualism? Linguistic relativity

- Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: the hypothesis of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects its speakers’ world view or cognition

Animal Communication

- Danger signs, Mating Rituals - Types: Visual, Auditory, Tactile, Chemical - Different in our capacity for abstract and symbolic language Symbolic language: Simple

- Symbols, symbolism… using an object, image, sound , word, or something else to stand for something else with a connection between them that we create according to our conventions

- Symbols, flags, emojis, religion symbols, traffic signs, hieroglyphs - Example: alphabet, mathematics, music, painting, sculpture, photography, film, maps, scientific models

- Simple signs: more complex than you realize ‘we have to be able to abstract our indicators from the world around us, use them representationally, grasp conventionalised meaning, and recognize the implications for our own learned behaviour’. Symbolic language: complex

- Complex words: think about the complexity of language, everything I’m typing is an independent symbol when placed next to other symbols in just the right order communicate an idea. We use these to connect our lives with the lives of others in our language community leading o shared experiences and exchanges of information

- Words shared across languages: Ad hominem, Déjà vu - Words that have multiple meanings Writing

- Different types: speaking/writing/different languages - Do the words matter? What about the tone, pronunciation, or delivery of a word? - Do we look at someone differently based on how/what they speak? - Do tone/body language reveal more? - 90% of what you’re saying isn’t coming outta your mouth - What about ‘swear words’? Do they have power? Or do we give them power? Metaphor/Euphemisms

- Metaphor: present one thing in terms of another for the particular effect sought within the workd to build associations reach beyond the limits of language

- Euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing

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For once let me be loved Let my smile, my voice, my presence Be something you crave For once let this void in me This hole inside my heart Be filled with euphoria