1. What is TOK?

3. Good Will Hunting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM-gZintWDc
(Use Firefox)
Answer this: What points is Robin Williams making about knowledge? How do you feel about what he says?

4. You need to be able to explain….
What is a knowledge claim?
How can we categorize knowledge/knowledge claims?
What are the characteristics of a knowledge claim?
What are the IB “defined” areas of knowledge and the ways of knowing?

5. What do I know? Three types of knowledge: Procedural—I know HOW to…
Experiential—I am familiar with…
Propositional—I know THAT
TOK primarily deals gwith propositional knowledge

6. What is a knowledge claim?
What we know (or say we know)
Is expressed in language
Not a question, but a statement
Can be false
Includes facts, but also beliefs, feelings, opinions and statements of value that are asserted as true

7. Knowledge claims include…
Observations (I/He saw)
Predictions (I know that X will happen.)
Hypotheses (This is why this happens.)
Hypothetical statements (If this happens, then this will happen.)
Metaphysical statements (I/God/Satan exist. This table is here.)
Definitions (This means….)
Statements of value or judgement ( Pizza tastes better than liver.)

8. (what happens if we accept this claim as true?
Assumptions
(what is necessary for us to accept this claim as true?)
Implications
(what happens if we accept this claim as true?
Knowledge
claim

9. Knowledge claim: Abortion is the same as murder.
Assumptions:
Abortion is unethical because it is murder.
Human life begins at conception (classification of a life)
Implications:
Impact on the legality of abortion
Suggests a moral authority
Could impact laws regarding other fetus deaths (negligence, murder of the mother, abuse)
Could impact medical uses of fetal tissue
Possible scientific ramifications for biology

10. Justifications: WOKs Stands for Ways of Knowing
Again, artificial labels to allow for discussion
Similarly studied in epistemology

11. Back to your knowledge claims…
In your groups, choose five knowledge claims from your table to discuss.
Copy them onto the graphic organizer in the first column.
For each one, discuss the ways in which you know this to be true.
Rank each according to its verifiabillity/certainty.
Identify what justifications you would use to support each claim.
Identify any assumptions behind each claim (what is necessary for us to accept this claim as true?)
The implications of this knowledge (what happens if we accept this claim as true?)

12. Two categories of knowledge
Shared knowledge
Personal knowledge
Possessed by a group
Shared through language and culture
Based on our “faith” in experts, people we love and trust, and religion
Can change through paradigm shifts
Lived, direct experience possessed by an individual (acquaintance/experience)
Sense perception
Memory (muscle memories, training, etc)
Imagination
Intuition
Emotions

13. AOKs Stands for “Areas of Knowledge”
Artificial labels made up by IB to use for categorization and discussion
Our job? To identify and evaluate the relationships, similarities, differences, and dependency between these.

14. Natural Sciences
Scientific investigation and inquiry into the natural world
Biology
Physics
Geology
Chemistry
Anatomy

15. Human Sciences
Scientific investigation into how humans and social groups work
Economics
Psychology
Sociology
Political science
Anthropology

16. Mathematics
Needs no introduction…
(drops mike and walks off….)

17. Arts Dance 3D art 2D art Literature Spoken word performance Theater
Music

18. Ethics A “system” of morality— different from morals
How does one know what is right and good?

19. History The study of the past—not events themselves
More accurately “historiography”
Sometimes considered part of the human sciences

20. Knowledge Framework: Scope/Application
Distinguishing charateristics
Knowledge can be seen as an attempt to solve a problem (practical uses)/value
AOKs are open ended and likely to change; adaptable to yet unanswered questions
Are some questions unethical to ask?

21. KF: Concepts/Language
Knowledge has to be shared and stored—space and time
Symbolic/Metaphoric/Linguistic

22. Methodology

23. KF: Historical Development

24. KF: Links to Personal Knowledge