Blog 1: Violence, Culture, Identity

• Read through the list word associations developed from Wednesday

• Based on the associations, construct a “problem of knowledge question”

• Post your problem of knowledge tonight. Complete one response to another by Monday.

Title Questions (PoK)• Can we have beliefs or knowledge which are independent of our culture?

• “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist

• facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts” (Arthur Conan Doyle). Consider

• the extent to which this statement may be true in two or more areas of knowledge. • “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we • now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there • ever will be to know and understand.” (Albert Einstein) Do you agree?

• What counts as knowledge in the arts? Discuss by comparing to one other area of • knowledge.

• “Habit is stronger than reason.” To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?

• “The ultimate protection against research error and bias is supposed to come from • the way scientists constantly re-test each other’s results.” To what extent would you • agree with this claim in the natural sciences and the human sciences?

Truth and Knowledge

Ways of KnowingMemory ReconstructionRationalism v. EmpiricismDescription v. Acquaintance

TOK Ch. 1-3 p. 1-41

Team 1: 1-7Team 2: 8-15Team 3: 16-23Team 4: 24-29Team 5: 30-36Team 6: 37-41

Where are we going?

1. Blog 1 discussion: Forming knowledge issues

2. Finish Knowledge and Knower (wed.)

3. Discuss the divergent questions associated with Truth and Knowledge

4. Activity 2: Loftus and Palmer Experiment

5. Ways of Knowing

Discussion Blog 1: Violence

• Let's look at a few title questions together and begin practicing the "socratic method" (Day 1)

• Start in teams of four, complete an exchange (5 min.)

• Whole class exchange (10 Min. )

• Practice Concensus

What is Truth?

• Truth is a parameter of accuracy applied to a proposition concerning the nature of reality.

• “Truth” has three main theories corresponding to Rationalism and Empiricism:– Correspondance– Coherance– Pragmatic

• Question: Does “absolute truth” exist? What are they and how do they function?

Different than Knowledge?• List 10 propositions that

you know.– Are they true?– How do you know they

are true?– What evidence could

prove them false?• Can I “know” something

that is not true? • Can something be true

that I don’t know?

• If there were no knowers, would there be truth?

Activity 2: Loftus

and Palmer

Collecting Data: Poll Everywhere

• Go to pollev.com/morris

• Complete the question concerning the video you just witnessed.

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

• Elizabeth Loftus investigated the interaction between language, memory and eyewitness testimony.

• Conclusions:– The way a question is

worded often leads to a new reconstruction of a memory

– Eyewitness testimony and estimations are often a dependent variable.

– What other factors contribute to memory dependancy?

Memory• Memory and testimony are the

cognitive foundation of the "knower"– Neurologically, memories are

chemical reactions resulting from synapse activation within the brain.

– Rationally, memories are the calculator and "rulebook" that allows for proper and logical thinking.

– Emprically, memories are the record of our senses reconstructed through will or by outside stimulai

– Pragmatically, memories are the priorities of the world in which p;ersonal meaning is constructed.

• Do we have memories of the way things are, or is there always personal bias? Do our senses create accurate pictures of reality?

The Ways of Knowing

• Reason– Analytic and synthetic– a priori or a posteriori– constructs of logic that define a thing

or to define basic laws using symbolacrae

• Sense Perception– Correspondance testing between

memory and seeing, etc.– Basis for scientific philosophy.– Often subjective and vulnerable to bias.

see aesthetic philosophy.

• Intuition/imagination (?)– Memories reconstructed often with

disregard for the backward looking sense perception and/or rationality to project to future events, develop innovative hypothesis, or to be a great artist.

The Ways of Knowing

• Language– The symbols that connect our

thoughts to others– Intrinsically indirect and

requires assumptions about the world (such as the existence of other minds).

– Often can present challenges to synergy of information

• Emotion– The personal reaction and

cultural parameters of expression connecting to others by thou

Tests of “Truthiness”

• Correspondence– Statements are true so much as the

relate to actual, observable data from the world.• “The snow is white”

• Coherence– Statements are true so much as they

are logically consistent with previous beliefs about the world.• “there are no pink elephants in Lake

Elsinore because I know elephants are gray, live in africa…etc.”

• Pragmatic– A statement is true if +it allows you to

interact effectively and efficeintly with the cosmos.• “My belief that inanimate objects do not

spontaneously get up and move about is true because it makes my world more predictable and thus easier to live in. It “works”

Testimony or Knowledge by Authority

• Information about the world often comes through degrees of testimony– Data is received, passed,

written, consolidated, taught, and recited.

• How might the “authority fallacy” be different than “knowledge by authority?”

• List 10 things you know by authority

• List 10 things you know by personal testimony.

Imagination• “I am enough of an artist to draw freely

upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” 

• “Everything you can imagine is real”

• “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

• Can Imagination be a source of knowledge? What would its limits be? Can you know something that is only feasible in your mind?

Blog 2: Gun Control

• Take your original KI question and choose one of the concepts from the tests and areas of “knowing” – apply it to an area of

evidence as a start to an “Argue Out” on the topic of “Gun Control”

• You may consider the response from your peers in your second blog.

Thinker Portrait: Rene Descartes