ToK – Knowledge Issues

Three kinds of knowing 

• Knowing / Direct Experience

• Knowing How / Skills

• Knowing That / Knowledge Claims

ToK – Knowledge Issues

Subject Knowing/ Direct Experience

Knowing How/ Skills

Knowing that/ Knowledge claims

Language A1, A2, B etc

Literature

Gaining experience: being able to follow a novel with frequent time shifts without being confused; identifying with characters unlike yourself; responding to a powerful poetic image…

Gaining skills: knowing how to write an essay; knowing how to be both sensitive and analytical in a commentary; knowing how to read more critically…

Gaining information: knowing that tragedy has certain characteristics; that blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter; that alliteration is a device…

Knowing in your IB Programme subjects

Other 5 Subject Groups?

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• Would it be fair to say that you gain all three categories of knowledge from all subjects?

• Do different subjects offer a different balance of the three?

ToK – Knowledge Issues

1. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 14922. Human beings are descended from apes3. Murder is wrong4. Aliens have visited earth at some time in its history5. All metals expand when heated6. Human beings have an immortal soul7. If A is bigger than B and B is bigger than C, then A is

bigger than C

Belief-knowledge continuum

-10|

Impossible

-5|

Unlikely

0|

Possible

+5|

Probable

+10|

CertainBelief Knowledge

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• Rational claims: justified by reasoning and tested for consistency

• Observational claims: about what we know through sensory perception

• Value judgements: right-wrong etc. Until put in observational terms, it is opinion

• Metaphysical claims: statements about the nature of reality that cannot be proved true of false by truth tests (coherence, correspondence, pragmatic)

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• What do you know to be true?

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• Different personal characteristics and experiences affect what people know.

• Different levels of knowledge:• A superficial grasp

• A good understanding

• A complete mastery

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• What is a Knowledge Issue?

Something which helps OR hinders our ability to obtain knowledge

ToK – Knowledge Issues

We need to find the knowledge issues….

• What?

• Who?

• Where?

• When?

• Why?

• How?

Knowledge issues are everywhere……

ToK – Knowledge Issues

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• What?

• Who?

• Where?

• When?

• Why?

• How?

ToK – Knowledge Issues

A partial list of knowledge issues which affect our ability to obtain the truth…..

• Age• Ethnicity• Education• Gender• Nationality• Prejudice• Experience• Belief systems• Emotions• Assumptions

ToK – Knowledge Issues

• The role of judgement

• The danger of gullibility

• The danger of dogmatism

ToK – Knowledge Issues

Closed-mindedness

Open-mindedness

ToK – Knowledge Issues

Closed-Mindedness

Open-mindedness

Gullibility

ToK – Knowledge Issues

Closed-mindedness

Open-mindedness

Dogmatism

ToK – Knowledge Issues

GoodJudgement

Closed-mindedness

Open-mindedness