13/12/ · Having knowledge means one understands justifications for beliefs. The interest in a subject and willingness to spare time for the subject shows the desire to learn[7]. This learning bears 7/2/ · Three A grade Theory of Knowledge critical thinking essays to inspire you! Theory of Knowledge or TOK, forms not just part of the inner core of the International Baccalaureate Diploma but is fundamental in developing your critical thinking skills whilst in Sixth Form, a programme uncomparable with any other core UK blogger.comted Reading Time: 10 mins As part of theory of knowledge (TOK), each student chooses one essay title from six issued by International Baccalaureate®(IB). The titles change in each examination session. Upcoming and past questions include: “To what extent are areas of knowledge shaped by their past?
Essay on Theory Of Knowledge - Words | Bartleby
Theory of Knowledge or TOK, forms not just part of the inner core of the International Baccalaureate Diploma but is fundamental in developing your critical thinking skills whilst in Sixth Form, a programme uncomparable with any other core UK curriculum. A flagship course, theory of knowledge essay, as a student it will ensure that the learning you develop across your IB Diploma subjects is pulled together and will help you develop the ability to question the validity of knowledge.
Unlike the rest of the IB Diploma, theory of knowledge essay, TOK doesn't have a theory of knowledge essay curriculum, with a checklist to be memorised for an end of course exam. Instead, you will craft a wide-ranging essay and presentation which will draw on the key ideas you have developed throughout the Theory of Knowledge course. For those who have already embarked upon their TOK course, we have taken three of our student essays, all A graded to give you an example of just some of the questions you might explore as part of IBDP TOK.
Being one of the art forms, theatre almost always requires both the theory of knowledge essay and the cast to abandon realism and rather use imagination, because believing in an invented, unreal situation is completely necessary for a successful performance to bring enjoyment, theory of knowledge essay. Such a deliberate acceptance of something based on implicit belief, with no cogent evidence, is what we call suspension of disbelief, theory of knowledge essay.
This phenomenon appears to be an integral part of the arts as a whole, since the expressive function of art as a means of conveying ideas and emotions could not be fulfilled without overlooking the scepticism. However, claiming that suspension of disbelief is essential in all Areas of Knowledge AoKs and that it is thus absolutely crucial to the core of their nature is a very radical position.
Personally, I believe that this concept can be applied effectively outside theory of knowledge essay Area of Knowledge of arts, however, it does not necessarily lie at the heart of identity of all the other AoKs. For instance, theory of knowledge essay, there is a widely accepted conception that mathematics and natural sciences, in contrast to arts, provide us with objective knowledge which requires a constant search for justification; as a result, the inherent nature of suspension of disbelief in terms of these AoKs is questionable.
In order to commence my discussion which will be focused on the aforementioned AoKs, I have formulated the following knowledge questions KQs : To what extent do the natural sciences and mathematics rely on unjustified belief? In addition, theory of knowledge essay, how far is it possible to remain sceptical when it comes to these AoKs?
The method of meticulous proof that is peculiar to mathematics implies that mathematical knowledge needs to be strongly justified in order to be accepted as reliable. Being grounded in deductive reasoning, this AoK seems to be exclusive of the "unfounded believing" concept.
One then may be theory of knowledge essay to endorsing an idea that suspension of disbelief is an extraneous element in the field of mathematics, since whenever disbelief arises, so does the absolute necessity to challenge the dubious idea.
If and only if a justification is provided, then the disbelief will be dissipated. It is now important to emphasise that dissipated does not mean suspended. Abandonment of scepticism and critical thinking appear to contradict the methodology of this AoK. Despite its expected impossibility, this idea has been developed using various methods e. Cesaro summation by different mathematicians and consequently became a part of mathematical knowledge Encyclopedia of Mathematics, theory of knowledge essay, The resulting statement brings on the rise of disbelief but it is only a solid justification that makes us accept it, as distinct from theatrical experience where no proof is required.
From this it follows that the methodology of mathematics does not leave room for unjustified belief and requires a constant presence of scepticism and reason. However, if we consider theory of knowledge essay actual nature of mathematical knowledge, what we find is that this field is largely grounded in axiomatic systems.
Therefore, in order to have a solid base for proving, we have to choose certain starting points. These fundamental statements, that are assumed to be true and do not have to be proved, are called axioms. At this point in mathematics, being sceptical would become rather counter-productive since it would deprive us of the ability to proceed any further. For example, the mathematical theory of probability is based theory of knowledge essay a specific axiom system proposed by Kolmogorov Lim, As a result, almost everything that is mathematically true of probability is a consequence of only three axioms of probability Stark, However, if we refused to accept one of the axioms, e.
the first axiom stating that the probability of any event is nonnegative, due to the absence of proof, we would not be able to derive further claims, e. that the probability of an event occurring is the probability of an event not occurring subtracted from one.
From the above it can be seen that the role of suspension of disbelief in mathematics can actually be described as "essential" in regard to the way this word was defined before. It is crucial to the nature of this AoK, even though its influence becomes less significant as we proceed further in the body of mathematical knowledge, theory of knowledge essay. As a mathematics student, I had to encounter the phenomenon of suspension of disbelief myself throughout the process of knowledge acquisition.
A great amount of formulas and theorems that I was taught were not provided with any valid mathematical proofs due to their complexity. In particular, when I was introduced to the fundamental theorem of algebra stating that every polynomial equation of degree n has n roots, I had a deep doubt about its validity because it contradicted my prior knowledge which did not include the concept of imaginary numbers Weisstein, While not being capable of applying some advanced tools in order to prove the theorem, I had to overlook my scepticism and take the statement for granted in order to solve mathematical problems as required by the syllabus.
Thus, the implications are that the role of suspension of disbelief increases greatly when personal perspective is concerned. The essentiality of suspension of disbelief is more theory of knowledge essay in the field of natural sciences due to the fact that whereas mathematics is based upon certain premises which remain unchanged in every separate system, scientific claims tend to have a provisional character. Consequently, in natural sciences, the need for suspension of disbelief arises in the actual methodology of the area, as new scientific ideas have to be put forward in order to stimulate development.
However, some of those ideas may not fit the generally accepted theories and therefore appear to break or push the scientific conventions. Construction of a novel hypothesis may thus require the use of imagination which leads to overlooking one's scepticism. As Albert Einstein said, "The greatest scientists are artists as well" Kaplan, This quote reveals the similarity between arts and natural sciences and may direct towards thinking that the abandonment of objectivity is sometimes as necessary in the latter area as it is in the former.
This point could be well illustrated by Barry Theory of knowledge essay remarkable discovery of the causes of gastric ulcers, for which he was awarded the Nobel prize Weintraub, According to the physician's theory, the disease was caused by a special type of bacteria, in contrast to the mainstream idea of that time that ulcers are brought on by stress, theory of knowledge essay.
While not being able to provide any solid evidence supporting the theory, Marshall was trying to convince other scientists on the basis of his unjustified belief. This firm conviction led him to conducting a dangerous experiment on himself: Marshall ingested the harmful bacteria and, as a result, was taken ill with gastritis Weintraub, The common misconception was thus broken and medical community finally acknowledged the new theory.
However, if only Marshall had not withstood the scepticism, he would have given up his hypothesis without running any hazardous tests. From this example, it can be seen that scientific advancement does rely on unjustified belief in some cases. On the other hand, suspension of disbelief may also become a serious impediment to progress in natural sciences. When the ideas are put forward, it is important for scientists to rather look for the ways of proving them wrong since the essence of scientific method lies in critical thinking.
A blind belief in theories results in the tendency to only find evidence that supports them and this is what we call confirmation bias, theory of knowledge essay. If scientists only relied on their belief and aimed to discover what they expected to discover, then any contradicting facts would have been neglected or misinterpreted, theory of knowledge essay.
This is how homeopathic pseudosceince has emerged: due to various flaws in the methodology of experiments conducted by the researchers who were already certain about their idea, the data presented appeared to confirm the hypothesis Farnam Street, n. These findings were disproved later on; no cogent evidence of the effectiveness of homeopathy has been found to present day and it was called a "therapeutic dead-end" Fenton, However, there are still supporters of this alternative medicine in the modern world that try to prove their theory by carrying out numerous tests.
As a result, the unjustified theory of knowledge essay makes scientific progress difficult as it turns out to be misleading. Therefore, it is possible to come to a conclusion that it is crucial for scientists to adhere to scepticism at a certain stage of knowledge production, theory of knowledge essay.
From the above, it can be contemplated that suspension of disbelief is definitely important in both mathematics and natural sciences which makes me reconsider my initial response to the question. The objectivity of these AoKs does not imply a complete exclusion of unjustified belief and permanent application of scepticism.
This phenomenon appears to be essential in mathematics as it is significant at the very roots of this AoK; in the area of natural sciences it must always be theory of knowledge essay by a certain doubt.
However, in both cases suspension of disbelief cannot be applied extensively as it is only crucial for belief but not the knowledge itself. This implies if we are to ever reach robust knowledge, other ways of knowing such as reason should be applied.
Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. Another excellent essay from one of BioMed IB graduates. This essay will argue that disinterestedness is valuable and desirable, especially when interpreting results, however it can be very difficult to remain completely neutral towards a topic area.
When undertaking research, a dispassionate approach to interpreting results is the most desirable one. Scientists regularly publish controversial and sometimes wrong findings because of personal bias, economic or egotistical incentives 3. It is difficult to interpret results objectively if you have something to lose or gain from the outcome, and there are incentives to publish as quickly as possible.
Page 2 of 8 Psychiatrist Erick Turner reported in his paper4 that companies only published the positive results they found when theory of knowledge essay antidepressants, making the drugs appear to work much better than they actually did. This is a global problem, with many possible reasons, but the main issue seems to be a lack of disinterestedness affected by how studies are funded theory of knowledge essay the bias of individuals.
In Natural Sciences, an example of a flawed study that made it into publication is the MMR Vaccine and its link with Autism6. Not only was the link proved unfounded, theory of knowledge essay, it was later found that Andrew Wakefield had patented an alternative vaccine to the one he found fault with in his study7 and that two years before he published the study, he had received payment from a lawyer fighting a case against MMR, theory of knowledge essay.
Wakefield was not a dispassionate scientist, but the resulting public outcry caused a reduction of the number of children vaccinated8. This shows that disinterest can be incredibly important. politics Page 3 of 8 of results, and research is usually incentivised by money, power or ego5 which can result in a lack of objective interpretation. Martine Rothblatt retrained in the field of biotechnology when her daughter was diagnosed with life-threatening pulmonary hypertension.
In order to try and find a cure, Rothblatt started a drug company that makes life-saving medicines for rare diseases including the drug that saved her daughter. Neutrality is important for progress and accuracy, theory of knowledge essay, but in every day life it is a rarity.
As humans, it has been argued that it is in our nature to be inherently biased9. This need to achieve perhaps results in an inherent bias.
It is 9 Moskowitz, G Are we all inherently biased? html Page 4 of 8 also possible that our personal experiences can affect the way we perceive things. Therefore, is true objectivity even possible? Objectivity in Art has been the topic of debate for centuries.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant suggested that to judge art, one must be disinterested. Marina Abramović is a performance artist who sat for 6 hours and allowed theory of knowledge essay of the public to use 72 different items on her as they wished The public can kill you. This is what I wanted to see. htm 12 Kant, I date unknown published in Critique of Judgment by Werner S.
Page 5 of 8. Although it is difficult to remove bias entirely, there are ways of making sure that outcomes are interpreted correctly. In the Natural Sciences, this is primarily achieved through the use of The Scientific Method This involves scientific studies being observable, testable, repeatable and falsifiable The first experiment was inbut it has been replicated thousands of times over the last century.
In Art, neutrality is important when evaluating skills, for example the examination of artwork for the Visual Arts IB qualification.
TOK Areas of Knowledge: Mathematics and Natural Sciences in Theory of Knowledge
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26 rows · THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ESSAYS Essays May Title. Candidate name. School How to Structure a Theory of Knowledge Essay Okay here we go. The structure on this page will give you a strong foundation for your essay and then we're going to First, choose your PT and KQ. Before you can begin your real/final essay, you’ll want to look at the Prescribed Title Second As part of theory of knowledge (TOK), each student chooses one essay title from six issued by International Baccalaureate®(IB). The titles change in each examination session. Upcoming and past questions include: “To what extent are areas of knowledge shaped by their past?
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