Example Tok Essays

Tok External Assessment Essay
TOK
"Knowledge gives us a sense of who we are." To what extent is this true in the Human Sciences and
Ethics?
Socrates once said, "To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true
knowledge" [1]. In similar vein, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Knowledge is knowing that we
cannot know" [1]. A great Indian master, Nisargadatta Maharaj once quoted, "To know what you are,
you must first investigate and know what you are not" [2]. What were Socrates, Emerson,
Nisargadatta hinting at?
Is there any such thing as 'knowledge' and if so, can this knowledge ever give us a sense of who we
are? Is there one concrete sense of 'who we are' that persists all throughout our lives or is our sense
of identity a montage of...show more content...
In reality, 65% of the participants in Milgram's study delivered the maximum shocks [4]. 'Bystander
effect' is another monstrous revelation of abnormal human behavior in social circumstances. The
bystander effect occurs when the presence of others hinder an individual from intervening in an
emergency situation [5]. A recent case of the bystander effect was the running over of 2 year old
Chinese toddler twice as dozens just watched her succumbing to her injuries without offering any
help [6].
Many other startling revelations from the world of Social Psychology demonstrate 'how we
behave' in society but does this knowledge really give us a sense of who we are as individuals?
Although these experiments and many others, to a large extent, do accurately provide a sense of
how humans behave in public, I feel that such studies erroneously generalize human identity in
terms of how they behave in society but this doesn't provide a concrete sense of who one really is
at the core. Just because one, under the multifarious dynamics of public pressure, behaves in a
certain way might not mean that one IS that way. The biggest flaw of Social Psychology might be
that it labels a string of behavioral tendencies and actions as part of individual identity. Is how we
behave under pressure really a part of who we are at the core?
On the other hand, there are those who would claim that one is what one behaves i.e. one's actions
are what gives on a sense of who
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Tok Essay
10. 'Through different methods of justification, we can reach conclusions in ethics that are as
well–supported as those provided in mathematics.' To what extent would you agree?
One could argue that mathematics and ethics are the underlying essentials above which our society
has based itself. Scores of cities have built their infrastructures using measurements and methods
founded in mathematics. Our inherent ethical natures have catalyzed the great minds from ancient
civilizations to create democracies, and have enabled our generations to uphold these same moral
principles. While both these studies are so readily used today, when comparing them it is essential in
understanding at the same time the disparity between the two subjects. The...show more content...
Using whichever ethical lens that you feel encompasses your morals/values (deontology,
utilitarianism, altruism, etc.), you can ultimately reach sound conclusions. But even so, there are so
many more aspects to consider, especially when dissecting an ethical issue. So how can we then
determine any "general" conclusions to ethics? By this, I am in essence making a referral to some
sort of a general consensus to a universal query. It is up to the individual who is asked, is it not, on
how they perceive the argument, and how they react to it? Can we therefore begin to view ethics as
an intrinsic human reaction, a way of immediate analysis, or even the societal expectation that we
carefully scrutinize every situation placed before us before concluding? This unique interpretation
of ethics could completely reform how conclusions are made and what they might entail. If we take
for example abortion, it is known that abortion is not a subject in which there are clear–cut
solutions. I stand firmly with my belief that the choice of abortion is rightfully entrusted to women,
but then again, I share a personal connection with this abortion issue. My mother, who in every way
is my idol, has a sickness which inhibits her body's ability to function at certain times. Three years
ago, she became pregnant. Doctors predicted disabilities the baby could have due to medications my
mother was taking. I admire my mother for her courage and

Tok Essay Ways Of Knowing
Tok Essay Ways Of Knowing
Using one way of knowing is not enough if you want to determine if something is true or if
something is believed to be true. The different ways of knowing are sense perception, reasoning,
emotion and memory.
Plato once stated that knowledge is "Justified true belief" which just goes to show that in order to
obtain knowledge, we need to know certain thing as a fact, not belief. When we believe something
is true, we do not know it for certain. We just have faith in the fact that it is true. To test if our
beliefs are real and true, we can use the different ways of knowing to confirm or abolish our beliefs.
However these ways of knowing each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Sense perception is...show more content...
Another part of reasoning is proportion. Putting something in proportion gives us a more accurate
view of something we are trying to find out. However, this can make reasoning fallible because
external forces can influence it.
Emotion is a very flawed way to make the distinction between belief and truth. This is because things
that influence us very easily mislead our emotions and so we cannot determine a truth by only
using our emotion. For instance some person that loves to play video games might start to dislike
it because he keeps losing. The more times he loses the more upset he gets and the more he starts
to dislike the game. Pretty soon he might lose interest and start to dislike video games altogether. It
is also very easy to cloud people's judgment by playing on their emotions causing them to hold a
false truth or belief.
Memory is another fallible devise used to distinguish truth from belief. The older you get the
harder it is to recall things set early on in your life, or even earlier that same day. This poses a very
big problem because sometimes when you have to identify someone that you have only seen once,
you could have major difficulties recalling their features. For instance, in a police investigation, the
victims usually have to give an accurate description of the suspect. Speaking from

Possession of Knowledge Tok Essay
TOK Outline
Essay title – "The possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility". Evaluate this claim.
What knowledge issues I think are involved
How can you possess knowledge? How do you acquire it and do these ways affect your
responsibility of imparting it on others?
How is the knowledge you have affected by your personal ethics? Some people would have no
problem giving out certain pieces of knowledge while others would be very trouble giving out
exactly the same information.
How can one know when they are ethically responsible? How do you know how big the impact of
the knowledge you are giving will have on the recipient?
Ways of knowing, Areas of knowledge that are involved.
Ways of knowing o Reason – Has...show more content...
4th Paragraph
Same as 2nd paragraph except with second area of knowledge – Natural and human sciences.
Biology – example would be Ben Johnson at the 1988 olympic. Doctors ethical responsibility to give
him the drugs knowing their effect and the details while Ben Johnson just trusted his professional
ability.
Economics – Bank crisis in 2008. Did the banks have an ethical responsibility to tell the public that
their money was being used for other things, instead of just letting the money be lost and telling
them after they had invested it all.
5th paragraph
Explain how ways of knowing will be linked to the claim – Reason
Provide example. o If someone stops you on the street and asks for directions then you use reason to
determine that it seems perfectly fine for you to impart the knowledge you have and that it coincides
with your ethics.
6th paragraph
Same as above with other way of knowing – emotion o A doctor giving the results of tests to a
patient and telling them that they are terminally ill. They may not want to impart that knowledge as
they know it will greatly affect the person and emotionally you wouldn't want to be giving that
information. But they are ethically responsible as professionals to give that information. o Another
example that would go with this is a police officer having to tell the next of kin that they family
member has died.
Conclusion
Evaluate all the points that have been talked about.
Restate your

Tok Essay
New TOK Essay
Topic 3: There are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false. Discuss this claim.
I'd always believed that the truth was a rather simple idea. To me, it was something that was true or
correct or existing in this world. But after all the discussions in TOK, with family and with friends,
and after deep rumination on the subject, I've realized that's it's a much more broad, complex and
often mind–boggling concept. However, now I see that there are essentially three main factors that
lead us to accepting something as the truth: a strong emotional belief, our senses (particularly sight)
and applied logic and reasoning. These are in fact three of the ways of knowing. Language is used to
aid the acceptance...show more content...
The belief may have been cultivated by family, religion, culture or any other external factor but the
fact remains that it is accepted as a truth mainly because of the strong emotions associated with it.
However, these same emotions are incredibly varied between people because of the differences in
family, religion, culture and other factors. Hence, there are also people (atheists) that have strong
emotions against the existence of God. As this difference in beliefs between people exists and will
most probably always exist because of the diversity of our world, emotional belief as a truth cannot
be absolute. It is relative to the person believing the truth.
Applied logic and reasoning is fundamental to determining axioms, formulas and concepts in Math
that are considered to be truths. In Math HL, we have a topic called induction whereby the goal is
to prove a certain formula or equation. We can prove the formula, but on all occasions, it is only
true within a certain domain, i.e. for a certain set of values. This shows that the formula is not an
absolute truth but relative to the variables involved. But let's also consider the simplest equation
known to man: 1 + 1 = 2. Isn't this an absolute truth? I used to believe so, until I discovered that a
pile of sand + a

Tok
A model is a simplified representation of some aspect of the world. In what ways may models help
or hinder the research for knowledge?
A model by definition is "a schematic description of a system, theory, or phenomenon that
accounts for its known or inferred properties and may be used for further study of its
characteristics"(source) that implies that a model is supposed to be a helping hand while
searching for knowledge in any subject. Sometimes however models can appear to be quite
confusing as they are to general or too far away from real life situations. So how and in what way
models can help and hinder the search for knowledge in natural sciences, human sciences and arts I
am going to argue in the following essay.
In school we...show more content...
However the models of art only help us in the search for artistic knowledge. However logically
anyone can differentiate between a Picasso and a Monet as the differences are easy to be seen but it
takes a lot of study to empirically know the different models.
That means we can only understand and use the models if we understand art so to a normal
human being that does not want to have a deeper knowledge about art and its backgrounds and
the fine borders between the styles those models are useless. In this case they are too subject
specific for someone to use. Models can also be interpreted as being rules about how to specifically
draw or paint something so that it is art. A good example for that is theMona Lisa by Leonardo
DaVinci. Although he drew a women in a realistic way, her eyebrows are missing, which lets
people detach from the painting emotionally as she seems less human in a way. In the Arts
models can also be something different. A very good example for that would be the Mona Lisa
by Leonardo DaVinci. His model we assume was a woman or a man that must have looked just
like an everyday person, however DaVinci whether on purpose or not left out any emotion and lets
the person appear extremely emotionless and cold. In this way the art work hinders us from
knowing more about the intentions of this painting and also about the person being drawn. However
this is a trigger for people to want to find out more about this painter and

TOK Essay
Jeana Joy Tan
Belief has been described as "certainty about what cannot be seen". Does this statement hold true
any, some or all areas of knowledge?
Over the years, philosophers have tried to grapple with the concepts of belief, certainty and
knowledge. Despite numerous controversial claims and arguments that come from both sides, we
have yet to come upon a general consensus. However, the contention here is that belief can contribute
to all areas of knowledge.
Even though belief can be associated with all areas of knowledge, it is a complex concept that
exists in different degrees and preconditions. Therefore not all kinds of beliefs can contribute to
knowledge as there are certain limitations we need to be...show more content...
This is a reasonable belief and we can therefore conclude that he has now attained knowledge. This
explanation can also be illustrated using the education system itself. Every day, students go through
the same mundane activities in school; they sit in classrooms and listen to endless lectures that
range from the sciences to arts. Do they question the teacher's knowledge of which is imparted to
them and insist that the teacher provide substantial evidence to the reliability of the source of their
information? Most often not, as this would be rather ridiculous. Though we should not abandon the
inquisitive mind, we can't expect our teachers to take us to the volcanoes to believe that volcanic
eruptions are real nor can we expect to be taken back in time to witness the Civil War to believe that
it happened.
One can also attain knowledge through reason. In our daily lives, we are constantly using reason to
gain a deeper insight into the immediate evidence of our senses. Reason is a powerful source of
knowledge as it gives us certainty about what cannot be seen and is rationalism's fundamental
philosophy of life. To be able to reason based on a logical and rational premise is crucial to arriving
at a conclusion that serves its purpose of increasing our knowledge. Rationalists like RenГ©
Descartes are particularly impressed with areas of knowledge such as logic and mathematics,

Tok Essay -- Emotions vs Reason
TOK Essay
Reasoning and Emotions and the quest for Knowledge
19th century English philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that "deep thinking is
attainable only by a person of deep feeling", thereby implying that emotions, or "deep feeling",
play a key role in the quest for knowledge and the ability to reason, or, the ability to think deeply.
However, day after day I am confronted with evidence contradicting his statement, and, although I
do my best not to have biased perception, I do not see much in support. Emotions cause me, day
after day, to make poor decisions while a little voice in my head – a voice I like to call reason –
urges me to act differently. The first example that comes to mind is the fact that I am currently
working...show more content...
He would enquire: "what would push you to the desire of opening that door? You have no more
passion and no more hope of achieving happiness." The reason why, for Coleridge's supporters,
emotional energy plays such a key role is that happiness is the intrinsic finality of the human life:
everything the individual strives for. But the wish for happiness is not the only driving factor.
Curiosity, assuming it is an instinct, will still be present in your chemical structure once emotions
removed and therefore encourage you to open the "knowledge door", or, take the red pill. Thus
knowledge is achieved. However I must admit that this illustration is a simplified version of the
'truth'.
It is in fact heavily based on the presumption that knowledge in one entity with one outcome. But as
we know, knowledge exists in distinct areas and can take many different forms. The 'truth' is that in
our ten by ten white room, there would not be just one "knowledge door". There would be
thousands, or even millions, behind which lay many different paths; paths which often intersect with
that of "happiness". These may lead to knowledge that varies from learning to play football to a
solution to world hunger. So then, how would you know which door to choose from? Being an
individual who relies purely on reasoning, you might

Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Evaluate this
statement in two areas of knowledge.
The way knowledge is generated is different among the various areas of knowledge, but the way
we gain knowledge requires thinking, thought processes, and this may be either critical or creative.
The two areas of knowledge I will be addressing are Natural sciences and the arts. The definition of
critical thinking is to "judge" and thus implies the use of logical reasoning using convergent thinking.
While creative thinking implies the opposite, using a divergent approach which will tend to reach a
variety of possible results. Creative thinking is "producing" , like producing alternatives and therefore
...show more content...
Individuals are different, however when they are in a group, a crowd, they tend to converge and
have the same attitudes or at least similar ideas. This example is just to show why we are biased
in favoring critical thinking. We normally associate critical thinking with more "solid" subjects
such as the natural sciences and math. Because in those subjects it seems that there is only one
right answer and therefore "converging" is easier to demonstrate in those 2 areas of knowledge.
On the other hand, subjects like art, seem to use creative thinking more. For example: coming up
with new ideas to pain, a new story, a new poem, a different style to paint on a canvas, a different
way to make a sculpture of something. So this shows how we tend to lean towards the natural
sciences, because they seem more concrete, and therefore we are more biased to agree with a
"converging" theory, which is the definition for critical thinking. In other words, critical thinking
seems more "logical" and more "right", of course this could lead to questions such as why is
being "logical" more appealing and why can't creative thinking be logical as well. Well we are
logically trying to diverge from old ideas and finding new ways of thinking or new knowledge.
One of the examples is in art, the shift in styles such as from Romanticism to Realism to
Impressionist art. Each was formed because it was a creative form of the other one. Didn't these ideas

Tok Emotion Essay
Veruska M. B. November 18, 2011 TOK Mr. de Silva Grade 11 OSC TOK Essay: How do
Perception and Emotion Contribute to our Knowledge of the World? Perception is broad concept,
often defined through various contexts. Similarly, emotion has assorted definitions. These concepts
differ in their timing in the world, for without the initial perception, emotion is a non–existent
concept. And without such commodities our knowledge of the world would cease to exist. For our
perception and emotion influences the other ways of knowing (WOK) immensely such as reason
and language. Perception is how we perceive our surroundings, and the world. It's often defined in 5
stages: The sensing process, integration, analysis, reaction and...show more content...
My emotion of sadness, led me to believe that my mother must be lying to me, because the
sadness and anger obscured the truth. I was so absorbed in emotion and denial. On Monday, I
waited at the bus stop and missed two of my classes. My judgment was so clouded; I simply
rejected my perception, my knowledge, because of my strong emotion. Because of all the
happiness Simon brought me, I could not let him go. Having it been so long ago now, I have a
different emotional response whenever Simon is brought up. The emotion of sadness is still there,
but it does not cloud the knowledge I gained from the experience of the loss. In conclusion,
perception and emotion contribute to our knowledge of the world, in both its filtering of knowledge,
and its positive reaction. Emotion and perception can both suppress knowledge not wanting to be
obtained in a moment of strong emotion. But it can also be a strong positive influence in an area of
creativity and individuality. The examples of art class and the death of Simon both exemplify such
occurrences in my knowledge of the world. Works Cited Brennan, Samantha. "Thinking Positive".
Perception and Intuition, a life long challenge. http://www.positive–thinking–principles.com
/definition–of–perception.html "Definition of Emotion". Answers.Com. http://www.answers.com
/topic/emotion |

Tok Essay
To what extent do personal attributes affect Ways of Knowing, and why, if at all, does answering
this question matter in the first place? It is known that there are four means through which human
beings acquire knowledge of their surroundings; the ways of reason, emotion, sense perception and
language. However, are these entirely reliable? Different individuals possess different opinions of
concepts and ideas, and this has not only been the reason of many conflicts and wars but has aided
in, for instance, the diversity of art. The reason for this variation in thought can be due to the
personal attributes of these individuals as opposed to others. A personal attribute is a 'characteristic
quality or feature of a person or thing'1...show more content...
Gender, for instance, is a major factor in a person's vision. To detect color, a human being requires
of three light sensing proteins, two of which are found in the X chromosome; therefore, men have
only one of these proteins while women have three. This also accounts for the loss of sight – it is
more probable for a man to lose it completely than a woman, and hence, their other senses will be
most likely heightened by the loss. It is also found that 'color blindness in African and Asian
populations is less common by half,'5 and although the reason is unknown, it is figured it must be
due to race or possibly even culture. Equally, there is a machine that emits a sound that is referred
to a lot as the 'Mosquito', which we have often mentioned in Theory of Knowledge class. This
apparatus has many uses; the one we discussed in class referred to a certain tone that is placed in
shops to scare away loitering teenagers due to the annoying high–pitched sound it emits that older
individuals cannot hear. However, it is also used in teenagers' benefit as a ringtone 'on their cell
phone to alert them when they've got a text message so the teachers can't hear it.'6 The same effect
probably works in the class with the television. When it is connected to the receptacle, Mr. Bromley
cannot seem to hear the high–pitched sound it emits that bothers all the students in the class. The
ears and hence, the hearing of people deteriorate with age, causing age to be a vital example as to
why

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Sense Perception as a Way of Knowing?
What is Sense Perception? Sense Perception is our primary Way of Knowing. It includes all our 5
senses– sight, smell, touch and taste. It is the reason we are what we are today as the human race,
the most advanced species on this Earth. It is our basic point of entry into this world. For
example, as a child we see people walk and the way they walk and without reasoning it out we
learn how to walk, or sitting on a chair, we don't ask why he or she is sitting on the chair we just
know that a chair is meant to be sat on. This is why I say it is our 'primary' Way of Knowing, and
then comes reason, emotion and language. Even though there are several advantages...show more
content...
Therefore, how reliable is Sense Perception on its own? Not very. In fact it can be deceiving on its
own.
Sense Perception is a very superficial Way of Knowing. And ipso facto it can lead us to many truths
but all very superficial in nature. For example, when we see a table a dog, we know it's a dog
because we've taught about it or read it in books when we were a child; the truth is it's just a dog.
Now take for example a sick dog, Sense Perception alone cannot lead us to the fact that it is sick,
we see certain symptoms which can tell us if it is sick or not, for example if it is lying in a certain
way we reason it out as to why it is lying in that particular way, is it normal or abnormal? Therefore
the truth that Sense Perception alone could tell us was just the superficial truth.
Sense Perception is often intercepted by our other Ways of Knowing – Reason, Emotion and
Language. We watched a video in class about eye–witnesses and how they detect the culprit among
all the suspects. This was a very fascinating video about a woman who was raped by an
African–American and while she was being raped she managed to get a very good look at the
persons face. After surviving the horrendous crime, after a while she was called in to look at a
series of pictures of suspects, she identified a picture as the culprit. Then later she

Tok Essay: Critical and Creative Thinking
Wilde
Theory of Knowledge
3 May 2012
TOK Essay Response: Critical and Creative Thinking Since the dawn of humanity, man has sought to
gain further insight on life through attaining knowledge. Knowledge can be defined as any
information gained through personal experience. The means of obtaining knowledge include four
main branches: reason, perception, language, and emotion. Despite the means, all knowledge is
formulated through the process of thinking. Thinking refers to the use of the mind to gain
understanding of the world. In the modern educational system, students are trained to think critically
and apply gathered information to generate knowledge. However, schools also stress the idea of
being original, using one's own creative...show more content...
In my IB Chemistry class earlier this year, my class was asked to design a neutralization lab. In
our lab, we had the task of reaching a neutralization of an acid and a base. Each student designed
his or her own unique experiment to cater to his or her individual creative tastes. I chose to do a
titration with a strong base and a weak acid. In contrast, one of my peers chose to use litmus paper to
test the acidities of various liquids. A common conclusion can be reached through creative means.
Furthermore, creativity plays a prominent role in the study of astronomy. The universe is such a vast
space that holds much of the unknown. Dating back to the ancient Greeks, people have attempted to
make sense of the universe, to understand its extensity. The ancient civilizations originally used their
imagination to picture how they believed the universe to look like. There were no microscopes or
rockets to allow travel into space. There was no prior knowledge to evaluate. Creative thinking was
used prior to critical thinking. Imagination created the image of space, then critical thinking
evaluated its validity. A counterclaim could be that modern technology has allowed humans to
observe extraterrestrial activity as well as enter space. Therefore, in modern astronomy, people use
critical thinking to analyze their observations to understand the universe. I would argue that although
advancement in

TOK ESSAY "Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth" (Pablo Picasso) There are different
ways for art to portray elements of truth and lies; but what Picasso was mostly referring to with
his quote was that art might be a representation of the truth however lies to the human eye in terms
of perception. The word art is somehow "controversial, especially in contemporary philosophy"
because it relies on different AOK's and WOK's. The main area of art focused to support Picasso's
quote will be theatre and what philosophical role it plays in our everyday society, do we really
need it, and is theatre the true or false image of reality? It is evidently challenging to make any sense
out of this quote especially when the truth can...show more content...
It is commonly known that theatre is mostly connected to political or spiritual ideologies. Arthur
Miller's The Crucible, takes a historical fact and turns into a political play based on the Salem
witch trials; can the truth be seen in this play? Yes, mostly because of the main historical debate
described in the play involving Wiccan cult versus Christianity and it is known to be based on
cultural concerns. "The play can be seen as symbolic of the paranoia about communism that
pervaded America in the 1950s" . Thus, Miller's play on the witch trials in Salem originates from
the true events however is projected with false pretenses. Aristotle's Poetics have six elements for
theatre and there are surnamed Plot, Characterization, Idea, Language, Music and Spectacle. These
elements represent the keys to a theatre performance, however where is the psychology in that?
One theatre genre that can be an absolute opposition to Stanislavsky's perception of theatre is
known as the Theatre of the Absurd. The theatre of the absurd does not follow any guidelines
concerning the techniques of theatre, which is why it is a good example because absurdity does
not have any true or false, it is a bit chaotic and strange at the same time. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Websites "A Philosophy of Theater В« " East of Mina. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

The Historians Task Is To Understand The Past
"The historian's task is to understand the past; the human scientist, by contrast, is looking to change
the future." To what extent is this true in these areas of knowledge?
Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt
November 13 2013
May 2014 Exam Session
Word Count: 1600
Humans have come to accept that History by mere definition is the exploration and study of history
whereas the Human Sciences are defined as the in depth study of social, biological and cultural
aspects of human beings. As humans we have used and accepted this two Areas of Knowledge, to
interpret and understand the world around us. History and Human Sciences seek to influence
humans through language, reason, and emotion. An assumption is made here that...show more
content...
Since our knowledge is primarily based on intuitions and assumptions as to what a person's behavior
is going to be5, it can then be inferred by historians what will happen in the future.
Although historians seek for evidence to substantiate their facts, there are times were no physical
evidence is found therefore they discard their evidence as merely a myth or relate it to other
accounts who share a similar believe. Nonetheless historians, who fail to seek into the past to
substantiate their viewpoint, don't necessarily neglect the idea of using the evidence found to better
the future. When a historian is successful at achieving his goal and writes a successful review on a
historical event it is then when he reasons as to whether the information can be applied to the future
to make an improvement or if it should be discarded as another piece of evidence of our history's
past.
On similar concept, Human Sciences also study the past to try and change the future. Anthropology
as a branch of this AOK cultural anthropology6 studies the cultural and social variation among the
different communities and races in the world. Back in the past there was a misconception as to what
cultural anthropology studied.

Tok Sense Perception
To what extent is sense perception a good foundation for reliable knowledge?
Sitting in this classroom today, I can see different things around me, smell different smells around
the room, feel the keyboard underneath my fingertips, taste the apple I had during lunch and hear
all the different sounds coming from all different people in the room. I can say I know this to be
true because we perceive the world through our five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.
Knowledge is what we learn, what we gain from our own experiences and what we understand from
other people's interpretations. Our senses provide us with a journey, which we are able to take or
reject.
Trusting our senses comes so naturally that we don't realize what...show more content...
Appearance and reality can be very tricky to distinguish. I remember asking myself last month
when I was very happy, is this real, or is this what I want my life to be? Without knowing, without
realizing we prove to ourselves what is real and what is not by using the tests truth. When I was told
about this, I didn't even know what the tests of truth were. The first one is confirmation by another
sense, if something looks like an apple and tastes like an apple, then we would conclude that its an
apple. The reason we would use this is if one of our sense are wrong, like for example dry ice, when
you look at it is steamy so we would say that it is hot, but in fact if you touch it, it is cold.
The second test of truth is coherence. When you see something that doesn't fit into what you
expect from experience of the world then you are most probably mistaken. For example when I
was a little kid I used to spin around in circles until I was dizzy, and when I stopped I used to see
the world spin around me. Although when I was not dizzy I knew that, that wasn't true. Finally the
third test of truth is independent testimony, testimony of other people. For example when I have
put my mom's phone on the table and I have seen it there, and when my mom asks for it, and its
not on the table I ask my brothers and sisters to prove that they saw it there as well and my mom is
most

|TOK Essay Title : "That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without
evidence" Do you agree ? | |Word Count: 1240 Words | Evidence is a thing or things that help in
attaining knowledge. The statement "that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed
without evidence" means that it is possible to confirm and dismiss the same if there is no evidence
or proof to form an undebatable judgement. In this essay I am going to analyse this quote from the
prospective of different Areas of Knowledge. I will proceed in this way because they...show more
content...
high unemployment or high inflation)?" There are two main schools that present this issue: the
Keynesians argue in demand policies while New Classicals argue that supply management policies
allow a long–term improvement in these deficiencies. The question that arises from this reasoning
is the following: "Is there then a "true" theory and a "false" one?" The answer is No, as both these
contrasting theories are based upon reason and sense perception. However, to a degree they also
dismiss the other theory. In fact, as the discussion is about which theory is best for governments to
improve its macroeconomic deficiencies, there can be only one theory that respect this statement.
Here again it is shown how a scientific claim based upon reason and sense perception is not
necessarily true as it can be displaced by another theory based upon other evidence. Therefore, in
this Area of Knowledge I agree with the statement "That which can be asserted without evidence can
be dismissed without evidence". A key knowledge issue is the counter argument to the underlying
assumption of the title. If one is to base an argument or a knowledge claim on the need to provide
evidence, then one must also provide evidence to dismiss a competing argument. What this means is
that in order to dismiss an assertion, one would indeed require evidence in order to prove the
dismissal. The statement is

Tok Essay
"The Possession Of Knowledge Carries An Ethical Responsibility." Evaluate This Claim.–Seo Yeon
Choi–
Theory of Knowledge Essay
Topic: "The Possession of Knowledge Carries an Ethical Responsibility" Evaluate The Claim.
School: Auckland International College School Number: 001495 Candidate Name: Seo Yeon Choi
Candidate Number: 001495–010 Session: May 2013 Teacher: Beate Wiebel Word Count: 1480
Choi–
After reading the claim, вЂћThe possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibilityвЂџ, I
first thought what does вЂћethical responsibilityвЂџ means. Considering that ethics is the study that
debates what is right or wrong and thus govern...show more content...
In my case, when I heard my neighbour having huge fights every day, I decided to not call the
police or go over and ask if they are fine because I thought my actions might bring bigger rage. In my
point of view, the thought of helping my neighbours seemed like I was intruding their privacy.
However, on the other hand, in others' point of view, they might think that as long as they have that
knowledge, it is their rightful duty to help their neighbours. LetвЂџs look at another example about
euthanasia, which explains the knowledge issue above using human science as one of the areas of
knowledge and reason and emotion as ways of knowing. Euthanasia is a serious problem around the
world and many people are aware of it as well. However, even if many people know that it is
unethical to administer euthanasia, having that knowledge does
3
Choi–
not give them the right to stop those who do so. The reason for this is mainly because those who
carry out euthanasia may have reasonable excuses such as, financial problems in maintaining
hospital fees, psychological problems in watching beloved ones suffer, or even the patient might
want to administer euthanasia in order to end his or her suffering. Hence, it can be seen that
although some might think that having certain knowledge brings

TOK Knowledge Essay
The claim "Knowledge is nothing more than the systematic organization of facts," has many flaws
in its implications. All of the knowledge that we gain as ToK knowers cannot be considered
infallible fact. The term "fact" implies that the statement or claim can be reinforced with substantial
evidence and can be proven, and we have learned that almost any information can be considered
knowledge, no matter how subjective or specific the information is. Given that an individual is
defined by having a specific and unique way of thinking and perceiving the world, most of the
knowledge gained in several different Areas of Knowledge are heavily dependent on the
perspectives of the individuals under examination. Both the Areas of Knowledge of Ethics and
Human Sciences have many ambiguities when it comes to organizing and legitimizing this data.
This leads the knower to ask, "What makes information factual in terms of ToK knowledge?" It can
be proven through Ethics and Human Sciences that knowledge is not the systematic organization of
facts, but the systematic organization of collective data to show trends and patterns. Ethical
boundaries and impressions are subjective to every individual, and the public ethical boundary must
be based off of the accumulative average of the environment. There is not a factual "This is right"
vs. "This is wrong" because no single human being has the authority to make such a statement. In
fact, it is this basic ethical disagreement that has led to

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