Ayesha's blog on emotion

This lesson we explored the different emotions a human experiences, and the implications of them on ourselves.
We listed all the emotions that crossed our minds, and saw how the negative emotions overruled the positive ones. After identifying the positive and negative of each emotion, we decided to place every emotion in a continuum, from the strongest to weakest. This raised discussion, as everyone’s perception of which emotion was stronger or weaker then the other varied. I personally felt that all emotions are almost stationary, and can go to any extreme depending on the situation and circumstance.
Furthermore, we started discussing how emotions are felt in the first place. This brought three theories to mind:
1. All emotions are in the mind
2. All emotions are learned
3. All emotions are innate
Most of the class disagreed with the fact that all emotions are in the mind. However, debates were created between emotions are learned, and emotions are innate, as some people believe that society nourishes the seed of emotion that is already within us. However, some people went to extreme sides saying that emotions are innate, or emotions are planted into us by parents and society. This is how we started to classify emotions, by discussing where emotions actually came from.

TOK Lesson 19th November - Language

This lesson we learnt about language as a way of learning and how words or phrases can be interpreted in different ways. For example, 'teeth extracted by the methodists' could mean different things based on your understanding of English. It could be funny to people who are fluent in English and can understand the error and the meaning behind it, but perfectly normal to others. We also learnt that our language limits our knowledge. We can only think in words and pictures of things we have seen. This means we may never find out some entirely new concept of things, beause we haven't made up a word or seen it yet. There is a book of words called 'The Meaning of Life' by Douglas Adams, full of words we haven't made up of yet for special situations, like the uncomfortable feeling you get when you sit in a chair and it's warm because someone else sat on it.

Lesson Summary - 27th November

How do we gain knowledge through reasoning? I'm not quite sure actually, but in the lesson we touched on two different types of reasoning's which may help explain why we think the way we do.

deductive reasoning is reasoning from the general to the specific:
fact #1: spinsters are single
fact #2: Aunty Jean is a spinster

deductive conclusion? Aunty Jean is single

easy? easy.
okay, so then we moved onto INDUCTIVE REASONING, which is basically the opposite, reasoning from the specific to the general.
fact #1: Aunty Jean is a spinster
fact #2: Aunty Jean is happy

inductive conclusion? Spinsters are happy.

This is all really a simple concept. However, there are problems with this type of reasoning...Just because i see a lot of something doesn't prove anything. It only proves that this item exists, it does not prove that another type of it does not exist. Confusing? Okay, basically, what I'm saying is:

I see one white swan.

Then another white swan. Then another. After a few years, I've seen PLENTY of white swans, but never any other swans of another color. Therefore i can safely induct from each specific incident that swans are white. However, i cannot, on the other hand say

swans are not black.

Just because I've never seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Inductive reasoning occurs quite often in life. If something has often occured in the past, there's a good chance it will occur again. But, when you really think about it, that not an extremely reliable conclusion.
Par example: Susan is a basketball player. She has a 1/5 chance of shooting a basket.
She's managed to shoot 6 baskets. Does this mean that she will definetly be able to score the next basket? NO it doesnt. She STILL only has a 1 in 5 chance of scoring. It's just that us, humans have a tendency to see what we want to see and remember what we want to remember.

yup. that's all folks.
25 more days till christmas!!!!!! :)

Lesson Summary - November 13th

Language and Theory of Knowledge
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This lesson we were informed of the relevance between language and the ways of knowing.
We had to understand the issues raised by the existence of several languages (isolating others who don't understand it) and we began to appreciate the possible links between language, experience and identity.

During the lesson we recognized that language is incredibly rich but complex at the same time.

One key issue we had to think about was whether or not we felt that our mother tongue is important and what would it mean if it was Welsh, English or Chinese. Some of us suggested that their language was their identity and reminded them of their cultural heritage.

Practical Exercises

• We were introduced to the limitations of language as a way of knowing by having to do an exercise by writing instructions to teach someone how to tie their shoelaces, which proved quite difficult and time-consuming.
• We had to describe the person next to us with both phrases of positive connotation and negative associations. Such as 'Confident/Arrogant'
  

History

Pick a GCSE subject, and write about what sort of knowledge and/or ‘truth’ this subject conveys.

Subject: History

From the subject history, we are able to gain all sorts of different knowledge and truths. Not only do we learn about events of the past, but we are also able to learn about human psychology and the complex system of our society.

If you’ve never learned history in detail, it would seem like a subject with full of accurate facts and truths. But actually in some cases, the ‘truths’ that we think is true, is not as true as they seem to be. This is because all the facts that we learn about comes from the compilation of stories and opinions told/written by various people who were involved in that certain event. And although those stories and opinions seem reliable, everyone has different ways of perceiving things, and there is nothing to ensure that the stories aren’t exaggerated or made up. After people experience horrific events, they tend to exaggerate what happened in the event and make it seem even worse than it actually was. Take the Nazis for example. They didn’t always tell the truths, especially if they brought negative consequences. When the Reichstag building burnt down, it was reported that a Communist had set fire to the building. But after the Nazi rule were over, they confessed that it was actually them who set the fire.

Although the things we learn in history are true, the proof that we are given can deceive us to perceive things differently than how it actually was. So in the end, it is up to us to determine what is true by carefully looking through the knowledge that makes up the fact and finding its faults and proofs until there is nothing else to find.

Biology

Biology conveys many "truths" that have been proven by numerous scientists through experiments and observations. Most of what we learn in biology is propositional knowledge as we seem to always be given facts and figures to study, learn and memorize. Of course that is not to say that propositional knowledge is the only type of knowledge conveyed in biology. There is plenty of experiential knowledge we gain from our own experiments and field work. For example, I learned that beaches contain much more life (in the sand) than I previously imagined when we visited Starfish Bay last year for our biology field trip.

The "truths" that biology conveys are predominantly solid objective facts that are either right or wrong. There can be nothing in between (unlike in humanity subjects). However, opinions do still matter for some areas of biology. For example, in the debate over whether stem cell research should be allowed, there is technically no correct answer. But for the major part of biology, there is only one verdict (see exam questions). Therefore biology leaves less space for us to speculate and wonder about in comparison to other non-scientific subjects.

L'histoire

Both knowledge and thruths are conveyed through history. The type of knowledge conveyed is everything we learn, including people's deductions and views of different aspects, so this knowledge is actually quite ambiguous as there may or may not be a 'correct' knowledge. It is based on opinion.

However, the truth side of history is all about the facts, things that either did or did not happen. Therefore we can trust in these truths of history as a lot of these 'truths' are recorded and there are proofs of the events that have occurred.

But funnily enough, although the knowledge and truths of history seem so clear cut, they are actually intertwined quite complexly, for history is a fairly ambiguous subject. What i mean is that, take the example of an exam. The sources provided, like pictures, speeches or articles are all truths. They are stuff that are real, stuff that have proof, stuff that has occurred. However, the knowledge that stems from these truths can be so far from the truth because what you see can't always be trusted. With knowledge we have to read between the lines of truth.

Therefore history is a very ambiguous subject, providing solid truths that produce opinionated knowledge.

Knowledge Conveyed from a Subject - Geography

Pick one of your IB or ESF Advanced Diploma subjcts (other than ToK), What sorts of 'knowledge' and/or 'truths' does this subject convey, Blog your response in about 250 words.

Subject Chosen: Geography

In geography, it seems like it is only about maps and ‘geological earthy stuff’. But some knowledge that we are absorbing includes being able to identify and explain the characteristics of the systems of the Earth and even being able to analyze the interactions within and between these systems.

The knowledge or truths we gain is how different factors and inputs can change the environment around us and how all of these different factors correlate with each other. Geography requires us to think critically and thinking is a part of knowledge. There is also a truth side to geography and it include laws of nature which defines different parts of geology such as layers of the earth or plate tectonics.

Although some argue that because of too many assumptions or generalizations are made, geography cannot be knowledge because it is not a definite truth, but as we have come to learn in TOK that there is no absolute truth and that knowledge is finding out what we don’t already know.

So throughout geography, we are given evidence and we use what we can interpret from the data, think critically and find out what we don’t yet know about the subject we are studying. Hence knowledge this subject conveys is similar to some parts of philosophy by using logic and evidence to try and come to a satisfied answer.

Knowers & Knowing

1. 'Shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to recognise that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to recognise that you do not know it. That is knowledge.' (Confucius)
2. 'Where there is shouting there is no true knowledge.' (Leonardo da Vinci)
3. 'Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.' (Martin Luther King)
4. 'Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.' (Francois de La Rochefoucald)
5. 'Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.' (Daniel J. Boorstin)
6. 'It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.' (G. K. Chesterton)
7. 'Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.' (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)
8. 'A very popular error – having the courage of one’s convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack upon one’s convictions.' (Anon)
9. 'There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.' (Democritus)
10. 'The most important truths are likely to be those which… society at that time least wants to hear.' (W. H. Auden)
11. 'Never assume the obvious is true.' (William Safire)
12. 'The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.' (Ludwig von Mises)
13. 'The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.' (Anais Nin)
14. 'If one is estranged from oneself, then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others.' (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
15. 'Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it.' (Buckminster Fuller)
16. 'Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.' (Carl Jung)
17. 'The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.' (Eden Phillpotts)
18. 'The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.' (Malcolm Forbes)
19. 'Self-knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.' (Ghanaian proverb)
20. 'In times of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future: the learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.' (Eric Hoffer)
21. 'The more you know the less you understand.' (Tao Le Ching)