TOK Lecture 2

8/4/2019 TOK Lecture 2

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Theory of

Knowledge

Knowledge Issues.


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KNOWLEDGE ISSUES

Knowledge Issues are questions that directly refer tounderstanding of the world.

With the need to understand and accept knowledge we open thedoors to inquiry and explore not only the problem but also the

strength of knowledge.

Knowledge Issues can revel that knowledge can be a benefit, apleasure and most important a basis for further thought andaction.


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The Treachery Of Images (La trahison des images), which shows apipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco storeadvertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe, This is not a pipe(Ceci n'est pas une pipe), which seems a contradiction, but is actuallytrue: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_pipehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_pipehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MagrittePipe.jpg


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Magrittes mother was unhappy during his childhood andattempted suicide a number of times. In 1912, when Magritte was14 his mother left the house and drowned herself in the river.

When her body was pulled from the river many days later herface was covered by her night dress. Young Magritte saw thecorpse bare with the face wrapped and this image, disturbing anderotic was left in his memory. Magritte made many paintingsabout death by drowning and tragedy in water, as well asdisturbing images of faces draped with a cloth.

During the summer of 1928Magritte painted a number offigures with the face and headcovered by some kind of cloth.In this painted version of TheLovers, the couple stand cheekto cheek. He also made a large

version where the lovers arekissing while covered in the

same way.


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Rene Magritte was a Surrealist

What Is Surrealism? Surrealismis an artistic, cultural and intellectual

movement oriented toward the liberation of the mindby emphasizing the critical and imaginative facultiesof the "unconscious mind" and the attainment of adream-like state different from, "more than", andultimately "truer" than everyday reality: the "sur-real", or "more than real".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_mindhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_mind


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Assignment

Research on Surrealism, speak aboutvarious artist who were involved in this

movement. Assignment should be handed over by 30th

July 2009


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We as people and individuals know many things, such as weknow we are hungry, we know we are sick, when we are happy orsad, when lonely or love.

This we say is looked upon as Common Sense .The problem with Common Sense is our picture of the World. Tosolve this problem ; We must abandon our daily understanding ofthings and limit ourselves to only what we are Certain about.

Consider the 6 statements below that you & me are certainabout:I know planet Mars is red in colour and has no atmosphere.I know that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969.I know that Isaac Newton discovered Gravity.I know that a watermelon in green and red in colour.I know that if x is bigger than y, and y is bigger than z, then x is biggerthan z.I know that MURDER is wrong.


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Rene Descartes in 1641 related :

It is now some years since I detected how many were the false beliefsthat I had from my earliest youth admitted as true, and how doubtfulwas all I had constructed on this basis; ... All that at the present time Ihave accepted as most true and certain I have learned either from thesenses or through the senses; but it is sometimes proved to me thatthese senses are deceptive, and it is wiser not to trust entirely to anything by which we have once been deceived. ... At the same time Imust remember that I am ... in the habit of sleeping, and in mydreams representing to myself the same things or sometimes evenless probable things, than do those who are insane in their wakingmoments.

This is where we come the part of Doubt called RADICAL DOUBT:

One Night my watch broke at 11:51, But I didn't realize. I was a sleep at the time, andwhen I woke up I just put the watch without looking at it. The next time I looked at it, bychance it was 11:51. I believed it was 11:51, and it was, in fact, 11:51. So did I Know it? Ifnot, why not?

Rene Descartes also perhaps made one statement that one can be absolutely certain IExisttherefore I am.

Many Philosophers even think that the whole world is a dream.and any moment youmight wake up with the weirdest dream in which you were a human being on the planetEarth.


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This may be a Radical Supposition ..its not to prove that you do notexist bit it does suggest that your life might be completely DIFFERENTFROM WHAT YOU THOUGHT ..

DO you think that some areas of Knowledge are more Certain that Other?


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The gods did not reveal, from thebeginning,

All things to us, but in the course of

timeThrough seeking we may learn and

know things better

But as for certain truth, no man has

known it,

Nor shall he know it, neither of thegods

Nor yet of all the things of which I

speak.

For even if by chance he were to utter

The final truth, he would himself notknow it:

For all is but a woven web of guesses.

Greek philosopher-poet, Xenophanes(570-475 BCE):


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The Above saying says a lot aboutour knowledge of truth .do you

agree that we can never know whattruth is or does the poem mean tosay something beyond just the words


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RELATIVISMSometimes when people lack the sense of Certainty they embrace to the

opposite extreme position called Relativism.

Stare at the grid below for a few seconds. Can you notice anything

strange happening?


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Are the monks

walking up or down ?


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1. Old or young woman?Can you see more than one face here?


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relativism

Most people react to the Lack ofCertainty by swinging to theopposite extreme andembracing a position called

RELATIVISM.

Relativism expresses the viewthat the meaning and value ofhuman beliefs and behaviorshave no absolute reference.Relativists claim that humansunderstand and evaluate

beliefs and behaviors only interms of, for example, theirhistorical or cultural context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human


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1. What is relativism according to you?

You are, of course, entitled to believe what you like, but the mere factthat you believe that something is true doesn't mean that it actually is

true.A young child might believe that Santa Claus exists, but it only confusesthe issue to say that it is 'true.The fact that we take seriously the idea that someone might be wrong intheir beliefs suggests that relativism is false.

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It is raining.Can it be both raining and not raining?No. If it is not raining then it is not the case that it is raining, so it

cannot also be raining. This would be a contradiction

There is validity to some aspects of relativism. For example, what onesociety considers right (driving on the left side of the road) another

considers wrong. These are customs to which a "right and wrong" areattached, They are relative and rightly so. But, their relativism isproperly asserted as such. but they are purely relativistic and notuniversal because they are culturally based.It doesn't matter what sideof the road we drive in as long as we all do it the same way.


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Relativism says that there is no such thing and absolute truth that exists in

any object alone by itself.

Infact truth is relative and may differ from person to person as individuals

or culture.The Dialogue of RELATIVISM:

All Truth is Relative

REALLY ?IS THAT TRUE?

Yes!

ABSOLUTELY TRUE?

I guess not because I said

That ALL truth is Relative

SO THE STATEMENT ALL TRUTH

IS RELATIVE,IS ONLY RELATIVELY

TRUE, RIGHT!Yes!

SO IT COULD BE TRUE FOR YOU AND

NOT TRUE FOR ME

Hang on I need to think about this


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In the gospel of John in the NewTestament (18:28-40), Jesus is brought

up before Pontius Pilate, the Romangovernor of the region. Pilate, a

practical and worldly man, is bemused

as to why Jesus has been broughtbefore him: what has he done?During a brief exchange between Pilate and

Jesus, we see two distinct concepts oftruth at work. On the one hand, Jesus

has a very firm idea (18:37):"You are right in saying I am a king. For

this reason I was born, and for this I

came into the world, to testify to thetruth. Everyone on the side of truthlistens to me.

To which Pilate merely replies: "What istruth?" - as if to say, "You think truthexists independently of everyone as astandard by which we can judge our

beliefs?"

This sort of debate has been central tophilosophy for centuries. We will now

look at different theories of knowledge,truth and belief.


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What Should we Believe

Shall I Teach You what knowledge is ?When You Know a Thing ,

To recognize That you Know it;And when you do not know a thing,

To recognize that you do not know it.THIS IS KNOWLEDGE.

Confucius


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There is no simple answer to the question and it is more importanthow you believe than what you believe.

I t is also important that whatever you believe you support your beliefwith evidence and also be ready to respond to criticisms on your

views.This is where we divide Knowledge into facts and opinions; Facts are disputable ; We can argue about the numbers of cars sold in

2000. While Opinions can never be wrong because everybody is

entitled to their own opinion.

The notion of freedom is sometimes interpreted as meaning thatanyone opinion is as good as anyone else's..I frankly think thatspure nonsense; lets see

Suppose you are a Keen runner but you break your leg in an caraccident. Your is out in a plaster for a month, and when the plaster isremoved you are keen to start training straightaway. In my opinion,you should start training immediately, and push yourself really hard,

ignoring any pain, until you are as fit as you were before the accident. In your doctors opinion, you must rest and take things slowly, and

train but stop as soon as you should feel any pain and return to thedoctor for further checkups.

Which opinion is better and why?


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As we live in a world of few black and white certainties, we haveto depend on our personal judgement .

The aspect of our good judgement is the ability to balancescepticism with open mindedness.

Lets take the claim that Aliens visited us in the past even do so in thepresent.

Opinions polls suggest that 1/3rd of Americans believe the above

statement to be true. Whats your stand?

Do you believe that there is an technologically advanced civilizationthat is sending envoys to our planet for information.

We live a great market place in knowledge that we call theinformation age .mainly that we get through the Internet;surfing around we find so many websitessome giveinformation about academic subjects and useful details.

But at the same time there are dizzying array paranormalphenomena, conspiracy theories and urban legends.


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Danger of Gullibility & Scepticism Though we may believe in many paranormal phenomenon, we

would call ourselves too gullible to believe in every thing thatsput up on the internet:

Lets see if you take the following headlines seriously: ( fromWeekly World ; Americas supermarket tabloid)

1. Amazing New Proof of life after death ( 11thJan 99).

2. US Scientists bring Mummy back to life (13thAug 99)

3. First Marriage between Human & Alien still going strong (1st Oct99).

4. Dog Reincarnation;5 ways to tell if your dog was a human in past

life.(12thNov 99).5. Top Psychic Warns; Hitler is coming Back (21st Jan 2000).

6. Top Scientist says Sicko Aliens are stealing our women andturning them into Prostitutes (6th April 2000)


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Despite the above comments, which are obliviously too weird ; thereis also a danger in being too Sceptical (Marked by or given to doubt) forthen you may close your mind to new ideas that challenge theconventional wisdom.

There are many ideas that were ridiculed when they first appearedbut later were shown to be true; like in the early 19th C scientistsdismissed the idea that stones could fall from the sky as a stupid

superstition; but now we take the meteorites for granted

So was Alfred Wegeners theory of Continental Drift, rejected but itresurrected in 1960s as a part of the theory of the plate tectonics.


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So then tell me how true do you think this

statement is that we have to keep a balance between being open

to new idea that challenge our current way of

thinking , and also keeping in mind that humanbeings are credulous animals who are sometimeswilling to believe strange things on the basis ofslender evidence.


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Comment on the following quotation and explain why youeither agree or disagree with it . ( 200 words) My view is that there is such a thing as being too open minded. I

am not open minded about the earth being flat, about whether

Hitler is alive today, about claims by people to have squared the

circle, or to have proven special relativity wrong.I am also not open minded with respect to the paranormal. And I

think it is wrong to be open minded with respect to these things,

Just as I think it is wrong to be open minded about whether or

not the Nazis killed six million Jews in the world war

DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER.


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RESONABLE KNOWLEDGE We have to claim our knowledge to be reasonable two primary

criteria must to fulfilled:1. Evidence: For any believe to be reasonable there should be

positive evidence, e.g. if you claim there are green men living onmars; and if people challenge your theory; and u were to say Well, you cant prove that there aren't. This is a bad argument

because you have given no positive evidence to support yourbelief.

The fact that you cant prove that something isnt true doesnothing to show that it is true too; the fallacy of thinking that it

does is called argument ad ignorantiam Which of the following is an example of argument ad

ignorantiam?

1. Since many people claim to have seen ghosts, it is likely that theyexist.


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1. Many members of the Society or the paranormal believe in ghosts.

2. Ghosts must exists because no one has proved that they do not.

3. It is true for me that ghosts exists.

We have what is called a Confirmation bias, i.e. to notice onlyevidence that supports our belief.

To counter this tendency, you should keep a record not only ofhow often the horoscope is right but also of how often it is wrong.

2. The second criteria is Coherence which deals with finding if ourbelieve is reasonable or not, what this criteria implies is that,although we should be open to new ideas, the more unlikelysomething is relative to the current state of knowledge, thestronger the evidence in its favors should be before we take itseriously.


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According to the astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-96) extraordinaryclaims require extraordinary evidence. Explain what he meant by

this? Do you agree? Explain with reasons, which of the following statements you think is

less likely to be true:

The Loch ness monster exists.

Some mystics are able to levitate.


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Key Points of the chapter

The world is a confusing place in which we find a bewilderingvariety of different opinions.

Our common sense picture of reality probably contains inaccuracies& biases that we are not aware of.

We acquire knowledge about the world through language,perception, reason & emotion, but none of these ways of knowingcan give us certainty.

According to relativism, truth is relative to the individual; but the

fact that we take seriously the idea that someone may be wrong intheir beliefs suggests that relativism is false.

Since there are few black & white certainties in the world, we haveto rely more judgment.


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An important aspect of good judgment is finding the right balancebetween scepticism & open mindedness.

Two preliminary criteria for deciding whether a knowledge claim isplausible are evidence & coherence.

Since we are what we believe and our beliefs affect our actions, if wewant to be authentic & responsible we should occasionally subject

our beliefs to critical scrutiny.


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Assignment

Give me your thoughts on the following:

Truth, can we ever be certain of the truth?

Where does belief end and knowledge begin? What is the difference between knowledge and

information?

What is the relation between theory and practice

Does knowledge always depend on context? This has to be a handwritten assignment and

must be submitted by the 18th of September.

Documents

TOK Lecture 2