Robert Love TOK
Areas of Knowledge
Ways of Knowing
Shared / Personal Knowledge
Key features of all AoKs
Methodology (methods used to produce knowledge)
Language
Sense perception
Methodology
Reason
Inductive Reasoning - Extrapolating outwards - going from specific knowledge to draw more general assumptions
Deductive Reasoning - "Proof" / Going from general premises to specific conclusions
Imagination
Intuition (Gut instinct / common sense)
Emotion
Memory
Faith
Secular (non-religious)
Sacred (religious)
Religious Knowledge Systems
Ethical Knowledge Systems
Human Sciences
History
Natural Sciences
The Arts
Mathematics
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Linguistic Determinism
Different types of language: sign language / body language / verbal languages
Miscommunication 'nodding head' (interpretations of body language)
Maths as a language?
Culture no words for numbers, describe everything as 'a few' / 'some'
5 senses (possible 6th? Proprioception)
Empiricism - idea that all our knowledge is based on our senses; now outdated - better to think as our knowledge being shaped by our expectations.
Illusions (Rabbit / Duck visual) / McGurk Effect (Auditory / Visual)
Empiricism
Antonio Damasio (Relationship between memory and emotion)
Emotions can be controlled by our physicality
2 (or more) premises --> valid conclusion
note that: those premises do not have to be true to create a valid conclusion
BUT a SOUND deduction is something where the reasoning is VALID + both(or all) of the statements are TRUE.
inferential (inferring larger ideas from smaller concepts)
Propositional imagining
schizophrenia
theistic vs non-theistic
secular religions? humanism
non-theistic religions like Buddhism
Dementia / Alzheimers
relationship between memories and experiences --> more distant, more unclear a memory becomes
memory's relationship to evidence affects reliability in courts etc.
Richard Dawkins' letter to 10 year old (evidence vs tradition/revelation/authority)
Conducting Experiments / Trial and Error
Scope, motivations, applications
Specific terminology / concepts
Falsification (scientific methodology which involves disproving / replacing previous theories)
key historical developments (note that each AOK has this, including history e.g. historiography!) this is not just AOK History
interaction with personal knowledge
ways to think about methodology
• What are the methods used in this AoK?
• What counts as a fact?
• How do we create ‘models’ in this AoK?
knowledge is 'provisional' - constantly subject to change and development
axioms (building blocks - universally accepted principles) e.g. 1+1=2
Proof = deductive reasoning
invented or discovered? certain or true? independent of culture?
Fermat's Last Theorem