However, such knowledge has also brought about many ills and challenges that we are now trying to overcome and must overcome if we are to sustain life on this planet. Those who are affectively motivated to form beliefs independent of conceptual coherence will have little motivation to revise those beliefs in light of new ideas that could increase coherence. What is objectivity? In doing so, you will be viewing technology as instrumentality. are the questions that can be explored in the Exhibition. Technology is a theoretical,not a practical affair. A sufficient reason is both a demonstration and an explanation of some thing or event, but the thing or event must be made and become an object of inquiry a priori through the application of the principle of sufficient reason. (Heidegger, What is a Thing), This is an instance of the general idea that our mode of access to a type of entity, e.g. Sometimes we understand experience as the experience, sensation or buzz to be derived from, say, a drug or a rally (Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced?). Knowledge and politics Press to see Commentary 1 -The caste system caused a division between Indians. See prompts #19, #31.When we speak of grounds, we are speaking about whether the evidence or the explanation regarding the thing which is being spoken about is adequate or justified. Can new knowledge change established values or beliefs? They are what can be learned and what can be taught i.e. In this search, we tend to look for things or at possible things which are far away from us rather than at those things that are nearest to us. Einstein, for example, has been quite clear that it was not reason only that brought about his theory of relativity but that imagination played a great part in its final coming-to-be. Current knowledge and historical knowledge is shown through the transition and transformation of language: language addresses itself to human beings in words that conceal the genuine face of Being. With the knowledge that we gain from algebraic calculation, it should come as no surprise that what is called finite calculus was established by the founder of the principle of reason Gottfried Leibniz. The principle of reason states: nothing is without (a) cause or nothing is without a reason or nothing is without reason. Judgements and statements are correct, that means true, only if the reason for the connection of subject and predicate is rendered, given back to the representing I. The philosophical principles lying inside quantum physics and Heisenbergs indeterminacy principle are proofs that what was traditionally called objectivity in the sciences is no longer possible. Our understanding of truth gives a precedence to human subjectivity. If one follows through on this distinction between ignorance and madness, one can see that a great deal of madness is prevalent today in advanced societies. the soul that is not prepared for it and does not possess genuine education. But as Aristotle once said: For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.. A central feature of tragic literature in the West is that it gives us a view of the implications of what results when knowledge is lacking, particularly self-knowledge. Our use of tools is primarily a way in which we enhance our sense perception as a way of knowing things in the sciences, but the things themselves must be determined as objects and therefore calculable and measurable prior to our use of the tools. Not having a complete personal knowledge of how the computer or hand phone functions is not really necessary unless they do not work and we must consult the experts to find out what has gone wrong. So, in effect, this means: pre-will is in one state/condition and post-will is in an altered state/condition. Until they become a thing, they are not knowable. and feel more politically effective in influencing people to politics are politically active. It is the final statement, nothing is without reason, that must be understood here. Does all knowledge impose ethical obligations on those who know it? Technologys essence is that it is the theory that determines the practice. Thus we resigned ourselves to the new situation the moment we could make dependable predictions. Thoughtful connections can be made here. When we compare the latest I-Phones to what appeared previously, what counts for improvements are the greater number of apps that are applicable to making our everyday encounters more efficient and reliable. What challenges are raised by the dissemination and/or communication of knowledge? When what is is defined as object, as object it becomes the ground and basis of all things, their determinations as to what they are, and the kinds of questioning that determine those determinations. This demonstrates the truth of the old saying that one is willing to insist on the authenticity of something the more one pays for it even though that authenticity is highly questionable. These questions are embedded in our understanding of causality and in our cognition through our search for reasons to understand why a thing is the way it is. The choices made by parents and students indicate what we consider to be knowledge of value. Technology is the beholding of the essence of all things in advance in the light of which humans make or produce things and can take a stand at all towards things. 'Can new knowledge change established values or beliefs The first year TOK exhibition with written commentary and 3 objects Bookmark Download TOK Exhibition A Like it? There are many examples from the medical professions. In asking the question why do we seek knowledge, we are asking what is the reason that our being is grounded in the principle of reason. It is an important element in the seeing place implied in the word theory and is that which one must rise above (according to Plato in the allegory of the Cave and Simone Weil in her writings) and yet remain, at the same time, rooted to (the return of the released prisoner in the allegory of the Cave). Can new knowledge change established values and beliefs? it is the point of something, the purpose or end goal of something from which we can add up the parts to make a whole. You have to chooseone of the following prompts and your choice of prompt will determine the methodology or the pathway as well as the design or plan that you will follow to arrive at your interpretation of the images or objects you have chosen. Anyone who has been ill or has had loved ones who have been ill could not but be grateful for the improvements that have occurred in the medical sciences such as the discovery of penicillin. The second example is a result of the system that is in place that allows beings to seen as how we wish to view them. They are considered experts because they have that knowledge by acquaintance with the subject matter upon which they speak. We have, of course, film critics, art critics etc. Tautologies are prominent in modern day computer language. Adequate is a synonym for sufficient, so evidence is considered adequate when sufficient reasons are provided for the judgements that are made; and when these are provided, they are considered good evidence. Our experience of the world is one of being amidst objects and all other determinations of the being of objects is precluded other than that established by the principle of sufficient reason. These conditions and contexts determine the actions that we will take regarding decisions which we have to make within the everyday experiences of our lives. Clearly, not knowing how a hand phone works is not an indication of madness on our part, but then what is the knowledge that is being spoken about by Socrates? Once again remember that technology is the theory not merely the instruments that technology has produced i.e. Historicism dominates all presentations of what has come to be called knowledge in the 21st century. The material tools, the instruments, come after technology establishes its dominion in the realm of beings. It is based upon the need to provide sufficient reasons (evidence) for the reality of the beings that are. Both Mary Shelleys novelFrankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and Ridley Scotts film Prometheus are warnings of the implications of seeking some kinds of knowledge without considering the ends of such knowledge. Finally, you should also include appropriate citations and references. Such a lack of knowledge is not crucial to our well-being or survival. CT 1 Knowledge and the Knower: Empowerment. How is the principle of reason a rendered reason? After having fought a Revolutionary War to replace someone who they believed was a tyrant (King George III), he claims that the USAs founding fathers wished to replace one form of tyranny with another. What counts as a good justification for a claim? ), while a world-view can be either pre-scientific or scientific. Experiment in this sense is quite different from experience: science becomes rational-mathematical, i.e. The word expert derives from expertise or know how and this kind of knowledge is what the Greeks called techne. Ethics study what people should do and speaks about ideal behaviour. To count comes from the Latin reor and it is directly related to the Latin word ratio. The material tools required for the production of knowledge are secondary to the technological viewing that has allowed these tools to come into being. I have written at greater length about values, knowledge and truth in other sections of this blog and you can explore those writings should you choose to do so. This prompt asks you to inquire whether objectivity is possible given its assertion of the negative as to whether or not bias is inevitable (See prompt #28). https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/mytok.blog/3676, https://mytok.blog/2019/11/30/ct-1-perspectives-woks/. Both doubt and skepticism were requirements for beginning thinking. they are not underway towards something because they already possess knowledge of the things about which they deliberate and those things are the things which are permanent. 194. An exact science leads to an exact machine technology. I have written extensively on imagination in the link below and suggest a reading of this writing as a possible prod to further you along in your Exhibition of this way of knowing the world. We believe that a truth is only a truth if a reason can be rendered for it. In your study of Group 3 subjects, you will hear both the words culture and world-view said often. in the highest sense not experimental. When one reads modern essays, doctoral theses, and other research in most areas of knowledge, one finds that there are no references from, say, before 1980 in the research. a cause-effect relation. The roles of the media in its various forms is something that will need to be addressed. This representational thinking, or visual thinking, determines howthe object stands i.e. Part IX: Darwin/Nietzsche: Otherness, Owingness, And Nihilism: Nietzsche/Darwin Part VIII: Truth as Justice: 28. Historicism denies this truth and it asserts that there is no truth outside of the historical contexts from which it has been produced. Why, for example, are we obliged to preserve panda bears in conditions that are far better than most human beings in the world? You might begin by examining how the word values is itself an example of the great change that occurred during that period we call the Renaissance when human beings became the centre of the things that are, with the consequence that we have the rise of the age of humanism. 13. Understandably, considering different perspectives might be challenging sometimes. The main problem that you will be faced with in this prompt is that it is so broad that a focus is required, and you can begin to do so by looking at how values and beliefs changed in any number of areas of knowledge. Subjectivity, according to Kant, is the lawfulness of reasons which provide the possibility of an object. Prompt 11: Can new knowledge change established values and beliefs? Although these methods are different from the ones in other areas of knowledge, they are still valuable methods of inquiry. The modern world-picture, however, involves several components: mathematical science; machine technology; the reduction of art to an object of experience; the conception of all human activity as culture and as the realization of values (empowerment), the concern of a cultural policy politically; a godlessness that co-exists with the modernization of the Christian world-view and with intense religious experience. Turns out the most interesting topics to those around me are not necessarily in the order the IB has given them . Knowledge and politics Press to see Commentary 1 -The caste system caused a division between Indians. An examination of the characteristics of the types of knowledge has been undertaken in greater depth on this prompt in this blog: https://mytok.blog/2019/11/30/ct-1-perspectives-woks/. First order claims are those that are made within particular areas of knowledge or by individual knowers about the world, or in this specific case, about the importance of tools in producing knowledge and acquiring knowledge in the various areas of knowledge. The doing and making of technology, what we understand as instrumentality, is secondary to how technology determines what a being or thing is in the first place. Are some types of knowledge less open to interpretation than others? Such a lack of knowledge is not crucial to our well-being or survival. . Our tragic literature, on the other hand, demonstrates the implications of the lack of self-knowledge in its heroes actions which ultimately lead to their demise in most cases. values or beliefs? This is a challenging task and I've created a blog post explaining how you to get all of the marks on these here ). Perhaps in your study of Shakespeare you have come across the Elizabethan world-picture or order of being, but this is not how the Elizabethans viewed themselves; this understanding is a later German understanding. What do these choices indicate? 2. Affects, passions and feelings (the manner in which we conceive of emotion) are not to be seen as inner experiences: what we are concerned with here is not psychology, not even a psychology underpinned by physiology and biology, but . As you know, you need to choose one of the 35 IA prompts to base your exhibition on. The principle of reason operates in any and every statement that we make about things i.e. This prompt is covered in greater depth under #17. The Natural Sciences: Historical Background; Notes on Ancient Greek Philosophy and Modern Science. If sufficient reasons are not given, we doubt the truth of the claim being made. For a thing to be in the first place, reason must supply its being and the thing must give itself back to the inquiring subject as being able to be known through calculation and measurement i.e. One is laid beside the other so that the one is orientated and conforms to the other by means of a relationship that you will establish. 3. what will be claimed and becomes knowledge. I know this will likely bother anyone who is interested in order and logic, but I've decided to break the order of prompts so I can publish them as I record them. It could be said, in contrast to Heisenberg, that even high-tech disposable things. The first belief is also a case of knowledge in the sense of a belief in its first principles; the second is probably knowledge within the context of our conception of time; but the third is (at present) merely belief. Is Galileos view an improvement on Aristotles view of nature is, of course, another question entirely and one which you may explore in your Exhibition. A good-looking and whimsical maid from Thrace laughed at him and told him that while he might passionately want to know all things in the universe, the things in front of his very nose and feet were unseen by him. Plato adds, This jest also fits all those who become involved in philosophy. Doubt was a requisite for thought for it inspired wonder. The features or characteristics of that knowledge which can be relied upon are those that provide surety and certainty. We demand that things give us the reasons for their being the way they are. An appropriate question to ask is whether or not a dialectic is possible on todays social media and what possible consequences are present. Darwin/Nietzsche Part VII: On Aristotle, Algorithms and the Principle of Contradiction and the Overturning of the True and Apparent Worlds, Part IX: Darwin/Nietzsche: Otherness, Owingness, And Nihilism, AOK: Individuals and Societies or the Human Sciences: Part One, AOK: Technology and the Human Sciences Part. If you know something, it will always integrate with more knowledge if you attain it. 16. How so? The difference between one concept of greatness and another is not, however, a quantitative, but also a qualitative difference. World-view comes from the German Weltanschauung which is formed from Welt, world, and Anschauung, view, etc., and means view of, outlook on, the world. While language first has to do with hearing, its purpose is to make us see the thing that is named. Our being-in-the-world is permeated by a lack of knowledge. Turns out the most interesting topics to those around me are not necessarily in the order the IB has given them. The Greek polis is not properly understood as a culture, and we do not translate Platos Republic, for instance, as Platos Culture, yet the discussions in that dialogue are what we would understand as culture. There is no Greek world-picture: human beings are at the beck and call of Being. It reveals when it is true; it does not reveal when it is false. 15. It can also be a statement exhibiting a relation of implication i.e. A discussion of what values and beliefs are might be demonstrated and you might find this link helpful. The sign is what is referred to as a tautology. One cannot say that Galileos doctrine of the free fall of bodies is true and that of Aristotle, who holds that light bodies strive upwards, is false; for the Greek conception of the essence of body, of place, and of their relationship depends on a different interpretation of beings and therefore engenders a different way of seeing and examining natural processes. Correctness is being directed toward something, making statements that are fitted or suitable for the things that are spoken about. What counts as good evidence for a claim? It is extremely difficult to question the ethics of those possibilities and potentialities because the language from which we could question them arose within the same crucible of seeing or theory that made them possible in the first place i.e. You also create a document with the title of your IA prompt, images of the three objects, and you will also provide a commentary on each object that identifies each object and its specific real-world context. atoms or historical figures, varies with our prior conception of their being. will be choices that individuals in the future will have to make with the know-how that they have. Enjoy!Links & fact checks can be found on www.TOKTalk.org. Leibniz was also the inventor of what we call the insurance industry today. It is your job to examine the basis for these first-order claims. Before the German philosopher Leibniz declaring the principle of reason astheprinciple, it lay in hiding in the darkness of our assumptions throughout Western history. In other areas, there are few, for example, who understand the mathematics involved in quantum and relativity physics. Your email address will not be published. The German poet and mystic Angelus Silesius once wrote: The rose is without why; it blooms because it blooms, / It pays no attention to itself, asks not whether it is seen. What is it that distinguishes human beings from a rose? I, for example, havent got a clue what is going on in the fashion arts. What is considered unknowable is where the search for knowledge begins so that they can become known; but notice that they will become known as things. It is an infatuation with immediately given appearances on the basis of which all further experiences of the world are investigated, inquired about, and explained. What we have called objectivity in this writing is a legacy from the German philosopher Kant and his transcendental method and how this thinking was interpreted by the English-speaking empiricists. That we do not know in the traditional sense does not matter: what matters is the reliability of the results. Opinion is an attempt to reveal the truth of something covered over or hidden. What is a value? Theory of Knowledge: An Alternative Approach. This origin usually deals with the question of motion or movement so the question is raised From where, originally, did the change or motion come from? An explanation is a scientific account of a thing, and by this we mean that sufficient reasons have been given for its being the way it is. The what and the how of the object is already pre-determined and the inquiry is to find an understanding of the why. Information only informs when the data which comprises it is placed within a system (the form) that allows it to in-form. How does this statement relate to why human beings seek knowledge? To go into this matter here is much too complicated and I, frankly, am not sure that I am capable of it. what you are getting your education for. Take a closer look at the IB curriculum that you are studying. The Greeks understood technology as the theoretical knowledge that makes the practical applications possible. Such a precedence was not present in the early Greek understanding of truth and, subsequently, what we understand as knowledge is not how the Greeks understood knowledge. Technology, understood as instrumentality, is a matter of ends and means. It is through the original unconcealment of things which allows us to do anything whatsoever: in order for us to do anything, to act upon anything, to stand in relation to any being, it must have been disclosed to us in advance what a being is in general. In Latin, this account is ratio:the ground of the truth of judgement isratio. World-picture, like the concept of culture, is distinctively modern. . An explanation is a rendering or handing over of an account of things. This helps us to understand what Socrates meant when he said that the opposite of knowledge is not ignorance, but madness, such a madness as one sees in Macbeth at the end of that play. The Greeks, for example, did not have any values and the closest approximation we have to describe this situation is what the Greeks understood by virtue. -Those beliefs were changed and replaced when the Constitution was signed -Shown through the object Reasons must be rendered or handed over for the things which first give themselves to us. In order to put these questions to the things, the things must already be present and be presented to us in some way. It is obvious that such seeing of possibilities and potentialities is dependent upon the techneof the technological viewing and those who proceed with unethical actions will do so because they believe some personal end which will bring about their own personal eudaimoniaor happiness will be the result, and they will do so under a sense of duty or be just following the orders of their superiors. minds. Modern science is applied technology, not technology as applied science. Each historical age has its own particular concept of greatness; and our concept of greatness is purely quantitative, the gigantic not only gigantic monuments, but the traversal of vast distances at immense velocities, etc. You will then find three objects or images of objects that relate to this prompt and develop your interpretation accordingly. See the link: What is a work of Art? https://mytok.blog/2017/07/29/technology-as-a-way-of-knowing-computers/. Subjectivity does not mean subjectivism but is rather the dwelling of the claim of the principle of reason which has as its consequences the Information Age and the Age of Artificial Intelligence in which the particularity, separation and validity of the individual disappears in favour of total uniformity. Again, the interpretation of the prompts provided here is an interpretation only and its purpose is to provoke thought on your part as to why you have chosen the images that you have chosen and what these choices provide your audience regarding your understanding of the world. let alone the things of nature, are not truly mirrors in which we behold only ourselves (Heidegger). As part of your education, empirical science is an experience in which you conduct experiments; by contrast, in literature or the arts you may be called upon to write an essay (an attempt, a test) based on personal experience or your experience of a text. As the philosopher Kant said: The mind makes the object. God, for example, is not a thing in that he is not calculable or measurable within the overall parameters of time and space positions and locations. A total world-view cannot understand itself, for from this understanding would come a questioning that would put the total world-view in question. To what areas of knowledge do the images/objects you have chosen belong? What we understand by our word calculus is also determined from this understanding. The what, how and why of those changes in values and beliefs or what have become known as paradigm shifts in human being-in-the-world have brought about many consequences once they were established as our way of viewing and being-in-the-world. Understandably, considering different perspectives might be challenging sometimes. Although dialectic is now considered a complex philosophical term, in its original sense it could mean nothing more than a discussion among friends at Starbucks over coffee.