Theory of Knowledge (IB course)
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This article is part of the International Baccalaureate series. |
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Theory of Knowledge (ToK) is a high school epistemology course taken by all International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme students. The course discusses how the student is able to know something. The student is described as an "actor of knowledge" who attempts to find knowledge, where knowledge, as defined by Plato, is "justified true belief".
The course teaches that there are four Ways of Knowing (WoK): perception, emotion, reason, and language. (In the new syllabus, "sense perception" has replaced "perception" in order to reduce ambiguity.) Also used are the following six Areas of Knowledge (AoK), which are put here in the form of a spectrum, the two ends of which are labelled "objective" and "subjective", from left to right respectively: mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, history, the arts, and ethics. Also the course discusses Questions of Knowledge, or limitations of knowledge, concerning the WoK and AoK.
The course teaches nine reasons for justification of things one claims to know: logic, sensory perception, revelation, faith, memory, consensus, authority, intuition, and self-awareness.
Also studied are the three supposed truth tests: coherence, correspondence, and pragmatism.
These nine justifications and three truth tests are key to the introduction of ToK.
The course is formulated and centered around one main question: How do you know? One is supposed to use the Ways of Knowing and the Areas of Knowledge to discuss how one acquires, perceives, and applies knowledge and how reliable it can be. Another question central to the ideas of ToK, relating specifically to the application of knowledge is: What is your obligation as a knower? Questions that may be discussed may include examples such as How do you know that the scientific method is a valid method of gaining knowledge? or What is the reason for having historical knowledge, and how is it applied in life?
Ironically ToK and Epistemology, as a whole, try to teach students that there are no divisions (such as Areas of Knowledge) of knowledge, that knowledge is one large continuous force. Likewise ToK and Epistemology try to show that all the “Ways of Knowing” are actually expressions of one another. It follows that either the ToK prescribed title makers are either ignorant of this fact or they attempt to make the students write on subjects that they theoretically do not believe anymore.
During the later parts of the course or at its completion, students give an internally assessed oral presentation of about 10 minutes and write an essay of 1,200 to 1,600 words that will be assessed externally by the IBO. The presentation follows a topic of the student's choosing while the paper must discuss one of 10 pre-determined topics that are changed each year. The presentation may be undertaken as a group. In both the presentation and the essay, the student is required to provide ample discussion of the Problems of Knowledge, Areas of Knowledge, and Ways of Knowing concerning their topic as well as critical evaluation of their conclusions.
ToK, like Creativity, Action, Service, is a required course for students in the IB Diploma Programme, and a good final score in both ToK and the Extended Essay may help the student receive up to three extra points towards her or his diploma.
A final grade in ToK is necessary to receive the IB Diploma. A failing grade or lack of a grade in ToK constitutes disqualification of a candidate for an IB Diploma.
