Knowledge issues are:

• open-ended questions that admit more than one possible answer

• explicitly about knowledge in itself and not subject-specific claims

• couched in terms of TOK vocabulary and concepts: the areas of knowledge, the ways of knowing and the concepts in the linking questions—belief, certainty, culture, evidence, experience, explanation, interpretation, intuition, justification, truth, values

• precise in terms of the relationships between these concepts

Assignent 1: Review the above information, and in your own words explain the concept of “knowledge issue.” It’s tough, but embrace this challenge! (Due today!)

Knowledge issue examples:

1. How can our sense perception be relied upon to justify our reasons?
2. Does our language and emotion determine what we believe and know?
3. How do metaphors affect what we believe in science and in history?
4. To what extent is certainty possible in the arts and ethics?
5. How is inductive reasoning a strength and weakness when reasoning?
6. What source of knowledge has not been touched by human thought or language? How do we establish objectivity?
7. How does deductive logic allow for certainty in math and history?

Assignment 2: Visit one of the “reliable” sources of knowledge you or your classmates identified, and look for a real-life situation containing a “knowledge issue.”  What is the real situation? And, most importantly, what open-ended question needs to be asked? (Due Tuesday at 11:59pm)

Assignment 3: Reply to two classmates posts by asking additional questions, using the language of ToK and “knowledge issues.” (Due Thursday evening for our Friday review)

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Gracias!

Coey