TOK - What Have I Learned?

Now and Then

At first, I was adamant on the idea that when I knew something, there was only one way that what I knew could be seen. I didn't believe that there were other ways that people could see it based off of their own ways of knowing; faith, perception, emotion, intuition, language, and imagination. As I attended more and more Theory of Knowledge classes, I realized that, in fact, a fact to me, could be very different to somebody from a different religion or faith. I realized that people react differently based off of perception, emotion, intuition and even imagination. Theory of Knowledge has been an eye-opening experience, helping me, and mostly likely not just myself, but everybody who took the class as well, to realize that the way people in our society may see things as facts may be different from what other people in other societies may see things due to the many ways of knowing.

Other Ways of Knowing?

Seeing as, obviously, our memories are another way of knowing, how can our memory falter? Well, as stated in one of my blogs, there are such things as false memories and repressed memories.

False memories are memories of events or anything, basically, that are not actually true. Repressed memories, on the other hand, are memories that are seemingly not there, but in the future, present themselves. Both of these are examples of our memory being a way of knowing as they help us in recalling information.

What I've Learned from TOK

After a year of TOK classes, I realized that what is known to some people can be completely different from what others know. In the sports example, the differences in game knowledge can be based off of people's own perception of the games that they watched. This clearly shows how a way of knowing, as outlined in TOK, can change people's views on a topic. Our perceptions of certain events often lead us to interpret it differently. Nobody is necessarily incorrect, just the perception causes us to understand certain things differently.

Memory

Memory is another thing that everybody uses to learn. In school, every class requires students to use their memory to at least some extent as this is how we are tested. We write exams based off of what we remember from when we studied and we are given a percentage that basically reflects our ability to remember information.

TOK - What Have I Learned?

Sports

One of the best examples that I have personally seen is the debate about the best individuals at certain sports. Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan are considered the best at what they do by most people in society so this is what is known by the general population. However, aren't there people who maybe think that others are better?

To Be Absolutely Certain?

Michael Wu

At first, this is exactly what I thought. I believed that when I knew something, it was completely factual and had to be true, I mean, don't most people? The things that I know were taught to me by people like my teachers and parents, who, in society, are generally accepted to be more knowledgeable than us, children.

What Does It Mean to Know?

According to Oxford Dictionary, to know something is to be absolutely certain or sure about something.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/know?q=know