Knowledge

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====Day 1–What TOK can do for you. Perspective on subject-matter learning. How knowledge "works in the world". Grounds for personal belief-systems. Assessing claims urged on you on all sides, demanding your money, time and attention.==== - TOK is a course that can ask students to question things, not simply agree with them, learn more about how areas of knowledge are interconnected, and think about things under a new light. There is much more that TOK can do for one, but these are just a few takeaways that caught my attention. - One of the things TOK can help one with is teaching them how all areas of knowledge are intertwined and all seem to have many things in common. For example, mathematics is connected with art and science is connected with history. - Knowledge on our world is simply defined as anything that people can "know." However, this knowledge may be false since people are often unsure if many things in their life are true or how they seem in reality. - Common knowledge is knowledge that is established true for the majority of people.

Day 2–Possible problems with common sense. The paradox of cartography: "the map is not the territory".
- Common sense is something that people are born with an develop at an earlier age. It is basically "everyday knowledge." - Some people are said to have "bad common sense" and this simply means that they are unaware of things that are happening and what they should do in order to respond to these things. - "The map is not the territory" refers to the idea that when something is written or drawn on paper it is not what is really there, it is simply a representation of it.

Day 3–The origins and nature of knowledge. The twin dangers of gullibility and over-scepticism; the "narrow path" between them. The role of judgement. - Knowledge can stem from a variety of different things; a few are books, observations, thought, family, visions, and dreams. - When someone is over-gullible it means that they tend to believe almost everything or everything that they hear, whether it's true or not. When someone is over-skeptical it means that they question too many things that they hear. Being either one of these things is a bad thing, although many of us are. - There is a thin line between being over-gullible and over-skeptical. This is the place that we want to be- we believe some things and question other things but do not believe too much or read too far into certain topics or issues. - Judgement is something that allows us to make our decisions. There is bad and good judgement and we all experience these no matter who we are at some point in our lives. Good judgement can lead to desired results, however, bad judgement can only lead to problems.

====Day 4–Kinds of knowledge: knowledge by description ("knowing that..") and alternative ways of knowledge (by acquaintance, practice, conviction, introspection, and instinct). ==== - Knowledge by description is public knowledge or facts and propositions. - Knowledge by acquaintance is knowledge that we feel or knowing how to do something. This type of knowledge is difficult to express, however, it can be very strong and people are born with this knowledge or acquire it at an early age. - Knowledge by practice is knowing how to do something, i.e. ride a bike, which takes practice. - Knowledge by conviction is knowledge based on a firm belief. - Knowledge by introspection is knowledge obtained by inner thoughts or beliefs. - Knowledge by instinct is knowledge that is formed by oneself, their instincts.

====Day 5–Truth and truth tests. Characteristics of truth: public, independent and eternal. What makes a statement true? The pragmatic, coherence, and correspondence theories of truth. - The definition for a truth is a judgement we can make about a certain proposition. - There are many problems we encounter daily when it comes to the word "truth." For example, people can say that they are telling the truth but they are really lying about something, or they may be stretching the truth. - The pragmatic truth test's point is what happens as a result of thinking something to be true and not what is the actual truth. - The coherence truth test is based more on logic, for example, mathematical equations. - The correspondence truth test is the simplest type, and inhibits the idea that what you see or what is there is true or actually there. ====

Day 6–Knowledge as justified true belief. You must believe it, it must be justified in the right kind of way, and it must be true.
- Often times, what we think is knowledge is not actually true, therefore, it is not actual knowlegde. - In order for something to be considered knowledge it has to pass one of the truth tests to prove that it is valid; coherence, correspondence, pragmatic. Most of the time in our everyday lives we use the correspondence truth test since it is the simplest form and pertains to almost every aspect of life. - There are many which we as humans may never know as true or untrue and even with the help of these truth tests the answer will not be easily found. An example is knowing what happens after death. This is something we will never be knowledgeable about even with these 3 truth tests. Day 7–Two bases of knowledge: rationalism and empiricism. Assessing knowledge claims. Call all claims be proven true or false? - Rationalism is the idea that knowledge is gained without our senses. - Empiricism is the idea that things we experience or sense are the best way of knowing things are true. - A knowledge claim is something that is believed to be true. There are several ways to assess knowledge claims, however, how do we actually ever know if they are true or not? - Most claims can be proven true or false, but as mentioned earlier there are some things that can never be proven one way or another, i.e. what happens to us after death.