and faster than light travel is literally impossible, then it is arguable unknowable, as we are literally unable to travel those distances to interact with aliens, and they are likewise constrained in visiting us. This reasoning however is flawed, as it is possible to invent countless antigods, for whom the consequences are exactly opposite, cancelling out the infinities. There is nothing on the exhibition rubric that requires a personal connection. This will ensure the originality of your exhibition. Here are a few things that are unknown or unknowable: The size of the universe. The object/image is not ordinary or generic but exists in the books of history in a time and virtual space now with its discussion that resonates with the real-world issue of how some things may remain unknowable. But guesses arent confirmed knowledge, so is the unrecorded past unknowable? A little more about Turing: his line of reasoning is particularly remarkable because he did it in 1936 years before the first digital computer was built. We set up theoryofknowledge.net more than a decade ago, and support tens of thousands of educators and students globally. Further, it raises questionable arguments about the knowers approach as a real-life application of it. Unknowable Thing: Are there any uninteresting people? What features of knowledge have an impact on its reliability? The Guide (p.39) makes this clear: students in the same class are not permitted to use any of the same objects. The same prompts remain available for the duration of this specification (this means that they don't change every year, as opposed to the essay titles). The list is endless. that this is true? His idea was strongly related to the 2008 market crash that surprised most of the economists and later was tried to be rationalized. The concept dates back to 1900 when David Gilbert proposed 23 problems in mathematics that he would like to see solved in the upcoming century. So far, weve described things we know to be unknowable (if that makes sense). 3. The knowledge about the future is uncertain, requires justification, could be bias, has limitations and many other things. Perfect numbers occur rarely and up to now only 41 perfect numbers have been found. However, in 1901, Gdel blew that out of the water with his incompleteness theorem I wont go through the theorem in detail here, partly because I dont understand the full detail, but mainly because it took me three separate lectures before I even felt I was getting there, so if youre interested: Wikipedia is your friend! I dont really know that This idea was created by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and later developed in his book called The Black Swan. For example, no-one knows when Shakespeare was born (although we do know when he was baptized). What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge? You will then need to prepare the document that will be used for marking and, possibly, moderation. In addition to this, he is an IB Verification Visitor and Consultant for schools wishing to adopt the IB Diploma. The 'Future' is unknowable and the very nature of it makes the knower curious. It's a feature of your computer programming language. His history proves that even though we consider many things unknowable, they are just simply not yet discovered. The Guide clarifies that a discussion and photograph of a students baby brother is an example of an object that has a specific real-world context, whereas a generic image of a baby from an Internet image search is not (p.42). The very nature of the universe makes that unknowable. So, for example, in the case of some of the objects you have mentioned, I can foresee how the periodic table, for instance, may open up interesting lines of inquiry into the knowledge question To what extent do the classification systems we use in the pursuit of knowledge affect the conclusions that we reach? (Guide, p.19). Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Likewise with speeches, which the student may study in a History or Language and Literature course. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Would a scale model of an object, for example Angkor Wat, work as an object? They may be objects that the student has created themselves, but they must be pre-existing objects rather than objects created specifically for the purposes of the exhibition The specific real-world context of each object is extremely important to the task. It seems like an object is an arbitrary thing. Now as a thought experiment consider how many eleven word sentences there are obviously there are a lot; but theres only a finite number of words (around 750,000 in English) so theres only a finite number of eleven word sentences at some point, youd run out and there would be an integer you couldnt define. Consider different angles to answer your prompt by diversifying and branching out into different areas of knowledge, such as natural sciences, mathematics, history, human sciences, art, etc. what could be some good objects to answer the ToK prompt "are some things unknowable?" Because you can never verify that something has existed for eternity, it is literally impossible to verify that. Instant access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts and more. I'm not sure if using personal examples is a criteria, but my teacher specifically asked us to use personal examples. However, according to our best theories and predictions, we will never know everything about the universe. Any help would be very much appreciated. Are Some Things Unknowable Tok? TOK exhibition is an individual task where specific objects of real-life and personal importance are connected with Internal Assessment (IA) prompts within one of the TOK themes. This website uses Google Analytics and other tools to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. This is a problem in the philosophy of mathematics. then transition to aliens) -In a real worlds sense, E.T. If your school is a member of theoryofknowledge.net, youll also be able to see our example objects to help you get a clear picture of what works and what does not. . However, in response to the example given in the question given that a painting created in Visual Arts class is only one piece amongst many submitted for assessment, and in ToK it would form only a small part of the IA, the issue of double-dipping does not arise. This is similar, but not the same as the observer effect in experimentation where there are some experiments whose outcomes change depending on how they are observed. Find out more HERE. 28 is the next perfect number. When I see this photo, I consciously tell myself that Amrozi is So know UNKNOWABLE, just currently unknown). His argument is based on the infinite consequences of God existing either eternal damnation if one does not believe, or heaven if one does. But many scientists argue that for this condition to be true the information or data in the universe must stay constant, however whenever new particles are introduced through quantam sciency stuff ( happens all the time in the universe dw) new information is added to the universe hence the previous assumption doesn't hold true, in that you can never know the universe. As for the third object, whether aliens will be unknowable is how I plan on developing it yes. For these reasons, the knowledge and the knower, both may remain unknown. Those extra three points are easily attainable if you get an A in TOK!Get an A in TOK is my channel where I breakdown International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Core course Theory of Knowledge. The characteristics of black swan and the fact that it is an open system that takes into account many variables that are often not related and change with time randomly make it unknowable. The TOK exhibition is based on three objects which should allow you to demonstrate how TOK manifests itself in the real world. Exactly how many people are living right this minute. Anyways here are my objects and a general outline as to where I plan on going with them: Identification: My first object is this is a pterodactyl fossil found by a fossil hunter in the Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight, UK. This is another mind bender proved by Alan Turing. How long will human beings exist on earth. Yes. The Mobius strip is a famous mathematical object with only one side and only one edge. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. looking forward to your comments. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. This subreddit encourages questions, constructive feedback, and the sharing of knowledge and resources among IB students, alumni, and teachers. You count each program; the first one is 1, the second, 2 and so on as youre counting, you use the positive, whole numbers. Not even close. In this TOK exhibition sample, we will explore TOK IA prompts number 18, -Are some things unknowable?. How does the way that we organize or classify knowledge affect what we know? A tweet, then, is sent in a specific context (a response to another such tweet, a response to another real-world event) and features a date and a time. What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world? The object must be specific and its connection to the prompt much be clear and justified. Placing a cat in a sealed box with an instrument designed to have an exact 50% probability to kill the animal, is a part of a famous thought experiment designed by Erwin Schrdinger1. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, extraordinary courses require extraordinary resources. MondayFriday: 9:00AM9:00PM Fortune Telling, Religions and Science concern unknowable stuff. Are some things unknowable? For some people, however, their belief is enough evidence to make the existence of their god a fact. Object 1: Pterodactyl Fossil Identification: My first object is this is a pterodactyl fossil found by a fossil hunter in the Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight, UK. The only way we can know that this kind of god exists, is by stating that we believe this fact to be true, which will be a purely personal experience. Even if each digit was the size of an electron. 1. So in the case of the fossil, and knowledge about the behaviour or skin etc. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Design a site like this with WordPress.com. Other than physics/maths approaches there would be historical/religious approaches. Well, there are a lot more than there are whole numbers between each whole number, there are an infinite number of real numbers; so the number of real numbers is a much bigger infinity than the number of whole numbers. Can all three objects be pictorial artefacts? Your exhibition should explore either the core theme or one of the optional themes. Given, then, that the Exhibition is based on a non-thematic knowledge question, but where the objects in the Exhibition are intended to illuminate some aspect or other of the theme chosen (Knowledge and Technology, Knowledge and Religion etc. No-one knows how many there are but its between 41 and infinity! The idea to find connections between the knowledge and The Knower. Double-dipping refers to using the same complete piece of work for more than one assessment. This brain-hurting theorem was developed by Kurt Gdel. Mobius strip made with oven baked modeling clay. Faith is the only way to make the existence of a god knowable, but as there are no clear arguments to make one believe, there will always be people claiming they do not believe and therefore do not know. tok/ee hi! Grahams number is big enough to make most peoples brains start to steam; its really big; to put it into context, lets look at some, so-called, big numbers: Most people have heard of a googol for most purposes its a big number 10^100 which is 1 followed by 100 zeroes. When I moved to Asia, I learned that it is common here to smile when feeling embarrassed or conflicted. That is so wrong and one of the key discoveries along the way to showing that was Heisenbergs uncertainty principle. the book answered prayers, and scratch card are my other objects! This would appear, then, to give the green light to audio, or audio-visual objects such as a song or, in the case of the question, a film, and would seem to license the use of a DVD. He reasoned that a computer program must either run forever or stop. If we invent a hypothetical entity, define it as supernatural and claim that it is impossible to prove its existence by mere humans, it can become something unknowable. Real world context (E.T. Anything can be an object for TOK exhibition as long as students can convey a real-world context. My pedagogical instinct would be to go with the first of these two strategies so as to make the IA task as natural an extension to daily TOK teaching and learning as possible. This is a challenging task and I've created a blog post explaining how you to get all of the marks on these here).But, first you'll need to choose ONE prompt from this list. However, when viewing it through the lens of TOK, it raises questions and prompts thinking about aliens -There are many scientists who has dedicated their lives to search for unearthly creatures, but as far as humans know, we are the only living organisms in the known universe. Will humans stop being considered conscious? To illuminate it, I have to fire photons at it, when a photon hits the particle, the particle will be moved by the photons so by trying to measure its position, I change its position. For something to be knowable, we would have to have a precise definition. Does knowing a bit counts as unknowable or even if we know a great amount of information about something but not fully, still counts as unknowable. Youll receive links to great media sources from all over the world that place the TOK themes and areas of knowledge into an authentic context. The cover of a VHS cassette (remember those?) Will it not create confusion for students to determine what is an object? It is unknowable. But what happens, when we find out exactly how brains work? Weve updated our privacy policy so that we are compliant with changing global privacy regulations and to provide you with insight into the limited ways in which we use your data. What will the cost of living be next year. Our limits of comprehension may result from insufficient technology or lack of prior knowledge in this matter. But now Im starting to think the perspectives thing might make my point kind of unclear and was wondering if I should remove or shorten it to make it even more concise because the word limit is quite limiting. Do not sell or share my personal information. Even now, as I write this, I imagine him feeling a bit of happiness. Could you elaborate on taking a tweet by a political leader as an object? However, its not impossible that in the future we could find out a long lost document might be found that mentions his birth, so Shakespeares true date of birth is not unknowable, just unknown. Knowledge and language. How can we judge when evidence is adequate? Credits to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTdtiEB1bUNaN1V46Kr4qUQ. Similarly, a poem is written by a specific author and/or is studied (for example, in the context of a Diploma Literature course in which case, the anthology that containings it could be the object) at a specific place and time. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. His children survived the war and they were reunited in 1946, although most of his extended family were killed by the German occupiers. The Guide informs us that For example, a discussion and photograph of a students baby brother is an example of an object that has a specific real-world context, whereas a generic image of a baby from an Internet image search is not (p.42), and the Teacher Support Material reiterates the same point (substituting baby brother for teddy bear). -While most might think how E.T. It is a pure pseudo-science and knowledge claims about it are relatively untestable. Any thoughts, comments, suggestions, or general feedback would be very much appreciated! No. Aside from the examples given of what sorts of things objects can be, the Guide only delimits this consideration in the following ways: Students are encouraged to choose objects that are of personal interest and that they have come across in their academic studies and/or their lives beyond the classroom (Guide, p.41), and The specific real-world context of each object is extremely important to the task. However, within the option of Knowledge and Politics, which was perhaps the context for the question, the Guide has this to offer: Another interesting possible area of discussion could be around persuasion, manipulation, misinformation and propaganda (p.20). He was the son of Jewish parents born in pre-war Poland, and he was very lucky. Darwin theorized that facial expressions evolved to contribute to civilization. A generic Buddha image downloaded from the Internet only for the purpose of the IA task clearly lacks these contexts, whereas the two instances mentioned above do meet these criteria. All 3 objects you choose to exhibit will have to be linked to this IA prompt. The three TOK exhibition objects which I have chosen are: The complete details of TOK exhibition object 1 can be taken from here. After all, youve explained that a generic photo from the Internet is not accepted. If true, my ways of How can we distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion? Why might that be UNKNOWABLE (as opposed to unknown). I have difficulties coming up with Examples of knowledge questions to help students recognise and decipher them. The TOK guide lists the following examples as possible objects for the TOK exhibition: . To highlight the nature of the IA prompt, students are expected to understand that knowledge comes with a lot of problems, and sometimes due to our limitations, not all knowledge but some things are unknowable. It is assessed internally, but moderated externally. It is strongly recommended that the exhibition is based on. -Nobody truly knows how intelligent aliens are, the ways they think (if at all), whether they have powers, or if theyre even made of atoms. This exhibition explores three objects that are by some considered unknowable, but others are tirelessly trying to prove them wrong. One of the simpler levels is that a being is aware that it exists. 19. It appears that you have an ad-blocker running. TOK Exhibition- Are some things unknowable. As you know, you need to choose one of the 35 IA prompts to base your exhibition on.. The first calculation of Pi was done by Archimedes . Are there any limitations on the type of item that can be used? Find out what exhibition objects are, how to choose effective ones, and linking them to a theme and prompt. He was born Alfred Teitelbaum in 1901. Before you choose your objects, you should have selected an IA prompt, and have a good idea about the context youll be exploring this in. There are two answers to this question. While the third object can be objectively proven to be something unknowable, its important to notice that in case of both objects one and two and the introduction we have to assume that some popular belief is shared by everyone, while its provably not true there were economists that predicted the 2008 financial crisis just as there where attempts in the ancient times of creating a way of viewing the world not based on myth. So, for example, using an entire IA in Chemistry in an Extended Essay, or a section of an EE for a History IA is quite clearly academically dishonest. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. I create my own assignments, essays, and the exhibition and show you how the course really works. Does this mean that a Buddha could be an object, if we are concerned with which Buddha (historical context; produced for a purpose/place), but it cant be a standard Buddha image which we dont know about? Unknowable Thing: Whats in a set of sets that dont contain themselves? What counts as a good justification for a claim? I idea dumped and it sort of ballooned. He also extended this to any formal system; truth for that system cannot be defined within the system. You can download it for free! To answer the question whether there are unknowable objects, we first need to understand what cognition is. Hide answer ] The answer to this question rather depends upon how, and whether, we as teachers intend to incorporate artefacts into our regular teaching of TOK and how, and whether, we incorporate activities into TOK that encourage students to reflect upon the epistemological interest inherent in such artefacts. This is the unofficial subreddit for all things concerning the International Baccalaureate, an academic credential accorded to secondary students from around the world after two vigorous years of study, culminating in challenging exams. There was an interview with Akiane, and her explanation of how she painted it was that she saw the face of Jesus Christ in her visions. is mainly used for entertainment purposes. This would seem to license, then, photographic images as synecdoches for larger wholes. here. It can be either or both, and this will depend, of course, on the IA prompt chosen, as well as on how the student wishes to orient their commentary. Object 1: Tarot Cards <Are some things unknowable= is the biggest question in our era. We've encountered a problem, please try again. Just to make things a little clearer an integer is a whole number (1, 2, 3 etc), and for smaller integers, its easy to define them in words: The square of 2= 4 The IB recommends that you choose objects that you have come across within your academic studies, or in your life beyond the classroom (or a combination of both). Can students be present in a photograph with the object itself? this man is embarrassed or conflicted. The objects presented throughout the exhibition show us that there are things that are unknowable, because no one has yet come up with a way of understanding them or are beyond our comprehension. To me, a poem is an object; if a tweet is an object, then is this also true of a poem? Is it because of incompleteness of the information? It has been said that the problem with peoples perception of the universe is that our brains are only used to dealing with small numbers, short distances and brief periods of time. Am I right in understanding that the objects must be real and not symbolic (so, for example, something like a logo to represent capitalism would not be acceptable)? His work on computing machines was entirely theoretical at first; he was working on the idea of describing mathematical statements entirely numerically so they could be processed by a theoretical computing machine. How can we know that current knowledge is an improvement upon past knowledge? 1. ; and (ii) if students choose to spend some of the 950 words providing a brief, summative tying together of the objects as a collection, what conclusion might be reached regarding the IA prompt as a result of considering the collective insights yielded by the three objects as a collection? ), there does need to be some aspect of combination. Basically, the idea is to retrieve the telegraph machine from the shipwreck to solve the unknown facts that happened at the night when the Titanic sank. While the TOK essay connects the prescribed title to the relevant AOKs, the TOK exhibition explores how TOK manifests in the real world through the specific real-life objects of personal importance with an IA prompt within one of the TOK themes. This can help to provide an accessible starting point for students and can provide a focus to help students narrow down their choice of potential objects (Guide pp.3940). It will be able to talk about itself and how there are other beings, it may be able to claim that it is conscious, but it still will be a set of relatively simple mathematical equations trained to behave like a human. It makes sense, becomes an object, in the context of a particular discussion, or debate, and it would be expected that the student contextualises it thus. Plastic Octopus. You need to choose three objects for your exhibition, that should relate closely to the IA prompt that you have chosen, and enable you to create a 950-word commentary set within the context of anoptionalorcoretheme. According to his theory, which is now agreed to be a part of modern physics, the cat is in a superposition of being dead and alive at the same time. The unknowability of the black swan comes from our epistemic limitations, philosophical and empirical. When you have sorted out all the formalities, you get the opportunity to showcase your exhibition. In short, the TOK exhibition is a. There are, but they are few and far between: p.42 of the Guide tells us that the objects chosen may be objects that the student has created themselves, but they must be pre-existing objects rather than objects created specifically for the purposes of the exhibition. The concept dates back to 1900 when David Gilbert proposed 23 "problems" in mathematics that he would like to see solved in the upcoming century.