Grand Paradigms

Grand paradigms are essentially fundamental beliefs about what our purpose and place in the universe are. There are 3 Grand paradigms that dictated the purpose of humans and in turn the norms and values of the society at that time, these are the Classical Paradigm, Modern Paradigm and Post-Modern Paradigm. The classical paradigm states that humans are the centre of the universe and are placed there by God with their purpose being to worship him, in this paradigm it is believed that the only path towards truth is religion and therefore that religion is the most important knowledge as knowledge leads to truth. The Modern paradigm challenges this; it dictates that Science is the only path to truth and that human purpose is to discover and explore the universe, it also refutes the belief that humans were put there by God and that the universe is centred around them, instead supporting evolution as creating humans and making them superior beings to all others on Earth. This paradigm doesn’t forsake religion however but instead believes that the ability to reason is a gift from God and therefore its purpose and the purpose that he wanted for humankind is to use their ability to reason to discover and explore the universe and that reason is the path to truth rather than religion. The final paradigm is the Post-Modern paradigm and the one most people operate under nowadays, it states that humans were not created or placed on Earth by some superior being but are rather evolutionary accidents and just one of the billions of species on Earth and were not given any abilities as gifts from God but rather just through the evolutionary process. It also takes an entirely anti-religion stance believing that there is no God or superior being at all and that there is no path to Truth, disagreeing with both the modern and classical paradigm.

As I had mentioned in my previous posts paradigms act as axioms that form the foundation that our experiences and education build upon to form our outlook and stance on events. When we look back through history it is clear to see how the paradigms have affected society as a whole’s outlook and value system, it is generally thought the further back in time you go the more religious societies were which clearly aligns with the classical paradigm which states that human’s purpose is to worship through religion and in many religions it clearly states that worship is the path to enlightenment which can be taken to mean Truth. This is supported by the fact that today’s society which operates largely under the post-modern paradigm is the least religious and features many different value systems as there is no path to Truth dictated and so people create their own paths and live their lives more freely in comparison to those who have given themselves a path to follow and base their life off of.

2 CUs on perception

Our perception is how we interpret the world however it is not necessarily an accurate interpretation of our surroundings.

Optical illusions are a very common trick to see all around us and we usually don’t think very much of them other than woah that was weird, however they illustrate a very important concept that what we see is not necessarily the same as what we interpret of it and that these interpretations are not universal. For example, in the presentation about perception we saw an optical illusion where you either saw an image of a young woman or one of an old woman and after you saw both it became very easy to switch between them. Initially, people only saw one or the other image which shows how they interpreted the same drawing in different ways, which became especially interesting when we discovered that the students tended to see a young woman whereas the teachers tended to see an old woman because of the age difference between the two groups of people. This can have very important real-life impacts as people see the same scenario but can interpret it in very different way switch can be why in many court cases we get conflicting witness testimonies as everyone is seeing life through their perspective which is a lens that affects what we perceive our surroundings and events to be. This shows that if we all don’t interpret our surroundings in the same ways some interpretations must be inaccurate as there is only one ‘true’ version there aren’t different ‘truths’ depending on who percieved the action and their interpretation of it.

Our perception is an explanation of our surroundings based on what we place importance on.

We don’t register everything in our surrounding as we deem it unimportant and focus our attention and energy on the more meaningful things happening around us e.g. in a classroom setting you usually don’t register the noise of the AC or the feeling of your feet on the floor as you’re focused on what the teacher is saying/doing rather than these other factors. However, just because you don’t register the AC or your feet on the floor does not mean they are not part of your surroundings but they are insignificant as they are unimportant in comparison to the other things happening around you such as the teacher teaching. Therefore they don’t play a role in your brains explanation of what is happening or happened during that class as they are unnecessary and irrelevant details. Another example of this could be in the videos we watched in class where we were focused on counting the number of throws between people in a certain colour shirt (white or black) so we gave the most importance to this task in the video and our brains disregarded any other information that didn’t seem useful or needed to effectively complete this task. For example, until it was expressly pointed out some people didn’t see a gorilla enter the frame however most noticed when one of the people left as they were given importance because they are catching and throwing the ball. As we were focused on the people and what is moving in the frame the gorilla wasn’t disregarded by everyone’s perception however elements that had no impact on the passing of the ball such as the curtain gradually changing colour was missed by everyone. This means that our brains created an explanation of the video which didn’t involve the curtain changing as that wasn’t given importance as it had no bearing on the task we were focused on completing.

Art Conceptual Understandings

The Arts allows us to gain a deeper understanding of other people’s interpretations and perceptions of the world and it’s events in a way that Maths and Science would never be able to.

Believe that all 3 of these subjects serve distinct separate purposes where Art is to entertain, shock and generally both display and invoke emotions, Maths is to make sense of the world around us intern of numbers whereas Science is to explore and understand everything we see in our lives and everything we don’t. This is not to say that the areas don’t overlap; one can easily find beauty in Science and Maths especially as it studies the natural world something which the majority of people find beautiful, however, Art doesn’t have to be beautiful or pleasant at times it displays the artist’s emotions and anguish through it not being visually appealing in the standard ways a startling representation of the realities of war and brutality such as Guernica would never occur when researching Science or Maths, unlike the simple beauty of a flower or a starry night sky.

What Scientist or Mathematicians study may be directly linked to current events, for example, chemical weapons or artillery during a war and Mathematicians may be dedication gather time to breaking down the enemies code, but other than the general if they are developing or combatting these aspects they must be pro-war or defending their country there is no interpretation or perception of the world or it’s events involved in the Scientific Method or the meticulous strategy Mathematicians use. In these subjects especially Science they function best when they are devoid of emotion and heavy influence from an individual. Art however or at least what I believe is good Art aims to invoke emotions in their viewer and display the artist or a factions perceptions of reality (Guernica for example if we’re sticking with the war example), filling in the gaps left behind by Science and Maths.

The Arts seek to make us reconsider the motives of and question authority and whether it’s values and ethics coincide with ours (particularly political Art).

This Conceptual Understanding is most relevant to political Art or pieces that aim to showcase the flaws or open people’s eyes to the realities of society as a whole. The purpose of this Art is not too please our eyes and brighten up the living room, its purpose is to shock us, to force us to think or as one of the videos we watched in the class said Art should “ rip away the scar tissue [of everyday life] and make us bleed”. An example I have for one of these pieces is the song Thoughts and Prayers by grandson which is in response to the Florida school shooting specifically and the lack of action taken by politicians and officials after any mass-shooting due to lobbyists and ties to the NRA or as the song says “money is the motive”. Another example of a song that aims to display the flaws and make people think instead of just  typing thoughts and prayers out of habit rather than anything else, and then letting the incident slip from the front of their minds would be This is America by Childish Gambino which is in protest to once again the shootings that have occurred and the racism felt by the African American community.

Through this Art forces us to at least on a subconscious level to consider if what we are being told, the action or lack of being taken or the legislation being passed etc. is really in line with our personal values and beliefs, and therefore can inspire change.

The Arts allows us to experience more of life than we ever would physically be able to without it, through the use of both personal and shared knowledge.

Physically, there are only so many places we can go to, only so many experiences we can have. Socially being born in one race or class generally means we cannot experience the trials and tribulations of other classes or races even if we know about them, Mentally there is only so much we are willing and capable of doing in our lives. All three of thee aspects form our lives and our experiences to some extent and all three of them limit us and our access to everything this world has to offer and our understanding of the people surrounding us. Art, however, can to some extent share the experiences of others, it is one thing to know racism exists it is another to see or get a sense of the emotions experienced by those who face these issues. For example A Tale of Two Hoodies by Michael D’Antuono. This experience not only broadens our horizons as individuals but helps foster change as it is a lot easier to understand others problems when you can follow their thought process and what has brought them to this point which is impossible with nothing but cold hard facts.

 

Nature of Mathematical Knowledge

Within mathematics the concepts of true and certain are no longer synonyms, well carried out Maths without errors following all the rules or axioms that we have learnt and implemented would be 100% certain but does that make it true? You can be certain of your answer and can trace back the steps you followed to arrive at it and be absolutely certain that your answer is well certain but your answer being true is a completely separate concept.

 

All of Maths stems from axioms which are the ‘rules’ or ‘laws’ of Maths and all of our axioms make sense in the real world or at least on the plane they are supposed to serve their purpose; we can all go and test and see for ourselves that the rule ab=c means c/b=a we can be certain that this rule is accurate but does that mean it is true? Another concept we are all familiar with is the triangle; 3 straight sides, meeting at 3 vertices with all its interior angles adding up to 180 degrees, we now know that is wrong or at least wrong when you draw the triangle onto a sphere then the angles can add up to 270 degrees and other numbers that are a far cry from the 180 we grew up hearing. Yet the idea of 180 degrees is one we still use and apply and it has still brought us to many new formulae and concepts that we can prove our accurate and certain, which leaves the question how can something false yield provable accurate formulas for our reality, and if the base axiom is false isn’t everything derived from it also false?

 

Well no, for all our purposes as long as the triangle remains on a 2D plane it’s angles will add up to approximately 180 degrees and we can use other axioms to explain why for example the parallel lines which by following the axioms of corresponding angles and how angles in a straight line add up to 180 degrees we can easily prove this and it serves our purposes. This relates back to the concepts of truth and certainty within Maths we can be certain of our answers but whether they are true or not rests on the truth of the axioms we used to derive the answer. This sounds simple enough as long as we make sure our axioms are true then all our Maths will be true, but proving the truth of an axiom is incredibly difficult. For years and years, the belief of angles in a triangle adding up to 180 was absolute until Euclides (?) thought to put them on a sphere thus disproving the theory. Perhaps all of our axioms can be proven false in ways we simply haven’t devised yet but for now, they serve our purposes and have given us certain answers and concepts.

TOK + The Arts

What types of knowledge can we find in the Arts?

Every culture throughout history has developed its own form of Art; in the form of singing, dancing, storytelling and of course through painting or carvings, this simple fact seems to suggest that there is an innate human need or at the very least a want for the benefit and enjoyment we gain from art not only as an individual but as a society. To pinpoint what specific types of knowledge we gain from art we would have to focus on the individual’s perception of the piece or tale, as if how we perceive and react to Art varies wouldn’t what we gain from it vary all the same.

There will, however, be consistencies within genres or types of Art, for example, realism will always endeavour to show us in greater detail our surroundings, when we pass flowers or gardens in our every day lives we rarely stop to properly appreciate their beauty or look at the intricacies within them, but if we see an artistic representation of them we tend to study it in great detail or at least decipher a meaning from it. Literature in any genre from sci-fi to classics to murder mysteries will broaden our horizons and it is difficult to pinpoint the exact types of knowledge provided through reading due to the immersive nature of the art as we receive sensory information of all types as well as follow the emotional ups and downs and events of the characters lives seemingly broadening our own experiences.

How might the Arts impact our experiences of being human?

As through Art, we experience scenery, beauty and situations that it simply may not be possible for us to ever see in person due to many many factors, it allows us to experience much more of the good and beauty in our world than we could ever see on our own. As our experiences and knowledge grows so does our cultural awareness and character and ourselves as an individual which is perhaps why Art or at least what is commonly classified as higher Art has been reserved for the highest classes and considered elitist.

Without access to art in any form our worldview would be significantly narrower and our experiences and knowledge of the world and societies around us significantly shallower, which is why I believe that Art even art which is typically considered low value will have a positive impact on society as a whole.

Similarities + Differences Between The Sciences and The Arts

SIMILARITIES

Both aim to make sense of the world around us.

Science does this in a more factual way than art, however, they both aim to understand what is around us in their own way. Science is more focused on how things work and why they are how they are whereas Art aims to make sense of society or events in a more social context.

Both can create change in society.

Art and Science both address issues facing society, in the case of Science it is more often issues such as epidemics or illnesses or furthering innovation, but for Art, it is more often social issues such as political unrest. However, both Art and Science can cause or create a change in society by addressing these issues; when a cure for an illness is found or an epidemic reduces there is a change in society and when people become more aware or feel more connected to a social issue and in turn cause change.

DIFFERENCES

Art aims to express or evoke emotion whereas Science should be devoid of emotion.

Art aims to cause change or understanding through evoking emotion or empathy in its viewer whereas Science relies on plain facts to convince people of its value. If emotion was in the scientific method it would probably lose a lot of its value and reliability. This is not to say that Science currently is devoid of emotion but that in its purest form it should be as peoples egos and sense of not wanting to be embarrassed can slow down the process of discovery

Art does not have to be based on a theory or fact in the way Science does.

Art can be entirely based off of an emotion or an idea with no solid base or a provable cause, however, according to the scientific method, scientific experiments have to be based off first a well-founded theory than a hypothesis which is simply not the case with art pieces.

Conceptual Understandings for Science

1. Science seeks to establish reasoning behind what we see around us in our daily lives.

We saw this in the card game as although the aim was simply to rid ourselves of our cards the fastest we ended up altering the game to see with who could find the rule the fastest. We also tended to grow increasingly frustrated the longer it took to see the rule indicating that there is a  need within us to find order in the seeming chaos of whether our card would be accepted or not.

2. Science combines observation and data to arrive at a rule or theory confirming or disproving a hypothesis or theory

We derived our rules by observing the cards that were rejected and seeing what possible solutions were left as well as trying to spot a trend in the cards that were accepted. We also aimed to test our theories of possible rules by offering cards we thought would be rejected / (or accepted) whilst comparing variables such as the suit, colour or number.

3. We can advance our scientific knowledge through experiments and the process of deductive/inductive reasoning

In the card game using both inductive and deductive reasoning, we aimed to find the rule and therefore being better able to offer cards that would be accepted and ultimately win the game

Justified Knowledge & My IB Subjects

Two Most Justified Subjects

Maths

What we learn in Maths Class is based on common knowledge to a large extent, almost everyone knows that 2 + 3 = 5 from this we can derive that 2x+3x=5x and from this, we can derive more complex problems and so on and so forth. And common knowledge relies on people’s memory to some extent of course which although can be unreliable at times, is an extra layer of justification. We also often have to prove formulas that many regard as common knowledge or true in our course which shows a clear method of how we got to that point and in turn verifies the accuracy of that equation, rather than just relying on the authority of the teacher told us this so it must be true.

Design and Technology

Design and Technology is a largely practical subject which means that it relies heavily on sense perception as well as memory and common knowledge. We use our memory of concepts we have learnt and deem as true due to the authority of our teachers and the fact that for many concepts such as mechanisms a physical model can prove that this combination does indeed achieve that output. Sense perception plays a huge role in DT as we are constantly modifying our designs based on the touch, smell or appearance of our materials or components and often based solely on a combination of memory and instinct we find solutions to our problems.

Two Least Justified Subjects

English

The concepts in English usually rely on a person’s interpretation of a text type which means that they can greatly vary from person to person which makes them very hard to prove or trace back in the way that formulas or given facts can be. This knowledge may be based in faith or a person’s value judgement but there is no definitive justification for the subject as a whole.

Psychology

Psychology is a relatively new field and the conclusions that are drawn from it are constantly changing and being refuted and as a subject what we learn as true is largely based on the authority of our teacher and perhaps the finding of studies although there is often another study another study that refutes it. Most concepts can be explained logically but as a whole, most of the knowledge from the subject is prone to change easily.

3 Differences Between An Excellent TOK Essay And A Mediocre One

1. Addresses Question

The excellent TOK essay was very focused on the essay question although it did branch out to explore different avenues related to the topic there was a consistent, clear sense of the essay question. Whereas in the mediocre essay it became very difficult to follow due to the fact that at first it appears that the author is attempting to show how neutral questions only exist in factual subjects such as mathematics but then at the end suddenly deviates to say there is no such thing as a neutral question in contrast with most of their previous points. This causes slight confusion resulting in rereading sections of the essay to try and grasp how they came to this conclusion and after 3 reads I have only identified one sentence that could support it.

In conclusion, to write an excellent TOK essay you must remember to focus on the essay question and try not to deviate or branch out into other topics, as this makes it very difficult to follow.

2. Clear Structure

Both essays were comparing their essay question across two subjects; in the excellent essays case it was Art and Science and in the mediocre one it was History and Maths, a clear distinguishing factor between the two essays was how easy it was to tell what the author was focusing on in that paragraph or section. In the excellent essay, there was a clear sense of structure; an introduction followed by a paragraph on what is robust knowledge, followed by one on consensus and the remainders were Art, Science, Art + Science and a conclusion (each paragraphed respectively). This created a clear distinction between the author’s points and a flow which led to it being easier to read and follow that simply wasn’t there in the mediocre essay.

In summary, a good TOK essay or any essay for this matter needs to have a clear sense of structure which aids in creating a flow for the reader to follow.

3. Thesis/ Opening

A strong thesis statement can make an essay, it sets the scene, tone and topic for the following essay and helps the reader to properly understand what exactly the essay is focused on. Both the essays did have a thesis, however in the case of the mediocre essay in their whole first paragraph only one sentence was truly on topic. The excellent essay had a clear thesis, spanning across multiple sentences that really clarified the aim of the essay and how the author planned on achieving it. As a reader, this greatly assisted in following the author’s argument and discussion throughout the rest of the essay as it showed what the author was attempting to convey in greater detail.

 

My Two Most Important Aspects of TOK

How do we know what we know?

Most of our academic knowledge we have learnt through classes and textbooks, however, the interesting part is when we delve deeper and consider how we know what is good or bad, right or wrong and why in fact those distinctions were made in the first place. As children you’re taught in black and white actions are either right or wrong, good or bad, however as you grow you start questioning these distinctions if lying is wrong then how is a white lie a kindness when being kind is good. Or if stealing is wrong then why did it seem good when robin hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor, as these distinctions between right and wrong start to blur and a grey area appears it is important to question not only our reasons behind them but the reasoning behind those who taught us these concepts.

From a scientific perspective discovering more about how we retain and gain knowledge can help us more efficiently learn concepts and theories as well as allowing us to develop more effective revision techniques causing us to perform better in academic conditions such as exams but also in our daily lives as it enables us to be more empathetic and understanding of other people and their perspectives which only benefits society and ourselves.

And are our reasons good ones?

I find this aspect the more important of the two as developing the habit of thoroughly thinking things through will be beneficial throughout our everyday lives, and the ability to question not only what we are told to believe and hold as certain but ourselves and our reasoning (or lack of) behind our actions, will result in us having a deeper understanding of both the knowledge and ourselves. Questioning what we are told will also act as a filter against those who are trying to make you believe in the concepts they are putting forward without any solid evidence behind them, which we are constantly bombarded with through the mainstream media. This will also cause us to develop the habit of efficiently analysing the ‘studies’ supporting many concepts that people believe such as vaccinations causing autism or global warming not being real because it is snowing outside, this skill will prevent people from falling for these claims as when you take a proper look at the so-called evidence backing them up you realise that they are completely insubstantial and unsupported.

Challenging our reasons for believing in concepts will serve only to benefit us as it will cause us to analyse them in detail and see if they really align with our beliefs and values and if in fact we have better reasons for believing in them instead of the common ‘I was told to’. This will either strengthen our belief in such concepts for example our faiths or moral values or force us to rethink our motives and find what really fulfills us which will result in a happier, healthier lifestyle.