OGC TOK: Knowledge & Knower

Knowledge Questions

Scope

• What criteria can we use to distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?
• Why are the criteria for what counts as knowledge not obvious?
• How do our interactions with the material world shape our knowledge?

Perspective

• How much of our knowledge depends on our interactions with other knowers?
• Is the truth what the majority of people accept?
• Are there types of knowledge that are specifically linked to particular communities of knowers?

Methods & Tools

• What constitutes a “good reason” for us to accept a claim?
• Are intuition, evidence, reasoning, consensus and authority all equally convincing methods of justification?
• How do our expectations and assumptions have an impact on how we perceive things?

Ethics

• As knowers, do we have a moral duty to examine our own assumptions and biases?
• In what ways do ethical judgments differ from other kinds of judgments?
• If moral claims conflict, does it follow that all views are equally acceptable?

Vocabulary & Terminology to Use

• assertion vs. proposition (Crash Course, 10:11)

• belief vs. opinion (article via Thought Fragments) 

  • The Nature of Knowledge (presentation)

• biases and assumptions

• communities of knowers

• cognitive tools

• coloured information 

• contestable claims vs. non contestable claims

• culture as a lens of knowing

• deception and manipulation

• fake news machinery

• falsehoods, propaganda, censorship

• healthy skepticism

• hidden assumptions

• impact of ignorance

• interaction between knowers

• JTB test & Gettier problems (Wireless Philosophy, 6.46)

• knowledge claims

• knowledge questions

• manipulation, filters, propaganda (impact of)

• Mirrors: “When others are mirrors to see ourselves?”

• misinformation / disinformation

• optical illusions

• orders of knowledge: 1st Order & 2nd Order

• Plato's cave allegory (TED Talk, 4:32)

• scope of certainty of claims

• standards for justification

• theories and tests of truth

• trustworthy source