JVLR TOK: Natural Sciences

Knowledge Questions for Natural Sciences

Scope

• Should the natural sciences be regarded as a body of knowledge, a system of knowledge or a method?
• Is human knowledge confined to what the natural sciences discover, or are there other important inquiries that are not covered by the natural sciences?
• Is prediction the primary purpose of scientific knowledge?

Perspectives

• What role do paradigm shifts play in the progression of scientific knowledge?
• Does the precision of the language used in the natural sciences successfully eliminate all ambiguity?
• Does competition between scientists help or hinder the production of knowledge?

Methods & Tools

• What is the role of imagination and intuition in the creation of hypotheses in the natural sciences?
• Why are many of the laws in the natural sciences stated using the language of mathematics?
• Does scientific language have a primarily descriptive, explanatory or interpretative function?

Ethics

• Should scientific research be subject to ethical constraints or is the pursuit of all scientific knowledge intrinsically worthwhile?
• In what ways have developments in science challenged long-held ethical values? Can moral disagreements be resolved with reference to empirical evidence?
• Do human rights exist in the same way that the laws of gravity exist?

Want more questions? See HERE via the IBO

Key Concepts in the Natural Sciences

Scientific Method

• Is there a single scientific method?   
• When should we be skeptical of scientific findings?
  • Scientific Methods, video via Crash Course

Paradigms

• Is new scientific knowledge built incrementally  or through sudden insight?

Falsification

• How do we decide among conflicting theories?  
• How do scientists try to protect against error in scientific research?
  • Karl Popper's Falsification Principle, via Explorable

Vocabulary & Terminology

Details via the IBO