Critical Thinking On The Web

austhink.org
is an on-line directory of quality resouces.

Time spent here is time well spent.

Below the ToK Diagram are a number of links recommended by austhink and associated with the Ways of Knowing and Areas of Knowledge.




Emotion
Reason
Perception
Language

Natural Sciences
Human Sciences
Mathematics
History
Ethics
The Arts

The Malleability of Touch Perception

An experiment led by neuroscientist Patrick Haggard of University College London.

Code of Conduct

ToK instructors Mr. Malone and Mrs. King, in their introduction to ToK at Poudre High School, state the following with respect to ToK:

"The purpose is not to destroy value systems or to judge one another as right or wrong, but to teach you to evaluate your knowledge claims, as well as (the claims of) others, by learning to support them."

What refinements might be made to Charlottetown Rural's Code of Conduct to ensure that class discussions and presentations are in keeping with both the Code of Conduct and the goals of ToK?

In particular, what additions would you make to lines 1, 2 and the concluding line, to support a safe environment for the exchange of ideas in ToK?

Brave New World

I am re-reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Last night I finished Chapter XVI which has many interesting things to say about both Art and Science. I will, no doubt, have more to say about this novel and will update this post in due course. What I wish to share, at this time, is something perhaps far less important on any literary level.

I absolutely adore the smell of this book.

I am reading a copy which was purchased when I was about your age. I bought it in a musty secondhand bookstore following my first year of IB, and it has been stored in equally dank surroundings pretty much ever since. It's smell is intoxicating to me and, had my nose left a mark each time I leaned in to indulge, very few chapters would remain unsullied.

For now then, my reaction to the novel is limited to a few scattered thoughts and connections about olfactory senses:

-What role do olfactory senses play in "sense perception"?
-As a way of knowing, why is its connection with memory so strong?
-Phantoms in the Brain by V.S Ramachandran was my favourite Christmas read of 2007.
-Vilayanur Ramachandran speaks about synesthesia
in his Ted Talk, A journey to the center of your mind.

Your ToK Journal

You are responsible for maintaining a journal in Theory of Knowledge. The goal is to reflect on the material covered in class and examine your own experience as a knower.

Amy Scott, a ToK teacher at Corral Reef High School in Miami, describes the objective of the Tok Journal as the creation of "a dialogue with yourself where you can question the world and propose your own insights into the how and why of things."

She outlines the following topics as suitable for journal discussion:

· Pay attention to instances of logical or informal fallacies
occurring around you.
· Describe instances in which your sense perceptions influenced your reactions to your environment.
· Describe arguments that occurred because people defined their terms differently. What were the different definitions and did the people involved finally realize their fallacies?
· Think of current events from a ToK framework ... Find related newspaper clippings on both sides of an issue.
· Take your journal to other classes (science, history, math, etc.) and jot down ToK related issues. Look for connections or discrepancies between or among disciplines.
· If you have visited an historical or art museum, what caught your eye? Aesthetically what did you find pleasing and why? What, to you, is good art, literature, music, architecture, dance, poetry, etc. ?

Amy Scott ToK

La trahison des images (The Treachery of Images) by Rene Magritte

La Belle captive (The Beautiful Captive) by Rene Magritte

La Belle captive (The Beautiful Captive) by Rene Magritte

Prescribed Titles

1994

1996

1997

1999

May 2000

November 2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Richard Dawkins

The following links may be helpful when considering the role of Sense Perception in knowledge aquisition.


The universe is queerer than we can suppose. Evolutionary Biologist, Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe. We live, he explains, in a middle-sized world and have difficulty understanding anything very large — like solar systems — or very small, like atoms.



For more information on Richard Dawkins