The Core Theme - Knowledge and the Knower
How do we know what we know? 

This first part of the TOK course is built around a single question that turns out to be harder than it looks: how do we know what we know? Eight lessons pursue that question across four pairs, that broadly follow the IB TOK knowledge framework: Scope, Perspective, Methods and Tools and Ethics.
​

• The first pair on Scope asks who the knower is and what knowledge actually is.
• The second pair on Perspective asks how your position in the world shapes what you are able to see.
• The third pair on Methods and Tools examines how knowledge is supposed to be made and justified.
• The fourth pair on Ethics asks what knowledge obliges us to do, and whether there is such a thing as moral knowledge at all.

This section of the course ends, deliberately, with Marx's eleventh thesis on Feuerbach: philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways - the point is to change it. Whether you agree with that or not, it is the right question to end on. Knowledge that stays inside the classroom is not doing what knowledge is supposed to do and is not what the IB Diploma expects.

Scope

Lesson 1 -
​Who is the Knower?

Lesson 2 -
​What is knowledge?

Perspective

Lesson 3 -
​Perspective 1: Agent

Lesson 4 -
​Perspective 2: Structure

---

Methods and Tools

Lesson 5 - Methods 1 - How do we know?

Lesson 6 -  Methods 2: How the Mind Actually Works

Ethics

Lesson 7 - Ethics 1: Obligation

Lesson 8 - Ethics 2: But what is right?

---

Towards the Exhibition

Using the knowledge framework the following questions are designed to get you thinking about different approaches to your prompt and objects. In addition, you could try to see how many of the following key TOK concepts you are incorporating into your answer. ​

​Evidence	​Certainty	​Truth	​Interpretation	​Power	​Justification
​Explanation	​Objectivity	​Perspective	​Culture	​Values	Responsibility

Scope

This is concerned with the extent and limitations of our knowledge. 

Examples of knowledge questions relating to scope include the following.​

• What criteria can we use to distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?
• How do we distinguish claims that are contestable from claims that are not?
• Are there situations where “knowing how” is more important than “knowing that”?
• Why should we care about acquiring knowledge?
• Why are the criteria for what counts as knowledge not obvious?
• Can other people know us better than we know ourselves?
• How do our interactions with the material world shape our knowledge?

Perspectives

This is concerned with how viewpoints are influenced by time and place. 

Examples of knowledge questions relating to perspectives include the following.

• What shapes my perspective as a knower?
• How much of our knowledge depends on our interactions with other knowers?
• Is the truth what the majority of people accept?
• How do empathy and imagination help us to understand other perspectives?
• Presented with the belief system of a community of knowers, how can we decide what we personally believe?
• Are there types of knowledge that are specifically linked to particular communities of knowers?
• How can we know that current knowledge is an improvement on past knowledge?

Methods and Tools

This is concerned with the ways and means by which we acquire knowledge. (See 11e critical thinking)

Examples of knowledge questions relating to scope include the following.

• How do we acquire knowledge?
• What constitutes a “good reason” for us to accept a claim?
• Are intuition, evidence, reasoning, consensus and authority all equally convincing methods of justification?
• Does knowledge always require some kind of rational basis?
• How do our expectations and assumptions have an impact on how we perceive things?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of requiring that all knowledge is verified by a group?​

Ethics

This is concerned with how scope, perspectives and methods might be influenced by what we consider to be right and wrong.

Examples of knowledge questions relating to ethics include the following.

• Are there responsibilities that necessarily come with knowing something or knowing how to do something?
• As knowers, do we have a moral duty to examine our own assumptions and biases?
• Under what circumstances, if any, do we have a moral duty to share what we know?
• In what ways do ethical judgments differ from other kinds of judgments?
• Is there knowledge that a person or society has a responsibility to acquire or not to acquire?
• If moral claims conflict, does it follow that all views are equally acceptable?
• ​What personal traits (such as taking seriously the knowledge of others) do we need in order to be ethical knowers?

---