ToK - Areas of Knowledge

ToK – Areas of Knowledge

The IB Classification

mathematicsnatural scienceshuman scienceshistory

the artsethicsreligious knowledge systemsindigenous knowledge systems.

Aristotle

The Seven Epitomes

Ancient Chinese Text, 1st century bc

The Seven ArtsGrammarRhetoric Logic/dialectic Arithmetic Geometry Music Astronomy/astrology

Hortus Deliciarum, 12th C.

The Seven Arts Grammar, rhetoric, logic/dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy/astrology

Hortus Deliciarum, 12th C.

Al-Ghazālī

11th century Persia

Knowledge dividing into Philosophy, Eloquence, PoetryMechanics

14th century manuscript.

Hobbes, Leviathan,1651

In the Encyclopédie, Diderot and d’Alembert started from Memory, Reason and Imagination (three IB Ways of Knowing!)

S T ColeridgePure SciencesMixed and applied sciencesBiographical and histroricalMiscellaneous and lexographical

The IB Classification

mathematicsnatural scienceshuman scienceshistory

the artsethicsreligious knowledge systemsindigenous knowledge systems.

What are the distinctive features of an area of Knowledge? (The knowledge framework)

1. Scope and application2. Concepts/Language3. Methodology4. Historical development5. Links to personal knowledge

Some questions for discussion1. What are the implications of claiming that the division of knowledge into disciplines and the

division of the world into countries on a map are both artificial? (adapted from an old ToK essay title )

2. Do all areas of knowledge use the same kind of language? And what are the consequences of your answer? Consider this: «The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know». (apparently a quotation from Aristotle used in a recent essay title)

3. To what extent are the various areas of knowledge defined by their methodologies rather than their content? (Recent essay title)

4. To what extent has knowledge in the AoK changed over time? What might it take to convince a person to discard and replace knowledge? (Gist of 2014 essay title)

5. What are the implications of this famous quotation? «Every man gets a narrower and narrower field of knowledge in which he must be an expert in order to compete with other people. The specialist knows more and more about less and less» (Konrad Lorenz)