Lesson    10/8/2017

Perception is the way something processes information and rationalizes it for its own understanding. Humans are very capable at this and we have established our perceptive superiority over other species many times. However, the methods of obtaining information, intentions, and rationalizing capabilities are all inherently flawed which makes this still a very inaccurate process. This can be supplemented by science.

                          TOK Lesson         17/9/2017

What is the social function of the arts?

The visual arts can function as languages of praise and celebration, anger and protest, satire and ridicule. Advertising art is a common illustration. Art can influence social behavior in the way that it is presented and can therefore evoke emotion from the viewer depending on their cultural background and place in society.

To what extent are the arts influenced by the society and culture in which it is pursued?

Culture and society can justify if a piece of art is considered morally alright depending on what religion or history the culture has had. A lot of art is of weather and the world around the artist, so depending on where the art was drawn, changes the style and the subject of the art.

How important are the arts?

Arts is a very important subject in life as this is the area of study which allows the expression of emotions and oneself through multiple medias such as literature, art and more.

To what extent does the expression of knowledge vary according to different forms of the arts?

Different forms of art are all designed to convey knowledge in different ways. Much like English does this in literary terms, different forms of art act like languages. Each one has an individual language to express a concept or understanding in ways that can appeal to various audiences.

Are there any central concepts for which we need specific language before approaching the arts?

Not really, the arts can be a form of free self-expression, therefore there are no particular concepts needed in order to approach arts.

                                    Finding Clues

Decide what objects in your bedroom would help you determine who you are.

My computer, photo albums, literature, peculiar looking objects, small trinkets of seeming insignificance, objects in hidden locations

What problems would you experience when trying to do this?

Passwords that protect electronic devices, finding hidden locations in my room, differentiating between trivial and important items

How are they similar to those facing an historian?

Historians need to learn languages and forms of communication in order to understand historical civilizations, finding hidden or secure locations where important historical information can be found, deciding between what is relevant and irrelevant 

How good is your memory? How reliable is it as a guide to the past?

My memory is a reliable guide to the past only in terms of what I have experienced/witnessed or deemed necessary/important to remember 

If you keep a diary, what do you keep to include or omit?

I would include all interesting and successful features of my life and omit most mistakes or rather unfavorable situations. This, however, is natural and part of a person's desire to maintain their image of social elf. Lying or manipulating events is there to convince oneself. After that, it is easier to persuade others.

Would you be more inclined to trust an autobiography, or a biography written by an historian?

I would be more inclined to trust the biography because, despite it potentially lacking in personal experiences, it remains a much more factual setting with less deceiving emotions or the omission of unfavorable events (i.e. the autobiography of Gandhi gives much more personal views rather than his biography which represents his place and involvement in the larger events)

To what extend do you think people learn from their mistakes, or tend to repeat the same mistakes? 

I think that people tend to learn from their mistakes only if repetition causes personal harm or if improvement avoids this and potentially improves their own situation. Things that do not impact them negatively or impact them positively are prone to repetition, however, this may create problems for others.


                                  Quotes

‘Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present control the past.’ Orwell, 1903-1950.

‘Those who don’t study the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Georges Santayana, 1863-1952

‘The only thing we learn form history is that we learn nothing from history.’ Hegel, 1770-1831

I agree most with the quote by Georges Santayana. This is because I believe that the bottom line of societal improvement is through education and that most past mistakes were as a result of the lack of public education. Informing people of this depravity is our best chance of avoiding it

To what extent is history influenced by the society and culture in which it is pursued? 
     The claims made in this article are; government textbooks are important to represent an unbiased history and instill national pride within the youth, and the opposition states, government regulated textbooks are a step back to totalitarianism and would present a biased and heavily edited version of history. The ways of knowing found within this issue are primarily of language. The information passed on through textbooks (language) are being influenced, therefore, this influences reader's perception of history. 3 possible knowledge questions could be (how is government regulated book control beneficial/harmful to the people?, in what ways can government regulation be used as a tool of power?, to what extent are future generations affected by government influences). 

                 The meaning of words- feminism

KQ: What is the role of language in creating and reinforcing social distinctions, such as class and gender?


Language is one of the fundamental driving forces of growth and innovation through the communication with others. Its use can inspire change and improvement and can give rise to many new things and concepts. Ideas, definitions and many other things can be adapted into language to aid our knowledge and understanding of these topics. However, because of the diversity of human understanding and interpretation, language can be used to represent points of different angles which can contradict or misrepresent. Many of these issues can be found with the modern controversy of feminism.

In general, feminism is the advocacy and agenda of pushing female rights. Throughout history, this has been attempted in a multitude of ways. These range from the original radical and militaristic approach to the modern vocal fight through social media. There have been adversities faced through both approaches, however, the direct and physical approach could be less misinterpreted and achieved direct results. Now a days, all social movements are conducted purely with language and the anonymity that the internet provides combined with already established freedom of speech brings a crowd of people who do not have the same conviction or ideals. 

Feminism is seen by many as an excuse to justify a lifestyle now a days, and in many instances this remains true. Modern feminism in first world countries has no more adversities and is descending into trivial things such as sexist air conditioning and criticizing men's suicide support groups. The way they represent their cause can shine a negative light on all of it, especially when the tone is condescending and filled with cursing. This is an example of internal stigmatization but it can also be found externally. Many misogynistic people and more conservative parties act external pressure onto the feminist movement by calling out hypocrisy or generally voicing their discontent. Both of these negatives and their constant vocal involvement continuously prevent the focus on serious topics by overshadowing the silent majority. Unfortunately, this inflation of voices is what gives modern feminism a bad reputation.

                                 Human Sciences

Perception:

Perceptions are a very powerful influence on observation and gathering data. If researchers don't stay objective, they can fall for a psychological social construct called 'conformation bias'. This occurs when a researcher only acknowledges facts and information that conform with their prediction. This skews observation from reality and results in inaccurate data

Emotion:

Human sciences show us that emotion is a result of a large variety of factors. When linking this to the levels of understanding in psychology, we know that human behavior is a result of biology, society and cognition. Occasionally there are abnormal factors which are unexplored but the majority falls into these 3 categories. Each one provides a different perspective and allows for the creation of a larger picture.

Language:

Language is a very important factor of communication. Even in the animal kingdom we can observe how certain creatures communicate with each other in order to get what they want. We can also observe that some are better at this than others. This is often due to an evolutionary straight which we can perceive as charisma. Charisma is many things but it is often the use of language which is appealing to others. Obviously, if a person with this lingual mastery enters a poll (where people will vote based on who they prefer) being a great orator will give them a significant advantage.

Reason:

The logic of scientific discovery is that we research and obtain information in the hopes of incorporating it into technology. This technology is used to increase the standard of living for humans and make life more comfortable and interesting. Of course it is also done to satisfy a natural curiosity or levels of military power. In short, logic and research are tools in which we can systematically satisfy our irrational urges and desires.

Mathematics:

human behavior is the result of trillions of unaccounted biological and environmental factors to such a complexity that we need grouping methods to limit the factors of calculation. As a species, we have not been able to identify ever one of these factors which leaves us with to many placeholders in a massive equation. Until these placeholders have been replaced with values, we are unable to calculate human behavior purely mathematically.

Religion:

I have already established that reason is the tool of often irrational behavior. Religion is the product of superstition and fear but also of human hopes and aspirations. These have served as motivators since the beginning of human though and conception. Many famous scientists have religious backgrounds but this may simply be due to association. However, we must also consider all the limitations that religion has imposed on scientific discovery, which makes it difficult to praise it.

Natural Sciences:

Human sciences are much more complex than natural sciences because of their higher level orders of operation. Gravity is a law of physics and is easy to explain and calculate. The relation between atoms is chemistry which has its own rules and calculations that are based on pre-conceptualized physical knowledge. The growth of cells is part of biology which is based upon both chemistry and physics while the study of the brain is based upon neurology, biology, chemistry and physics. This level of intricacy is what differentiates it but it is still based on the same principles.

Ethics: 

Morality and their responsibilities are a product of empathetic human thought (one of the most complex neurological processes). Since humans have both designed these concepts and accepted them socially, the only ones who can place value on it are humans themselves. Therefore, if humans chose to abide to these rules it is not only their responsibility, but literally they are the only ones who can uphold moral responsibility.

The Arts:

Knowledge gained from human sciences is concrete and absolute (implying that it is done correctly). It usually breaks behavior into all of its basic components which allow us to see exactly what, how and why something is happening. However, due to technological and conceptual limitations, we can not currently achieve the knowledge of complex thought and emotion. Currently, only the human arts and literature (areas where the mind has full creative freedom without scientific restrictions) can provide us with the level of insight into our psyche which allow us to witness and understand the complexity of what it is to be human. 

History: 

It is fundamental that scientists know the history of their subject because of the building block effect. In order to increase our levels and complexity of research and understanding, we must be able to rely and trust on pre-conceptualized knowledge. Only by using previous research as building blocks, are we able to exponentially increase our levels of technology and scientific understanding which can propel us into a highly sophisticated future as quickly as possible. Therefore, history and other past learning experiences are vital for us to enhance our knowledge

                                                           Lesson      2/14/2017

Politics do not necessarily need to priorities truth in their venture. Politics are all about the balance of power in the pursuit of national interests. While the truth should be a goal for every human being and organization, the modern world is built on deceit and the struggle for data. After all, knowledge is power. Attaining harmful evidence on another party and hiding one's own evidence puts someone in the place of a significant advantage. Therefore, it is in no politicians or governments interest to primarily peruse the truth over their power agendas.

Political rhetoric is much like advertisement, they are designed to be convincing but must abide by state and country laws. Political rhetoric can go as far as possible until it reaches a certain threshold. This includes, withholding information and using false information as evidence. These are against the law and go against any sincere purpose of a government body. Once this starts to occur, the government must be weeded out for corruption and uprooted to bring in people that are more trust worthy. If this does not happen, the country could very well go down the path of corruption and into dictatorship.

                                 Lesson           3/2/2017

“Facts are needed to establish theories but theories are needed to make sense of facts.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge

It is well established that theories are a set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena. Most theories that are accepted by scientists have been repeatedly tested by experiments and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena. A fact is a thing that is known or proved to be true. Theories explain certain occurrences and facts support the validity of these theories. This statement is a circular example of the two requirements that make up the scientific method.

When looking at this statement, one can see that it is the ideal connection between history and the sciences (Areas f Knowledge). History includes all past events of existence and is the entire collective of the development of the human race that led us to this moment in time. It can also be seen as a timeline for trials and errors and we can see how human conceptual understanding has evolved. Every time, we learn or understand something we write it down. As time and effort progresses, we can dismiss false information or build on base knowledge to give rise to complicated and sophisticated understandings such as the quantum theory or atomic fission. The progression of knowledge that is built on history is achieved through science, as the rigorous testing and theories can amount to great technologies and improvements over time.

The assumptions made by this claim is that facts and theories need to work hand in hand in order to have any significance in our understanding. While this is true, facts do single handedly remain the underlying principle of all knowledge. Only because there is no theory to make sense of a fact, this does not abolish the fact. However, if there are no facts to establish the theory, the theory becomes obsolete. Sometimes we must realize, that in order to further our understanding, we need to take educated and evolutionary guesses and form them into theories. Than do we have the focus to direct our research towards something in order to prove/disprove something (quantum theory). So, really, we can pursue both things separately as long as we make sure that they add up to each other in the end, to create factual knowledge.

Regarding this statement, there is absolutely no bias to be found. It is stating that understanding cannot be achieved without the other which is counterproductive to successful persuasion which relies on deceiving and not teaching critical thinking to its audience. Belief is also absent as it argues the importance of evidence in order for things to be valid. This is the opposite of belief. There are also few flaws to be found, sure, anything can receive criticism but this statement is the foundation of all modern science and information. Having been accepted by such a variety of academics and the mass population, this statement holds massive validity which makes it valid, certain, truthful and reliable and is the keystone for justification in the first place. Additionally, it is the definition of objectivity which makes it impossible to be categorized as subjective. The only thing it can be properly criticized for is being limited. It is a very rigid statement and does not allow for much artful thinking, however, considering that its purpose is to ensure accurate understanding, this seems like a small price to pay.

                                     TOK Lesson        2/21/2017

•1. Which of these claims do you regard as being scientific? Justify your answers. What are your criteria?

During the first seven days after birth, it is dangerous to expose a child to the outdoors or to strangers.

= (the immune system of the child might be very weak and could it pose serious health risks prematurely exposing it to a bacteria filled environment)

When a man and a woman both have sickle-cell anemia, it is dangerous for them to have children

= (sickle cell anemia is a recessive mutation. If both parents have it, there is 100% chance that their offspring will have the same disease. Sickle cell anemia is responsible with many circulatory system issues and can present serious health risks

Smoking cigarettes is dangerous

= (it has been proven that tobacco is a carcinogen and there is a scientifically established cause-effect relationship between cigarette use and certain types of cancer. All components in cigarettes are known to be toxic )

A live, non-insulated electric wire is dangerous to touch.

= (based upon our knowledge on how electricity behaves, it is well known that electrons take the path of least resistance and will flow through the human body into the ground because of its water based composition. Depending on the current, the water in the body heats up and expands, leading to ruptures which can be fatal)

Driving after drinking alcohol is dangerous.

= (alcohol is absorbed in the bloodstream and affects certain areas in the brain. This decreases awareness and reduces threat correspondence which could lead to road accidents when driving)

•2. Suggest how each of them could have come into existence. What sort of thinking processes might have been involved?

Each of them probably came into existence based off of experiences and observations. The scientific ones just underwent rigorous testing and analyses while the non-scientific ones where largely created due to generalizations or other forms of irrational conclusions.

•3. Is it possible to construct very different, but equally believable routes by which these claims could have come into existence? Compare different claims

The scientific method is critically acclaimed and thought in all credible education systems for a reason. This is because it provides the most credible results which can be analyzed and used for further knowledge. Other routes may also be believable but cannot provide the same standard form with any experiment can be tested against.

•4. If science and taboos are both laws, then how, if at all, do these types of laws differ?

Only scientifically viable laws can withstand the scrutiny of the scientific method. Therefore, they are more credible and can be used as anchor points of society to improve and develop. Laws that have not been proven beneficial simply serve as an obstacle to human development and the greater good.

                                         TOK Lesson                2/16/2017

For this TOK lesson, the class was shown a Ted-ed video about the scientific method. In the video, we were presented with the functionality and capabilities of the human brain, even before we used technology to aid our scientific endeavors. It explains how the earliest scientists became pioneers in their fields because of their curiosity and application of knowledge. The example it gives is the father of geography: Aristotle. It shows how he used basic mathematics and the catalysis act of staring into a well, as a way of measuring large geographical distances.

The video keeps mentioning multiple incredible and groundbreaking feats of human thinking and providing the dates in which they were done to prove that people are fully capable of discovering new things and benefiting society. It also talks about the scientific method, and how we can reach greater levels of analysis by looking at each other's work and co-coordinating our efforts in the pursuit of knowledge. The ultimate point of the video is to show that by expanding awareness or adapting different perspectives, we can discover and explain new things for the betterment of the world.

                            TOK Lesson                   2/7/2017

Cholera Article

The article discussing the Cholera outbreak states that the disease could be airborne, implying that something in the air is making all the people fall ill. John Snow's hypothesis was that the cause of Cholera originated within the water pumps that the local residents were drawing from.

Evidence to support this includes residents who were actively withdrawing water from the well were falling ill, when the well was closed down Cholera cases began to drop and the causation evidence which is that human sewage was leaking into the waterway and is a proven cause of Cholera.

An experiment to back up John Snow's claims could be running chemical tests on the water or using animal test subjects to see if they would fall ill.




Natural sciences:

Natural sciences are a branch of science which deals with the physical world (chemistry, biology, physics, etc.) Natural sciences gain knowledge of the world through theories which are supported by evidence. Theories are proven or disproved through the scientific method which is a rigorous testing heme that ensures accurate results. Previous knowledge can be used to explain or find connections to the processes occurring in new investigations. They act as a form of template which makes it easier to construct further knowledge upon.

A specific experiment I can recall in science is the discovery of gravity. The researcher rigorously tested his theory to find out all the intrinsic parts which make up the phenomenon he described as gravity. These results were published and serve as a basis for modern education in physics.

                             ToK Presentation Reflection                2/2/2017

For this semester's Theory of Knowledge presentation, my partner and I have decided to discuss the topic of video games and how their influences can correlate with violent behavior. We focused on the 2 ways of knowing (Emotion and Reason) and the are of knowing (Human sciences).

For my part of the presentation, I presented a counter claim that stated that video games do not influence behavior that leads to homicidal violence. I argued the case that the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook was more affected by mental illness and predispositions to violence, rather than the sole responsibility of video games was the cause for his violent behavior. I also presented other facts and reasons that went against or offered alternatives for video games being the cause of violent behavior, including statistics and psychological case studies. At the end of the presentation, my partner and I agreed that video games are just a minor factor that ties in with many other influences and reasons.

What I believe I did well for this presentation is the presentation of hard evidence. I referred back to the real life application, provided other supporting statistics, utilized counter actin case studies and offered alternative lines of reason. I spoke loud and clearly, and matched my speaking time to that of my partner. I believe that our presentation was well structured, paced and offered a two sided argument with an open ended conclusion as well as debating our knowledge question. Areas for improvement include looking up more at the audience and spending less time reading from a script. Additionally, more reference should have been made to the ways of knowing and the area of knowing as a key component of the knowledge question. All in all, I feel that we discussed a relative topic effectively and delivered a generally respectable presentation.