STUDY GUIDE

Survival guide to TOK midterm

Chapter 1: Problem of Knowledge

• Common Sense

• Confirmation bias

• Evidence

• Gullibility

• Mental Map

• Open-mindedness

• Paradox of cartography

Common Sense(p.5)

• Consists of little more than general and untested beliefs, which are based on narrow-mindedness, believing what you hear, and desiring authority.

Mental Map (p.5)

The way people view reality; consists of what we find true and false, unreasonable and reasonable.

*your everyday understandings !

Paradox of cartography (p. 7)

• “If a map is to be useful, then it must of necessity be imperfect.”

The imperfections in the map make it useful.

Gullibility (p.12)

• Willing to believe everything that you read, see, or hear.

Evidence(p. 14)

• In order to call something reasonable, there should be positive evidence to support it.

Confirmation bias(p.14)

• The tendency we have to notice the evidence that ONLY supports our beliefs.

Open-mindedness(p.12)

• We have to be open-minded enough to allow that there is a possibility of a strange thing being true.

Chapter 2: The nature of knowledge

• Justified true belief

• Knowledge by authority

• News media

• Primary knowledge

• Second-hand knowledge

Justified belief (p. 24)

• Preliminary definition of knowledge is to say that it is a justified true belief.

• The three elements that make it up: truth, belief, justification (*primary knowledge)

Second-hand knowledge(p.30)

• Accepting knowledge from other people; accepting the beliefs and practice passed on from one generation to yours.

Knowledge by authority (p.30)

• Another name for second-hand knowledge and knowledge by testimony, which are made up of cultural tradition, school, the internet, expert opinion and the news media.

News Media (p.34)

• Shapes our picture of the world with bias in selection and presentation.

a. Bad news

B. Extraordinary news

C. It’s relevant news

Chapter 3: Language

• Ambiguity • Connotation • Denotation Sapir-Whorf hypothesis• Euphemism Stereotypes • Idiom Weasel words • Irony • Linguistic determinism • Metaphor

Ambiguity (p. 56)

• The meaning of words and phrases that have different meanings (misleads people).

Secondary meaning(p.57)

• Denotation: the primal meaning (the dictionary’s definitions). *general

• Connotation: the associations that surround a word. *Varies b/w people

• Euphemisms: sugar coat harsh words

(He died = he passed away)

Metaphor (p.57)

• Metaphorical truth differs from literal truth.

• Dead metaphors are in our language; examples: We broke it off.

Irony (p.58)

• The saying of one thing in order to mean the opposite. (adds to the ambiguity to language)

Idioms(p.62)

• A conversational expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from the meanings of the words it contains… example: It’s raining cats and dogs.

• *Doesn’t make sense when translated.

Stereotype(p.66)

• Labels on people that hardened; statements which prove that assumptions were made of a group. (biased)

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis(p.68)

• A hypothesis which states language determines our experience of reality, and we can see and think only what our language allows us to see and think.

Linguistic determinism (p.68)

• Form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Example: A government who changes language to limit and restrict the way his people think.

language shapes thought?!

Weasel Words (p. 73)

• Examples: many, should, probably

• Words used by people to allow them to escape a task etc.

• “This will work if you simply follow the instructions.”

Chapter 4:Perception

• Context• Empiricism • Expectations • Figure and ground • Optical illusions • Sensation • Selectivity • Visual grouping

Empiricism(p.86)

• The belief that all knowledge is ultimately based on perceptual experience. (experiences dealing with senses)

Context(p.87)

• The way we see something depends on the context in which we see it.

• We make contextual judgments unaware that we are doing it. “He looks bigger than Mike”… etc.

Expectations(p.90)

• Influence how we see things because we perceive things the way we expect them to appear; therefore, we miss things that are right in front of us.

Figure and ground(p.89)

• We have the tendency to highlight certain aspects of what we see (figure) and treat other parts of it as background (ground).

• Example :

Visual grouping (p.89)

• We naturally look for meanings in things we see in order to figure out a connection between one image and another.

• A few patches of black can look like a dog to us because we want to create meaningful pictures.

Optical illusions (p.87)

• Interpretation (what is provided by our minds) is put to a test when dealing with visuals illusions, for we create the illusions with the interpretation we put on them.

• A. Context

• B. Visual Grouping

• C. Figure and Ground

• D. Expectations

Sensation(p.87)

• Component of perception

• Is provided by the world; flood into our senses to experience something

Selectivity of perception (p.91)

• We need to be careful with our senses, for they are selective. Certain aspects engage our attention and stand out, and the rest fade away.

• What grabs attention- contrast, intensity, interest

• What shapes perception: mood, feelings, emotions.

Chapter 5: Reason

• Ad hominem • Belief bias • Circular reasoning • Deduction • Fallacy • False analogy • False dilemma • Hasty generalization • Induction

• Lateral Thinking • Post hoc ergo propter

hoc fallacy • Premise • Rationalism • Venn diagram

Premises, rationalism, fallacies(p.113)

• Premise – No if’s of but’s about it, the root of an argument.

• Rationalism- discovering important truths about reality through the use of reason alone.

• Fallacies- invalid patterns of reasoning.

Deduction (p.114)

• Reasoning from general to particular

• Example: All metals expand when heated. A is a metal; therefore A expands when heated.

• Certain but not informative

Induction(p.119)

• Reasoning from particular to general

• Example: Metal A expands when heated; metal B expands when heated; metal C expands when heated. Therefore all metals expand when heated.

• More informative but not certain.

Belief bias (p.116)

• The tendency we have to believe that an argument is valid simply because we agree with the conclusion.

• We have to be cautious because agreeing with a conclusion doesn’t make the argument a good one.

Venn diagrams(p.116)

• Is helpful when deciding whether or not a syllogism (deductive argument) is valid.

• Overlapping circles do not always make the argument valid.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc(p.124)

• Deadly fallacy

• Confusing a connection with a causal connection

• Assuming that because one thing, follows another thing, A, then A must be the cause of B.

Hasty generalization(p.129)

• Generalizing from insufficient evidence

• Deadly fallacy

Ad hominem (p.129)

• Deadly fallacy

• Attacking/ supporting the person rather than the argument

Circular reasoning (p.125)

• Deadly fallacy

• Assuming the truth of what your are supposed to be proving

False analogy (p.127)

• Assuming that because two things are alike in some aspects they are exactly alike

• Deadly fallacy

False dilemma(p.129)

• Deadly fallacy

• Assuming that only two alternatives exist when there is in fact wider ranger of options

• Ex: binary (black v. white)

Lateral thinking (p.135)

• Thinking outside the box since we cannot rely on traditional logic.

• Edward de Bono says we need to come up with creative ways of thinking to come up with better solutions to problems.

Chapter 6: Emotion

• Emotional coloring

• Emotive language

• James-Lange theory

• Primary emotions

• Wheel of rationalization

Primary emotions (p.147)

• Six basic inborn (not learned) emotions:

Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust

James-Lange Theory (p.148)

• A psychologist who claims that emotions share a connection with our bodies. Emotions are physical in nature; body movements come before feeling sad etc.

Wheel of Rationalization (p.153)

• Powerful emotions biased perception fallacious reasoning emotive language

• “When we are in the grip of strong emotions, we tend not to reason…”

Emotional coloring (p.151)

• Our perception of things can be colored by strong emotions (“love is blind”).

• Make us aware of some aspects of reality and keeping out the other aspects.

Emotive Language(p.151)

• A person in deep emotion usually uses emotive and biased language.

• Talking in a way because you feel a certain way (language that derives from emotions).

Chapters 3 to 6 were the ways of knowing.