Core theme: Knowledge and the knower

Core theme: Knowledge and the knower

The core theme—knowledge and the knower—provides an opportunity for students to reflect on what shapes their perspective as a knower, where their values come from, and how they make sense of, and navigate, the world around them.

Importantly, this theme does not focus exclusively on the individual knower. It also considers aspects such as the impact of the different communities of knowers to which we belong, and how knowledge is constructed, critically examined, evaluated and renewed by communities and individuals. This includes reflection on how our interactions with others and with the material world shape our knowledge.

This theme encourages careful and critical consideration of claims, provoking students to reflect on how we distinguish between claims that are contestable and claims that are not. It highlights the importance of not simply accepting claims at face value, and then explores how this can be reconciled with a recognition that many situations require us to make decisions without possessing absolute certainty.

The core theme has been explicitly designed to provide rich opportunities for teachers and students to make links to the IB learner profile. Students are encouraged to consider both the power and the limitations of the tools that they have at their disposal as knowers and thinkers, and to become more aware of their own biases and assumptions. They could also consider what it really means to be open-minded or consider the importance of caring about how knowledge is used and controlled.

An interesting focus for discussions in this theme could be misinformation and disinformation, deliberate deception and manipulation, and how we know who/what to trust. This could include reflection on which sources of knowledge (books, websites, personal experience, authority figures, and so on) students consider most trustworthy, and why.

It could also include reflection on how advances in technology have brought these issues into sharper focus through, for example, discussion of “fake news” and its machinery.

Another interesting focus for discussions could be to explore how we perceive and construct our understanding of the world. This could include consideration of the way that culture can be seen as a lens through which we look at the world, or the impact of filters, image manipulation and propaganda.

For example, students could consider at what point filters become more important than what really exists, or the influence of hidden assumptions in shaping us as knowers.

There are many possible ways to approach and structure the core theme in the classroom. For example, teachers may choose to “bookend” the TOK course with the core theme—using it as a way to start and end the course, as well as spiralling back to the theme at relevant moments throughout the optional themes and areas of knowledge.

Additional guidance and examples on how the core theme could potentially be approached can be found in the Theory of knowledge teacher support material.

Whatever approach to the core theme is taken, it is crucial that the focus remains clearly on knowledge. Teachers must also ensure that within their exploration of the theme, they engage with the four compulsory elements required in every part of the TOK curriculum: scope, perspectives, methods and tools, and ethics.

Suggested knowledge questions for each of these elements are provided in the following table, but these should not be taken as prescriptive or exhaustive.

Scope

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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?