slimers7 Posted April 14, 2012 Report Share Posted April 14, 2012 (edited) I have been struggling with the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course and I did not do very well on my first presentation because I did not have a clear knowledge issue. I ordered the TOK textbook (by Sue Bastian) and have been reading through it in order to get a better grasp of TOK. My teacher recently assigned a presentation and he urged us to find a Kowledge Issue (KI) based on a real life event.I was reading about the Supreme Court case on Obama's health care mandate and the court is trying to decide whether this mandate is constitutional or not. I noticed that the people who are defending this mandate are using a lot of emotion to justify their argument. They brought in several people who have severe diseases and are unable to afford health care. The point of this is to play upon one's emotions in order to create sympathy for these people and in turn generate support for the mandate. My goal is not to discuss whether the mandate is constitutional or not, but merely to analyze how one side is using emotion to justify their argument. This sub-topic led me to my general KI which is: To what extent are emotions used in making justifications?I would appreciate any feedback or advice on the KI described above. Edited April 14, 2012 by slimers7 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Stark Posted April 14, 2012 Report Share Posted April 14, 2012 Still too broad, if you're speaking of justification in general. You need to limit it further; whether, for example, to 'what role do emotions play in deciding the outcome of court cases?', or 'what role does emotion play in politics?' (the latter being probably too generic), etc. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Where Love Died Laughing Posted April 14, 2012 Report Share Posted April 14, 2012 I agree with the previous post; 'what role do emotions play in deciding the outcome of court cases?' would probably be better. You could also use the Casey Anthony case to show that it doesn't always affect it. Everyone in the jury said that they hated her and wanted her put away, but that there wasn't enough evidence for the crime. Just a thought. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
slimers7 Posted April 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Okay, thanks! So it should be more specific? I originally went to my teacher and presented the topic "To what extent are emotions used in justifying laws", but my teacher told me it was too specific and I need to make it more general so its applicable to a variety of things. This is his second or third year teaching the course, so perhaps he does not fully understand what a good presentation is. Ahh I get so confused. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Where Love Died Laughing Posted April 15, 2012 Report Share Posted April 15, 2012 Okay, thanks! So it should be more specific? I originally went to my teacher and presented the topic "To what extent are emotions used in justifying laws", but my teacher told me it was too specific and I need to make it more general so its applicable to a variety of things. This is his second or third year teaching the course, so perhaps he does not fully understand what a good presentation is. Ahh I get so confused. Don't worry, I've heard ToK teachers arguing with one another over what ToK really is. I don't see why that would be too specific. Keep in mind that you need a real-life situation to revolve your presentation around and apply ToK terminology to. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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