About my TOK Presentation

[kaoru2to1997]

TOK

Edited January 14, 2015 by testflight

[Vioh]

Help needed for TOK essay:

The knowledge question is how do sense perception, visual representation and/or language influence knowledge, understanding and beliefs?

I'm still working on some of the viewpoints and such. I only have about two viewpoints, and it would really help if I had more. Anybody have any viewpoints on how sense perception influences knowledge? 

 

I gotta first say that your knowledge question is too broad, simply because you haven’t specified your areas of knowledge. Your KQ should be re-phrased as: “How do sense perception, visual representation and/or language influence knowledge, understanding & beliefs within … [you specify your AOKs here: 2 AOKs would suffice]?”

 

Regarding your main question, unless you specify your AOKs, we simply cannot answer your question, because it’s too broad. I can sit here and type thousands of examples regarding how sense perception influences our knowledge (both negatively & positively). For example:

• In science, sense perception can give us direct empirical evidence for our theoretical model. Here, you can mention how the telescopes (which is a tool to extend our ‘sight’) revolutionized our knowledge within astronomy
• In science, sense perception can limit our brains from understanding the nature. In fact, the purpose for inventing new technological tools/equipments in science is to push this limit as far as possible. That’s why we invented the telescope and the microscope to extend our sight to see the large-scale world and to see the small-scale world, respectively. However, because our sense perception is limited to the 3D space, it’s impossible for us to visualize curved space, for example. This means that it’s also harder for us to have a full understanding of non-Euclidean geometry when it applies to our 3D space itself.
• In mathematics, visual representation & sense perception provide enormous help when you have to deal with geometry, vectors, or objects in higher dimensions….
• In science, language ambiguities can restrict scientists from communicating to the public, especially for the physicists. The main language of nature/physics (as you probably know) is mathematics. So when physicists communicate with the public using English (or any other languages that are not mathematics), they often fail to deliver the full extent of their understanding on the subjects. Words & phrases such as ‘spin’, ‘ultra-violet’, ‘infra-red’, ‘colour’, ‘charm’, ‘black hole’, ‘wave-particles duality’, etc are extremely confusing/ambiguous, therefore would restrict the public understand of physics

There are probably hundred more examples; so in general, I think your topic is too broad. Perhaps, you should restrict it to 1 way of knowing, & 2 areas of knowledge

[kaoru2to1997]

Help needed for TOK essay:

The knowledge question is how do sense perception, visual representation and/or language influence knowledge, understanding and beliefs?

I'm still working on some of the viewpoints and such. I only have about two viewpoints, and it would really help if I had more. Anybody have any viewpoints on how sense perception influences knowledge?

I gotta first say that your knowledge question is too broad, simply because you haven’t specified your areas of knowledge. Your KQ should be re-phrased as: “How do sense perception, visual representation and/or language influence knowledge, understanding & beliefs within … [you specify your AOKs here: 2 AOKs would suffice]?â€

Regarding your main question, unless you specify your AOKs, we simply cannot answer your question, because it’s too broad. I can sit here and type thousands of examples regarding how sense perception influences our knowledge (both negatively & positively). For example:

• In science, sense perception can give us direct empirical evidence for our theoretical model. Here, you can mention how the telescopes (which is a tool to extend our ‘sight’) revolutionized our knowledge within astronomy
• In science, sense perception can limit our brains from understanding the nature. In fact, the purpose for inventing new technological tools/equipments in science is to push this limit as far as possible. That’s why we invented the telescope and the microscope to extend our sight to see the large-scale world and to see the small-scale world, respectively. However, because our sense perception is limited to the 3D space, it’s impossible for us to visualize curved space, for example. This means that it’s also harder for us to have a full understanding of non-Euclidean geometry when it applies to our 3D space itself.
• In mathematics, visual representation & sense perception provide enormous help when you have to deal with geometry, vectors, or objects in higher dimensions….
• In science, language ambiguities can restrict scientists from communicating to the public, especially for the physicists. The main language of nature/physics (as you probably know) is mathematics. So when physicists communicate with the public using English (or any other languages that are not mathematics), they often fail to deliver the full extent of their understanding on the subjects. Words & phrases such as ‘spin’, ‘ultra-violet’, ‘infra-red’, ‘colour’, ‘charm’, ‘black hole’, ‘wave-particles duality’, etc are extremely confusing/ambiguous, therefore would restrict the public understand of physics

There are probably hundred more examples; so in general, I think your topic is too broad. Perhaps, you should restrict it to 1 way of knowing, & 2 areas of knowledge

Wow, thanks a lot for your reply!

Anyway, I've narrowed down my WOK and AOK but I still can hardly find a way to proceed.

WOK: sense perception (sight: viewing photos or drawn comics)

AOK: natural sciences

The real life situation chosen is related to global warming.

[Vioh]

WOK: sense perception (sight: viewing photos or drawn comics)

AOK: natural sciences

The real life situation chosen is related to global warming.

 

I think it's pretty easy to talk about the role of sense perception in natural sciences (except for the fact that I don't get how drawn comics has anything to do with science). As I've mentioned above in my previous post, sense perception can both extend & restrict our understanding of nature.

 

Sense perception extends our understanding by helping us to get direct access to nature & understand it through our senses. Examples include telescopes, microscopes, seeing colors, seeing patterns (such as patterns in flowers, or symmetry within the snow flakes), etc, etc. In other words, sense perception gives us a quick access to knowledge about nature.

 

On the other hand, sense perception can also restrict our understanding because our sense perception also has limitations. For example, it's the fact that we live in a 3D world, thus cannot visualize the curvature of space. Thus we can only understand it abstractly using the abstract mathematical equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Another example is that it's the fact that our eyes can only perceive light in the visible spectrum; we cannot perceive other types of electromagnetic waves (such as infra-red, ultra-violet, radio waves), therefore it's impossible for us to gain knowledge of these natural phenomena using our own eyes. For example, we need to use huge radio-telescopes to observe the sky for quasars because quasars emit radio waves & cannot be observed by our eyes. These radio waves have to be decoded by computer such that we can put colors on the images taken by the telescopes. Hence, many of us believe that galaxies, gas dusts, & other objects on the sky have colors, but indeed they don't. These put limits on our understanding; and without technological tools/equipments, it'll be impossible for us to observe the sky.

 

I think with these 2 simple ideas, you can expand them into a long essay with lots of examples & counter-examples.