URGENT! Things I know and how I know them?

[Annesant98]

Hi!

I recently started the IB (last week), and I am currently trying to do my first TOK homework. But I do not understand. It is to write down 10 things I know to be true. And then I have to tell why I know that it is true, or what makes me believe that it's the truth. Here's what our teacher wrote:

"Go over the list of 'things I know' that you made in class and note down how you know them. Consider 'know' in the real sense of the word....as in 'having knowledge of......' Not simply know in the everyday sense. You will have to consider this carefully .........there may be no 'proof' but there need be well thought out backups to your statements."

 

I worte the following statements:

1. I have 5 names.

2. I am 17 years old.

3. My mother was born March 5th 1972.

4. I have a cat.

5. Richard is our TOK teacher.

6. I'm writing this with a pen.

7. I have two pencils in my pencil case.

8. The last book I read was Wonder by R.J Palacio.

9. I'm a student at SVGS.

10. I was born April 20th 1998.

 

Now.. I am not sure how to explain them. Apparently, saying that it says in my passport that I'm 17 is not enough. Then what is??

Please help

 

[Emmi]

With ToK you have "ways of knowing," which are some of the ways that we use to gain knowledge and evaluate whether we know something. These include reasoning, emotions, perception, etc. I don't remember all of them since it's been a while since I took ToK, but you can find a list of them on here.

Essentially what you're asked to do is to explain why you know those things you listed using one (or more) of the ways of knowing.