328th-Ace Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 I have chosen this title for my TOK essay and i'm taking certain events in history and trying to evaluate the reasoning behind them as well as the way they were expressed, such as the Nazi propaganda against the Jews. However I am not sure whether tackling my essay in this manner is rather stale. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serene_Ching Posted January 9, 2011 Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 The question clearly states the two ways of knowing - language and reason. Your essay must touch on both of the ways of knowing. Think of a point where language plays an important role in history and also another argument that counter-argues your point. Or Vice versa if you think language isn't important. Explain and be sure to include examples in your paragraph(s).Same goes for reason.Remember the focus here is on history and therefore all your points and examples must link into history, no matter if it is historical facts or interpretation of history - clear points and examples that can support ur arguement.Good Luck! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperpheasant Posted January 28, 2011 Report Share Posted January 28, 2011 Well, so as majority of people above I have chosen this topic as well, and I wanted to focus on both history as an area of knowledge- so that I would think of reasonng in the process of interpreting history by the historians, I think it would be good as well to provide the example of historical event during which reasoning based on false premises lead to wrong conclusions and outcomes, all in all history is human related issue and if a person did not reason in some particular way it would not lead to some events, all I can think of now is Cold War and Cuban crisis perhaps. I would consider the ambiguity of history interpretation basing on 'reasonable way' and often eliminating human factor.And about language I would focus on propaganda and the role of language in shaping and creating history- if there would be no language people would not be able to create civilisations; language encourages to closer contacts and history is to high extent in my opinion based on interpersonal relations in macro and micro scale though..but I have real trouble with knowledge issues, as I just started to write it today and bearing in mind I hardly attend to TOK classes...I have formulated following ones:- can language determine the thought- can reasoning process change the reality- can language determine/ interfere the ablitity to reason- to what extent can reasoning based on false premises change the perception of reality/ reality itself.?I can't think of anything more, so if someone could help me and suggest maybe some more if those above are wrong. I have no clue about KI at all. do I have to include them in the essay.? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Center Field Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Well, so as majority of people above I have chosen this topic as well, and I wanted to focus on both history as an area of knowledge- so that I would think of reasonng in the process of interpreting history by the historians, I think it would be good as well to provide the example of historical event during which reasoning based on false premises lead to wrong conclusions and outcomes, all in all history is human related issue and if a person did not reason in some particular way it would not lead to some events, all I can think of now is Cold War and Cuban crisis perhaps. I would consider the ambiguity of history interpretation basing on 'reasonable way' and often eliminating human factor.And about language I would focus on propaganda and the role of language in shaping and creating history- if there would be no language people would not be able to create civilisations; language encourages to closer contacts and history is to high extent in my opinion based on interpersonal relations in macro and micro scale though..but I have real trouble with knowledge issues, as I just started to write it today and bearing in mind I hardly attend to TOK classes...I have formulated following ones:- can language determine the thought- can reasoning process change the reality- can language determine/ interfere the ablitity to reason- to what extent can reasoning based on false premises change the perception of reality/ reality itself.?I can't think of anything more, so if someone could help me and suggest maybe some more if those above are wrong. I have no clue about KI at all. do I have to include them in the essay.?I have similar ideas for my essay, but just wondering, is this a common topic? I am the only person at my school writing under this topic. There are seventy two DP candidates and I am the only one... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
icyflame Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 I picked "Discuss the roles of language and reason in history." And I need some more ideas of what to talk about throughout the essay. The only two that i have come up with is propaganda (talk about the causes n effects of both world wars) and manipulation (the way teachers can manipulate their teachings). Any more ideas?? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooglebot Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 I picked "Discuss the roles of language and reason in history." And I need some more ideas of what to talk about throughout the essay. The only two that i have come up with is propaganda (talk about the causes n effects of both world wars) and manipulation (the way teachers can manipulate their teachings). Any more ideas??I talked a lot about translation (I used the example of the Rosetta stone, raising the point that if the Anient Greek was mistranslated, is everything we know about Egyptology wrong? - as part of this I mentioned Dialects and their affects [using the modern example of pants vs trousers], corruption/evolution of language, idiomatic expressions) I also metioned intonation and figurative language, and how we can attach emotions to a piece of text, or interprt it differently. I'm having a lot more trouble with the reason section though. I've come up with it helps us reach logical conclusions, independent of emotions, but thats it really...Hope it helps! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayrobsah Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 i need help with going about my TOK essay which is on the roles of language and reason in history.i need help in discussing the role of reason and some common fallacies that appear in history Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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