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#2 How important are the opinions of experts in the search of knowledge?


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for whom that chose to do the second prescribed TOK ESSAY Title:

How important are the opinions of experts in the search of knowledge?

we can certainly do a brain stroming here, what do you guys think ? what is the knowledge issue here?

which areas of knowledge we can link to ?

Cheers IB Bros!

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You could certainly talk about reliability of other sources, firsthand sources vs secondhand sources, bias etc. You could basically link it to many areas, it won't be too hard to find two experts contradciting each other on topics such as global warming or some historical event, for instance.

You could probably also bring in the different ways of knowing and how they might be subjective/objective. In addition, this question have significant implications. What would happen if no one trusted experts? If we trusted them blindly?

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i reckon what is hart about this topic is that things you are going to talk about are superficial...

that's why i am trying to dig something deep in there, but failed apparently...

you wouldn't get a good mark if you just broadly talking about different ways of knowing areas of knowledge, would you??

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey ib bros,

I kinda need some help with my tok essay, i'm starting to work on this title, i already got the intro pharagraph, but i would appreciate if anybody helps me on what to talk about in it haha, well... espcecially and mainly on how to develop it and what areas of knowledge shoul I talk about and how...

Thanks!!

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Hey ib bros,

I kinda need some help with my tok essay, i'm starting to work on this title, i already got the intro pharagraph, but i would appreciate if anybody helps me on what to talk about in it haha, well... espcecially and mainly on how to develop it and what areas of knowledge shoul I talk about and how...

Thanks!!

PD: I'm attaching what i've done so far. I'm also attaching the same in an english version just in case, because i'm doing it in spanish.

Edited by Aboo
Essay removed.
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Please don't attach essays or IAs that haven't been sent to the IB yet as by posting the essay on the public domain, you might be penalised for plagiarism thus causing you to fail your diploma.

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oh ok, sorry for that.. i didnt think of that.. so thanks too.

ok so... basically I'd think that, for this question, I have to confirm that, in fact, it is true that the opinions of experts are important in the search for knowledge. Also, that their opinions are important because, in any search for knowldge, everybody will go consult or ask anything to the expert as a principal source, just because of the fact that he/she is an expert, therefore, this expert represents an authority too and thats why we usually trust about what they say, but I think that, as we use this information given for the expert, we should not be fully confident that it is the absolute truth because, we all know that, it's imposible to reach the absolute truth basically because man just doesn't stop discovering new thing and acquiring more techonological knowledge. So, we must use experts' opinions, but always thinking with our own criteria.

ok thats basically what i've had think of, so if anybaody could help me on how to develop it more, it would be great and also what areas of knowledge should I include and how...

Thanks ib bros!!keep it real

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  • 2 weeks later...

oh ok, sorry for that.. i didnt think of that.. so thanks too.

ok so... basically I'd think that, for this question, I have to confirm that, in fact, it is true that the opinions of experts are important in the search for knowledge. Also, that their opinions are important because, in any search for knowldge, everybody will go consult or ask anything to the expert as a principal source, just because of the fact that he/she is an expert, therefore, this expert represents an authority too and thats why we usually trust about what they say, but I think that, as we use this information given for the expert, we should not be fully confident that it is the absolute truth because, we all know that, it's imposible to reach the absolute truth basically because man just doesn't stop discovering new thing and acquiring more techonological knowledge. So, we must use experts' opinions, but always thinking with our own criteria.

ok thats basically what i've had think of, so if anybaody could help me on how to develop it more, it would be great and also what areas of knowledge should I include and how...

Thanks ib bros!!keep it real

In addition, it may be that experts know a lot about the subject, but they also have their biases. They're still subject to flaws. So while they might have studied for years and years, they might not know one thing. There's some quotation that says something to the effect that you might know everything in one very narrow field, but that means you know pretty much nothing in everything else. Can't remember how it was phrased. Basically, experts have studied a subject, so they can offer you plenty to think about, but I don't think they can answer a lot of questions for us. The most important ones we must answer ourselves, even if it is just going through the same process they went through.

In this case, experts are more like guides, which is how I see it.

I would structure your argument around areas of knowledge. Look at two different ones and examine the roles of experts in both of them. Look at how they influence how we know, which is where the WOK can come in.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi IB!

i need help on this question, ive already donde my essay but i think it sucks, its quite superficial. How can theory be aplied here?

what are the different types of truth for examining experts or apriori knowledge?

Are counter claims the fact that experts can be bias and have different opinions and point of views?

Thankss ib guys

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Hi IB!

i need help on this question, ive already donde my essay but i think it sucks, its quite superficial. How can theory be aplied here?

what are the different types of truth for examining experts or apriori knowledge?

Are counter claims the fact that experts can be bias and have different opinions and point of views?

Thankss ib guys

Well, give us a clue about what you've written, and it'll be easier to help you.

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Well, give us a clue about what you've written, and it'll be easier to help you.

Ive written about History and its subjectivity, Maths and its objectivity (how important then is the opinion of experts) and i want to write about art (because i think that non-experts opinion could have the same conclusions as experts opinion in arts, because it is related with emotion). I was thinking on using Natural science so as to talk about the test of truths and use theory (because i dont have any theory in my essay).

It would be greatfull if someone send me his essay to compare it with mine and to know how much im missing, or if someone could give me some detail advices on correcting my essay. is someone interesting on helping me, please? (using hotmail to sennd tok essay)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

I think that to put out an effective essay how need to define an 'expert' as an expert could be your neighborhood Yu-Gi-Oh card collector, who knows everything there is to know about playing cards, or a scientist who has studied how moss reproduces, or even, if we are saying that experts are figures of authority then we could even say that politicians are the experts of politics! I think that for different areas of knowledge experts play different roles. For example an 'expert' in Ethics would play a completely different role than an expert in Natural Sciences.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys !

So I have been working for some time already on my ToK essay (whose question is: How important are the opinions of experts in the search for knowledge) and I realised two major problems concerning my essay. One was the structure of my arguments (forget about it, I know how to fix that, it'll just take time...) and the other one was concerning my arguments themselves.

In fact, I seem to have A LOT of them (either for or against) and the thing is if I cite them all, the essay itself would seem really shallow. So does that mean I'll have to select some arguments that I'll explore with depth, or should I talk about them all and have a lot of arguments packed in a small essay ? If I do a selection, should I take the most important ones - how would you define importance, again ? Or perhaps the ones where I could do most analysis on ?

Thank you for any help or share of opinions ! It is muchly appreciated :)

And good luck to everyone ! :P

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