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TOK IB november 2010/may 2011

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Reply 20

cynthialf

angiepangie

so can anyone help me with the introduction at least please? i would really appreciate :smile:

(

My essay is only due in December, thank god, but I wrote a little bit of it. I would suggest for the introduction to write something general on history itself - as a way of knowing, the way we acquire knowledge in history blabla - and then write about how language and reason relate to them.

Reply 21

LauraBear

Thankyou so much for your help, it means a lot

Reply 22

angiepangie

cynthialf

okay thank you so much :smile:

good luck with yours :smile:

Reply 23

angiepangie

ragnar_jonsson

I have never heard about that? Wow, if you get it consider yourself v. lucky!

Anyway, I'm posting my essay. I got 32/40 (A) for it. I personally think the essay is pretty shoddy, but it got me the grade! They love philosophical approaches to the essay, with ridiculously "personal" examples. And question everything lol.

haha okay thanks alot :smile:

i thought everyone had this guide. thank you again. i managed to write my essay. i really hope its good. xx

Reply 24

TheSmokeMonster

xlaugh16

For Friday I have to write the first TOK essay, we get 3 practice essays and eventually have to fix one up for the final IB thing.. but I'm having issues coming up with material.

The questions I'm thinking of doing are:

6. "There are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false". Discuss this claim.

7. How can we recognize when we have made progress in the search for knowledge? Consider two contrasting areas of knowledge.

9. Discuss the roles of language and reason in history.

At the moment i'm doing number 6, so if you have any ideas of what types of things I could discuss in the essay, all the help would be amazing!

Number 6 is quite an easy essay, here, I'll write it for you.

"There is nothing to discuss, it's a self-refuting statement."

Job done, A, full marks, BAM.

Reply 25

The Man of the Hour

^ If only it were that easy, haha.

Reply 26

--Butters--

7. How can we recognize when we have made progress in the search for knowledge? Consider two contrasting areas of knowledge.

What is the best way to structure and tackle this question?

I plan to define my AOK's, History and natural scieneces, then try to define progress in the search of knowledge by using these AOK's.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Reply 27

OllieS

^ Split the essay 50-50 science and history (overlapping them will became unnecessarily complex), in the first paragraph for each aok lay down a thesis/attempted definition of progress in knowledge of those aoks, then in the next paragraphs test the thesis/attempted definition with clear examples.

I dislike hoe this year's titles are either too specific (ie models in science) or broad (ie no distinction between what's true and false).

Reply 28

--Butters--

Original post by OllieS

thanks man,

would u happen to have any suggestions of the type of examples that i can use?

Reply 29

OllieS

Original post by --Butters--

thanks man,

would u happen to have any suggestions of the type of examples that i can use?

I'd take the most significant cases you find in the sciences, ie how the discovery of germs/germ theory proved years of 'scientific' research on germs and disease completely false. This book is a nice start, and a nice read: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0552997048/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293570691&sr=8-1

For History it's a lot harder. I don't think there's a great deal of progress to be made about some older history (ie prehistory, ancient) which we can't find new evidence for. Maybe change to another AoK. Ethics is a nice one for this: have we ever made progress in the search for ethical knowledge? In the 1920's people would claim they had, with the abolition of slavery and such, but twenty years later the Final Solution (the mass extermination part) of the Holocaust happened.