Monday, December 7, 2015
Now Presenting: You
Following in the footsteps of our group work and modeling, I'd like you to begin crafting complete TOK presentations of your own. For Wednesday evening at 9:30, please post a real world situation and a knowledge question derived from the ways of knowing at play therein. We will evaluate these together in Thursday's class, then work on completing the framework of your presentation.
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Real World Situation:
ReplyDeleteSince the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the attempted attack on the either the White House or Capitol building by the terrorist group al-Qaeda, prejudices against Muslims have increased greatly. Although al-Qaeda is an Islamic group, they represent a very small fraction of all those who practice Islam or were born into Muslim families. Still, most would argue that these and other terrorist attacks from extremist groups like al-Qaeda have made people fearful of all Islam and prejudiced against all Muslims.
Knowledge Question:
To what extent do people use judgments made from emotion (particularly fear) and generalized information to determine a person’s intent or reason?
Real World Situation:
ReplyDeleteWhile having a discussion surrounding conspiracy theory with a person I know, they mentioned chem-trails. They stated that the reason the government uses said chem-trails is to control the weather, and spread bio-weaponry. I attempted to understand how someone could believe such a theory, but I reasoned that it was simply a hoax, due to research on water vapour and temperature's effect on how long vapour trails linger.
Knowledge Question:
To what extent does reason cloud a persons ability to empathize and understand another persons beliefs/faith?
Real world situation:
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I didn’t really like cauliflowers. One of the reason was when I was back in Shanghai, I had cauliflowers in my school lunch every day. I could smell the special odor of cauliflower right before the lunch, which disturbed my appetite. Therefore, for all of my three years in my middle school I didn’t have lunches. Eventually I got sick on cauliflowers and stop having it as one of the dishes that I am really picky on, because I knew if I try to eat it, then I will not like the meal at all.
Knowledge Question:
To what extent does sense perception affects that way of knowing?
Real world situation:
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that groups, or just people in general, tend to jump to conclusion about people they don't know very well. First impressions go a long way and if a person is less outgoing or quiet for example, they are passed over as being in their own little world. Even though the person may be in reality a funny person but just quiet, others still perceive them to be reserved and distant.
Knowlage Question:
Is our perception of others flawed because of a tendency to jump to conclusions about their personalities?
Real world situation: I have realized that sometimes being in complete darkness, I get nervous and cannot reason properly. I notice that even though it could be in my room, where logically I should be able to know where I am and the safeness of my environment, because I cannot see and rely on my eyesight, I do not think this way. Instead when I cannot rely on sense perception, I cannot rely on my reasoning.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Question: How does sense perception or lack there of affect our ability to reason?
Real world situation:
ReplyDeleteWhen I told people that I'm from Japan, most of people thought that I'm from Tokyo and my most favorite food in the world is Sushi even though I'm from Nagoya and I'm not a big fan of raw fish. Only things they knew about Japan were "Tokyo" and "sushi" so they related them and I with simplistic thinkings. People's limited knowledge about Japan lead them to a wrong conclusion.
Knowledge question
To what extend, the limited knowledge lead people to a wrong interpretation?
Real world situation: Often times, I get tired of listening to a song a lot. However, when I come accross it a few weeks later and start listening to old songs, I seem to like them even more than I had before.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge question: To what extent is our sense perception, in this case hearing, impacted by emotion and memory?
Real world situation: You are more likely to die collapsing in a sand hole than killed by a alligator. Sometimes human beings have irrational fears regardless of the statistical knowledge that can be present.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Question: To what extent do irrational fears hinder a knowers ability to reason?
Real World Situation: At the age of 16, teenagers are allowed to get their drivers'permit in New York City, but the requirements to get their license only makes it possible to get it no earlier than 17 maybe 18. New York is a very large and busy city, so having teenagers driving in the streets would not help the traffic move any swifter. As a candidate to receive my license, I wonder why is it that a 17 year old or 18 year old can get their license in a shorter period of time, even though we have to learn the same skills and rules at the same time.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent does age affect your sense of reason? Can statistical knowledge overcome knowledge gained through skill?
Situation: The fact that as this presidential election approaches, it is becoming more clear how polar people's views are, specially between parties. And how often a person's political views are similar to those of their parents/family or those of the area in which they were brought up.
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent is your own knowledge and perspective influenced by those around you, especially authority figures?
Real World Situation: Recently, a woman posted on social media about how women barely wear clothes nowadays and she stays classy by dressing in a modest fashion all the time. She is also a mom and a basketball-wife. There were many responses to her tweet stating about how she should not have said that and she is shaming girls who may dress in a way that may seem revealing or provocative. Also people felt that she was condescending to other women by singling out herself and generalizing about other women. Even though after backfiring responses came in, she did say that people should not degrade women and kept that distinction clear,but many people were offended by the message that came from that tweet because people had different views on it.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Question: To what extent does the personal bias of various parties affect the way the information is fully understood or how the message that is trying to be portrayed from the writer(giver)is perceived?
Moment of knowledge:
ReplyDeleteDuring basketball practice, Steward tried to explain to us how to do cutting and filling between wings and guards. He used a lot of time to explain but no one really understood what they needed to do. Later, he walked people on the court through the drill step by step and those people understood what they were doing.
Question: To what extend does language lack of the ability to pass knowledges?
Real world situation: Before, I thought emotion strongly affect people's ability to accept or understand knowledge. Just like the example I used before, In economics class, we talked about calculating the cost of a business, which included a lot of math. People were frustrated and tired because of those calculating. And at the end of the class when teacher asked a simple question like" 500-(20x10)=?" there are people answered it wrong. But recently I also found that eventhough I don't like or even hate math, but I still can understand and do well in the class.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge question:
To what extent does emotion affect people's ability to accept or understand knowledge?
Can ethical knowledge transcend cultures? What is the definition
ReplyDeleteWhenever I mention something related to LGBT rights in front of my parents, they lecture me on the “unethical nature” of homosexuality. This obviously stems from their upbringing in a homophobic culture. However, I wonder what exactly they mean by unethical, and whether it is only a misnomer for “contemptible”. My parents may be using the word unethical incorrectly, or they could honestly believe that homosexuality is morally incorrect. Though each person’s moral system is their own culture often unites people’s ethical ideas. This leads to the question: Can ethics ever be defined in the absence of a cultural context?
Real Life Situation: I have been the new girl at five different schools thoughout my life and every time before I get to the school I start to feel nervous and sick even though I know that I will be fine.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Question: To what extent can emotion overpower reason?