Big lies, clever cons, and TOK ways of knowing, Part 3: Is critical thinking...
Does everyone really fall for con artists? Everyone, always? That’s the subtitle of Maria Konnikova’s book: The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It…Every Time. No, I’m not going to fall for taking a...
View ArticleBeasts, whirligigs, and raindrops: engineering, art, and the play of the...
On this fine day in May, most Theory of Knowledge students in the northern hemisphere are surely preoccupied with only a certain aspect of knowledge: how well to demonstrate it, in relevant forms, on...
View ArticleThe Beach Beast: perceiving pattern, playfully
Cute, isn’t he? May I introduce to you the Beach Beast, and a playful class example for sense perception and intuition as ways of knowing? Oh yes, we TOK teachers all have our collections of optical...
View ArticleBurkini controversy: TOK activity in analyzing perspectives
A storm of controversy over a swimming suit? Astonishingly, it’s not even a risqué one! Women have recently been fined in France for keeping too much of their bodies covered on the beach – and towns...
View ArticleIs mathematics a gateway to empathy?
Is the study of mathematics really a gateway toward empathy? I’m not fully convinced by the argument presented by mathematician Roger Antonsen , but I like him for making it. We need all the empathy we...
View ArticleAGAINST empathy? Really?
“In the moral domain…empathy leads us astray,” argues Paul Bloom , professor of psychology at Yale University. “We are much better off if we give up on empathy and become rational deliberators...
View Article(Dis)trusting statistics: a one-page guide
A numbers expert declares he’ll sum up everything he knows about analyzing statistics on the back of a postcard. Could any TOK teacher NOT instantly spring to the alert? He’s inspired me to attempt my...
View ArticleBiases, fallacies, argument: Would you argue with a T-rex?
If you were the brontosaurus, what would you say back? The following cartoon sequence is designed for TOK to prompt examination of assumptions, emotional appeals, and fallacies of argument. Students...
View ArticleExercise for awareness: facts, feelings, and changing your mind
Here’s a challenge for your students. Are they open to changing their opinions if faced with contrary facts? Today we offer a class exercise – ready for you to download, to use directly or to customize...
View ArticleFacts and feelings: knowing better by knowing ourselves
FACTS and FEELINGS: from what I read in today’s paper, there seems to be little public will to distinguish between these two when firmly asserting knowledge claims. And from what I hear in...
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