TOK Year 12 Mini essay for internal assessment

Your TOK teacher will have given you a selection of 5 essay titles to go away and research. These essays have then to be written up in class as part of an internal assessment. The titles are:

• Are some ways of knowing more likely than others to lead to truth?
  
• How can the different ways of knowing help us to distinguish between something that is true and something that is believed to be true?
  
• “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.” Discuss this claim in relation to at least one way of knowing.
  
• Does having a definitive answer make a question more or less important? Discuss this question in relation to at least one area of knowledge.
  
• Can a machine know?

It is a good idea to focus on the "natural sciences" as this is the area of knowledge we have covered so far.

You are free to bring notes with you into the essay writing class but cannot bring a completed essay.

I encourage you all to make use of the various TOK books in the library. Ask Ms. Wilkinson for a TOK leaflet. You should also make use of the various TOK links found on this blog (right hand side column). Make sure you take a look at this page:

http://peernet.lbpc.ca/tok/tokassessment/tokessay/02tokessaystp1.html

The school "intranet" also has a great TOK page, containing a lot of useful information that you can use.

On the right hand side of this blog you can see a download link. Click on this link to access the ESSAY CRITERA that will be used to mark your essay. These are the same criteria that will be used to mark your final essay next year.

You can also access the criteria on our school intranet. Click on the "Seniors" tab and choose CAS, TOK and EE. On the page that follows choose "TOK" and then click on "ESSAY" at the top of the page. On that page click on "Criteria" under the "Essay" heading.

Good luck and enjoy!

Mr. Jonsson