TOK Knowledge and the Knower

A POSTERIORI KNOWLEDGE

knowledge obtained through observation and experience

A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE

knowledge that is independent of observation or direct experience obtained through theoretical deduction

ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

a symbolic representation of human beings living in reality and our interpretations of it, which may differ. It is the step back from the entire picture that the truth can be found with knowledge and experience.

ANALOGY OF THE SUN

a representation of ‘the good’ through the image of the Sun as the Sun spreads light on the truth

ANALYTIC STATEMENT

a statement of which the truth value is determined by the meanings of its terms; e.g., "All squares are four-sided."

ASSUMPTION

a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof

BIAS

a disproportionate weight in favour of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned.

BLACK SWAN EVENT

an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences

BODY THEORY OF IDENTITY

the concept of an identity being individualised through physical features/bodily form

BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING

organising sensory information as it is coming in

BOTS

automated computer programs

BRAHMAN

the Hindu belief in the ultimate reality underlying all phenomena

COGNITIVE BIAS

a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects the decisions and judgments that they make

COGNITIVE TOOLS

mental processes of acquiring knowledge

COHERENCE THEORY OF TRUTH

associated with IDEALISM (perception, not materialism, is reality) stating that the truth of a belief is based on the degree to which it coheres/aligns with all other beliefs in a system of beliefs

CONFORMITY

the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others

CONSENSUS THEORY OF TRUTH

the theory of believing statements to be true because the general population believes it to be so

CONSPIRACY THEORY

a belief that the common explanation for some event or some state of affairs is not true, and that, in reality, some actors (individuals or organisations) are responsible for that event or state of affairs in order to deceive the public

CONTINGENT IDENTITY

the ideas that personal identity is dependent on context, i.e. we are defined in relation to the circumstances we find ourselves in

CORRESPONDENCE THEORY OF TRUTH

states that the truth or falsity of a statement is determined only by how it relates to the world and whether it accurately describes, or corresponds, with that world

DEDUCTION

in logic, a conclusion derived from a logical or reasonable inference. An inference is deductively valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, i.e. if it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false

DISINFORMATION

intentionally false or incorrect information

DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS

the sense of internal conflict with identity because of an oppressive environment (simultaneously having and not having parts of an identity)

DUALISM

proposes the existence of distinct realms of mind and body (or matter)

ECHO CHAMBER

a space in which sound reverberates, so any sounds made are repeated over and over as they bounce from the walls

EGOCENTRIC PREDICAMENT

the problem of not being able to view reality outside of our own perceptions. All worldly knowledge takes the form of mental representations that our mind examines in different ways.

EMPIRICISM

a school of thought that claims sensory experience as the essential source of knowing. You might think something is true, but you only know it is true if your senses confirm it.

EPISTEMOLOGY

study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues

ESSENTIAL AND ACCIDENTAL PROPERTIES

essential properties are properties that objects must have to be classified as that object, whereas accidental properties being properties that objects have but are still classified as that object even if that property was lost

FACTUAL/PROPOSITIONAL KNOWLEDGE

the collection of claims about the world that we believe to be true (some claims are true by definition and some have no guarantee that a truth by definition equals existence)

FAKE NEWS

false, often sensational stories, presented as genuine news items, spread under the guise of reporting

FATALISM

the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable

FUNGIBILITY

the ability of a thing being able to be interchanged with another thing of similar type

GETTIER CASE

instances where there is a justified true belief, in which the justification is flawed, but the belief is true nonetheless as a matter of luck

GLOBAL DOUBT

the view that one cannot know anything at all

GNOSTICISM

a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. It proposes that human beings contain a piece of God (the highest good or a divine spark) within themselves, which has fallen from the immaterial world into the bodies of humans. All physical matter is subject to decay, rotting, and death.

GROUPTHINK

the practice of approaching problems or issues as matters that are best dealt with by consensus of a group rather than by individuals acting independently

HUME’S FORK

David Hume's epistemological theory that all concepts are divisible into two distinct categories

IDEALISM

the metaphysical view that associates reality to ideas in the mind rather than to material objects

IDENTITY

the defining values, beliefs, morals, experiences, memories, and personal identifiers of one’s self

INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

INDUCTION

a method of reasoning in logic, which a body of observations is considered to derive a general principle. It consists of making broad generalisations/conclusions based on specific observations

INTERSECTIONALITY

the framework of social categories that define an individual (race, class, gender, etc.)

JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF (JTB THEORY)

the theory that knowledge is equivalent to a justified belief that is true. (The statement must be a belief with justified reason, and it must be the truth to be considered knowledge.)

KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE

occurs when the subject has an immediate or unmediated, first-hand awareness of some propositional truth (can be flawed; we can deceive ourselves, also not necessarily explainable)

KNOWLEDGE CLAIM

something that is supported to be true (a thesis or proposition)

KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITY

the groups of people with common interests and shared knowledge

KNOWLEDGE TRIBE

a group we identify most strongly with within knowledge communities

LABELLING THEORY (BECKER)

deviance is a consequence of external judgments that modify the individual’s self-concept and change the way others respond to the labelled person

LAW OF NATURE

a regularly occurring or apparently inevitable phenomenon observable in human society

LOCAL DOUBT

the view that one cannot possess knowledge in a particular domain at a particular point in time if you rely solely on your senses

LONG-TERM POTENTIATION

a process involving persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons

METAETHICS

the attempt to understand the metaphysical, epistemological, semantic, and psychological, presuppositions and commitments of moral thought, talk, and practice

MEMORY THEORY OF IDENTITY

Locke’s theory that an individual’s identity only exists as much as what they are able to remember

MISINFORMATION

unintentionally false or incorrect information

MOKSHA

the Hindu and Jainist belief in a transcendent state attained as a result of being released from the cycle of rebirth

MONISM

proposes that everything we perceive are the different manifestations of a single absolute entity, and every phenomenon experienced by us can be explained in terms of this universally common entity

MORAL ABSOLUTISM

the position that there are universal ethical standards that apply to actions regardless of context

MORAL RELATIVISM

the belief that what might be true or right for one person or group need not be true for another person or group; all truths are of equal value and our knowledge or truth is a matter of point-of-view

NARRATIVE VIEW OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

the theory that individuals form personal identities through combining their life experiences into a narrative that they continue therefore creating the sense of purpose in life

NIRVANA

the Buddhist belief in a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth

NOBLE LIE

a “justifiably good” lie that is told as a way of maintaining social peace, benefitting society, etc.

NOUMENA

“a thing as it is in itself”, as distinct from a thing as it is knowable by the senses (Kant)

OBJECTIVE

a detached view that focuses on facts in a way largely independent of the knower’s personal perspective, and that expects to be corroborated by a knowledge community

OBJECTIVITY ILLUSION

the tendency of people to see themselves as more impartial, more insightful, and less biased than others

OCCAM’S RAZOR

explanations of unknown phenomena are sought first in terms of known quantities (i.e. the simplest explanation is probably correct)

OPTICAL ILLUSION

a misleading image that is often perceived in a manner differing from the original intent/reality

OVERVIEW EFFECT

a change in awareness when relative experiences are compared (an astronaut seeing Earth being very small compared to the Sun, the universe, etc.)

PARADIGM

the set of rules and conditions in our brain that a person uses to interpret and understand sensory experience; a way of thinking

PARADIGM SHIFT

a major change in the worldview, concepts, and practices of how something works or is accomplished

PERCEPTION

the process by which we select and organise sensory data to recognize meaningful objects and events

PERSONAL IDENTITY KNOWLEDGE CYCLE

the effect in which our knowledge grows and identity develops as our experiences broaden

PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE

the knowledge we have though our own experiences and personal involvement

PERSPECTIVE/WORLDVIEW

the vantage point from which observe our reality

PHANERON

the real world filtered by our sensory input

PHENOMENA

an observable event; “the thing appearing to view” (Kant)

PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE

knowing how to do something but possibly finding it hard to explain it to someone else (first-hand knowledge)

PRACTICAL/MATERIAL TOOLS

devices used to complement or enhance our cognition

PRAGMATIC THEORY OF TRUTH

we assess the validity of a ‘truth’ depending on how useful - pragmatic - it is to believe in that ‘truth.’ (truths can only be discovered through interaction with the world)

PROBABILITY THEORY

the extent to which an event is likely to occur

PROPAGANDA

the deliberate manipulation of information in order to influence what people think, usually for political purposes

RATIONALISM

a school of thought that relies on deduction and logic rather than sensory experience to determine truth. In other words, the belief that the rational mind is the best way to know something. If you are a rationalist, you believe that your mind is more trustworthy than your senses.

REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS (RLS)

or incidents from reality, which serve as starting points for our investigations into ourselves as knowers and into the areas of knowledge, and are used to explain and justify our knowledge claims and counterclaims

REALISM

the view that most of the objects that populate the world exist independently of our thought and have their natures independently of how, if at all, we conceive of them through our cognitive bias

RELATIVITY

recognizing that knowledge claims are dependent on contextual factors or frames of reference

RETRIBUTION

punishment inflicted in response to an action

SAMSARA

the Hindu belief in a continuous cycle in which the soul is reborn over and over again according to the law of action and reaction. At death many Hindus believe the soul is carried by a subtle body into a new physical body which can be a human or non-human form (an animal or divine being)

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested

SELECTIVE ATTENTION

the process of directing our awareness to relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the environment (bottleneck analogy)

SELF-LICKING ICE CREAM CONE

a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself; a positive feedback loop

SENSATION

the process by which our sensory apparatus (receptors and nervous system) capture stimuli (or stimulus energies) from the environment

SENTIENT BEING

In Buddhism, sentient beings are beings with consciousness, sentience, or in some contexts life itself. Sentient beings are composed of the five aggregates, or skandhas

SIMULACRA

the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time (Baudrillard); this idea claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality

SIMULATION

copies that depict things that either had no original, or that no longer have an original (Baurdillard)

SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS

proposes that all of existence might be a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation which convinces its inhabitants that the simulation is "real"

SKEPTIC

an ancient or modern philosopher who denies the possibility of knowledge, or even rational belief, in some sphere

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

our identity is defined by the groups, knowledge communities, and knowledge tribes we belong to, so we may be perceived differently according to our membership in these groups, which in turn shapes our sense of self

SOLIPSISM

an epistemological position that claims knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind

SUBJECTIVE

a personal view influenced by the knower’s feelings, opinions, or emotions

SYLLOGISM

an instance of a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed propositions (premises), each of which shares a term with the conclusion, and shares a common or middle term not present in the conclusion (e.g., all dogs are animals; all animals have four legs; therefore all dogs have four legs)