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How to broaden your knowledge

Updated on September 24, 2013

Let's play TOK...

We believe that in an age where you're bombarded from every direction with all sorts of information and knowledge, it can sometimes very disorientating and hard to adapt your head to everything that's going on.

What matters is that you train your mind to become as supple and flexible as an athlete's body. Some people call it 'brain gym'; we prefer to call it 'TOK talk': the power of decent discussion to get the mind exercised and infinitely adaptable to the world of knowledge with which it is confronted.

So every now and then, we'll set up a debate to get you all talking and thinking!

These will be loosely based around some of the Prescribed TOK Essay titles, so at least you'll get some sort of focused enquiry (argument and counter argument) into the issues that really matter to you.

Just see - your mind will start to open up to a whole new realm of possibility...

TOK Play 4

Look at this before you start debating...

Watch the opening sequence of the new Star Trek movie, 'Into Darkness'. The scene reworks a similar ethical scenario in the earlier Star Trek movie, 'The Wrath of Khan', in which Kirk is unable to save his friend Spock from death: logic wins out over reason here. However, in the new version, Kirk follows his emotions and saves Spock, breaking the Prime Directive in his wake...

TOK Debate #4 - TOK about the big question of the day...

This debate is based loosely on Q2 of the TOK Essays May2014 list. In the action opening, Spock is stranded in the heart of a volcano which is about to explode; Kirk and the ship are bound by the Prime Directive not to reveal themselves to the indigenous population, not to mention the fact that the ship and crew might also be annihilated in the volcanic explosion. Now Spock, consistent with his Vulcan logic, argues that the Captain must stick to the Federation rules of the Prime Directive; Kirk only has one emotion: to save the life of a friend. In a last desperate plea, Spock presents his now famous line to shore up his argument: ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’.

When is it justified to take risks based on emotion? (or 'Would you have saved Spock?)

Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer

TOK Play 3

Look at this before you start debating...

Click on the picture to take you to a short TEDTalk by Michael Shermer entitled 'Why do people believe strange things?' Shermer's talk is humorous, but extremely thought provoking about the nature of evidence and also very lucid about the way science works. His arguments that we are hard wired to recognise faces and are pattern recognising creatures goes a long way to explain why we beleive weird things, but can you find the flaws in them?

TOK Debate #3 - TOK about the big question of the day...

This debate relates to the TOK Essay May 2013 Question 5 - Christopher Hitchens' quote that assertions made without evidence should be dismissed without evidence. It raises the issue of the 'ad ignorantum' fallacy: when I assert that because there is no evidence to support a belief, it must be false; or because I lack evidence to refute a belief, it must be true. For example, 'I believe UFOs don't exist, because no one has proved otherwise' or 'There is no physical evidence to prove God exists. Therefore, God doesn't exist.'

The Big Question: Should assertions about paranormal phenomena be dismissed without evidence?

Stephen Law
Stephen Law

TOK Play 2

Look at this before you start debating...

Click on the image and you'll get to the website of Stephen Law who recently published a book called 'Believing Bullshit: How not to get sucked into an intellectual black hole', Prometheus Books, New York, 2012, 271p. Law specialises in the Philosophy of Religion and has recently presented something he calls 'The Evil God Challenge' which offers a compelling argument against belief in the traditional Christian concpetion of God.

Read the version of Chapter 2 of the book (whatever else, it'll help you with Q2 of the November 2012 TOK Essay List), before going on to the second TOK debate.

TOK Debate #2 - TOK about the big question of the day...

This debate is loosely based around Q2 of the November 2012 TOK Essay Titles about Conan-Doyle's issue with theories and evidence/data.

The Big Question: Is it more rational to believe in Young Earth Creationism or Evolution Theory?

Creationism and Evolution on Amazon

Look up Amazon for resources on the subjects relating to the debate...

Ray Kurzweil and the technological revolution
Ray Kurzweil and the technological revolution

TOK Play 1

Look at this before you start debating...

Click on the picture to go to a short article and video entitled, 'Ray Kurzweil: The Six Epochs of Technology Evolution'. There's a brief profile of Ray Kurzweil, an interesting innovator in the field of Articial Intelligence (AI), followed by a brief discussion of the development of technology in recent years.

After watching the video, go onto the first TOK Debate to debate an issue relating to the video.

TOK Debate #1 - TOK about the big question of the day...

This debate is loosely based on the May 2012 ToK Essay Question 8 about how far religious faith counts as knowledge.

The Big Question: Is technological knowledge more important than religious knowledge?

Technology and Religion on Amazon

Look up Amazon for resources on the subjects relating to the debate...

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