ToK Essay Titles as Philosophy..,

I know that ToK is not Philosophy, and I know that it's bad form to use the term 'philosophy' when talking about ToK, and I know that you don't have to be a philosophy teacher / student to teach / learn ToK.

BUT

there do seem to be some interesting philosophy parallels, and I'm interested in philosophy - so here goes...,

Q1: Is replicability necessary?

I'm certainly seeing Black Swans and White Swans (thank you Mr Popper), but I'm also asking - maybe this is the classical logic of truth functions in philosophy. (remember those afternoons in Logic 101 pondering that if all men wear a blue hat, Sam wears a blue hat, is Sam a man?)

or is it an ends vs means question (without the ethical - moral implications)?

Q2 - Is the explained or unexplained more important?

Is this Schrodinger's Cat?

or is this Rumsfeld's Known Knowns, Known Unknowns and unknown unknowns?

Is it Realism vs Anti-realism?

Or is it Empiricism vs Rationalism, are all of the questions empiricism vs rationalism?

Q3 - Do bubbles matter ?

I'm imagining a tree falling in an empty forest without anyone there to see, or maybe hear it.

Or am I hearing aSocratic dialogue on the relationship between ignorance and evil, and the involuntary nature of evil acts ?

Or is this Plato's and Pareto's Elite Theory ?

Q4 - Are we astonished that so little knowledge can give us so much power?

I'm seeing angels dancing on a pinhead, but that's not actually philosophy, nor ToK.

I'm seeing more map metaphors and low hanging fruit metaphors.

Is this the Process Philosophy vs Substance Metaphysics? Sort of Dewey & James vs Quine & Schaffer?

Q5 - Are visual representations helpful in the communication of knowledge.

Do I see the metaphor of the map sailing back over the horizon..., oh long lost metaphor how we have missed you! Where did you go?

Or maybe it's about Structuralism, Semiotics, Sign and Symbol - Levi-Strauss come forth and elucidate, illuminate and educate!

Q6 Does methodology determines knowledge produced?

This is empiricism - rationalism, it's got to be that old chestnut- is knowledge discovered, or is it constructed ? Judging by views on my videos this is the least popular ToK Question this year, yet in my opinion it's the easiest question posed. Maybe our ToK students love a challenge !

Maybe it's Foundationalism vs Coherentism, I'm sort of drawn to the idea that it's about the degree and form of justification required to consider something as knowledge.

End thoughts

I apologise if I have missed some glaringly obvious philosophical question, my excuse is that my degree is in Economics, not Philosophy. If I have missed some obvious philosophy I would love for you to add your thoughts and insight in the comments section.

I initially posed this post as a bit of fun, however as a ToK teacher I have always found it useful to look at some of the philosophy behind the questions. It helps me to give more advice to students on the sorts of sub-questions that could extend their thinking. It also helps me to guide them in developing counterclaims.

If you want to watch my videos on the M23 titles they can be found at this link.

If you want a guide on how to write the ToK Essay - check out our e-book (linked).

If you want to know about the ToK of the individual Essays check out the blog posts (there's one for each essay)

If people are interested I can put together a post going into more detail on the philosophical questions mentioned in this post, just let me know.

Enjoy your ToK writing and thinking,
Daniel,
Lisbon, Dec 22