Does art have to have meaning? Conversely, if something is meaningless, can it be art?

By Charis Ow 2 B Mr Ballantine Theory of Knowledge Does art have to have meaning? Conversely, if something is meaningless, can it be art? Art is a thing created by an individual using a rare, natural and creative talent. Some people say that it is impossible to define the meaning of art. They could be wrong as if it couldn't be defined, then the word 'art' would have no value in our language. Since we use it all the time, it must have some meaning to it. Some people say art can be anything and everything. However, if everything is seen as art, then the word 'art' is in danger of losing its meaning because it no longer distinguishes certain things from others. According to the Theory of Knowledge, there are three possible criteria of what is classified as an art; the creative intentions of the artist, the quality of the work and the response of spectators. Beyond this, everyone's opinion about what art is compiled of differs from each other. An artist is basically a creator of his art. He also is said to create the meaning of his art. He sees an object with his eyes and reveals the beauty in everyday objects. Besides that, he also tells a particular story through his work of art, whether they are his emotions, experiences or maybe his opinions. However, we should truly take into account that it is also possible that the artist refuse to create meanings within his art.

  • Word count: 1146
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. Connect with one area of knowledge

Ray Weagraff 2/10/08 Costello LP IB TOK Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. Connect with one area of knowledge This is a very striking quote because of its complexity and the truth behind it. There have been many sciences throughout the ages that have had a strong basis in facts or what people believed to be facts, but that simply are not true. Two great examples are the discovery of microbiology, bacteria, and the discovery of heliocentrism. It was noted by an ancient Greek philosopher that the sun might be the center of the universe, but it was not until the 16th century that heliocentrism was actually factually proven. So in the mean time much of the world's population was geocentric because of visual observation, and the incorrect facts of the time. So these people did have incorrect facts, but that seems to be what Henri Poincare is getting at. Just because it is firmly rooted in factual evidence, until it can be accurately observed and recorded it is just a jumble of meaninglessness. Microbiology is another great example of this "broken house" phenomena. It was widely though during the Middle Ages that a person getting sick or dying from disease was punishment from god. The Black Death, a pandemic which reached Europe in the 14th century was thought to be god's

  • Word count: 1217
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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Empiricism vs. Rationalism

To what extent is rationalism a more effective way of knowing than empiricism? Rationalism and empiricism could be said to be at either end of a 'way of knowing' spectrum - one relies on the senses whilst the other uses logic and reasoning to determine what is true. One of the main arguments against empiricism is the fact that our senses can be easily deceived. For example, experiments conducted with fruit flavour squash have shown that it was easier for the subjects to identify the correct flavour when the drink had the expected colour. People made errors toward the taste that was expected for a particular colour - an orange-coloured drink that was really cherry-flavoured was often thought to taste like orange; a green coloured cherry drink would taste like lime. In essence, we receive what we expect to receive from our senses. In addition to this, physical faults can affect how or what we interpret through our sensory organs: myopias, deafness, even just wearing gloves - all these restrict our senses and can lead us to come to conclusions based on what we think we know. This can lead to problems when we encounter a problem that does not make sense if we rely on our sight or hearing alone. A classic example of this would be optical illusions such as 'The Elephant with Five Legs' or 'The Impossible Triangle' - they create situations that we know in our heads are

  • Word count: 637
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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Truth is that to which the community ultimately settles down (Charles Peirce). Analyse and evaluate this claim.

Essay 1 "Truth is that to which the community ultimately settles down" (Charles Peirce). Analyse and evaluate this claim. Truth--its definition, its pursuit, its discovery--is central to much of human intellectual activity. One place we look for clues about what is true is in the trends of the community. We may attempt to find it in religion or cultural beliefs, for example, that we have learned from a community that shares these beliefs. We know the earth is round or that war is bad because everyone knows it. 5 Pierce's statement praises this way of knowing, suggesting that community, whatever that community may be, is a key to the search for truth. This suggestion is tied to the idea of a body of human knowledge, the idea that the human race progresses as each community member adds to the world's knowledge, relying on what others have concluded is true and then building on it with his or her own new knowledge. Thus, knowledge is a group pursuit, closely tied to community. 0 There are many types of communities. The whole human race may be thought of as a knowledge community. The smaller group of all scientists is often referred to as the scientific community. Even a ToK class is a kind of community. Depending on what truth we seek, we may tie it to the community of the whole world or to a smaller community that reflects a focus on a particular area of

  • Word count: 1639
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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People need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events (adapted from John Gray, Heresies, 2004). In what ways and to what extent would you say this claim is relevant in at least two areas of knowledge?

"People need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events" (adapted from John Gray, Heresies, 2004). In what ways and to what extent would you say this claim is relevant in at least two areas of knowledge? In my essay I am going to discuss the importance of chaos and order in real life, and to what extent I agree with the title statement. The key concepts of this title is that belief is a necessity in perceiving order in chaotic events, and whether I approve or disapprove with this statement I shall evident my claim through two areas of knowledge. My claim is that belief is important to perceive order, and that it is necessary for people to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events, because the order is relying on the basis of belief and without believing the order will not be perceptible. This claim is relevant in all areas of knowledge as the chaos theory can be applied to all knowledge, but my main focus will primarily involve history and environmental science as my two areas of knowledge that will be viewed from perception and reason as my ways of knowing. The knowledge issues that are present are taken out of two real life situations, the first real life situation would be a prognosis of upcoming weather conditions, and the second, the Mayan civilization's foreshadowing of future events. The issues that are raised in this essay will be

  • Word count: 1835
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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Many differences and similarities can be seen whist taking science and poetry as a way of knowing; however, it is imperative we notice the links between the two as tools for human knowing.

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry it's the exact opposite." (P A M Dirac) Do both the approaches suggested in the quotation enjoy equal success in expanding human knowledge? The expansion of knowledge is many a person's main goal. Like most goals, expanding knowledge ("familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study"1) can be attained via many paths. These paths, or ways of knowing, include, among other channels, two very important, seemingly conflicting ones: science (a methodological activity, discipline, or study) and poetry (a piece of literature written in meter or verse). In order to explore each discipline's success in expanding knowledge their differences, similarities, links, and impacts must be explored. A difference that lies between the two could be in how each one serves in creating acceptable truths. Scientific truths, for example, are discovered while poetic truths are arbitrated. The former are known to already exist, as scientists seek them, while poetic ones are infinite and created via mediation. In science, there are facts (which are agreed upon and irrefutable) while in poetry nothing is "correct" or "accurate" (since unlike science, poetry has many conflicting views on truth and knowledge). Usually a scientist does not

  • Word count: 965
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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Does language help or hinder the way we acquire knowledge?

Theory of Knowledge Does language help or hinder the way we acquire knowledge? Language is something that humans have used almost since the beginning. It is combination of sound that is used to communicate between people one of the fundamental parts of a community. It is something that is incredibly important to us. Our language allows us to do many things. We use it to express our thoughts, connect with others and also for our knowledge. In these ways, language makes things a lot easier for us in facilitating our thoughts and helping to develop them as well. In fact, it can be argued that thinking requires having a natural mental language, such as English. We think in this language, and without such a language, much of our thought would make no sense. Therefore much of our knowledge acquisition is mostly based on our language. We acquire knowledge through the guidance from parents, role models, school and teachers and life experiences. However, learning from one's own experience is only part of how we learn and acquire knowledge, the rest is mainly language based. The majority of our knowledge is actually acquired from communication with others. Much of what we learn is in fact knowledge passed down or taught to us through language. Therefore, language is something used by humans as a way to make things easier in the acquiring of a language. Knowledge is widely based

  • Word count: 821
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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How Things Really Are

Sriharsha Kota Mr. Hurdle IB Theory of Knowledge 4 March 2007 How Things Really Are "In order to find out how things really are, one must understand the filters through which one perceives the world." Men observe the world around them through the ways of knowing: emotion, reason, language and perception. It is through these means that men study the areas of knowledge. In the world in which we live, our fundamental beliefs and where we grow up create filters through which we will experience in our lives. Filters are the mediums through which an object passes through and is then sorted out. In this case, that which passes through our "filters" would be the perceptions of our world. To successfully analyze this quote, the language within the claim must be examined. The structure of language in this claim will strongly influence how it is comprehended by the reader. One major item that must be discussed is the concept of reality. Reality, according to The Random House Unabridged Dictionary, is "that which exists independently from all other things and from all other things that are derived." The way that I interpret this is that reality is what you do not and cannot distinguish, as opposed to what you believe to be reality. Perception is what you interpret and is how the brain conceives the concept of reality. Ergo, this is the way we "see".

  • Word count: 1270
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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TOK Essay 2009 - We see the world not as it is but as who we are.

Paul Chun (19) 5.12 Proverbs Mock Theory of Knowledge Essay 2009 We may live in the same world but we are unique individuals that come from different cultural backgrounds, have different upbringing and personal life experiences. These factors will form our worldview, which is part of us and what we already know. Worldview is important, as it will lead to compromises within our ways of knowing, such as perception, language, emotion and reason. Hence, we will not understand things 'as they are', which means pure, unbiased understanding by objectively viewing things just the way it is. We may all physically 'see' the same things but we will understand things 'as we are'. This is because our ways of knowing will influence our interpretations and become part of what we observe, resulting in having different understanding and various truth claims. Thus, in my TOK essay, it will be shown that it is inevitable that we will make subjective interpretations due to differences in our worldviews and the shortcomings of our ways of knowing. Firstly, I will discuss how perception affects the way we 'see and understand' the world. Being different individuals, we will have our respective personal experiences and thoughts, and different perceptions of certain things in our minds, which alter our objectivity. Coming from different backgrounds, we are influenced by our own surrounding areas

  • Word count: 1445
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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Theory of Knowledge; Scientific Methods Essay.

Theory of Knowledge; Scientific Methods Essay The science is one of the important things in our life. There are basically 3 scientific methods to know and learn something. Those scientific methods are called "The Basic Scientific Method", "Falsificationism" and the "Scientific Revolution". Each of these scientific methods has their own benefits and problems. First, I will talk about "The Basic Scientific Method". It is a popular way to accept knowledge. We observe something first, then we make some generalizations and theories. Then finally we explain based on information that we collected from observations. For example, Isaac Newton found the law of universal gravitation by saw an apple dropping from a tree. The Basic Scientific Method is simple and good way to understand many things but on the other hand, this scientific method has several problems. In those problems, one of the serious problems is the perceptional problem. Human's senses often deceive us. Our sense of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching are not perfect. If we can't collect true information from our observations, future steps become meaningless. Therefore we have to be careful when we observe something using our senses. Next, I will introduce the second scientific method called "Falsificationism". This method is exactly opposite with "The Basic Scientific Method". In "Falsificationism", we

  • Word count: 617
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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