" En largissant le champ de la connaissance, ne faisons nous pas tendre lhorizon de lignorance ?" Henry Miller. Est-ce vrai?

" En élargissant le champ de la connaissance, ne faisons nous pas étendre l'horizon de l'ignorance ?" Henry Miller. Est-ce vrai? Sur un plan imaginatif, il est possible de comparer le champ de la connaissance au champ de la vision. Ce dernier se limite par la ligne de l'horizon qui sépare le monde visible du monde invisible aux yeux de l'observateur. Cette limite reste inatteignable. Si nous essayons de l'approcher, elle s'éloigne de la même distance. Elle nous échappe. Le monde visible peut-être assimilé au champ de la connaissance limité par l'horizon de l'ignorance qui le démarque du monde inconnu. L'agrandissement du champ de la connaissance réduit-il le domaine de l'ignorance ou simplement repousse - t - il l'horizon plus loin. Est-ce que l'élargissement de la connaissance diminue l'ignorance ou l'augmente? Aujourd'hui encore il y a un nombre infini d'éléments et de questions dont nous ignorons l'existence ou la réponse. L'apprentissage de la connaissance apporte de nouvelles questions auxquelles nous devrions répondre et souvent ces réponses sont inexistantes. C'est ce qu'affirme, Henry Miller (1) (1891-1980), le romancier américain. Il est reconnu pour son écriture scandaleuse et critique. Il a engendré de nombreuses polémiques par la critique d'une Amérique puritaine et hypocrite. La connaissance de l'être humain reste prisonnière des

  • Word count: 1608
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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" For some people science is the supreme form of knowledge. Is this view reasonable or does it involve a misunderstanding of science or of knowledge?"

Theory of Knowledge Essay QINISELA HOWARD VUNDHLA June 2004 " For some people science is the supreme form of knowledge. Is this view reasonable or does it involve a misunderstanding of science or of knowledge?" Different people hold different beliefs on certain scientific concepts or other areas of knowledge. These scientific beliefs are mostly affected by our certain past experiences or tremendous discoveries and other great inventions. Of course we obtain some of the best knowledge from applied sciences but it certainly is not the supreme form of knowledge. To one person science might be the supreme form of knowledge whereas on the other hand it may slightly involve a misunderstanding of science as a whole or knowledge. First to begin with we need to clarify what is meant by the term science and knowledge. Basically science is the study of the natural world through observation, identification, description, experimental investigation and theoretical explanations or in simple terms the branch of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method. So there is a general link between science and knowledge. So what is knowledge? What do we mean by knowing something? Before we answer these questions about the nature of science and knowledge we need to ask some more questions like: * What is

  • Word count: 769
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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"...we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology." (Noam Chomsky) To what extent would you agree?

Katedralskolan Uppsala Katedralskolan, Uppsala IB School Code: 1291 Session: May 2008 Theory of knowledge Supervisor: Göran Ericsson ToK Essay 5. "...we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels than from scientific psychology." (Noam Chomsky) To what extent would you agree? Zack Lindahl Candidate code: 1291-037 Word count: 1550 Date: 2008 02 10 Zack Lindahl, 1291-037 The novel genre is per definition written fiction. The scientific study of behaviour and the mind, psychology, is based on research methods such as observations, case studies and experiments. At a glance, the main difference between these is that psychological methods are describing human personality through more or less empirical methods. In short, psychology is based on experience. However, despite the label of fiction, novels are often not branded as purely conjecture, but often attempts to realistically display human personality, based on the author's own experience. The naturalist author Emile Zola explained in his foreword of Thérèse Raquin that his aim was to observe how different personalities reacted to each other. It seems that personality can be showed in both psychology and literature. However, can human personality be reliably portrayed in these media? According to the quote, the term knowledge will refer to the knowledge about human personality only.

  • Word count: 1631
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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"A prayer for Owen Meany". Owen Meany is familiar with smoking and simple boyish behavior, however he possess what others utterly lack: firm and unflagging belief in the existence of God

Owen Meany is one of the most fascinating characters in the story; natural tiny size of his body, but biggest soul and fortitude are harmonically combined in this character. He is thus the representation of the natural and supernatural, the holiness and mystery. Owen Meany is so light, that all his classmates could lift him up, so wise, that he could foretell his fate and so clumsy, that one awkward baseball shot, made by Owen killed his best friend's mother. Developing a Christ-like character, John Irving does not intend to reach perfection and idealism: Owen Meany is familiar with smoking and simple boyish behavior, however he possess what others utterly lack: firm and unflagging belief in the existence of God, who charged him with special mission. This strong principle overcomes all the doubts and leads to a "miracle", that undoubtedly has influence on John Wheelwright. Owen Meany just as a Christ visualizes his death and devotionally habituates to it. Symbolism in the novel is one of the most effective and important strategies that the author uses. Owen, himself, is depicted as a divine being: he is literally a fragile male miniature with a falsetto high voice, strong will and developed opinions. Owen is the symbol of Jesus, a medium between God and Mankind. Likewise, Owen constantly exclaims: "I AM GOD'S INSTRUMENT." There is a reference to

  • Word count: 634
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: World Literature
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"A Simple Heart" by Gustav Flaubert fallows the life and times of a servant girl named Felicit.

"A Simple Heart" by Gustav Flaubert fallows the life and times of a servant girl named Felicité. The protagonist is a hardworking, good-hearted, poor and uneducated woman named Félicité. The duration of A Simple Heart has a common theme of loss. Through her experiences we learn that loss is ineveitable, even if you do nothing wrong. The positive is the redemption to her losses is an angelic afterlife. We see the protagonist Félicité constantly have to face abandonement of a beloved character several times. The author suggests a beautiful redemption to her life, as her faith and goodness is saved by her beloved parrot. Félicité was portrayed as a pure and loving character and receives a deserved end to her life. The story begins with Félicité serving as a hardworking and diligent servant for Madame Aubain. She is a good and caring servant, and even gets along with Madame Aubain, who isn't easy to work with. Her present state becomes surprising for the reader when they are told of her traumatizing past. At a young age both her mother and father die, she is also separated from her sister and left to fend for herself. She is taken in as working hand on a farm where is abused and eventually evicted due to a false crime. She was very young and that must have left a deep wound to her. Another occupation on a farm is given to her, which is where she meets Theodore and

  • Word count: 950
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: World Literature
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"After Apple-picking" by Robert Frost

After Apple-picking by Robert Frost > Symbolisms: The "apple": In this poem, Robert Frost uses the symbol of picking apples to represent the speaker's hard work and decisions throughout his life. In the Bible, the apple symbolizes knowledge; this analogy reinforces the knowledge gained from the speaker's life experiences. "My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree/Toward heaven still" emphasizes that the act of picking apples can be interpreted as something related to religion. In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Eve was tempted by a snake to eat the forbidden fruit of the apple because the snake convinced her that eating it would make her more knowledgeable than God. This story can be related to the poem because when Eve eats the apple, she can go up the "ladder to heaven" because she is "omniscient" enough to do so. A freshly picked apple could also symbolize opportunities in one's life. In the poem, the speaker does not successfully pick all the apples, this shows that there were a lot of opportunities in his life that he never accomplished. "Apples I didn't pick upon some bough/But I am done with apple-picking now" show that the speaker is quick to give up on the opportunities he was offered during his life. The imagery of the thousands of apples that struck the earth and became bruised also means that the speaker has wasted a lot of opportunities in his

  • Word count: 1030
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Languages
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"All other Ways of Knowing are controlled by language."

"All other Ways of Knowing are controlled by language." What does this statement mean and do you think it is a fair representation of the relationship between perception, emotion, reason and language? Xavier Davidson 8 November, 2008 Mr. Mathews IB Theory of Knowledge Period 6 Word Count: 1516 "All other Ways of Knowing are controlled by language." What does this statement mean and do you think it is a fair representation of the relationship between perception, emotion, reason and language? Language influences the way we think, the way we act and even the choices that we make in life. This prompt, however, asserts that language "controls" emotion, reason and perception (also known as the Ways of Knowing). The aim of this essay will be to assess what this prompt means and then to evaluate how fair a representation it is of the relationship between our four Ways of Knowing. Along the way we'll encounter several knowledge issues dealing with the nature of language and the limitations inherent in each of the four Ways of Knowing. The meaning of this statement depends, of course, on the meaning of the verb "control." If I control something, it cannot act without my explicit directions. There are, of course, degrees of control in the world of human affairs; one look at my bedroom shows that my parents assert some degree of control over me, but nowhere near as much

  • Word count: 1703
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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"As Beloved drains Paul D and Sethe, her animated, ghostly frame becomes the embodiment of the traumatic past and the embodied threat of the past's intrusion on the future" Discuss this statement.

"As Beloved drains Paul D and Sethe, her animated, ghostly frame becomes the embodiment of the traumatic past and the embodied threat of the past's intrusion on the future." Discuss this statement in relation to your understanding of Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved". Beloved is the catalyst of all the disaster at 124. But instead of Morrison making Beloved an obvious evil presence, she writes in such a way that the reader is able to sympathise, not only with Sethe and the other characters of the novel, but Beloved herself as she too is an indirect victim of slavery. Beloved has her life taken by her mother, Sethe, who justifies the killing as a means to escape the world of slavery. This is ironic in itself, as the slave owners look down on the black race, so Sethe is just killing one of her own which the slave owners see as vermin. If the child dies through the hands of her mother then this is defiance to school teacher for Sethe, as if she doesn't kill her then Beloved will probably be tortured as a slave to the white people if she lives. Sethe is fixed on killing her children but only manages to kill Beloved, who at the time did not have a name as she has only just been born. Morrison portrays Sethe's decision to kill her children in such a way that the reader can almost see the justification, but at the same time, throughout the novel she makes

  • Word count: 1423
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: World Literature
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"Context is All"

"Context is all" (Margaret Atwood). Does this mean that there is no such thing as truth? When addressing this question it's important that I explain what I understand by the words context and truth. My view of the word context is something (such as time or setting) that surrounds a particular event and that can alter its meaning. Truth is what happened in reality. There are two types of truth. The first one is my truth: it's what I believe it's true. For example I might say that if we laugh a lot throughout the day we'll sleep better. That is my truth only, since someone else might not believe that. Whether or not the rest of the people believe this, the truth will always be mine. In this case I think that context does not influence what I believe in; therefore in this case context doesn't affect truth. The second type of truth is universal truth. This is the truth that everyone in the world believes in. In my opinion there are few if none universal truths since not everyone agrees on something and these truths all depend on the context. For example consider this statement. "10 out of 10 people die". According to scientists that statement is true to them. It's thought to be a universal truth. However in the world there will be someone who believes that we don't die. Maybe even in some region on Earth various people believe that we never die. We also have to take into

  • Word count: 1021
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Theory of Knowledge
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"Die Kraniche des Ibykus" German A2 Commentary

Die Kraniche des Ibykus Die Kraniche des Ibykus wurde im Jahre 1797 geschrieben, von Friedrich Schiller, einer des berühmtesten deutschen Schriftstellers. In dieser Ballade sieht man seine Interesse für die Antike, in dieser Ballade Griechenland, was man mit Goethe vergleichen kann, ein anderer Schriftsteller in Schillers Zeit. In Die Kraniche des Ibykus ist ein Schriftsteller unterwegs zu den Isthmischen Spielen und wird vor Korinth ermordet. Das ganze griechische Volk trauert um ihn und will die Mörder verurteilen. Leider war keiner Zeuge des Mordes, ausser einem Kranichzug, was über die Szene rüber flog. Während den Spielen fliegen die Kraniche über das Publikum. Die Mörder entlarven sich dann selbst, indem sie "Die Kraniche des Ibykus" ausrufen. Sie werden dann bevor den Richter gebracht und verurteilt. Die Antike spielt eine wichtige Rolle in dieser Ballade, nicht nur weil sie dort spielt, aber auch wegen den Göttern und in diesem Fall, wegen dem Schriftsteller, der den sogenannten Helden spielt, obwohl er uns ganz früh in der Geschichte verlässt. Der Schriftsteller ist auf dem Weg zu den Isthmischen Spielen, was fast wie die Olympiade war in der Zeit, für Schriftsteller und andere Künstler zum Beispiel Musiker. In der antiken Zeitepoche war Kunst und Literatur besonders wichtig, darum reagiert das Volk so erschrocken und wütend. Für die Griechen war

  • Word count: 1021
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Languages
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