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Favourite Prescribed Title


llamaonumas

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  • 3 months later...

Hi,

So we have to decide which TOK prescribed title we want to write about for our essays.

I'm a little stumped as to which would be best.

Any opinions?

1. Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Evaluate this statement in two areas of knowledge

2. Compare and contrast knowledge which can be expressed in words/symbols with knowledge that cannot be expressed in this way. Consider CAS and one or more areas of knowledge.

3.Using history and at least one other area of knowledge, examine the claim that it is possible to attain knowledge despite problems of bias and selection.

4. When should we discard explanations that are intuitively appealing?

5. What is it about theories in the human sciences and natural sciences that makes them convincing?

6. 'It is more important to discover new ways of thinking about what is already known than to discover new data or facts'. To what extend would you agree with this claim?

7. 'The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know'. Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge.

8. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram.

9.As an IB student, how has your learning of literature and science contributed to your understand of individuals and societies?

10. 'Through different methods of justification, we can reach conclusions in ethics that are as well-supported as those provided in mathematics.' To what extent would you agree?

So which do you think sounds appealing?

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I think that 4 and 7 are the best ones to answer. :P

Titles 2, 8 and 9 I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. 2 and 9 because you'll have to BS an awful lot, and 8 because I'm not even sure if the title isn't a contradiction in definitions from the off :(

The others are all fine, but 4 and 7 seem like titles for which you could have just the right amount to say and decent arguments for and against without having to define anything difficult.

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I think if you study History, question 3 is the way to go! It is extremely related to source evaluation and the 'origins, purpose, values and limitations' of a source which you do for question 3 in Paper 1. If you do statistics in maths, this is a great title too.

If not then generally speaking I would have to agree with Sandwich on question 7.

I think that 4 and 7 are the best ones to answer. :P

Titles 2, 8 and 9 I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. 2 and 9 because you'll have to BS an awful lot, and 8 because I'm not even sure if the title isn't a contradiction in definitions from the off :(

(I think Q8 could actually be a pretty good title but it’s easy to turn the essay into a religious one as opposed to a ToK essay. By contradiction in definitions do you mean 'faith' and 'a basis for knowledge'’? Yeah it does sound a bit odd, I don’t think they've ever had a question regarding religion have they? But then again, maybe that's done on purpose to make people challenge the idea that faith is a way of knowing?)

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  • 2 months later...

I'm just curious to know which title some fellow IB students have picked. Coincidentally, our ToK teacher assigned us with No.10 as a graded assignment so most of my classmates might cash that one in as their submition if they are too lazy to pick another prescribed title.

I'm debating between No.5 and No.9.

What about you guys? I'd like to see what everyone else has chosen :).

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I chose #8 “Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso). Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature, theatre).

I was going to do 9, it's an interesting one :)

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Are you asking about the Nov11 - May12 session?

I was tossing up between the same ones (in addition to 4) but finally settled for 5, the scientific theories one, and am in the process of writing my first draft at the moment :blink:

It's.. going just swimmingly. Ahem.

I chose 5 because I'm quite a science based student I suppose, which was a bit why I think 9 appealed as well. There's definitely a lot to write about with this one! I'm only a few paragraphs in but it's looking to be wayyyy too long! Ah well, better than nothing for a first draft :)

Edit: Woahhh, yesterday the thread I posted on started at Shelley Tsui. So that's probably why my post might look a little odd..

Edited by ZiggyM
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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

I want help with TOK. Which one do you think is the easiest topic of the following.

Thanks! :blush:

TOK essay titles for Nov 2011 and May 2012

1. Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Evaluate this statement in two areas of knowledge.

2. Compare and contrast knowledge which can be expressed in words/symbols with knowledge that cannot be expressed in this way. Consider CAS and one or more areas of knowledge.

3. Using history and at least one other area of knowledge, examine the claim that it is possible to attain knowledge despite problems of bias and selection.

4. When should we discard explanations that are intuitively appealing?

5. What is it about theories in the human sciences and natural sciences that makes them convincing?

6. ‘It is more important to discover new ways of thinking about what is already known than to discover new data or facts’. To what extent would you agree with this claim?

7. ‘The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know’. Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge.

8. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram.

9. As an IB student, how has your learning of literature and science contributed to your understanding of individuals and societies?

10. ‘Through different methods of justification, we can reach conclusions in ethics that are as well-supported as those provided in mathematics.’ To what extent would you agree?

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I went through 2-3 titles before deciding on number 3 :) I tried writing number 5, number 7 and I did a plan for number 1, but decided 3 was a good option, and I got predicted a very high B on my draft, so that's not too bad :) I wouldn't say it was easier, but as it related to me personally and it corresponded with what I am interested in and what I want to do, it nearly wrote itself... at 3am one fine Sunday morning...

But seriously, 3 is a good title. 7 is also a very good title if, like any IB student, you study a second language, and perhaps speak a third. Very good title also :)

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The essay hasn't been assigned yet for us (we write ours in IB2) but from these titles I'm planning to write mine on title 7 ('The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know'. Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge). We covered language in class a lot and looked at many examples, and for me it was the easiest and most interesting. I'll probably end up doing #7 in the end.

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Hi all,

I want help with TOK. Which one do you think is the easiest topic of the following.

Thanks! :blush:

TOK essay titles for Nov 2011 and May 2012

1. Knowledge is generated through the interaction of critical and creative thinking. Evaluate this statement in two areas of knowledge.

2. Compare and contrast knowledge which can be expressed in words/symbols with knowledge that cannot be expressed in this way. Consider CAS and one or more areas of knowledge.

3. Using history and at least one other area of knowledge, examine the claim that it is possible to attain knowledge despite problems of bias and selection.

4. When should we discard explanations that are intuitively appealing?

5. What is it about theories in the human sciences and natural sciences that makes them convincing?

6. ‘It is more important to discover new ways of thinking about what is already known than to discover new data or facts’. To what extent would you agree with this claim?

7. ‘The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know’. Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge.

8. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram.

9. As an IB student, how has your learning of literature and science contributed to your understanding of individuals and societies?

10. ‘Through different methods of justification, we can reach conclusions in ethics that are as well-supported as those provided in mathematics.’ To what extent would you agree?

Well,I thought 1,2,4 and 5 were impossible ,personally.

A lot of my friends did 3 and its gone quite well.If I had ever studied history,that would have been a no brainer.

My favourites are numbers 7,8 and 6.I tried all of these and struggled.I settled for number 9.10 isn't bad.I just didnt find it that interesting/practical

:)

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I myself first chose title #6 but then I thought it was too difficult, so then I tried to look into other titles...

I thought of doing title #4 (this one I like the most but I don't know much about it), #8 (because it's quite focused) and #10 (because it involves math lol). but at the end I changed to #7, because #4 was too difficult for me, and #8 and #10 involve ethics/religion which is complex IMO so I opted for #7, which only involves language stuffs.

so I've written 3 paragraphs on #7 but I came to think that it's so much related to literature, which I'm not so good at, and coincidentally #1 interests me so much at that time so I changed to #1.

now that I'm writing my essay, I come to think that #1 isn't as easy as I thought it'd be... but I hope I could still manage to write on it. if not I think my TOK teacher wouldn't allow me to change title again haha

PS. #3 seems a bit interesting but too bad I'm not taking History so yeah...

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  • 2 months later...

Okay so I have to start writing my TOK Essay and I don't have much time to explore all 10 questions and find one that best works for me. So I kind of need your thoughts on which one of the topics do you think is the easiest to work with?

I kind of liked no.5 "What is it about theories in the human sciences and natural sciences that makes them convincing?"

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  • 1 month later...

7. 'The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know'. Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge.

is actually the ****test title. you have to go through and talk about personal definitions and talk about lost in translation sort of stuff. Ah, that was a horrible experience writing that.

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I really really love #8, but I know from instinct that I should stay far far away from that question. As one of my friends put it, it's the type of question where you either ace it or you get a C. @_@ I'm currently settling for #5 but since we just started working on our essays, I could up and change if I like. :D

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