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Nov 08 May 09 title #1


ibi

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Hi

i am not really sure of what the interpretation of this title is...can you please help me..

its prescribed title #1

"Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks: but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house" (henri Poincare). Discuss in relation to science and atleast on other area of knowledge.

Edited by ibi
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  • 1 month later...

I'm doing that title for my TOK essay as well.

My interpretation of it is that an accumlulation of facts mean nothing unless it is put together.

So far my only science example is in chemistry where I talk about the periodic table and basically how it won't make sense unless you piece the information together to get how they derive the periodic properties and all that other stuff. My other example is in art where I talk about how it's not just playing the written notes in music but also trying to explore the emotions and senses captivated inside them.

If anyone has any other good ideas for me, feel free to let me know :(

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What would be a good amount of sciene examples?

can someone help me with that? plzzz

for this title since it asks about science and another area of knowledge i think you should have a balance between the number of examples you out for both, and the amount depends on what you are writing but try not to over do it in one and slack on the other!!

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Guest syrianstar
I'm trying to write the essay, but i dont know how to start it. PLease tell me how to!??

My first piece of advise to you is......calm down! Panicking about it (truthfully I don't know if you are but from the use of question / exclamation marks I'm guessing you are :) ) is not going to help, so let's take a deep breath here and take a small step at a time.

Secondly you didn't specify what you need help in! What question are you planning to do? Please reply to us and specify, so that we can at least point you in the right direction :)

On a last note though, welcome to IB Survival :)

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Actually, I decided to do this one too.

A key thing that I can tell you is that it's looking for you to "discuss in relation to another area of knowing."

Some areas of knowing are...

-Ehtics

-Mathematics

-Natural Sciences

-History

-Art

-Human Sciences

All in all, they're looking for a comparison essay about the structure of science when compared to the structure of one of the above.

Hope this helped! ^^

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I'm thinking about doing this topic as well and it seems to me they are not looking for a comparative essay... any other opinions on that?

Also what my plan was is to have a bunch of science examples and one or two examples for a few other areas of knowledge because it asks for AT LEAST one other are... good idea?

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  • 4 weeks later...

hey...i'm also planning to do my ToK essay on the above topic....but how should i tackle it??? i am logical and science oriented and hence can only cite examples from science, however, the topic requires atleast two different perspectives.....soo how should i go about it???

Edited by Vasundhra
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Just a general discussion...I did mine on this title...my first draft received a bare B... :) ...

my breakdown was 6-6-5-6 (yes i know it's pretty bad)

I basically just referred science as a pile of bricks and made comparisons with the building of the cell theory, how different people contributed facts and the order...as well as the Pythagorean theorem...one of my counterclaims is that disorganised facts can be science as well (using my G4 thought process as example)...

any random thoughts as to how you would approach it? or give me some ideas to improve my grade...

please and thank you!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, I have almost decided this topic now! Our teacher demand of us to find at least 3-4 knowledge issues from the title we've decided. Anyone having any ideas for this? A knowledge issue is something we have to know to answer the question. I thought somehting like: what is it you need beside facts? Any more ideas?

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To be honest, I think the question in itself is a bit vague... It say "discuss in relation to science", but there are two types of sciences in TOK; natural sciences and human sciences. Most people tend to forgot about human sciences when referring to the word "science", simply because human sciences is an uncommon everyday term. For instance, a person who does not take TOK would not understand the relationship between psychology, economics and anthropology. So the big QUESTION is, are we suppose to discuss this quotation in relation to both sciences and another area of knowing? or is it enough by choosing ONE of these sciences and something else. :)

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Well, having already passed through TOK, I'd have to say that a title like this is one of those titles that gives you the opportunity to write a really terrible paper, because you could mess it up badly. By science I'm 99% sure they're talking about physical sciences, because those are really the only ones where you get to talk about the culmination of facts and evidence.

You would probably be best off choosing one science and one area of knowledge, life, for example, picking physics and discussing how logic can be used with it. In general, scientific facts are scientific discoveries, but at that point, they are simply empirical evidence for a nonexistent theory. So, you would probably need to talk about building models consisting of logical relations between different facts, and how simply knowing one piece of a science would be insufficient. I'd probably choose to start an essay by showing how a culmination of random facts is useless, and then go in to how they can be used to build something.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I would also relate the question to the ways of knowing. What I mean is that for Sciences to be built from facts your first need perception (to acquire these facts) and then reason. Facts alone without reason seem useless for me; if they are not processed in some way they will not build anything. This is my opinion, I hope it is useful for your essay.

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