Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing.

[flsweetheart422]

No. Don't, the examiner will kill you.

Lies.

BKnower’s perspective

Criterion B- Knower's Perspective

*To what extent have the knowledge issues relevant to the prescribed title been connected to the student’s own experience as a learner

*Does the student show an awareness of his or her own perspective as a knower in relation to other perspectives, such as those that may arise, for example, from academic and philosophical traditions, culture or position in society (gender, age, and so on)?

*Do the examples chosen show an individual approach consciously taken by the student, rather than mere repetition of standard commonplace cases or the impersonal recounting of sources?

[Negin]

I'm trying to find examples which illustrate confirmation bias in the human and natural sciences, and I seem to have hit a roadblock there.

Ok, let's say some people believe that restricted diets don't work because it shuts down the metabolism (I suppose you can relate this to Biology, but it's just an example). However, you're one of the people who believes that restricted diets do work, and you start looking for evidence to prove your point. What you do is you ignore all the contrary evidence, i.e all the people who claim that their restricted diets failed, and instead look at the cases that follow your belief. That's confirmation bias.

The point is, you get justification, but ignore all the opposing justifications. It's supposed to be a balance of both, but it's biased: it's not.

Hope that helped.

[mad_scientist_999]

Found something else useful for this topic, google Zeno's paradox. It's about reductio ad absurdum and shows the flaw in using purely logical arguments.

Hello, i've been reading your tips and it is very helpful. I am doing the same essay topic (evaluate the strengths and weakness.....)

Do you think it is necessary to include anything about inductive and deductive reasoning? Thanks

[takasta]

guys... your TOK textbook is your best friend lol, i'm doing the same topic but make sure you read the entire bloody reason chapter and i think it'll give you some ideas lol. and yes... you ahve to use inductive / deductive reasoning. Those are the 2 main forms of reasoning... lol.

[Hedron123]

There is a third form of reasoning though.

What is Abduction?

What I call Abduction or Inference to the Best Explanation is a form of inference that follows a pattern like this:

D is a collection of data (facts, observations, givens),

H explains D (would, if true, explain D),

No other hypothesis explains D as well as H does.

--------------------------------------------------------

Therefore, H is probably correct.

The strength of an abductive conclusion will in general depend on several factors, including:

* how good H is by itself, independently of considering the alternatives,

* how decseively H surpasses the alternatives,

* how thorough the search was for alternative explanations, and

* pragmatic considerations, including

o the costs of being wrong and the benefits of being right,

o how strong the need is to come to a conclusion at all, especially considering the possibility of seeking further evidence before deciding.

When I say that the strength of abductive conclusion ``will in general'' depend on these factors I mean that it should depend on these factors, and that insofar as we are intelligent creatures, our conclusions will actually depend on these factors. (This was taken from: http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/lair/Project...abduction.html). I hope it is useful for your essay!

[SharkSpider]

I wrote this title last year and ended up with a predicted 36 on it. What I did was take a look at reason as a whole and develop an opinion. I'm quite rational, so I took that slant, and argued that reason is the only form of knowledge that justifies it's own existence, and that we would suffer more from losing reason than from losing anything else. I also explored the idea that reason is the defining characteristic of humanity as opposed to animality. Great topic choice, but it tends to become purely descriptive, as copying out definitions and explaining them, despite having a very educated philosophical feel, does very little in the way of making an essay.

In any case, I didn't look and induction or abduction at all, I focused on using reason to prove that things are false, and to looking at what limited truths it gives us. Namely, since examples can be used to prove something false with reason, reason should become the voice of dissent when dealing with irrational paradigms, but by itself, reason gives us very little in the way of absolute knowledge. Anyways, reason is too big for one 1600 word essay, so feel free to get in to specifics as long as you can use them to make a coherent argument. Arguably the greatest strenght of reason is that it justifies and improves the use of other senses.

[Toth]

Would it be neat to also add in that reason changes between periods of time, and between locations of civilization?

The reasoning 200 years ago in Greece was may be different than the reasoning 20 years ago in the United States.

And there's also the influence of religion to be factored into people's reason through the years.

[Sophiep]

Would it be neat to also add in that reason changes between periods of time, and between locations of civilization?

The reasoning 200 years ago in Greece was may be different than the reasoning 20 years ago in the United States.

And there's also the influence of religion to be factored into people's reason through the years.

Yeah, I think it is vital, but you need to avoid generalizations.

Do you think that Asperger syndrome may be a good example of presenting a viewpoint of reason without emotions?

[chukky]

For the weaknesses of knowledge can i talk about the fallacies of knowledge..will it be good enuff for 1 paragraph

[Mahuta ♥]

heyy..im new to this forum:D:D

im choosing this topic as well....

i had a list of the things that i should mention....

• Definition of Reason as a way of knowing + examples

• Why is it a way of knowing? Why and when could it be a good one?

• Why and when could it be a bad way of knowing?

• Is it a good idea to use it own without any other way of knowing along?

• What’s so strong about it? What makes people say….”hello?!!? It’s LOGIC”

• Will the absence of reason affect our approach to knowledge? If so, is that what makes is a strong one?

If this helps....or if anyone's teacher says smthng negative about any point please inform me.. ...cuz my teacher is insanely strict....if i have any additions i will tell ya:D

I wrote this title last year and ended up with a predicted 36 on it. What I did was take a look at reason as a whole and develop an opinion. I'm quite rational, so I took that slant, and argued that reason is the only form of knowledge that justifies it's own existence, and that we would suffer more from losing reason than from losing anything else. I also explored the idea that reason is the defining characteristic of humanity as opposed to animality. Great topic choice, but it tends to become purely descriptive, as copying out definitions and explaining them, despite having a very educated philosophical feel, does very little in the way of making an essay.

In any case, I didn't look and induction or abduction at all, I focused on using reason to prove that things are false, and to looking at what limited truths it gives us. Namely, since examples can be used to prove something false with reason, reason should become the voice of dissent when dealing with irrational paradigms, but by itself, reason gives us very little in the way of absolute knowledge. Anyways, reason is too big for one 1600 word essay, so feel free to get in to specifics as long as you can use them to make a coherent argument. Arguably the greatest strenght of reason is that it justifies and improves the use of other senses.

36 is realllyy good....!!!how many bonus points did u get? and please...how many points did u score in IB?

ur arguments are really good and they make sense....but

pleease i need ur help...so basically....when u say "develop an opinion" what do u mean?..like what was urs...i wont use it...dont worry..just want an example..

:innocent:

oh..and if u dnt mind..can u please tell me what sort of references you used? THNX ALOT!!

i desperatly wanna get good...cuz im predicter an A in my presentation..so i wanna hit a B or an A over all....i will be more than greatful for ur time!

Edited February 7, 2009 by mahuta

[NeoChe]

oh..and if u dnt mind..can u please tell me what sort of references you used? THNX ALOT!!

Try Labyrinths of Reason by William Poundstone

[anuskina]

Would it be neat to also add in that reason changes between periods of time, and between locations of civilization?

The reasoning 200 years ago in Greece was may be different than the reasoning 20 years ago in the United States.

And there's also the influence of religion to be factored into people's reason through the years.

Toth, could you please explain a bit how reasoning changes withing time and culture?

I've been trying to find reasons why western society and filosophy is more rationalistic than eastern but the results ive found are not really what i am looking for.

Thank you very much for ur post, it has given me the motivation to finish my essay

[moneyfaery]

Toth, could you please explain a bit how reasoning changes withing time and culture?

I've been trying to find reasons why western society and filosophy is more rationalistic than eastern but the results ive found are not really what i am looking for.

Thank you very much for ur post, it has given me the motivation to finish my essay

Just off the top of my head, the way you think could be (and probably is) affected by paradigms. And as paradigms shifts over years, our methods of reasoning would theoretically change also. I can't provide any examples but it's something you could look into.

[SharkSpider]

I argued that the strength of reason is that it is not affected by paradigms. True reason appears to have been the same 2500 years ago as it is now, which is why it is so useful in philosophy. We may have believed that it was right to keep slaves, but that wasn't reason, that was just a common irrationality. You will not be able to provide an example that shows how some premises were used to derive different conclusions based on time period unless there was a flawed argument at one point. This is because the definition of reason is that the ability to reason is a priori.

Edited January 18, 2009 by SharkSpider

[natkie]

Does anyone know how many footnotes are needed for the final TOK paper? And also I am almost done with it but i was wondering if anyone had any sources that might help with question three: Evaluate the strengths and weeaknessess of reason as a way of knowing?

[~Lc~]

there are no set amount fo footnotes required for any essay =s I didn't have any for my tok essay, because I used generla examples... depends on what you're doing really...

[__inthemaking]

I had maybe 3-4 footnotes in my TOK paper because I used specific examples from newspaper articles.

[kilik]

Hello, my first post on this website, and it's about ToK, how sad is that? ^^

I am (un)fortunately preparing the same question for the ToK essay..;

I actually just got back the comments on my first draft, and it wasn't excellent^^ (she did not predicted a Grade as she said that it might change depending on the examiner; yes, i have this kind of teacher, i'm sure the IB send at least one of them in each school...)

Something important to remember is that you only have 1200-1600 words to write the essay, so don't waste words talking about something to broad. One important thing is to clearly state your Thesis in the introduction, the whole point of a ToK essay it to convince your examiner that the way you think is the right way, so a thesis is needed, a thesis you will stick to through the essay.

As you generally speaking find more argument proving what you think (based on personal experience and lectures), you need to present to the examiner other point of view which are called counterclaims. These couterclaims will help you in the way that you will be able to explaine to the examiner how people might think and more importantly how the way you think COULD be better (NEVER say that a philosopher is WRONG!!!!, unless you want to fail... ^^)

A ToK essay is hard to write, especially because when you right something, and you read it a week after, you think it's crap ^^

well good luck everyone, this year's gonna be bad ^^

[heartworthy]

I know this sounds vague, but it really does depend on the paper. For mine, most things I argued with were hard to cite, but my teacher recommended I redo some examples to include things I could find research for so that my paper was more concrete. I'll admit, though, research is very difficult to find. I went to a university library which offered many online sources that I could use a search engine to filter through. To start, I'd try the philosophy section since most TOK-related sources would be there.

[Toth]

Toth, could you please explain a bit how reasoning changes withing time and culture?

I've been trying to find reasons why western society and filosophy is more rationalistic than eastern but the results ive found are not really what i am looking for.

Thank you very much for ur post, it has given me the motivation to finish my essay

I was thinking about how reasoning was affected through the times.

No doubt that in the early ages of life, reasoning was influenced by the Church, through Religion and Faith.

Nowadays, we rely on the logic of Math and Sciences to provide our reasoning, which requires proof and solidification of position in order to make a valid point.