ToK Assessment- 2016

[Jess.m]

Hi Guys, I really need some input on how to answer this question for my ToK essay.
​This question is quite basic, but I'm struggling on getting content to answer this question with.

 

'How do you know if something is shared or personal knowledge? What do you think and why do you think this?'

[daiisycurtis]

It is my understanding that unless you come up with a question that isn't "can someone do my homework for me?", nobody can or will answer.

 

However, I would maybe suggest starting with defining what knowledge is.  Then what personal knowledge is and what shared knowledge is.  What the difference is between the two.

 

You would then have to give a real life situation of what each is.  So for example, you could say that your personal knowledge is what school you prefer out of the ones that you have been to.  But this knowledge is limited to your personal experience, as you have only been to a few schools and your conclusion is biased by your personal experience.

 

You could then contrast this with the shared knowledge of school league tables.  Whereas your favourite school may be some primary school in the middle of nowhere because of memories or because its pretty, the league tables, which take into account a multitude of different factors, will say that the best school is MIT.  This is shared knowledge as it is widely available and is founded upon multiple different factors and personal bias isn't so entangled in it.

 

However, you have put in bold the word "you" so you should think of your own situations and your own way of answering the question.  There basically isn't a wrong answer in TOK so you might as well make the most of that.