TOK presentation knowledge question

[carrieeeh]

Hi guys! We need big helps in developing our KQ.

For our TOK presentation, we want to use a real life situation as the story of "Theranos--Elizabeth Holmes deception". Holmes wanted to invent a company for cheap blood testing machines. Theranos worth nearly $10 billions and Holmes became the youngest, self-made, female billionaire. However, it was a massive fraud. Theranos deception hoodwinked gullible investors and endangered unsuspecting patients. We are struggling to find a good Knowledge Question and structuring our presentation.

In our presentation, we want to talk about the how ethics plays a role in different AOKs. For example, how science is restricted by ethics, the relationship in religion system. Besides, how ethical norms vary from different people's perspective. e.g.: scientists or normal guys. Also, how does the developments in different AOKs border the ethical restrictions. 

We have a infant KQ: To what extend does ethics effect human development.

Any advise or comments given would be greatly appreciated! 💬

[Sandwich]

Ideally your real life situation should be the spark for your knowledge question. What is it that you find compelling about the story you've picked? I know nothing more than your summary but it seems to me that the incredible thing is that this person hoodwinked everyone into thinking something which turned out not to be true. Perhaps look at the ways of knowing, and the flaws in people's acquisition of knowledge about this person, which led everyone to believe something false. There's definitely a good question in there.

I think the ethics of the situation are fairly uninteresting. How science is restricted by ethics = not really relevant to your scenario. Same with religion. I don't think scientists have any reason to have inherently different ethics as a group, and not in this example. I don't really see why you'd pursue that and if you did want to talk about ethics and how it restricts science there are many better examples you can pick to explore.

[kw0573]

In general, the ethics in TOK are about "how ethical standards are established" not "how to apply ethics to this situation". It's very much when you talk bout experimental sciences in TOK that you talk about "how the scientific facts are established" and not "how to apply science to explain this phenomenon". I would cautious against emphasizing on ethics in the main KQ, but as long as you follow the above rule it's fine.

Consider explore more about how Elizabeth Holmes deceived investors and include discussions of heuristics, logical fallacy (appeal to authority?), emotion, reasoning, language and possibly faith. 

A downside of this real life situation that you need to more time than usual to establish the facts of the case: did Holmes know she deceived investors? How well/accurate did the apparatus work? Was she aware of the legal consequences of fraud? Who are the scientists on the company? Did they realize this was a fraud?

Finally, the Stanford prisoners' experiment is one of the foundational and cliched examples of questionable ethics in science. Ideally you should find an example where facts are easy to establish/explain, but definitely more recent.