Sandwich Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 As so many people have asked for more things to say, I thought I'd add a bit more to this thread... even though in my opinion the best solution is to avoid this title as a pretty hideous one to write about. Anything with truth involved is a bit of an error, in my opinion.Anyway, I think the best thing you can do is try to answer this essay as straight-forwardly as possible. In TOK it's usual to move at right-angles to the question, but in this case I think it's quite impossible to answer in that way. It's a bit like somebody asking you "what's the meaning of life?" or something. At some point you will have to face down 'true' and 'false' and 'absolute' but then again if you picked this essay, maybe you're fine with that So, the distinctions between what is true and what is false: are they absolute? I suggest you try and find an 'absolute' distinction, for instance I'd go for something in the mathematical area where you have got a pretty definite distinction between what is true and what is false, and explore the ways in which this can be tested/proven i.e. the ways of knowing and method of application which leads you to the knowledge. There are no mid-way categories between right and wrong in maths, although there may be different routes to arrive at the answer, so this would be a good time to define absolute in the context of whatever examples you can give.Then you want an example of truth being on a 'continuum' with false -- more or less anything can go here. Even the scientific method where truth and falsehood rely only on one item of disproof or proof to switch ends. Although it might be hard to argue because there are a lot of merits in the scientific method, there is some degree of uncertainty as to whether it's 100% truth in any question. History might also be a decent place to look for examples.Then something with basically no distinctions between truth and falsehood. I'm thinking art, but whatever you want really.Some thoughts you could mention would be whether there's a solipsistic version of 'true' and 'false' with absolute distinctions. It depends on whether you say that truth is truth for everybody or whether it's a personal truth. If you think that we all believe truth/falsehood for various things, can you say that absolute truth exists for an individual but not for everybody? That's an important part of the headache of defining truth for this essay, I think. Whether truth is 'out there' or 'in here' with respect to the world and your mind.If we say that one of the distinctions between truth and falsehood is proof, do we need proof for something to be false as well as proof for it to be true, or do we default to the fact that some things are false/true and then disprove otherwise (as in science)? To what extent are 'accepted' truths assumptions or temporary theories based on the fact they haven't yet been disproved? Just some ideas of the sorts of points you could try and argue through in your essay.I think the best way to tackle this essay is through examples. If you start talking too much about abstraction I can imagine you'd get really, really lost. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lysander Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 Theoretically, there is no distinction. There is absolutely no way to know if words coming out of someone's mouth are simply a lie or truth. However, practically, we are forced to believe certain things as truth. Are you going to get a history book, go back through every source cited, trying to find an inaccuracy? It's just not worth the time or effort, is it? Some things aren't even worth lying about, like the statement "I saw a guy with really nice jeans yesterday", I mean, what does anyone have to gain from lying about that, and anyway, if it was a lie, there's no way to find out. So you're forced to trust people. I would write more, but I'm kind of busy. Hope this kind of helps, as I skimmed over these ideas in my essay. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordz16 Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Hey, im doing IB exam in may 2011! and for the t.o.k essay i chose topic 6 which is: There is no absolute distinction between what is true and what is false. Discuss this claim.What are the a.o.k i can talk about for this topic? i was trying to find something with maths Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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