Text: Excerpt from Corinne Mucha’s “9 Signs you are over you ex“ Art RLEs can be used effectively in a TOK essay on November 2020 Prescribed Title #6. Art can be effective in producing and sharing reliable knowledge but there are ways in which it can lack certainty. The content and Read more…
Text: Baby Orangutans Learn How to Crack Coconuts (video) The video shows how baby orangutans are taught certain skills before being released back into the wild. This RLE can work in a number of different ways for November 2020 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #2. First of all, the knowledge the Read more…
Literature can be used to gain “reliable knowledge.” There are ways in which the knowledge can be viewed as having or lacking certainty. In the case of a piece of literature with a first-person narrator, the situation is a little bit different. First-person narrators are not necessarily trustworthy and can, Read more…
Scott McCloud is an very successful and well-known cartoonist. One of his comic books is Understanding Comics, a non-fiction text that “explains the inner workings of the medium and examines many aspects of visual communication.” http://scottmccloud.com/2-print/1-uc/ Given his background, it is easy to argue that McCloud’s Understanding Comics is “reliable Read more…
Article (satire): United States deploys troops to politically unstable nation of the United States “WASHINGTON, DC- The United States government announced today that it will send active duty troops to the chaos plagued country of the United States to help quell the growing civic unrest. “America is an important part of America’s strategic interests Read more…
The Japanese creation myth told in an ancient myth called the Kojiki. There are parts of this myth that seem quite sexist by modern standards. Ancient myths can provide reliable knowledge in some respects. The extract above, for example, does highlight view of gender in the last sentence of the Read more…
Article: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/18/opinion/war-and-analogy.html The New York Times opinion article “War and Analogy” discusses how different U.S leaders used different analogies to described the situation in Kosovo in the late 1990’s. The op-ed also notes that the politicians used the analogies to argue for a particular kind of response by the United Read more…
There are many RLEs where different perspectives can lead to very different approaches to November 2020 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #6. When looking at a building, an artistic rendering of a building, or the building plans themselves, the “reliable knowledge” and “certainty” in November 2020 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #6 Read more…
Blueprints and similar types of diagrams have to follow certain professional conventions. These conventions must be followed in order for builders to follow the blueprint and make a structurally sound building. Blueprints can certainly provide reliable knowledge. They do not, however, contain all of the information necessary and the the Read more…
The editorial cartoon uses a number of stylistic features to create a powerful characterization of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. How much “certainty” does a cartoon have though? Does an editorial cartoon have more or less certainty than another type of cartoon? To what extent is the knowledge we Read more…