Perception: We perceive with our senses:

smell, touch, sight . .

What meaning do we make of these perceptions?

• We use “mental maps” which include our beliefs of what is true, false, right, wrong, how we think of other things/life, etc.

• NB: there can be more than one map!

• How can we be sure that our mental map is “correct”?

Mercator Projection: shows lines of true bearing

Peters projection: shows accurate area

The world is spherical, but maps are flat

• Mercator: developed for use at sea, 1569. Greenland appears to be the same size as Africa, yet Africa's land mass is actually fourteen times larger!

• Peters: 1970s, misrepresents distance everywhere except along 45 N & S. Peters's and all other cylindric projections are especially bad . . because east-west distances inevitably balloon toward the poles.

• “All maps distort distance, shape, area, or direction to present a map that meets the users' needs. No world projection is good at preserving distances everywhere”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peters_projection

“The map is not the territory; the thing is not the thing named” (G. Bateson, 1979)

“The map is not the territory; the thing is not the thing named”

(G. Bateson, 1979)

Can we gain knowledge, to be sure about something?

It’s not just something I believe in; I know it to be true!

List three things you are sure of.

Truth matters!

• Historical truths

Did the Americans really land on the moon?

Was there an Armenian genocide in the early 20th C?

• Scientific truths

Does this medicine work?

The ToK diagram

w3 Pages & The ToK book

• w3 Subject pages – Theory of Knowledge

• R. van de Lagemaat, 2005. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge U.K.

• Introduction:

• The natural sciences: black boxes.

“scientific method”

• Perception.

• Engage brain!

• Hypothesis: a suggested explanation . . .

. . . which must be tested.

• An experiment tests an hypothesis. Results either support, or falsify, the hypothesis.