May 2024 TOK Essay Title 1: Is subjectivity overly celebrated in the arts but unfairly condemned in history? Discuss with reference to the arts and history. 

Be careful with this title: you need to really interrogate assumptions about the role of subjectivity in both arts and history. Think about instances where subjectivity may be overly celebrated in the arts and where objectivity could be of value. Likewise, think about where subjectivity is condemned and where it might also have value in history. I really like this title and look forward to hearing your thoughts on it (and reading your essays!)

Guests: Kevin Hoye, Robert Scheer

Subjectivity in Arts & History: 2024 TOK Essay Title 1

May 2024 TOK Essay Title 2: How can we reconcile the opposing demands for specialization and generalization in the production of knowledge? Discuss with reference to mathematics and one other area of knowledge. 

This is a tough one that requires some confidence to write about examples with confidence in mathematics. A good investigation would offer an exploration of ways that the demands are reconciled. Why do the demands oppose? Are they really opposing demands? Why do we need both specialization and generalization? If one way to reconcile these demands is to create systems and improve communication within and across knowledge communities, what does this actually look like in the real world? Are we (knowledge communities) actually able to reconcile these demands?

Link from our discussion: 
Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize Problems: https://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/ 

Guest: Martin Brown
Music: random sounds that could be so much better. Do you have music you'd like featured? Please contact me through the form at www.TOKTalk.org

Specialization vs. Generalization: 2024 TOK Essay Title 2

May 2024 TOK Essay Title 5 Do we need custodians of knowledge? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge. 

I met with Kevin and recorded this, but I had a technical malfunction so the recording was lost. I’ve tried to recapture the essence of our conversation as best as I could. We unpacked some really interesting questions: How does one become a ‘custodian’ of knowledge? Who has the authority or right? Who decides what is protected? What about knowledge that has been lost or discluded? What other great truths and insights are we not hearing because of the selectivity? As custodians, how do we weigh up this choice? What if we didn’t have custodians of knowledge? What about knowledge that might be dangerous? 

Links from our conversation:

CNN interview - last of a family of Peruvian Potato farmers https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/10/25/potato-custodians-peru-spc-intl-c2e.cnn

Académie Française: https://www.academie-francaise.fr/

How to contribute to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contributing_to_Wikipedia

Guest: Kevin Hoye (though as the original episode was lost, his actual voice is not featured, only his ideas as I have tried to faithfully represent them)

Music: Jingle Bell Rock as recorded by the Brown School Shoes in December 2018… no it's not the holidays yet.

Do we need custodians of knowledge? 2024 TOK Essay Title 5

May 2024 TOK Essay Title 3 Nothing is more exciting than fresh ideas, so why are areas of knowledge often so slow to adopt them? Discuss with reference to the human sciences and one other area of knowledge. 

What is the difference between an idea and knowledge? What is slow or fast in terms of ideas? What contexts affect the timeframe? Slow for what? Who?
What does it mean to “adopt” an idea? How is that different from acceptance? When does an idea become a theory or law? What makes an idea fresh? What about the possibilities they represent is both exciting and causes disciplines to pause before adopting them?

Guests: Brett Fisher and Garrett McKee
Sounds from rice fields in Bali

Nothing more exciting than fresh ideas? 2024 TOK Essay Title 3

2025 TOK Essay Title 6: Does acquiring knowledge destroy our sense of wonder? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge
Guest: Bob Scheer
Sounds: Sri Lankan rainforest at midnight

Sense Of Wonder

2025 TOK Essay Title 2: Is our most revered knowledge more fragile than we assume it to be? Discuss with reference to the arts and one other area of knowledge

Guest: Janka van Jaarsveld
Sounds: Sri Lankan rainforest in the morning

Fragile & Revered Knowledge

2025 TOK Essay Title 3: How can we reconcile the relentless drive to pursue knowledge with the finite resources we have available? Discuss with reference to the natural sciences and one other area of knowledge
Guest: Kevin Hoye
Sounds: Hong Kong Birds and Traffic in the morning

Finite Resources, Relentless Drive

an original podcast talking about Theory of Knowledge for teachers and students of TOK and other curious people...

New tracks tagged #TOK Essay