ToK Review - The Big Picture in Minutes!

In this inaugural podcast we confront the limitations of knowledge based on common sense and develop an alternate view based on the metaphor of map-making. It then examines how we determine truth within knowledge systems, followed by an examination of the implications of the first Western knowledge system, Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

This podcast focuses on our access to the world via the Ways of Knowing and examines 4 WoK's--sense perception, language, memory, and reason. It challenges the assumptions of the unreliability of the ways of knowing, arguing that the WoK's are usually reliable and serve as our primary lifeline to experience. When they prove unreliable, it is due to the conditions imposed by our own physiological constraints, and the argument draws upon research in psychology to examine under what conditions these WoK's are and are not reliable. In each WoK, the manner in which it influences knowledge is investigated.

This final introductory podcast explores the two different types of knowledge investigated in ToK, personal knowledge and shared knowledge, as well as the relationship between the two. The use of knowledge question to investigate these types of knowledge is also explained.

This podcasts offers an overview of Ethics as an Area of Knowledge. It begins with a discussion of the scope of ethics and next examines the types of moral choices available. Next, the levels of moral choices are examined and the moral systems used by each. The remainder of the podcast focuses on the two areas most relevant to ToK, normative and applied ethics. There is a description of the viewpoints within normative ethics, along with consideration of how to evaluate their claims. Finally the podcast examines applied ethics, the area of ethics that is most relevant to examining such issues within any area of knowledge.