Thinking in Black and White

May 6, 2015

The human brain seems to mostly operate using a default either/or operational system. Our experience of the world often seems to come to us in a way which requires choosing between two mutually exclusive options. This expresses itself in what philosophers call...

Is Believing Seeing?

April 9, 2015

We are used to coming across the phrase “seeing is believing” on a pretty regular basis. It is assumed to mean that the most important basis for taking anything to be true is to have a direct experience of it. However, is there a role for belief in the acquisition of...

How can Faith be a WoK?

March 9, 2015

When the IB introduced Faith as one of its new Ways of Knowing, a few eyebrows will have been raised in surprise if not bewilderment. For many the idea of Faith as a path to Knowledge was simply a contradiction in terms. For these individuals, Faith could only been...

TOK blog: “Every exit is an entrance somewhere else.”

January 31, 2015

Today I bid farewell to readers of this TOK blog.  You will find me blogging on my own site Activating TOK  starting in a day or two.  I’ve really enjoyed blogging with OSC for the sense belonging to an educational community, but for now I want to direct my...

2014 TOK blog posts in single consolidated file

January 1, 2015

Would you like to download a pdf of all the posts Theo and I have made here during 2014?  As I pulled this document together, I discovered that we’ve made more than 50 posts…and that the consolidated file runs to 92 pages.  Clearly, we like blogging!...

Doing good is good for you: Ethics and the Human Sciences, TOK and CAS

December 21, 2014

(re-post from December 16, 2013 blog. It’s so appropriate for this time of year!) Is there really anything newsworthy about the value of doing good to others?  So much has been said over so many centuries that surely current psychological research cannot add...