Christina Santin FINAL TOK Essay
Essay Question 4
With reference to two areas of knowledge, discuss the way in which shared knowledge can shape personal knowledge
Word Count: 1,600
1
The areas of knowledge explored in this essay are Human Sciences and The
Arts; giving a balanced and considered review about how shared knowledge does shape personal knowledge and also how it may not. This essay question assumes that personal knowledge is shaped by shared knowledge. Shared knowledge is highly structured and systematic which is the product of more than just one individual; it is the idea that people within a particular community share the same belief and act correspondingly to the norms. It can be derived from social and cultural norms, beliefs, religions and such.
Personal knowledge merely focuses on an individual’s own knowledge. This can be obtained from one’s cognitive processing; personal experiences and schemas.
In the area of Human Sciences, famous theorists and empirical researchers in the psychological world provide research to show that one’s knowledge mostly originates from the external environment. It can be assumed that if personal knowledge was shaped from shared knowledge then that would mean that all of humanity would have the same personal knowledge. However, in The Arts, the interpretations of art varies in many different people. Some may find a painting beautiful whereas another does not. In addition, in psychological experiments, findings tend to show a variety of results because the participants may have a different view on particular things, thus there is rarely
100%. Also, this is also one of the reasons why psychological scientists cannot ‘prove’ anything, only suggest because of the range of external factors that influence one’s cognitive process. If humanity were to depend only upon shared knowledge, would there be personal knowledge?
From a Psychology perspective, a great number of psychological studies have strongly suggested by providing convincing evidence that shared
With reference to two areas of knowledge, discuss the way in which shared knowledge can shape personal knowledge
Word Count: 1,600
1
The areas of knowledge explored in this essay are Human Sciences and The
Arts; giving a balanced and considered review about how shared knowledge does shape personal knowledge and also how it may not. This essay question assumes that personal knowledge is shaped by shared knowledge. Shared knowledge is highly structured and systematic which is the product of more than just one individual; it is the idea that people within a particular community share the same belief and act correspondingly to the norms. It can be derived from social and cultural norms, beliefs, religions and such.
Personal knowledge merely focuses on an individual’s own knowledge. This can be obtained from one’s cognitive processing; personal experiences and schemas.
In the area of Human Sciences, famous theorists and empirical researchers in the psychological world provide research to show that one’s knowledge mostly originates from the external environment. It can be assumed that if personal knowledge was shaped from shared knowledge then that would mean that all of humanity would have the same personal knowledge. However, in The Arts, the interpretations of art varies in many different people. Some may find a painting beautiful whereas another does not. In addition, in psychological experiments, findings tend to show a variety of results because the participants may have a different view on particular things, thus there is rarely
100%. Also, this is also one of the reasons why psychological scientists cannot ‘prove’ anything, only suggest because of the range of external factors that influence one’s cognitive process. If humanity were to depend only upon shared knowledge, would there be personal knowledge?
From a Psychology perspective, a great number of psychological studies have strongly suggested by providing convincing evidence that shared
Bibliography: 1. Law, Alan, Christos Halkiopoulos, and Christian Bryan-Zaykov. "The Sociocultural Level Of Analysis." Psychology: Developed Specifically for the IB Diploma. Oxford, U.K.: Pearson Education, 2010. N. pag. Print. 2. McLeod, Saul. "Lev Vygotsky." Vygotsky | Simply Psychology. Simply Psychology, 2007. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. 3. Lafforgue, Eric. "Kikuyu Tribe Man with Make up - Kenya." Flickr. Yahoo!, 24 July 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. 4. Rusk, William Sener. "New Ways of Seeing." College Art Journal 15.1 (1955): n. pag. John Berger, Ways of Seeing. Elsevier, 1998. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. 8