On the 4th of july we had our Theory of Knowledge (ToK) introduction, the so called Kick Off Day. The main topic was a discussion around the topic: „ What is knowledge?“.  At first the question seemed quite simple and quickly answered but the deeper we dived into the addressed theme, the more clear it became that there is much more to talk about than we thought in the beginning.

Mrs. Debrunner, who lead us through the day, welcomed us at 8 am with the following question: „What do you know for sure?“ 
Most of the answers, like knowing how to run or how to cook a fried egg, already went in one of the four direction of knowledge: The Ability Knowledge. This category is quite self-explenatory; it is knowing how to do something. Then there also three other categories: The propositional knowledge which for example includes scientific or historical knowledege, meaning facts which are often stated by figures of authorities. Another category which also includes sayings of authority figures is the Ethical Knowledge, which is about morals and beliefs. The last category is the Personal or Shared Knowledge. It is mostly about things that you know about yourself.

After a short break, we found ourselves back in the classroom with an empty A3 paper on our desks. The task was to sketch the world map from our memory. At first this task seemed very easy, but when we compared the drawings with our other students it was clear that our knowledge of the world’s shape and the proportions of the different continents is very limited and sometimes even inaccurate.

This task showed us that even if we think we „know“ what the world looks like, our knowledge is based on assumptions or simplified images we’ve seen before. It also made us realize, that culture, education and perspective can influence the way we see and represent our knowledge. For example, some of us left out New Zealand entirely, while continents such as Europe or Africa took up most of the available space.

The day ended with the reflection on this activity. TOK isn’t only about facts, it’s also about questioning where our knowledge comes from and how reliable it is. This linked back to the discussion we had in the morning on how the different types of knowledge. We can easily mistake shared knowledge with truth. The exercice was very interesting and eye-opening. 

Gian-Luca Tanner and Jan Lampert, 5i