If you are an IB teacher who would like to contribute to our subject blogs please contact us using this form.
Theory of Knowledge
How can we make good decisions in a complex world? Read this article to find out what happens when we think too muchread more...»
Neuro economist, Paul Zak demonstrates how the hormone oxytocin promotes a variety of virtuous behaviors in humans such as trust, empathy and generosity. After ten years of research, Paul Zak established that oxytocin is the “moral molecule”. Click here for Paul Zak’s TED TALK on Trust, morality – and oxytocin.
Watch Marcus Du Sautoy in this documentary where he embarks into a journey of ‘self awareness’. Marcus subjects himself to a series of experiments in his search for answers to the mysterious question: How do we know who we are? Does the unconscious mind preside over the conscious mind? Is a sense of ‘self’ a trick of the ‘mind’? Watch the entire documentary to know the answers. It’s a great way to introduce TOK and the Ways of Knowing of Reason, Emotion and Perception to students.
Should scientists be emotionless? Should they present cold, hard facts with no emotion whatsoever? Is it possible to argue a scientific point by bringing in emotion? These questions are raised in this interesting Science Blog.
What language do deaf people think in? Can we think without language? If you had never heard language would you use it to articulate your thoughts? Do babies think in a language of sorts? If you can’t articulate your internal thoughts in linguistic form have you really thought them at all? Is language integral to our understanding of ourselves? Do we need our brain chatter to be formed into words, rather than feelings, in order to make sense of our emotions?
With increasingly advanced computers being developed all the time Artificial Intelligence is no longer the reserve of science fiction novels. However, it has so far remained impossible to develop a computer which can fool humans into thinking it is also human. It’s thought processes have not lacked complexity but what is it that sets human thought apart from that of a computer?read more...»
Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas? This is a great ‘Beginners Guide to Brain Function’.
click here for the linkread more...»
Model Dependent Realism is discussed by Stephen Hawking in ‘The Grand Design’. Model Dependent Realism is the notion that there is no one version of reality. Reality is not linear or one dimensional. It cannot be known or understood to be such.
Kansei is a robot designed to look as closely human as possible. He is in constant movement and reacts emotionally to certain triggers. Apparently he responds to the word war with disgust, quivering his lip. He smiles at the word ‘love’ and so on. According to some those that have been working closely with him have ended up imbuing him with a soul. They genuinely believe that he has developed/ adopted something a little ‘other’ than he was programmed to do. Is Kansei’s soul a reality? Why do humans seem to desire to form relationships with a mechanistic objects? People name their cars for example and assume they have a personality.read more...»
Devdutt Pattanaik looks at the myths of India and of the West. He uses the myths that the two cultures have grown up on to show how these cultural paradigms have affected business and modern life. Well worth a look. Could similarities be drawn between the male and female paradigms? The male paradigm being closer akin to the Western linear ideals and the female paradigm being more cyclical and emotional?
click here for the link
Henry Markram has built a brain in a supercomputer. He has a theory that metal illness, memory and perception all relate to neurons and electric signals, and are therefore re-creatable. He has a theory that the brain itself creates a version of the universe and then projects it around us. Markram tries to answer whether the brain is capable of perceiving itself. He argues our decisions are the key things that support out perceptual bubble. 99% of what we see is what we infer but not what comes through our eyes.
During his study he has developed a way of converting visual stimulus into music in order for the visually impared to ‘see’ through sound. He refers to our experience of the world being a ‘symphony of perception’.
One has to ask whether the super computer he builds that simulates the brain is capable of experiencing a sense of ‘I’
click here for the link to Henry Markram’s TED talk Supercomputing the Brain’s Secrets
Beau Lotto argues that the sensory information that falls in through our eyes is meaningless unless we know how to interpret it. Perception is all important.read more...»
The wonderful Rory Sutherland wows the audience at the TED conference in Oxford with a superb sixteen minute talk on advertising and aspects of behavioural economics. It is an immensely watchable video that will allow you to discuss with your students concepts such as perceived value, symbolic value,intangible value, hedonic opportunity cost and some ideas for nudging personal behaviour in socially beneficial ways. We learn of the extraordinary value of placebos, the rebranding of the potato in Prussian Germany. That all value is subjective and that persuasion is better than compulsion. Some super examples too of Veblen Goods, price discrimination and how the framing of the Italian penalty points system for drivers in Italy has a different impact than for motorists in the UK.
Monday night Channel 4 9pm.
In 2007, Nobel Prize winning US scientist James Watson was quoted referring to research suggesting that black people were less intelligent than other races. His comments caused a storm of controversy. In response to this Rageh Omaar meets scientists who believe that there is research to support the view that races can be differentiated in terms of intelligence. In the course of the program Omaar discovers that there are inequalities in society that are leading people with different backgrounds to perform differently and succeed differently. The idea that this is linked especially to race and intelligence is proven to be complete nonsense. It does however show that there are important issues within our society that need to be addressed.
This should make fascinating viewing (not least in light of the controversy surrounding Nick Griffins appearance on Question Time).
click here for the link to the channel 4 website
and here for an article discussing the issues in the Guardian newspaper
Phillip Zimbardo (Leader of the Stanford Prison Experiment) believes the happiness and success that we experience are all linked to the ways in which we orient ourselves to the past, present and future. Those who can wait have higher IQ, are more self confident, and generally more successful. Dr Zimbardo proves that patience really is a virtue.
click here for the link
Why is it so hard to know what somebody else wants or believes? Why is it so hard to change what they believe?read more...»
“We don’t know 1% of one millionth of anything” (Eddison)
John Lloyd takes a look at all of the things that we don’t know - surprisingly his talk is only 10 minutes long.
click here for the link
Neurologist Oliver Sacks discusses Charles Bonnett Syndrome- when those with visual impairments experience incredibly lucid hallucinations. “We see with the eyes but we also see with the brain ... this is often called imagination .. but there are also hallucinations as well”.
Hallucinations seem to mimic perception. Dr Sacks looks at why they might occur. Click here for the link
Rebecca Saxe discusses how the we figure out the needs and desires of others. How do we make moral judgements? Where does empathy come from? Rebecca studies what we think about other people’s thoughts. She considers how we sense the motives of others and tries to answer the age old question - How can we know what others want? Why is it so hard to change what others want or believe?
This is a really interesting look at how the brain judges the actions of others and how this then has an impact upon our moral sense.
click here for the link
This is a fascinating discourse on the ways in which communication technology has changed and how it now has the potential to aid / create real change. Reading the discussion blogs underneath it also proves interesting for debate.
click here for the link to Clay Shirky’s How Twitter can change history.
Dan Gilbert questions whether we will actually be unhappy if we don’t get what we want.read more...»
We are more likely to remember emotionally loaded images than emotion neutral ones. We are also more likely to remember things if we are in an emotional state ourselves. This article also briefly looks at flashbulb memories - those ones where we remember exactly what we were doing when a certain event happened- eg the Twin Towers collapsing, Lady Diana and so on.
This is an interesting read with enough technical information without being too dry or boring.
Click here for the link to the BBC Radio 4 transcript
Horizon: How Violent Are You? Tuesday BBC2 9pm
The programme is an attempt to have a look at the brain and its relationship to violence.
A lot of the programme is devoted to the Milgram Experiment, which is worth knowing about if you haven’t already come across it. The experiment is part of a study of obedience to authority. Participants think they are administering electric shocks to a stranger.
There are also interviews with a child soldier and a former football hooligan. click here for the link to BBCiplayer
Emily Levine talks about science, maths, society and they way that everything connects. As a philosopher/comedian the discussion that results is very funny. Her work, whilst being hilarious, also makes serious connections between hard science and pop culture, between what we say and what we secretly assume.
The content is a little risque in parts- be warned.
Bruce Buene de Mesquita uses mathematical analysis to predict events such as war, political power shifts and so on. A consultant to the CIA and the Department of Defense, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita has built an intricate computer model that can predict the outcomes of international conflicts with bewildering accuracy- 90%!
He is a scholar of rational choice theory, which says that maths underlies the nation scale consequences of individual acting for personal benefit.
This is important because if you can predict what people will decide then surely you can go some way to altering their decisions and therefore changing the world.
“If you listen to Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, and a lot of people don’t, he’ll claim that maths can tell you the future” (Michael Lerner, Good Magazine)read more...»
Marcus du Sautoy discusses the secrets of the Fibonacci numbers. He also looks at the work of Virahanka, who discovered that these numbers also count rhyming patterns, and Le Corbusier, who applied these numbers to architecture. This is an excellent over view.
click here for the link to the article
Amongst other things Marcus du Sautoy discusses the emotional attachment people have with maths.
click here to find out more about the relationship between maths and emotion, maths and the web, maths and rubics cubes, and even maths and McDonalds!
Renny Gleeson talks about the fact that what we experience now is far less interesting than what we’ll tweet about it later. As we lose the context of our identity then it becomes clear that the context that we share our identity through in fact become the reality of it. People aren’t projecting identity they are creating it. The language they are using, and the forms in which they communicate it are becoming increasingly important in constructing our reality.
His take on the subject lasts 3 mins and is an excellent thought point.
Click here for the link to the TED talk
There is far more to mathematics than the rigid application of formal rules to meaningless systems of symbols. For some, it is creative, imaginative, deeply satisfying and in some ways similar to those disciplines sometimes considered diametrically opposed to mathematics, the arts.read more...»
What is it and why is it so important?read more...»
The Golden Mean
People find the Fibonacci Rectangle aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
This short film looks at the significance of 0.618 in a number of areas. It is an excellent introduction to thinking about the implications of this number.
click here for the link to The Golden Mean (6mins 57)
(Time saving Truth from Falsehood)
What are the implications for humankind if mathematics is involved in ethics?
Is our knowledge of right or wrong subjective or objective? Is ethical knowledge possible?
Price’s mathematical expression of the evolutionary purpose of altruism poses many questions.
Children communicate in a non verbal way often because they do not have the emotional maturity or the linguistic skills to speak about their feelings. This is painfully obvious in those children who have been emotionally damaged.read more...»
In My Language highlights the different methods of communication.
The author is autistic and has a different way of communicating with the world. It causes us to ask difficult questions of ourselves.
This is brings into the fore questions about the purpose of language, what is the function of communication as well as highlighting whether words are a necessary part of our interaction with the world.
Click here for the link
Here is an example of maths being discovered after it had been invented!
Mathematics: Invention or Discovery?read more...»
Four Philosophical questions to make your brain hurt
An interesting introduction to some of the issues that are relevant to the Theory of Knowledge IB Course.
Relevant to both the TOK course and the RE AS
A stimulus sheet - pictures / buzz wordsread more...»
The Headless Professor explains Deductive Logic using Venn diagrams really clearly.
Click here for the link
Headless Professor ‘Logic Stacks’ is also another very clear presentation of the way in which Deductive Logic works. Click here for the link. This is a good kinesthetic activity if you want to have a go yourself!
Love- every language has a word for love. Love is a basic human emotion.read more...»
Strange but true -
A board game simulating a football match between French and German Philosophers.
If you fancy a go then click here for the link. It contains all of the rules and everything you’ll need to play!
In todays ‘Thought for the Day” Akhandadhi Das spoke about research presented last week to show that Monkeys express empathy and offer help when a fellow animal is in trouble. These findings seem to suggest that animals have a moral sense, thus calling into question the idea that humans are unique. Does this have implications for the Moral Argument as a proof for the existence of God?read more...»