IB Theory of Knowledge - an ongoing list of interesting finds

Elizabeth Loftus, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, is the most influential female psychologist of the twentieth century ( New Yorker feature article ) "Her work helped usher in a paradigm shift, rendering obsolete the archival model of memory—the idea, dominant for much of the twentieth century, that our memories exist in some sort of mental library, as literal representations of past events. According to Loftus, who has published twenty-four books and more than six hundred papers, memories are reconstructed, not replayed." Also, check out this interview with Loftus from the American Psychological Association, where Loftus discusses  how our recollections of events and experiences may be subject to manipulation. 

For those who have enjoyed some of the discussion of art as representational of history and of the attempt to convey history when it is out of living memory, here is a focused piece that explores exactly that - how we can continue to "experience" history via the arts, even when we cannot have experienced it ourselves. This would link quite well to the controversial "Ada.Stories" narrative being released on Instagram - a Holocaust narrative that tells the events to a social media generation.

The idea of a "mind's eye," or powerful visualization skills, is often seen as being at the centre of artistic creativity and can lead to a misconception that, without this ability, one cannot be creative. What happens, then, when some of the most creative minds in film today suffer from a condition called Aphantasia - the inability to visualize mental images? How can some of the chief artists and animators in the Pixar / Disney franchise create such powerful works of art with "blind mind's eye"?

We should all know that memory can be unreliable - influenced by our own perspectives, selection, interpretation and emotions, it can be difficult to be "certain" of our powers of recollection.  But "false memory"? Delve briefly into this concept via the links below to explore the ways in which memory can not only be problematic , but also wrong.  Resources : Bryce, Emma. " False memories and false confessions: the psychology of imagined crimes ." WIRED.  July 22, 2017.  " False memory syndrome ." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. July 18, 2013. " Elizabeth Loftus and Eye Witness Testimony ."  BBC Sounds. Interview. Web. April 17, 2011. Fraser, Scott.  " Why eyewitnesses get it wrong ."  TEDxUSC. TED. May 2012. Hogenboom, Melissa.  " Why does the human brain create false memories? "  BBC Science & Environment.  September 29, 2013. Loftus, Elizabeth. " How reliable is your ...

Here are a few pieces that look directly at  patterns in stories or storytelling . Consider some of your own storybook heroes/heroines - how well do their story lines fit  the mold ? Which  perspectives  of the world are  offered  and which are  missing ?  How do you feel about your favourite story fitting into what is essentially a skeleton  pattern of stories ? Are they each still  unique ? Are they  original ? If the perspectives are correct, and all stories carry the same patterns, what does that suggest about the ways in which we use stories to understand the world around us?  What do these specific patterns suggest about our needs as knowers?  What is it about these patterns that make so much sense to us that we keep telling them over and over again?  BBC Culture -  The 100 stories that shaped the world BBC Culture -  Every story in the world has one of these six basic plots TEDEd -...

"Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions...." An in-depth look at what makes the Mona Lisa so fascinating and so famous .   The piece tackles some of the better-known justifications, such as DaVinci's (apparent) use of "golden ratio," and the focus on his style and technique.  It also, though, poses an interpretation on the "smile" justification which is a different take on other theories I've read in the past.  Definitely an interesting perspective for those art lovers out there. Or for those who continue to ask what or who determines what is "good art." People look at the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo Da Vinci at its new home in the Louvre museum, in Paris. Photograph: Lydie/EPA

This article from BBC Magazine presents a question that has come up several times in our own class during the past year - to what extent can artificial intelligence truly comprehend knowledge? In this case, ethical knowledge. Note:  Included in the article is the widely-used "trolley" philosophy problem (so much so, in fact, that it should be considered cliché when it comes to your TOK assignments!).   Also included in the article is a link to the BBC Radio 4 program where this issue is discussed in detail.  Both the article and the radio program present an interesting and detailed look at this ongoing debate.

And do we have a right, so many decades later, to reinterpret or redefine an iconic work of literature?  Can we accept that the novel is a "simple folk tale," as claimed by L. Frank Baum, the author?  Must we always attempt to interpret works of art or reason their "deeper meanings"?   Can a work of art simply stand as a piece of knowledge itself outside of our responses to it?  How valid is our personal knowledge or interpretation of a piece of art? Does it matter in the end what the artist may have "intended"? To what extent can we actually know what was "intended" by an artist without their direct input? An intriguing video that explores these questions and more. 

An article appeared in The Guardian  yesterday that I found quite amusing -  Do sea monsters exist? Yes, but they go by another name … .  It touches on the human need to create stories and to sensationalize that which we do not understand. The journalist, Jules Howard, points out the familiar narrative pattern : a rotting carcass washed up on the shore in Indonesia and, due to its advanced state of composition, a storm of activity began in the media from those attempting to define what this "sea monster" could be. "And so, within hours, a familiar narrative was playing out in the world’s media as the whale became a dead sea monster that no one could identify, a Scooby Doo mystery that could be maintained by journalists for days as long as nobody checked Twitter, where 10,000 scientists were screaming “That is clearly a whale” at each other. As such, in the news reports, the whale’s decomposing skin became “fur” and its blood became “mysterious red fluid” floating in ...

Activision is about to release further information on the new Call of Duty: WWII - while reviews illustrated that gamers were becoming more alienated by the technological advancements as the game moved further into the future, it seems Activision is changing course and returning the game to the "boots on the ground" experience of the original games. As is stated in the Guardian article , "This game is likely to be one of the largest pieces of historical entertainment ever released." An exciting time for the video game industry!

"Truth was the first casualty of the Great Depression. Reflecting the anguish of the time, propaganda was manufactured on an unprecedented scale. As economic disaster threatened to trigger shooting wars so, as George Orwell said, useful lies were preferred to harmful truths. He went further, declaring that history stopped in 1936; after that there was only propaganda." A feature article that explores the blurring of lines and the manipulation of truth. An international collection of propaganda posters from before and during the second world war. Composite: UIG/VGC via Getty Images Death of truth

“Mathematical concepts are not wired into the human condition. They are learned, acquired through cultural and linguistic transmission. And if they are learned rather than inherited genetically, then it follows that they are not a component of the human mental hardware but are very much a part of our mental software—the feature of an app we ourselves have developed.” The Smithsonian interviews Caleb Everett "to learn more about the invention of numbers and the enormous role they’ve played in human society." How Humans Invented Numbers

"But reviving a dying language is not easy. One main challenge is that Kristang is mostly a spoken language and has rarely been recorded. There is no standardised spelling or pronunciation system - one word can have dozens of variations. The word for four, quartu, can be spelt and pronounced in 20 different ways. And because it has been in decline for so long, it has huge gaps in its vocabulary... To solve this problem, his group invented new words with mash-ups of Kristang's root languages." This article raises questions about the efforts required to revive a language that so few speak today. With significant ties to heritage and culture, the question of whether a language in its "dying days" so to speak is a futile effort, or an attempt at cultural revival. How to revive a 500-year-old dying language

"Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we're wrong about that? 'Wrongologist' Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility." Why do we get stuck inside this feeling of being right and why is this such a problem ? An entertaining talk drawing on our own insecurities and fallibility.

This one cataclysmic event gave rise to our entire Universe, but it seems we can never truly know what it looked like Science writer and astrophysicist Adam Becker explains why we cannot see the Big Bang to BBC Earth. Big Bang

New York art world bitterly divided over ‘ cultural appropriation ’ of 1955 photograph of murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till "It is one of the most powerful images to emerge from the racism that infected the southern states of America in the 1950s – the photograph of a badly beaten 14-year-old boy, lynched after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman, lying in a funeral casket. Now protests over a painting based on the photograph, included in a New York museum show, are dividing the city’s art world amid claims of racist exploitation and censorship. At the centre of the battle over cultural appropriation is artist Dana Schutz’s expressionist painting Open Casket (2016), a gruesome depiction of Emmett Till, lynched in Mississippi in 1955. The painting, on display at the Whitney Biennial exhibition, initially drew swift condemnation from critics who claimed Schutz, who is white, was taking advantage of a defining moment in African American history." Ar...

Have a look at the role of serendipity in a variety of contexts using the links below.  The Atlantic -  The Accidental Discovery of LSD New Humanist - famous accidental discoveries American Physical Society - Becquerel Discovers Radioactivity National Science Foundation - Chance Discoveries: Safety Glass Popular Mechanics - 10 Awesome Accidental Discoveries Business Insider - 15 Amazing Science Discoveries Inspired By Complete Accidents

This article sparked quite a bit of controversy in TOK teacher groups with arguments centering on supporting the artistic license to revise or adapt historical events for artistic purposes, and others criticizing the blatant revision of historical fact and presenting an alternate version of events than what has already been documented in detail. Either way, the piece is critical of a film that essentially retells the partition during India's liberation from British rule, basing part of the condemnation on the fact that many still have living memory of what actually happened and therefore oppose the point of view the director has taken, and highlighting that the "sin" of the film is that it takes "breathtaking liberty with the historical record; " diminishing it to "fake history." To what extent are artists or artistic representations obliged to accurately depict historical fact? How might a misrepresentation of history become dangerous, or in thi...

In this excerpt from his novel  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: A Counterintuitive Guide to Living A Good Life , author Mark Manson explores the notion of paradigm shifts with specific reference to personal knowledge .  He argues that people should simply assume they're wrong, about everything, because: Knowledge is an eternal iterative process. We don’t go from “wrong” to “right” once we discover the capital-T Truth. Rather, we go from partially wrong to slightly less wrong, to slightly less wrong than that, to even less wrong than that, and so on. We approach the capital-T truth, but never reach it. Mark Manson

Danielle Dufault creates artistic renderings of creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. Who says art and science don't mix? Not Danielle Dufault, a Toronto illustrator who is one of only a handful of people around the world called on to create artistic renderings of the mysterious creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago.  "I really take a lot of pleasure in trying to reconstruct these lost worlds," Dufault told CBC News. "And there's a lot of imagination that can be applied to that." Using photos of a fossil, paleontological illustrator Danielle Dufault came up with this drawing of  Hallucigenia, a prehistoric worm-like sea creature that lived 500 million years ago.  (Illustration by Danielle Dufault, photo by Jean-Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum) CBC News