IB Theory of Knowledge - an ongoing list of interesting finds

The Guardian reports on knowledge at risk as language disappears.   "Knowledge of medicinal plants is at risk of disappearing as human languages become extinct, a new study has warned. Indigenous languages contain vast amounts of knowledge about ecosystem services provided by the natural world around them. However, more than  30% of the 7,400 languages on the planet are expected to disappear  by the end of the century, according to the UN." Amazonian herbal remedies on sale at Ver-o-Peso market in Belem, Brazil.  Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty

How do you keep a story "alive" when those who experienced it have passed?  In a decision that has received quite a bit of praise, but also quite a lot of criticism, an Israeli tech executive and his daughter have created an Instagram account entitled "Eva Stories" to coincide with the start of Israel’s annual Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day. "In 70 short episodes, a British actress playing Eva takes followers along on her Holocaust journey: a happy bourgeois prewar existence interrupted by the Nazi invasion of her hometown in what was then Hungary; her family’s forced move into the cramped chaos of the ghetto; and the packed train that ultimately transports her to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp from which she never returns." (Kershner)  A relevant and refreshing attempt to educate today's youth on the trauma and tragedy, or a "trivializing and cheapening the Holocaust" ? Resources : Associated Press. " Hol...

Alex Rosenberg, a philosopher of science and a writer of historical fiction, "does not deny that stories can be wonderful as art and effective at eliciting emotions that then push action... but stories also lull us into a false sense of knowledge and fundamentally limit our understanding of the world." In this interview transcript , see how Rosenberg explains the impact of stories from a neuroscience perspective and encourages us to seek a balance between an engaging historical narrative and more factual / accurate retelling of events.

Languages around the world are dying, and dying fast .  "The grimmest predictions have 90 percent of the world's languages dying out by the end of this century. Although this might not seem important in the day-to-day life of an English speaker with no personal ties to the culture in which they’re spoken, language loss matters." National Geographic's page entitled " Enduring Voices " is a great resource to learn more about endangered languages.

Economist Keith Chen realized that there are innate differences in how he speaks in Chinese and in English.  He began to ask questions like "Is there a connection between language and how we think and behave? In particular, he wanted to know: does our language affect our economic decisions?" So he designed a study to look at how language might affect individual’s ability to save for the future. According to his results, it does — big time. Have a look at this blog post that explores Chen's ideas and also provides several examples of what research shows about the link between language and both psychology and behavior.

Obviously still a highly contested concept, the idea that our genetics do not support common perceptions of race or racial divides is one that can be uncomfortable on various levels.  Geneticist and author Adam Rutherford tackles the science behind "race" in his 2015 article " Why racism is not backed by science " - touching also on issues of evolution of language and controversial theories on race.  He acknowledges in another piece, " Why scientific truth may hurt ," that his ideas on the biological non-existence of “race” prompted anger and online abuse from readers, however continued to focus on the idea that: Modern genetics has unearthed a treasure trove of information about humans that was previously veiled or indecipherable, one of which is that some sets of genetic signatures broadly correlate with large land masses, especially ones bound by oceans. But these are neither exclusive nor essential associations with the way we use the term “ra...

A viral photo of a crying Honduran girl didn't tell the whole story. Does it matter? A powerful image of a young Honduran girl detained at the U.S.-Mexico border has come to symbolize the separation of families by border officials. But the girl and her mother were not separated, as many came to believe.  A look at the powerful effects of media images and how the narrative can shift or change in meaning or context because of the "viral" nature of the web.

"To speak our language is to preserve who we are. It is the most profound expression of our Rapa Nui and Polynesian spirit.”  - Rapa Nui linguist Viki Haoa Cardinali Easter Island remains a remote island quite isolated from the world around it and as it was formed less than a million years ago, it remains one of the youngest inhabited areas of the world.  "Over centuries, Polynesian explorers braved the Pacific Ocean in search of new worlds. By 1200 AD, settlers had reached Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, bringing crops, customs and language with them.... Clues to the complex society that emerged on Rapa Nui can be found everywhere; the island’s volcanic landscape boasts one of the richest collections of rock art in Polynesia. But barely a trace remains of what is Rapa Nui’s most tantalising cultural legacy: a mysterious form of writing called Rongorongo." Efforts to decode the language have been met with frustration and failure.  Since the ...

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 -...

'It’s hard to tell what the rules are anymore,' - Parker Molloy, a senior writer for Upworthy.  Following the recent racist Tweet from sitcom TV star, Roseanne Barr, and the subsequent cancellation of the namesake TV show, this piece seems aptly timed to discuss the evolving styles of language used in the world of media today.  In the piece entitled, " Roseanne, Twitter and racism: Why acceptable language is up for debate in the age of Trump ," two journalists ask a poignant question -  What are the boundaries — or lack thereof — for acceptable speech?

Politically correct? Or just plain ridiculous? "'Brainstorming', the buzzword used by executives to generate ideas among their staff, has been deemed politically incorrect by civil servants because it is thought to be offensive to people with brain disorders." " Now brainstorms are off the agenda " (McDonald, Henry.   The Guardian , June 26, 2005).

Consider every time you've tried to explain something to someone, but couldn't quite find the right word to illustrate what you were feeling.  Sometimes it seems more appropriate to describe a feeling because there just isn't a word in the English language that will communicate exactly  what you want to say. https://goo.gl/kRbSAe Here are a series of links to words that illustrate just that - sometimes, the word that we are looking for simply cannot be easily translated. Cachero, Paulina, Keira Edgett and Shani Tsur. " An untranslatable word for pure joy ."  BBC Culture. Web. July 21, 2017. Lomas, Tim. ' The Magic of "Untranslatable" Words .' Scientific American. Web. July 12, 2016.  Macdonald, Fiona. " Eleven untranslatable words ." BBC Culture. Web. October 21, 2014.  Oxenham, Jason. CEO. " 20 of the World's Most Beautiful Untranslatable Words ." Rocket Languages. Blog. November 27, 2016.  Robson, D...

One particular event this week helped to clearly illustrate the powerful driving force of media and social media. Donald Trump, during a late-night inspiration, decided he was going to comment via Twitter on recent frustrations.  Unfortunately, his post left quite a bit up to the imagination... What immediately followed was a flurry of activity that began with confusion and concern, quickly moving onto humour and ridicule.  Check out the highlights posted on The Guardian: " What is covfefe? The tweet by Donald Trump that baffled the internet ." (The Guardian Online, May 31 2017). The New York Times article, " What's a 'Covfefe'? Trump Tweet Unites a Bewildered Nation " also explored the immediate confusion with a humourous twist - that which confuses the heck out of a nation, also unites them.   CNN, in their article entitled " 'Covfefe' tells you all you need to know about Donald Trump ," interviewed people to see what they tho...

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 ...

In this opinion column, journalist Arwa Mahdawi explores the limitations of gendered language such as mansplaining  and girlboss. These neologisms seem to have been created to illustrate a criticism of gendered language, but end up having the reverse effect. Mahdawi explores how we create language to subvert the sexism within current phrases, titles or expressions, but in the end Mahdawi argues that  " It doesn’t tear down the sexism encoded in language, it reinforces it." Sophia Amoruso, who popularised the term girlboss, at the premiere of Netflix’s Girlboss TV show. The problem with gendered language

Was it really that crazy for a newspaper to reject the mistaken spelling? In this entertaining column, Bill Walsh, a copy editor at the Post, discusses what his issues are with evolving language - especially when it is incorrect in form .  While criticized at times for fighting against trends in language, Walsh identifies some reasons why some of these changes were so slowly accepted. Once central reason had to do with structure and sound:   "Still, mic is an aberration. Words like that aren’t pronounced like that. A bicycle is a bike, not a bic. Bic, as in the pens, rhymes with Mick. So do hic and Nic and pic and Ric and sic and tic and Vic. That’s how short forms work: They’re intended to be pronounced, and so they’re spelled phonetically. You don’t just start subtracting letters until you’re left with something approximate. A refrigerator is a fridge; frig is a mild curse word that rhymes with pig." He also addresses the ongoing and controversial question of " w...

Thanks to Liora for this suggestion - Dan Brown's thriller Angels and Demons  combines history, science (although both are somewhat distorted at times) and religion in this exploration of the apparent and ongoing controversy between religion and science. The text is an entertaining read - it takes place around a "24-hour" style action-packed life-and-death scenario.  Science threatens religion, which threatens science.  With a few ironic turns of events, the main characters, educated and well-respected members of the historical and scientific communities, find themselves working with the Catholic Church and the Vatican to solve the mystery and save key religious figures from the figure who has decided to use science as a weapon against faith. A controversy surrounding the novel is that, while Brown is creating a work of fiction and thus to a degree is awarded "artistic licence," the liberties he has taken with presenting historical or scientific information ...

“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

Have you ever felt a little mbuki-mvuki – the irresistible urge to “shuck off your clothes as you dance”? Perhaps a little kilig – the jittery fluttering feeling as you talk to someone you fancy? How about uitwaaien – which encapsulates the revitalising effects of taking a walk in the wind? These words – taken from Bantu, Tagalog, and Dutch – have no direct English equivalent, but they represent very precise emotional experiences that are neglected in our language. And if Tim Lomas at the University of East London has his way, they might soon become much more familiar. ‘Untranslatable’ emotions