TOK Essay Title #1

This Theory of Knowledge Essay prompt is just fantastic. I felt like they chose it just for me because I have been learning and studying the importance of replicability. Here are my notes. More thoughts and a video will be uploaded shortly. If you want extra help, tutoring, or proofreading, click here to have me read your essay!

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Evidence Used in My Video:

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-magic-wand-experiment https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/ https://morningconsult.com/2022/02/09/can-americans-find-ukraine-on-a-map/ https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-018-0060-4

• This most naturally connects to the sciences. Replicability has been called the hallmark of good science.

• Many Labs 2 --- brings up questions about whether or not we can believe psychology if findings can’t be replicated.

• Arts --- talk about correct and incorrect interpretation. Is there a time you interpreted something differently than a friend? Who was right? What was the artist’s knowledge that they wanted to convey? Did they replicate their results? This is a stretch.

• If you talk about the sciences, one idea that you can drop in here is that there is a pressure by scientists in academic fields to publish or perish. There is a lot of pressure to find new knowledge, not confirm existing knowledge. This prevents necessary replicability.

• Two approaches – do both sciences because it’s so applicable, or choose a science and then something that is unique – history or the arts.

• Karl Popper – falsificationism.

• Your sciences experiments – are you actually experimenting?!

• Math is certain because things have not changed for a long time. Replication is key to that.