TOK Essay Title #2 (May 2027)
If values change over time, how can they, nevertheless, continue to guide the pursuit of knowledge? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.
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TOK Essay Title #2 Tips
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The word doing the work here is "nevertheless." You get no credit for proving that values change, so resist the temptation to open with a history of shifting research ethics. Your essay actually starts at the word "how."
Separate the value from its application. Honesty, rigour and the demand for evidence have stayed remarkably stable in the sciences even as what counts as ethical practice has been rewritten several times over. That distinction — stable principle, moving application — is the cleanest route through this title.
Choose two areas of knowledge where values operate differently rather than two that behave the same way. History paired with the natural sciences will give you friction; two lab-based sciences will give you the same paragraph twice. The contrast is where the marks are.
TOK Essay Title #2 Breakdown
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The most important word in this title is "nevertheless," and roughly half the cohort will write as though it isn't there. The question concedes at the outset that values change — that's given, not up for debate — and then asks how guidance survives the change anyway. Any essay that spends 700 words demonstrating that ethical standards in research have shifted since the 1960s has answered a question nobody asked. Note also that "guide the pursuit of knowledge" points at method and direction, not at the content of what's known: values shape which questions get funded, which methods are permitted, what counts as an acceptable answer. Your two areas of knowledge are free, which means the pairing itself is an argument you'll be marked on.