How useful is Science as a way of knowing?

Science is very important in our daily lives. Without it, we would be living back in the stone ages. These days, science is so advanced that it had made human life tons easier for example transportation, communication, etc. But here's our question. How useful is science as a way of knowing?

Science can be useful in many ways. It surpasses human's thinking limit and proves that it is true. In this world which is based on bias and points of view, we depend on science for verifiable information which helps to make important decisions about our lives. Science is based on experimentation and observations of the world.

Most of the time, people assume something but never been proved that it is true. Knowledge can back up the statement but only to a certain limit. Science can break the limit utilizing a series of facts, hypothesis, laws and theories to explain the observations.

Science is a powerful method for obtaining knowledge. It isn't the only way but it is the most reliable way to justify. The scientific method utilizes a series of facts, laws, hypothesis and theories to explain the observations made in this natural world and it is believed that everything happens for a reason such as the grand canyon and niagara waterfall, how it formed and why.

Most of our knowledge comes from Science because the main characteristic of a science is built upon facts. Every cause has its consequences and everything is predicted. Taking an example of the temperature, we can  determine with our sense perception whether it is hot or cold or warm. But with science, using a thermometer we can determine exactly the temperature to see how hot or how cold it is. We can obtain knowledge with our senses but not as exactly as in scientific way.

Human are all equal physically but not mentally. We all react differently to any situations and that is because we all live in different ecosystems. Some day, we would be able to determine for sure what is morally good what isnt. Everyone has been through different situations that might have changed our way of feeling and seeing, having different perspective. 

Our TOK Presentation

Group 3 People: Sergio, Juan Pablo, Cosima, Gaby, Carlos, David Cabrera, Yanez, Nikki, Vale rubio, Kun

Our group has chosen Sense Perception as the ways of knowing and Human Science as areas of knowledge.

Question: HOW RELIABLE IS SENSE PERCEPTION IN RELATION TO HUMAN SCIENCES AS A METHOD OF EXPLORING THE WORLD AROUND US?

My work came out to be successful in the presentation, which I took part in the experiment to demonstrate that senses rely on each other. My part was to show that senses of Smell and Taste rely on each other and to prove this statement, I had prepared an apple and an onion. My assistant was Carlos, who had helped me with this experiment and my volunteer was Valentina Trujillo. We blind folded her and did not tell her what we were about to give her. Next, we put an onion on her nose and gave her a slice of apple to eat and asked  her what it tasted like. The experiment was not successful because she had said that it tasted like apple rather than onion and I figured that Carlos was not putting the onion on her nose properly. It was a big error but the experiemtn was supposed to work as it is proven elsewhere. Anyways, my work had contributed to the team to interact with the audience and make this presentation more understandable rather than saying words. My work was accepted within the group and everyone agreed to my work. I contributed a lot to the group by giving ideas after I was done with my work, and gave advices to the presentation, constantly looking over their prezi (powerpoint) and updating them on any mistake that may have been made. Although the group may have been lousy, we were able to successfully present on the due date. 

We were able to work altogether due to the online powerpoint, called Prezi. It allowed us to all communicate and modify the slides at the same time. Our team communication was very active and it although it was a big group, we treated each other with respect and listened to each others opinion and advices.My teammates work were very clever and the different experiments they came up with, I was pretty amazed of how our teamwork resulted in a big successfully built project. I was proud of my team and the works they came up with and putting it altogether the night before the actual presentation. We had a whole group chatting with each other on facebook, actively communicating and contributing. Because it was such a big group, we couldn't practice altogether but we did split and practiced presenting in each others houses. Everyone in the group had contributed well and everyone knew what they were doing. Each TOK class, we would discuss our ideas and put them as in one.

If I were to do this again, I would have contributed to the group much more ideas that I did not express really well, and be more prepared to motivate my group. I could of added more from my work but overall, I have no regret of this presentation. Also, what I learned from the presentation was that we were sort of disorganized and I would fix this issue. I should of explained clearer and have more knowledge of what I was talking about. 

I learned alot from this experience. I have never been in such a big group and had to work altogether. I did not even know half of the people from my group but at the end, we were friendly being able to easily contribute ideas and work together. I learned how to work with the group more efficiently and be more confident about my ideas. Also, it was important to treat each member of my group with respect or else it was difficult to contribute the ideas. Overall, the main thing I learned from this is to never work as individual, help each other and treat my group with respect because at the end, this is all evaluated as team work. It was a great experience that I had in my life as its part of sharing your ideas and thoughts with other people and working together.

 

Persuation and Propaganda

Persuasion is the influence of beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors. Persuasion is a process aimed at changing a person's (or a group's) attitude or behavior toward some event, idea, object, or other person(s), by using written or spoken words to convey information, feelings, or reasoning, or a combination thereof.

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.

Where do you encounter persuasion and propaganda in our daily lives?
We encounter persuasion and propaganda in our daily lives. We see propaganda all the time, like on super markets, TV, newspapers, internet, etc but, could this affect our judgement? Because if we think about it, propaganda is always positioned to only one side of an argument. We can't obtain full information on a propaganda because it is only presented, based on the facts in a positive way. In many ways, propaganda and persuasion is closely related by the fact that persuasion comes out from propaganda. The purpose of propaganda is to persuade the audience and in order to success, influence of beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations and behaviours are needed.


Several tactics are being used in an advertisement in order to capture the audience attention to its maximum potential. One way would be to shockvertise which audience can't deny ignoring it. The image is just so shocking that the audience tries to question themselves towards the purpose or the value of the image. This is a great way of advertising because the world we live in these days, it is hardly rare that people actually pay attention to the advertisements due to excessive advertisements around the world. To take an example, the United Colors of Benetton used this method of advertising and indeed, it caught way more attention than the normal advertisements. 
Language is very important in order to persuade someone. No one is going to buy the product just by putting "buy it, its good". Tactics used in language would be repeated affirmation which signifies repetition of key points until they are drummed into the mind of the audience such as, "Education, education, education" and "New labour, new danger". These are catchy slogans and are very easily remembered and repeated, stuck on people's head just like catchy music lyrics do. It is important that a small text from the persuasion creates an impact to the mind, the more impact, the longer it would stay.
Emotion is very important when trying to persuade someone. It is way different to persuade with an exciting tone, smile face rather than boring tone and boring face. It gets the audience more confident attracted to their emotion. 

As soon you walk into a shop or store, you hear music. But most often, music isn't just there for decoration or to entertain. It's actually to manipulate your sense perceptions. It is designed to create the appropriate mood to make you want to buy the products. Persuasion often depends on influencing what we absorb from the mass of sensory information in our environment. Most shops tends to be colorful, most shops smell good. These factors can easily manipulate the buyers to buy more products.

In conclusion, many of these tactics are used all the time and we're very often persuaded. We are currently blinded by the truth behind these propaganda and has corroded our minds. It also affects our way of thinking which these propaganda or advertisement is very biased and used for benefits or money.

Truth and Relativism

“Truth is most often used to mean in accord with fact or reality or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal.”

Is truth an actual thing or is everyone’s idea of truth different? Can one person’s truth be untrue to someone else? Do things need to be accepted to be true?

If there is no “truth”, then there can be no knowledge. Truth, in terms of TOK is universal. A lot of things don’t even have to be accepted or believed to be true. For example, I believe that 5 + 5 = 11. However, the truth behind this math is 5 + 5 = 10. In regardless whether I believe or accept the truth, it remains at 5 + 5 = 10.

“Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration.”

The concept of Truth Relativism is a view that absolute truths do not exist, and truth depends on something else. To throw in an example, the expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, what is beautiful or ugly depends on the beholder, who is the person viewing it so it assumes that an absolute view of beauty does not exist. Relativists would believe that absolute truths do not exist. They would believe instead, that truth depends on external factors such as experience, culture, etc…

In my opinion, I think empiricism links to this content of truth. Empiricism is how we obtain knowledge from this world and is one of the greatest utility. In various ways, our senses are correct but it can also deceive us. The knowledge we obtain from the world isn’t always the same, we’re just more dependent to the opinions surrounded by people. Not only this affects it but our environment and our experiences can affect the way we perceive things. What we see may differ from what is truly there. Our mind often creates an image opposite to what is actually there. This relates to truth because it both obtains knowledge and without them we would be more isolated, causing unable to communicate with nature and human.

An Inspiring quote I heard during TOK class "It works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it".

Bible and the Koran

Can they both hold the truth?

Expanding…

Emotion

The scientist Edward O. Wilson has defined an emotion as 'the modification of neural activity that animates and focuses mental activity.

Some type of emotions:

• Happy
• Sad
• Anger
• Fear
• Confidence

The list could go on for a very long time but the point trying to be established here is that there are many emotions felt by the humans.

We found out that it can be both, satisfaction is classified as a feeling but is a state of mind one feels satisfaction when hormones are produced by the brain to do this. Also, pain is classified as an emotion, but it is a feeling based on physical means; when you get hurt you feel pain.

Emotions play a very big role in our way of making diction's and in are interaction with the world may depend on our emotions. There is a perfect example of this shown buy a famous case, of Phineas Gage.

Reason

Topic

Classification

Classification is to arrange or order by classes or categorize. In our daily basis, people always classify in the society we live in nowadays, to maintain an organized mind and arrange or sort things with differentials. We often classify because of physical appearance, and its function.

 There are different types of classifying such as giving example of school; students often classify other pupils as popular, nerds, funny, etc… classifying is a powerful tool when it comes to remembering and also gives us basic information about the object that we have classified that had been obtained by classifying. Just by seeing which category it fits in, we can know its function instantly.

 Is classifying always useful in our life? It gives several benefits, makes our life less complicated but it also has negative aspects which affects the society or contribute to the point where the world is divided into different cultures, nationalities and religions. Overall, classification tends to create stereotypes for example; people with glasses are usually considered nerds or book worms. We classified people with glasses with the basic information received from the category and simplified it.

We classify everything as it is our natural human behavior and for example in my case would be when buying a game from a store, I classify them by genres such as action, shooting, etc… To conclude, classifying gives us huge benefits but it could also create huge conflicts when it comes to society.