WAYS OF

KNOWING
INTRODUCTION

DEFINITION
The TOK ways of knowing
are how we acquire
knowledge about the world
around us, and figure out
our relationship with it

HOW DO YOU
ACQUIRE
KNOWLEDGE?

8 WOKS
TOK identifies 8 different ways of
knowing, each one involving a
different method of gaining
knowledge, but just like with the
areas of knowledge, they are
often intertwined and dependent
on each other.

PLACE IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

Emotion

1. ____________________________

Faith

2. ____________________________

Imagination

3. ____________________________

Intuition

4. ____________________________

Language

5. ____________________________

Memory

6. ____________________________

Reason
Sense perception

7. ____________________________
8. ____________________________

LANGUAGE

Language can refer to the

mental faculty which allows
people to learn and use
complex communication
systems, or it can refer to
those systems themselves.

LANGUAGE EXAMPLES
How does language shape knowledge?
Does the importance of language in an area
of knowledge ground it in a particular
culture?
How are metaphors used in the construction
of knowledge?

THOUGHTS ON LANGUAGE
Words are pale shadows of forgotten names.
As names have power, words have power.
Words can light fires in the minds of humans.
Words can wring tears from the hardest
hearts.
Explain your opinion of the accuracy of this
statement. What does it suggest about language

 Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the

power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a
classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.
Roland Barthes
One can say of language that it is potentially the only human
home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man.
John Berger

 There is nothing in philosophy which could not be said in everyday language.

Henri Bergson
Mechanical difficulties with language are the outcome of internal difficulties
with thought.
Elizabeth Bowen
Language is a mixture of statement and evocation.
Elizabeth Bowen

 To have another language is to possess a second soul.

Charlemagne
Language is a process of free creation; its laws and
principles are fixed, but the manner in which the
principles of generation are used is free and infinitely
varied. Even the interpretation and use of words
involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky

 We inhabit a language rather than a country.

Emil M. Cioran
Use what language you will, you can never say anything but
what you are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Language fits over experience like a straight-jacket.
William Golding

 Language is a more recent technology. Your body language,

your eyes, your energy will come through to your audience
before you even start speaking.
Peter Guber
Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of
language, while in fact language remains the master of man.
Martin Heidegger
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt

 The limits of my language means the limits of

my world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

You learned the concept pain when you

learned language.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

SENSE PERCEPTION
Sense perception is the process
by which we can gain knowledge
about the outside world.
Traditionally, there were believed
to be five senses: sight, touch,
smell, taste and hearing.

SENSE PERCEPTION EXAMPLES

How can we know if our senses are
reliable?
What is the role of expectation or
theory in sense perception?
What is the role of language in sense

Emotio
n

EMOTION
Two views -- emotions are the products
of natural processes, with physiological
causes and effects. Universal and
experienced across all cultures.
The opposite view is therefore that of
the social constructionists, who argue
that emotions depend on a social
consciousness, and have no natural

EMOTION EXAMPLES
Are emotions universal?
Can/should we control our
emotions?
Are emotions the enemy of, or
necessary for, good reasoning?
Are emotions always linked to

REASON

Inductive reasoning is the process of

supporting general statements by a
series of particular onesthe reverse
Deductive reasoning which tends to
proceed from the general to the
particular. Reason allows us to go
beyond the immediate experience of our

REASON EXAMPLES
What is the difference between
reason and logic?
How reliable is inductive reasoning?
Are we predictably irrational?

IMAGINATION

Imagination is sometimes viewed in a broader

way as being associated with creativity,
problem-solving and originality.

Here it might be the making of connections

between otherwise disparate ideas in order to
solve problems.
This might be useful in model making or
theory creation in the sciences and solving
structural problems in the arts.

IMAGINATION EXAMPLES
What is the role of imagination in
producing knowledge about a real
world?
Can imagination reveal truths that
reality hides?
What is the role of the imagination

FAITH

The term faith is most frequently

used to refer specifically to religious
faith, but can also be used in a
secular sense as a synonym for
trust.
Most associated with belief in a God
or gods, faith can be religious

FAITH EXAMPLES
Should humanism or atheism be
described as a faith?
Can theistic beliefs be considered
knowledge because they are
produced by a special cognitive
faculty or divine sense?

INTUITION

Intuition is sometimes described as

immediate cognition, or knowledge which is
immediately evident without prior
inference, evidence or justification.
Intuition is often contrasted with reason, as
it is regarded as knowing without the use of
rational processes.
Intuition is sometimes associated with the

INTUITION EXAMPLES
Why are some people considered
more intuitive than others?
Are there certain things that you have
to know prior to being able to learn
anything at all?
Should you trust your intuition?

Memor
y

MEMORY
Most of the knowledge that
individuals have is in the form of
memory and therefore how we
retain information and how past
events and experiences are
reconstructed is an important

MEMORY EXAMPLES
Can we know things which are
beyond our personal present
experience?
Is eyewitness testimony a reliable
source of evidence?

THE EXPERTS & THE WOKS