How open am I to new

ideas and opinions that are

very different from my
own?

What shapes my
Where do my values come
perspective as a knower?
from and how does that shape
my knowledge?

How am I influenced by
What resources do I have
the different community of
as a knower to help me
knowers I belong to?
navigate the world?

Personal Profile as a Knower

Above image adapted from IBO.

Written Reflection #1 - Personal Profile as a Knower (~800 words)

“How do YOU know what you know?” What are all the things that can impact how you know what you know?
Expand with personal and real-life examples and feel free to reference things we have done in the course but
DON’T spend time retelling things that we did. Reflect on them. Write using a first-person perspective and avoid
generic overtones. While it is a fine line, this is not about who you are, but why you think the way you think.
Read the rubric carefully.

Submit to your ONEDRIVE TOK folder only as a word doc. DO NOT submit a google doc.

Rubric (italicized descriptors are from the ToK Course objectives)

The written response demonstrates a thorough awareness of the student’s own perspectives and reflects critically on the
5 student’s own beliefs and assumptions. Metacognitive skills are excellent. The quality of writing is very good.
The written response demonstrates a thoughtful awareness of the student’s own perspectives and reflects critically on the
4 student’s own beliefs and assumptions. Metacognitive skills are proficient. The quality of writing is good.
The written response demonstrates an emerging awareness of the student’s own perspectives and reflects critically on the
3 student’s own beliefs and assumptions. Metacognitive skills are satisfactory. The quality of writing is acceptable.
The written response demonstrates a limited awareness of the student’s own perspectives and reflects critically on the student’s
2 own beliefs and assumptions. Metacognitive skills are lacking. The quality of writing is poor.
The written response demonstrates a poor awareness of the student’s own perspectives and reflects critically on the student’s
1 own beliefs and assumptions. Metacognitive skills are weak. The quality of writing is very poor.
Jad Abdennour
TOK Assignment
Knowledge and the Knower
TOK realizes Plato’s definition of knowledge which is “justified true belief”. Plato stated that
knowledge is objective so it has to be justified and true, as well as believed by others.
You can acquire knowledge through many ways such as the TOK ways of knowing which are, sense
perception, reason, language, memory, intuition, faith, imagination, and emotion.
As a knower and a thinker, I use all these ways of knowing, to acquire and know what I know. Sense
perception is one of the most important ways of knowing as it doesn’t require much analysis and
thought. You might be going about your day and then randomly see something or hear something. From
that point onwards you would have acquired that knowledge and it will stay with you for as long as you
remember. After you perceive something in your daily life, it requires reasoning and thought to be
considered as something you know. For example, if someone tells you apples are blue, you would go on
to research that and realize that it is not true. At the same time you will acquire the justified true
answers. In addition to that, memory is an important way of knowing. Most of the information you
acquire is stored in your memory. So, without memory you would not have the knowledge you have
with a good memory. Memory is anything you remember form past experiences, research,
conversations, and much more.
Moreover, imagination is a very important way of knowing. Say for example you close your eyes, and
imagine yourself writing on a piece of paper. You mind is capable of producing a very realistic image in
you head of what you imagine. Good imagination comes with sense and experiences that you go through
in life. In addition to that, intuition is also in important way of knowing. Let us take the example of
science. When a scientist is doing an experiment, he jots down numbers and results on a piece of paper
quickly while still working on the experiment. Good intuition in a scientist can lead him to realize a
pattern in his data without studying it or analysing it much.
Throughout life, all the experiences we go through, cause us to learn something new. Whether it is
something small like how to make a sandwich or something big like how a volcano erupts, or even
abstract concepts like love, perseverance. All these forms of knowledge, are acquired by experiences.
One experience that was really pivotal in my life, was when I got lost in a foreign country as a child. It
had never happened to me before and I was very scared at first. After a few minutes I started thinking of
what I could do. Naturally, before even knowing the ways of knowing, I was using them subconsciously
to try and find my parents. I started by looking for them and listening to try and hear their voices. When
that didn’t work, I moved on to trying to remember where I last saw them and where they told me they
would be. I later imagined what their path would be and started following this imaginary path. I had
faith in my imagination even though it didn’t work. Finally, I tried to remember one of their phone
numbers which in the end worked and I was able to find them. This experience was very important in
my life because it taught me many things like staying calm when scared or in danger, as well as using
rational ways to do something or figure something out.
All experiences such as this shape my “profile as a knower”. These experiences made me open to new
opinions, even ones that are very different than my own. Especially in this day and age where opinions
are becoming very controversial, and there are many more topics that are frowned upon than before. In
addition to that, experiences I go through shape my perspective on said experiences, and shape the
values that I live by in everyday life. Moreover, especially nowadays where every person has the right to
speak their opinion, and social media taking over our lives allowing these opinions to be broadcasted all
over the world, getting influenced by other people’s opinions was bound to happen. You can be
completely left minded; then suddenly change because of an opinion you see online. This massively
impacts me as I am a person who spends a lot of time online conversing and reading about topics that
interest me. This virtual community I am in also helped shape my values, perspective, and influenced
me in many ways both negatively and positively.