Core Theme-Methods and Tools

Methods and tools

Cognitive tools

In considering the methods of individual knowers, we might consider the sources through

which information is presented to the individual. External sources of knowledge, like

books, websites and authority figures, might shape our knowledge to a great extent, but

the internal cognitive processes and tools that we use to gather and interpret information

into knowledge might also shape that knowledge in ways we are unaware of. These are

inherently individual and so an analysis of these sources is best understood as an

analysis of an individual’s thought or thinking process. This is an important discussion

because we often show an appropriate amount of healthy skepticism when other people

tell us things, but we might not be considering how our own processes are also sometimes

unreliable.

(Please Turn Over)

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For example, our construction of knowledge about the world might follow
this process: •

First, we might experience the world through our senses (sense perception).

• We might then categorize what we are experiencing using memory and language
(memory and language).

• From this description we might consider whether it is consistent with what we’ve
already experienced in the world (reason).

• We might even have an emotional reaction to this experience based on what has
happened to us before or what we know about what is happening to us (emotion).

• If we have a question about the reasons for our experience, we might consider and
test a number of explanations (imagination and reason).

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• We might even have a ‘hunch’ about what the right explanation is, or a hunch that
someone else’s explanation might be mistaken (intuition).

• There might be some explanations that we inherently trust because they come from a
trusted authority in the field (faith as trust), or because they come from a source to
whom we have committed ourselves (religious faith).

KNOWLEDGE QUESTION
How do we acquire knowledge?

There are all sorts of ways to characterize the cognitive processes by which individuals
make claims about the world. In each case, however, the following should be kept in
mind:

• The cognitive tools are intermingled.

None of the tools outlined in the diagram above or any others that you wish to consider,
work in isolation. Trying to isolate, for instance, reason and emotion in the consideration
of how we know the world would be like trying to isolate different types of plants in a
forest or isolate one single part of your body when thinking about ‘digestion’. No part
works in isolation, all parts work together.

Learner profile
Inquirers

What shapes our personal experience of the world?

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• Cognitive tools are influenced by our experience and culture. Even though some
of these words refer to biological processes in humans (sense perception, for instance),
this does not mean that they operate the same way for each of us. What we believe to be
‘reasonable’ might differ dramatically between cultures. When discussing earthquakes in
the Himalayas, for instance, some local cultures will use an explanation which includes
mythical beasts battling it out underground and consider this perfectly ‘reasonable’,
because the language concepts they are using are entirely consistent with their basic
understandings (or map) of the world. Similarly, religious devotees may use certain
premises to explain the world that will be unavailable to an atheist.

IA prompt 30
What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the
world?

• Sometimes our cognitive tools are trustworthy, but sometimes they are
misleading. Like any map, our cognitive processes, when not used reflectively, can lead
us astray, even if most of the time they are reliable. Optical illusions are a clear example
of this, as is the fact that the way we describe our sense impressions might be heavily
influenced by the concepts that our language provides. One favourite illusions that
demonstrates this point, isn’t really an ‘illusion’ at all, except that our mind makes it so.
What is intriguing about the impossible trident illusion, is that it is simply lines on a surface,
but our mind tries to create out of that design a three-dimensional object which cannot
exist in reality. It is not the image on the page that is the illusion, but your mind trying to
impose an interpretation on it and that interpretation cannot exist.

We don’t experience any of this interpretation – we see the image, our minds try to
interpret it as 3D, we do a double take and get confused.

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The Impossible Trident

is an impossible figure (or impossible object or undecidable figure): it depicts an object which could not possibly
exist. For example, the trident appears at one end to have merely two prongs, but at the other end to have three,
simultaneously.

That sense perception and interpretation are so closely related is also brought out by
another more obvious point: none of the oddly shaped lines (the text) on this page have
presented themselves as odd; you have seen the lines and squiggles and immediately
understood only the ‘concept’ behind them. The interpretation and the sense-experience
are the same. Only when we visit a new country – the native language of which we do
not speak – are we confronted with a disconnect between the squiggly lines and the
meaning. When a native English speaker sees Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese or
Vietnamese, they see only the lines because they do not have the right background
knowledge. But when it comes to English, they will not even be aware of the lines; they
only see the words and ‘see’ their meaning.

The point here is that while we might be experiencing the world through these cognitive

processes, they are experienced through the lens of our

interpretations and background beliefs. If we are not careful, those

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interpretations might lead us into the dangerous territory of mistaken interpretation or

outright prejudice.

• Our cognitive tools are managed by communities of knowers. No matter how much
thinking about or analysis of our cognitive processes we do, they really only become
interesting in terms of TOK when we consider their role in the formation of knowledge.
That we are sometimes deceived by sense perception, or that reason can lead us into
falsehoods, or that intuition can give us nudges in the right direction, is less interesting in

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TOK than how the sources are managed by the community of knowers. This is the step
that all considerations of cognitive tools should take. For instance, that our senses can
sometimes lead us astray is interesting, but it’s a real problem for a community of knowers
like scientists because the whole ‘method’ that science uses is based on observations of
the world as the primary data. The question, then, isn’t whether the senses can
sometimes lead us astray but, more importantly, how scientists manage this problem.

Learner profile
Open-minded
How can I remain open to the fact that my own views might not be fully
reliable?

Memory and language can be quite faulty for an individual in developing knowledge, but
the real question is how does the community of historians overcome this

or take this into consideration when developing historical knowledge

that often uses first person testimony of events as evidence?
Each AOK brings with it a ‘method’ and the point of these methods is to take advantage
of the strengths of these cognitive tools and manage the weaknesses of them in relation
to the scope of that community.

• Simply discussing the tools is not an adequate Theory of Knowledge analysis.

A successful TOK analysis will consider how those weaknesses relate to

the construction of knowledge, whether it be at the individual level.
Discuss:
§ ‘Should I trust my memory?’ or
§ ‘How does my imagination help me understand the knowledge of others or the
shared level of the community? or
§ ‘What role does intuition play in the construction of mathematical knowledge?’ or

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§ ‘How does technology influence the reliability of our political knowledge?’ or

§ ‘How does the scientific method protect against the unconscious bias of individual
scientists?’

Watch:

TED talk: Can you trust your ears? (audio illusions)

https://youtu.be/kzo45hWXRWU

Reflect:
IA prompt 30
What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the
world?
Imagination can be used to make sense of the world, to organise knowledge about the natural world and
to explain reasons for our existence. Imagination conveys truths that reality hides and stimulate us to
create new knowledge. Many scientific discoveries would not have been made without imagination.