Belief, Emotion, Reason

Why do we cling to beliefs when they’re threatened by facts?

December 7, 2014 Mr. MacKnight Leave a comment

Interesting article at arstechnica.com has relevance to TOK:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/12/why-do-we-cling-to-beliefs-when-theyre-threatened-by-facts/

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From EricMacKnight.com

Plagues and uncertainty
To be hopeful in bad times: Howard Zinn
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July 1914: can’t be bothered with politics
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Is TOK a Philosophy Course?

YES, in the sense that the name of the course itself is in any dictionary effectively synonymous with "epistemology."

NO, in the sense that IB-specific ToK has many philosophical elements, but is not just philosophy. ToK is at root an interdiscipinary course that allows students to become aware of how the six subject-groups on the corners on the Diploma hexagon overlap and integrate. The interdisciplinary aspect is the crucial thing . . . .

—Bruce Bartlett
Le Collège français
Toronto, Canada

-----------------------------

"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."

—Steven Wright
-----------------------------

Webs & Chains

Natura in reticulum sua genera connexit,
non in catenam: homines non possunt nisi
catenam sequi, cum non plura simul
possint sermone exponere.

Nature knits up her kinds in a network, not
in a chain; but men can follow only by
chains because their language can’t handle
several things at once.

—Albrecht von Haller (tr. Howard Nemerov)
[Epigraph to Nemerov's poem, "The Dependencies"]

About This Blog

This TOK blog features work by IB Theory of Knowledge students at Dulwich College Suzhou and at Suzhou Singapore International School, in Suzhou, China, from 2009 to 2015, and at Brookes Westshore School beginning in 2019.

Eric MacKnight's TOK Class Blog

Why do we cling to beliefs when they’re threatened by facts?

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Not all black and white; the most interesting bits are gray.