The Ultimate List of TOK Terminology
TOK is full of super specific words and concepts that take a long time to actually even know what they mean, let alone remember them by heart. Moreover, many websites are useful in giving you all of the terms covered in TOK, but personally I only found a small fraction of them actually useful and used in the assessment components. So, I compiled a list of all the absolutely necessary TOK terminology that you should know to ace your TOK Presentation and TOK Essay so you don't need to sift through hundreds of terms and get overwhelmed by complicated definitions.
PS. To find specific terms and sift through stuff you already know, press Control+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac).
A Way of Knowing:
the method a person uses to understand how or why something happens. They can all be used as independent methods to perceive the world.
There are 8 WOKs: Language, Sense perception, Emotion, Reason, Imagination, Faith, Intuition and Memory.
PS. To find specific terms and sift through stuff you already know, press Control+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac).
Way of Knowing (WOK)
A Way of Knowing:
the method a person uses to understand how or why something happens. They can all be used as independent methods to perceive the world.
There are 8 WOKs: Language, Sense perception, Emotion, Reason, Imagination, Faith, Intuition and Memory.
Language:
Definition:
This refers to the way humans talk or write to each other. It is a way of knowing because different languages can convey different meanings.
Language as a WOK incorporates:
Why is language a WOK?
Let's consider the Bible, which has faced lots of controversy over the "correct" translation of Greek/Hebrew into English. The Book of Genesis has been translated by two different scholarly groups, both which rendered different translations of the first verse.
One translation of Genesis 1:1 is "In the beginning, when God created the universe,"
Another translation of it is: "First this: God created the Heavens and Earth - all you see, all you don't see."
As any English speaker can see, these translations of the exact same thing are pretty different. Here are a few key differences: one talks about the universe and the other focuses on heavens/Earth, one specifies that everything was made from nothing (all you see, all you don't see), whereas the other doesn't. These differences are pretty big for someone reading a translation for the first time: their view of the events in the Book of Genesis may be quite different from a person reading a different translation. This just shows how important language is conveying messages and what a person 'knows' about something.
Sense perception:
Definition:
This is how a person understands the world according to their senses like touch, smell or sound, for example.
Sense perception as a WOK incorporates:
Our senses allow us to feel and perceive the world from our own body. Our senses can be used to get a feel for what's going on around us as it's happening: we don't need to communicate with anyone or imagine anything to understand it.
An example of sense perception being used as a WOK is when you are cooking something in the kitchen and go to the toilet in between. As soon as you get out of the toilet, you might instantly smell a strong scent of something burning. From this sensory perception of smell, you KNOW that you have probably burnt something in the kitchen. Therefore, it is a way of understanding the events that happen around you in your everyday life.
Emotion:
Definition:
This refers to how the way we feel internally about something happening influences our way of understanding events that happen around us.
Emotion as a WOK incorporates:
Why is emotion a WOK?
Emotions allow us to make educated guesses about the world around us and what the consequences of certain actions will be.
By getting feeling instantly fearful when you lay your eyes on a grizzly bear, you're able to understand that you need to get out of that situation ASAP or you could die. These split second reactions allow you to understand the world without having to comb through previous experiences or talking with others.
Reason:
Definition:
Everything happens for a reason.
'Reason' refers to the way people use rational thinking to understand the world and why certain things happen. This requires a person to piece together different arguments and previous knowledge to come to a conclusion that's makes sense to them.
Reason as a WOK incorporates:
Imagination:
Definition:
This refers to the way people may visualise how something may have happened, is happening or will happen. In the same way that children may use their imagination to understand how babies are born from cabbage patches, people usually make up for lack of knowledge about a phenomenon through imagination.
Imagination as a WOK incorporates:
Why is imagination a WOK?
While a 'way of knowing' implies that a person understands the true nature of a situation, once you dive deeper into TOK you start unpacking the extent to which the 'truth' even exists. Using the cabbage patch example, children often can rationalise and further 'understand' why something occurs, even if its incorrect. While a teenager may argue that babies are made in another way, a child could be adamant and say "but I KNOW babies come from cabbage patches". See? This child has used imagination as a way of knowing how babies are made, even if it's wrong.
Faith:
Definition:
This refers to the way people rely on their beliefs and religious systems to form opinions.
Faith as a WOK incorporates:
Intuition:
Definition:
Often called the sixth sense, this refers to the 'gut feeling' people get when something occurs. You don't need to reason why something happens as your body instinctively let's you know what's going on.
Why is intuition a WOK?
Instincts are a way of the subconscious brain alerting the body of what might be happening in a situation. Just as in the previous example of encountering a grizzly bear face-to-face, your body uses gut instinct and subconscious thought processes to flood your body with adrenaline and hormones letting you know you're in a dangerous situation. Your way of knowing what is happening in this situation is then completely guided by your gut feeling.
Memory:
Definition:
This refers to past experiences that a person has had, and the knowledge passed on from other people in the past to them about their own experiences.
Memory as a WOK incorporates:
Definition:
This refers to the way humans talk or write to each other. It is a way of knowing because different languages can convey different meanings.
Language as a WOK incorporates:
- formal language
- informal language
- written language
- spoken language
- dialects
- different national languages
Let's consider the Bible, which has faced lots of controversy over the "correct" translation of Greek/Hebrew into English. The Book of Genesis has been translated by two different scholarly groups, both which rendered different translations of the first verse.
One translation of Genesis 1:1 is "In the beginning, when God created the universe,"
Another translation of it is: "First this: God created the Heavens and Earth - all you see, all you don't see."
As any English speaker can see, these translations of the exact same thing are pretty different. Here are a few key differences: one talks about the universe and the other focuses on heavens/Earth, one specifies that everything was made from nothing (all you see, all you don't see), whereas the other doesn't. These differences are pretty big for someone reading a translation for the first time: their view of the events in the Book of Genesis may be quite different from a person reading a different translation. This just shows how important language is conveying messages and what a person 'knows' about something.
Sense perception:
Definition:
This is how a person understands the world according to their senses like touch, smell or sound, for example.
Sense perception as a WOK incorporates:
- physically touching
- smelling
- listening
- seeing
- tasting
Our senses allow us to feel and perceive the world from our own body. Our senses can be used to get a feel for what's going on around us as it's happening: we don't need to communicate with anyone or imagine anything to understand it.
An example of sense perception being used as a WOK is when you are cooking something in the kitchen and go to the toilet in between. As soon as you get out of the toilet, you might instantly smell a strong scent of something burning. From this sensory perception of smell, you KNOW that you have probably burnt something in the kitchen. Therefore, it is a way of understanding the events that happen around you in your everyday life.
Emotion:
Definition:
This refers to how the way we feel internally about something happening influences our way of understanding events that happen around us.
Emotion as a WOK incorporates:
- Primary emotions (the feelings we experience immediately when something happens)
- Example: Fear, happiness, sadness, and anger
- Secondary/social emotions (this is what you feel ABOUT a primary emotion)
- Example: You may feel ashamed that you feared something happening
Why is emotion a WOK?
Emotions allow us to make educated guesses about the world around us and what the consequences of certain actions will be.
By getting feeling instantly fearful when you lay your eyes on a grizzly bear, you're able to understand that you need to get out of that situation ASAP or you could die. These split second reactions allow you to understand the world without having to comb through previous experiences or talking with others.
Reason:
Definition:
Everything happens for a reason.
'Reason' refers to the way people use rational thinking to understand the world and why certain things happen. This requires a person to piece together different arguments and previous knowledge to come to a conclusion that's makes sense to them.
Reason as a WOK incorporates:
- background assumptions (assumptions you make about context of something occurring)
- personal knowledge
- shared knowledge
Imagination:
Definition:
This refers to the way people may visualise how something may have happened, is happening or will happen. In the same way that children may use their imagination to understand how babies are born from cabbage patches, people usually make up for lack of knowledge about a phenomenon through imagination.
Imagination as a WOK incorporates:
- Concepts/ideas that are entirely made up by someone
- Concepts/ideas that are made up of fragmentations of memories and pieces of knowledge
Why is imagination a WOK?
While a 'way of knowing' implies that a person understands the true nature of a situation, once you dive deeper into TOK you start unpacking the extent to which the 'truth' even exists. Using the cabbage patch example, children often can rationalise and further 'understand' why something occurs, even if its incorrect. While a teenager may argue that babies are made in another way, a child could be adamant and say "but I KNOW babies come from cabbage patches". See? This child has used imagination as a way of knowing how babies are made, even if it's wrong.
Faith:
Definition:
This refers to the way people rely on their beliefs and religious systems to form opinions.
Faith as a WOK incorporates:
- Religious beliefs
- A person's moral principles
- Indigenous beliefs
Why is faith a WOK?
We all know someone who bases their life in a certain religion or life philosophy. Their direction in life and everyday choices are made based on certain texts and beliefs. Faith is a way for a person to understand and make sense of events around them. This can especially be seen in examples such as theories of the afterlife, where faith is used as a way for people to 'know' what may happen to them in the future.
Intuition:
Definition:
Often called the sixth sense, this refers to the 'gut feeling' people get when something occurs. You don't need to reason why something happens as your body instinctively let's you know what's going on.
Why is intuition a WOK?
Instincts are a way of the subconscious brain alerting the body of what might be happening in a situation. Just as in the previous example of encountering a grizzly bear face-to-face, your body uses gut instinct and subconscious thought processes to flood your body with adrenaline and hormones letting you know you're in a dangerous situation. Your way of knowing what is happening in this situation is then completely guided by your gut feeling.
Memory:
Definition:
This refers to past experiences that a person has had, and the knowledge passed on from other people in the past to them about their own experiences.
Memory as a WOK incorporates:
- previous personal experiences (personal knowledge)
- Examples: personally having fallen out of a tree, having scored full points on a test
- previous experiences from other people communicated to you (shared knowledge)
- Examples: a friend telling you that they were ghosted by someone, a video being shown of your brother slipping on a rock
Why is memory a WOK?
Memory is classified as a way of knowing because a person 'knows' something by having witnessed these through their own eyes or having heard about experiences through others. When they saw the video of their brother slipping on a rock, they then know that the rock was dangerous to stand on.
Areas of Knowledge (AOK)
Areas of Knowledge:
These are spheres of different ways of thinking. Areas of Knowledge are different from Ways of Knowing because AOKs are about what people in groups think, whereas WOKs are focused on individuals and why they see the world a certain way.
There are 8 AOKs: Mathematics, the Natural Sciences, the Human Sciences, History, The Arts, Ethics, Religious Knowledge and Indigenous Knowledge.
All Areas of Knowledge incorporate:
- historical discoveries and inventions
- controversies between experts in the field
- controversies between experts and the general populace
- paradigm shifts
- information passed down through generations
Miscellaneous Key Terms
Shared Knowledge:
When you're in a group, there are certain concepts and beliefs that are accepted by most, if not all, members of the group. This information is spread between members of the group and is, as such, considered 'shared'.
Example: Most people across the globe accept the statement "The world is round". Not many people come to this conclusion on their own, and largely rely on the members of their group accepting and further sharing this information.
Personal Knowledge:
The line between shared and personal knowledge is thin but crucial. Personal knowledge is the information accepted and believed by a singular individual. This can gathered through their own experiences that have occurred without other people being present, for instance.
Example: You would be the only person in the world that knows why your favourite mug broke, because you were the only one to witness it fall from the counter to smash on the ground.
Paradigm shift:
This is a tough concept to grasp sometimes, but it essentially refers to a huge change that occurs within one of the AOKs. This can refer to a big change in the way something is done or the way something is understood.
Example:
- Paradigm shift in how something is done: The big change from photographic film to digital photography changed the way people took photos.
- Paradigm shift in how something is understood: The development from Newtonian Mechanics to Quantum Mechanics was a big change in how people understood physics.
Truth:
Truth is one of the most controversial things being discussed in TOK, because no one can really agree on what it is. Indeed, it might be better to separate it into categories to get a feel for how complex the "truth" really is.
Here are examples of different theories of truth:
- A truth that accurately describes reality (Correspondence Theory of Truth)
- Truth can be dependent on the situation you are placed in. A statement accurately reflects your reality. For example, if it is snowing outside and someone asks "Is it snowing outside?", there is only 1 "true" answer: Yes, it is snowing outside.
- A truth that's based on different statements that "line up" (Coherence Theory of Truth)
- Let's say you're sitting in your bedroom and hear a 'drip, drip, drip' from the kitchen. Your sister also appears to hear the same 'drip, drip, drip' and asks you from the hallway "Did you leave the tap on?" You then go to check on the tap in the kitchen, and indeed it is dripping because the tap was not completely turned off. The truth of this situation is based on 3 things: you heard the tap dripping, your sister heard the tap dripping, and you saw the tap dripping. These 3 statements "line up", and thus you can consider this the truth.
- A truth based on one's beliefs (The Pragmatic Theory of Truth)
- A friend you know might adamantly believe that money is the key to happiness, or your aunt might truly believe that being a teacher is the best career path for her. These are all very true for the people believing these statements, and thus can also be considered the "truth".
There are some fundamental problems that come up when discussing what the "truth" is, which can be brought up through examples:
- If a tree were to fall in a forest, yet no one ever saw it fall or heard it fall, how do we know it fell? If there is no proof for it happening, did it ever actually happen?
- Let's consider the tap dripping example as a deaf and blind person (a little Helen Keller moment). You were in your room and didn't hear nor see the tap dripping. You therefore can't line up the statements of "I heard the tap" and "I saw the tap". If you can't line up any statement, does this mean the tap never dripped in the first place? Obviously not, however your view of reality can't validate this happening. That's an example of a major flaw in the Coherence Theory of Truth, for instance.
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