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Understanding the Foundations

Core: Knowledge and the Knower

The core theme, Knowledge and the Knower, forms the backbone of the TOK course. It focuses on the relationship between the individual knower and the knowledge they acquire, emphasizing personal perspectives, cognitive biases, and ethical responsibilities.
Optional: Connecting Knowledge to Real-World Contexts
The optional themes allow students to explore knowledge through specific societal and cultural lenses, making TOK more relatable and engaging. These include:
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Knowledge and Technology: How advancements shape the creation and distribution of knowledge.
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Knowledge and Politics: The relationship between knowledge, power, and governance.
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Knowledge and Indigenous Societies: How traditional knowledge systems contribute to global understanding.
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Knowledge and Language: The role of language in constructing and communicating knowledge.
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Knowledge and Religion: The interplay between faith, spirituality, and knowledge systems.

How Themes Shape Knowledge Questions in the Exhibition and Essay

Themes are not just abstract ideas—they are tools to frame and analyze knowledge questions effectively.
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In the TOK Exhibition
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In the TOK Essay
1.1 Theme
The Areas of Knowledge (AOKs) represent the domains through which humans acquire, create, and interpret knowledge. They are central to the TOK framework and offer distinct methodologies, tools, and challenges for exploring knowledge questions in both the exhibition and essay. The five AOKs are:
1.
Natural Sciences
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Human Sciences
3.
Mathematics
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Arts
5.
History
1.2 AoK
The 12 key concepts will help you analyze how knowledge is constructed and understood across different Areas of Knowledge (AoKs). Below is an overview of each concept with examples to clarify their application.
1. Evidence
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Definition: The information or data that supports or challenges a claim.
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Key Questions:
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Examples:
2. Certainty
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Definition: The extent to which we can be confident that a claim is true.
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Key Questions:
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Examples:
3. Truth
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Definition: A claim that aligns with reality or is universally accepted as valid.
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Key Questions:
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Examples:
4. Interpretation
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Definition: The process of explaining or understanding the meaning of something.
1.3 Concept
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Writing the Exhibition
The TOK exhibition is an essential component (worth 33% of final grade) of the IB TOK course, providing students with an opportunity to connect abstract knowledge questions with 3 tangible, real-world objects. Showcasing your exhibition to your teachers and peers is not part of the official grading. This guide covers everything from understanding the purpose of the exhibition to exemplar writings, ensuring a high-quality submission.
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Purpose: To explore how TOK concepts manifest in the real world by analyzing three specific objects in relation to a prescribed IA prompt.
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Scope: The exhibition is not a personal opinion piece; it’s a critical reflection on how knowledge is produced, shared, and applied in everyday contexts, using tangible objects as evidence.
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Word Count Limit: 950
Assessment Criteria
Does the exhibition successfully show how TOK manifests in the world around us?
Possible Characteristics
IA Prompts (last updated: 2022)
The 35 IA prompts for the TOK exhibition are thought-provoking questions that explore how knowledge operates in real-world contexts. Students choose one prompt to anchor their analysis, using three specific objects to illustrate their response and demonstrate their understanding of key TOK concepts.
While the prompts remain largely consistent over time, the IB reviews and updates the list periodically (currently assumed to be around 4-5 years) to ensure relevance and alignment with evolving educational goals. It is important for students to confirm they are working with the most current set of prompts for their assessment year.
2.1 Overview
Selecting the right IA prompt is critical for crafting a compelling ToK Exhibition. The prompt serves as the foundation for your exploration of real-world objects and their connection to ToK Concepts.
5 Step Guide
1.
Understand the Purpose of the Prompt
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The prompt serves as the foundation of your exhibition. It frames your analysis of knowledge concepts and how they relate to real-world objects.
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Each prompt is an open-ended question that allows you to explore knowledge questions. Your goal is to create a clear, thoughtful, and personalized response through objects.
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Identify Your Strengths and Interests
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Your personal interest will make the process more engaging and meaningful.
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Think about your strengths, preferred Areas of Knowledge (AOKs), and objects that fascinate you.
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Shortlist ~3 Prompts
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By narrowing your options, you reduce choice paralysis and focus on the most promising prompts.
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Pick prompts that you feel comfortable answering with potential objects in mind.
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Choose 1 Prompt with Strong Objects and Concepts
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You want a clear and manageable focus.
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Select the prompt that feels most personal, interesting, and conceptually rich.
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Ask yourself these questions:
2.2 Selecting the Best IA Prompt
Selecting effective and strong objects is essential for a high scoring exhibition. Your objects should not only be personally relevant and interesting to explore your chosen prompt but also allow for meaningful connections to ToK concepts.
Since demonstrating personal connections with your chosen objects is crucial for the exhibition, using ideas for objects from AI sources is not recommended (since it will not know what objects you own). However, using them as idea starters to help you find objects that convey a similar idea is okay.
Checklist for Individual Objects:
Is your object tangible and specific?
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Objects must be real, not hypothetical or abstract.
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Objects should have a clear story or background that connects to the prompt.
Does your object align with the prompt?
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Objects must directly relate to the questions posed by the prompt.
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Objects should allow you to explore ToK concepts (e.g., evidence, perspective, truth).
The combination of your three objects is crucial for creating a cohesive, conceptually rich, and engaging ToK exhibition.
Checklist for Combination of All Three Objects:
Altogether, are your objects of different types?
2.3 Choosing Effective Objects
The TOK exhibition is centered around one IA prompt, explored through three specific objects that exemplify the chosen prompt. Each object requires a written commentary of approximately 315 words, where students explain how the object connects to the prompt and illustrates key TOK concepts. The exhibition does not require an overall introduction or conclusion. Instead, the focus is on clear, concise analysis of each object in isolation, while maintaining a consistent connection to the chosen prompt throughout.

a. Background

Introduce the object and identify its specific real-world context.
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What is it? Where is it from?
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Explain your personal connection with the object.
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Keep the paragraph shorter than 100 words.
2.4 Structuring the Exhibition

Essay

“What challenges are raised by the dissemination and/or communication of knowledge?”
The TOK prompt I have selected is: “What challenges are raised by the dissemination and/or communication of knowledge?”. This exhibition explores this prompt by reflecting on knowledge and language, and more specifically on whether subtext and connotation always create confusion rather than help us to communicate knowledge. The language we use in our everyday lives can often be interpreted many different ways by different people, depending on their cultural background, beliefs, ideologies, affiliations, personal experiences etc. In particular it seems that subtext and connotation can be particularly challenging as they are often only recognised by people that share some particular knowledge or experiences, and it seems that they can easily be interpreted very differently by different people which can cause confusion and hinder communication of knowledge.
Object 1. Starbucks holiday cup
This cup was used by Starbucks in 2017 and was controversial because some people viewed the symbol of the two hands holding hands on the cup as a sign that Starbucks was promoting a homosexual agenda, because they saw the cups as having an LGBT subtext. However, many other people just saw the cup as spreading joy and love during the holiday season and did not think that there was any particular subtext at all.
This cup is particularly interesting for this exhibition because a Starbucks spokesman said that they had intentionally designed the cup so that customers could interpret it in their own way, which suggests that they were deliberately trying to communicate in an open or vague way rather than seeing the disagreement this might cause as being negative/ a challenge. In this way, the cup highlights how confusion arising from the use of subtext can be useful or can actually even be used by people intentionally to provoke discussion. The cup generated a lot of media attention for the company while still allowing them to say that how the cup was to be interpreted was up to their individual customers to decide.
This cup also enriches this exhibition because both some members of the LGBT community and also some members of the right-wing media and public saw the cups as promoting same sex relationships. While both of these different groups interpreted the cup this way, their reaction was very different, with one seeing this as very positive and one being very upset about it. Yet other people didn’t see this subtext at all. So in this particular case it wasn’t only that the subtext itself was only seen or understood by some groups and not others, but also that the reaction to that subtext also differed very dramatically.
Object 2. My Chinese-English Translation Dictionary
This object is a dictionary I use to help me translate between Chinese and English. When we think about how language is translated so that it can be communicated between people who speak different languages we can see that this poses many challenges to communication of knowledge, particularly because of the way that language uses connotations, euphemisms, proverbs and idioms that go beyond the literal meaning of a word.
The meaning and true essence behind many words and phrases is often unique to a specific language and the cultural/historical understanding that comes with an intimate knowledge only a native speaker can acquire, particularly things like connotation where language can have not only its literal translation but also can have secondary meanings.
2.5 Exemplar A

Essay

“Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?”
Object 1: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel that was published in 1958. It tells the story of the Igbo people (a Nigerian tribe) and their deeply rooted cultural and religious practices. Achebe infuses his writing with cultural references and literary devices (such as “Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan”) that show how the Igbo people understand their world. Their economy is based on agriculture, so they have specific words like “harmattan” which represents the dry and dusty season. This knowledge may seem strange and foreign to me, but this is crucial knowledge for the Igbo people to have because if they plant their yams during this season they will not survive. Achebe was born in an Igbo town and is part of this community of knowers, so he understands the Igbo people and shares their knowledge.
As a white girl from an affluent town, I read about other cultures and through studying them in school, I respect and appreciate them. However, I also must acknowledge that I will never be able to fully understand them, as I was not born into this culture and I don’t think that anyone outside of a culture or community can truly know things in the same way as someone inside it. People see the world through the paradigms that are created through their personal experiences, so culture is a lens that every person sees the world through.
Things Fall Apart serves to spread knowledge about Igbo culture, but the only people who truly know these cultural aspects and the people who this knowledge belongs to are the Igbo people. Without reading this book, I never would have heard of the Igbo people. After reading the book, I was in awe of the fact that there was an entire culture I had never heard of. This highlighted my ignorance even further, in my naive belief that I would ever be able to know of every culture. While I will never be able to truly know Igbo culture or be part of that community of knowers, I now appreciate it because Achebe chooses to share his story to enrich any individual’s pursuit of knowledge.
Object 2: “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang
“Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang in 1979 was the first rap song to be played on the radio. It angered many of the originators of Hip Hop because it did not tell the true story of young, poor black men, and was heavily influenced by disco, the white style of music that Hip Hop artists were trying to dissociate from.
This song was labeled as “Hip Hop” but through radio this song left the neighborhood parties of the Bronx and entered the homes of affluent white teenagers in the Upper East Side. But it did not accurately portray the struggles of the originators of Hip Hop.
2.6 Exemplar B
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Writing the Essay
The TOK prescribed title essay is a central component (worth 67% of final grade) of the IB TOK course, challenging students to engage critically with a chosen title. It encourages exploration of knowledge questions (KQ) and concepts through the lens of Areas of Knowledge (AoKs). Understanding its purpose, structure, and assessment criteria is crucial for writing a focused and well-argued essay.
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Purpose: To answer a prescribed title (PT) by analyzing knowledge questions using AoKs, concepts, and examples.
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Scope: The essay is not about personal opinion; it’s a critical engagement with how knowledge is created, validated, and communicated.
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Word Count Limit: 1600
Assessment Criteria
Does the student provide a clear, coherent and critical exploration of the essay title?
Possible characteristics
3.1 Overview
TOK prescribed titles typically fall into a few distinct types of questions, each designed to prompt critical thinking and nuanced analysis of knowledge issues. Here's an overview of the common types of questions in prescribed titles.
1.
Yes/No Questions
These questions invite the writer to take a stance but require justification, nuance, and exploration of both sides. Though it appears as a yes/no question, a strong TOK essay will explore the complexities, conditions, and implications of answering in either direction.
"In the production of knowledge, are we too quick to dismiss anomalies? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.”
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Example Argument: “In the natural sciences, anomalies often serve as catalysts for paradigm shifts, and dismissing them too quickly risks overlooking opportunities to drive transformative advancements in knowledge.”
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Example Counter Argument: “However, in the natural sciences, dismissing anomalies can be a practical necessity to avoid being misled by experimental errors, ensuring the focus remains on replicable findings.”
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“To What Extent” Questions
These questions require evaluation of the degree or limits of a claim or principle. They emphasize analysis, comparison, and weighing of evidence.
“To what extent do you agree that there is no significant difference between hypothesis and speculation? Discuss with reference to the human sciences and one other area of knowledge.”
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Example Argument: “In the human sciences, hypotheses differ significantly from speculation because they are systematically developed based on observable phenomena, whereas speculation lacks the methodological rigor required to generate knowledge.”
Example Counter Argument: “Nonetheless, in the human sciences, the distinction between hypothesis and speculation is often blurred because the complexity of human phenomena sometimes prevents hypotheses from being empirically tested, leaving them closer to informed speculation.”
3.
“How” Questions
These questions focus on mechanisms, methodologies, or relationships between concepts, often requiring detailed exploration of processes or implications.
“How might it benefit an area of knowledge to sever ties with its past? Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.”
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Example Argument: “In history, severing ties with its past allows the field to overcome entrenched biases and prioritize marginalized perspectives, fostering a more equitable understanding of historical narratives.”
3.2 Types of Prescribed Titles (PT)
When approaching the TOK PT essay, one of the most critical steps is selecting the appropriate PT and relevant Areas of Knowledge (AoKs) to analyze. Your choice can significantly impact how well you respond to the PT and demonstrate your understanding of TOK concepts.
3 Step Guide to Selecting a PT and Choosing Two AoKs:
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Break Down the Titles and Understanding Their Implications
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Understand the type of question and identify the key terms and assumptions in each title.
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Rank Titles by Analytical Depth and Scoring Potential
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Select titles with AoKs you’re comfortable investigating in depth, ensuring you understand their methods and tools.
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Remember that each AoK has unique methods of inquiry, standards of evidence, and purposes. Use these characteristics to evaluate which AoKs are relevant to your chosen title.
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Choose a Title That Matches Your Strengths
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Play to your academic strengths and interests. Avoid unnecessarily challenging yourself with titles that do not make clear sense to you.
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Note that you are not limited to selecting AoKs that match your course selection.
3.3 Unpacking the PTs and Selecting AoKs
Crafting a compelling argument for a TOK essay requires balancing intuition, evidence, and critical reflection. Here's a streamlined three-step process to guide you in building arguments that align with the PT while showcasing your analytical skills.
Step 1: Unpack the PT and Draft an Argument with Gut Feeling
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Interpret the Title: Identify key terms or phrases in the title.
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For example, if the title asks about "certainty in the pursuit of knowledge," think about what certainty means to you and how you’ve encountered it.
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Ask Yourself Key Questions:
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Which AoKs immediately come to mind for this title?
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What examples seem relevant?
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What TOK concepts (e.g., evidence, justification, or power) could connect with this?
3.
Write Down a Draft Argument: Use your intuition to form a rough thesis or statement that responds to the title. Don’t worry about perfection; focus on expressing your gut reaction.
Example: "Historians and human scientists share an ethical obligation to consider contradictory evidence, as ignoring it can distort the pursuit of objective understanding; however, the extent of this obligation differs. In History, selective evidence risks shaping biased narratives while in the Human Sciences, empirical methodologies allow contradictory evidence to be managed systematically."
Step 2: Research Real-Life Situations (RLS) That Support the Idea
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Identify Relevant RLS: Choose specific, real-world examples that align with the PT and AoKs.
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Avoid RLSs that many students might also consider using. In other words, start with what you already know and begin your research for more complex and sophisticated RLSs.
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Utilize AI-platforms (e.g., ChatGPT) to brainstorm ideas.
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Pick a RLS That Strengthens Your Argument: Analyze examples critically, linking them to at least 2 TOK concepts each.
3.4 Building a Strong Argument and Selecting RLSs

a. Introduction

Define the title, introduce the knowledge question (optional), and state thesis.
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Hook: Establish the broader context and significance of the title.
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Knowledge Question (KQ): reformulated question of the PT
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Thesis: Outline the approach you will take, including the two AOKs and justification.
PT: “Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished.” Consider this claim with respect to two areas of knowledge.

b. Argument

Analyze the claim for AOK1 using one unique RLS.
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Topic Sentence: Begin by clearly stating the main argument of the paragraph. Ensure it is specific to the AoK you are addressing.
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Explain Key Concepts: Provide a brief explanation of any key concepts or terms that are central to your argument. This step helps clarify your point and ensure that the reader understands the context of the argument.
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Introduce RLS: Introduce the RLS that will support your argument. This should be concise and directly connected to the point you are making. Include appropriate citations.
3.5 Structuring the Essay

Unpacking PT

Interpret the Title:
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Key terms: application, value of knowledge
Ask Yourself Key Questions:
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Which AoKs immediately come to mind for this title?
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What examples seem relevant?
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What TOK concepts (e.g., evidence, justification, or power) could connect with this?
Write a Draft Argument:
"Knowledge can have application in the world in two different ways: it can make relevant comments about the world and it can make impactful changes to the world. These applications are essential in determining the value of knowledge."

Essay

As a child growing up, I understood the point of learning rudimentary science and mathematics to avoid coming across as particularly ignorant, but I failed to see the possible future use of concepts such as Pythagoras Theorem in mathematics or the Steady State Theory in physics. From the age of 13, I was convinced that I was headed for a career in Law, and questioned the point of acquiring knowledge that did not directly assist me in my future profession. I held application in the world, specifically my future career, as the benchmark for the value judgement of knowledge. Although I still use application in the world as the main factor in evaluating knowledge, my understanding of application in the world has changed drastically, now allowing for the definition to differ in respective areas of knowledge. For instance, within the arts I define application as making relevant commentary about the state or future state of the world, while in the natural sciences I see application as making relevant and impactful changes to the natural world. For me, these applications are essential in determining the value of knowledge.
When we discuss whether knowledge is a means to an end or an end-in-itself, I tend to look to art, specifically visual art, as an example of the latter. Beauty is a vital part of the judgement of art, and many artists emphasise beauty and subjective appeal over all considerations, including application, in the judgement of an art piece’s value. In the early 19th century, the French phrase I’art pour I’art marked a movement to divorce art from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function, but to see it as autotelic. The development of the ‘cult of beauty’ rejected the notion that art had a duty to make relevant commentary about the world. Although Russian, William Kandinsky’s Composition VII exemplified the I’art pour I’art1^1 movement as he believed he could ‘reduce his compositions to arrangements of colours, lines, and shapes… believing [they] could exist autonomously in a painting without any connection to recognizable objects’2^2. Kandinsky believed that no attempt should be made to extrapolate an external meaning from his work. Although a popular movement, it attracted many justified critiques, specifically from an English art critic John Ruskin, who saw art as having a duty to comment on the world, and viewed inapplicable but aesthetically pleasing art as having little to no value. This utilitarian belief led to the emergence of a counter movement: beauty for truth’s sake which emphasised the necessity of application in evaluating art. American playwright James A. Herne believed that beauty was not essential in art; instead truth and application played a more vital role.
3.6 Exemplar A

Unpacking PT

Interpret the Title:
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Key terms: disputes, resolvable
Ask Yourself Key Questions:
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Which AoKs immediately come to mind for this title?
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What examples seem relevant?
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What TOK concepts (e.g., evidence, justification, or power) could connect with this?
Write a Draft Argument:
"While theoretical disputes occur from using prior theories and unsubstantiated by empirical evidence, practical disputes arise from claims that are formulated from empirical data. The resolvability of a dispute within a discipline largely depends on the nature of the dispute.”

Essay

Disputes over knowledge claims within disciplines constantly arise as man constantly pushes the boundaries of our knowledge. Disputes arise when facts within the domain are either unexplainable or contradictions exist between propositions. Discussing whether disputes over knowledge claims are always resolvable would shed more light on how to go about addressing future disputes, and important factors to consider when faced with contradictory claims. In this essay, theoretical and practical disputes will be discussed. Theoretical disputes are differing knowledge claims, arrived at using prior theories and unsubstantiated by empirical evidence. Practical disputes refer to contradictions between claims that are formulated from empirical data. 'Resolvable' is the act of dismissing or reconciling conflicting claims. In this essay, the discipline of Physics from the Natural Sciences and the discipline of Psychology from the Human Sciences will be compared and contrasted to justify the perspective that the resolvability of a dispute within a discipline largely depends on the nature of the dispute.
Theoretical disputes may be resolved using evidence obtained through experimentation. The implementation of the scientific method in both disciplines dictates that scientific knowledge claims are testable, which means they can be falsified through empirical evidence. The scientific method is a systematic process in which scientists make use of experimental and empirical data to substantiate their observations and support their hypothesis.9^9 This then leads to either the abolishment, strengthening or replacement of an existing theory.
3.7 Exemplar B
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Final Considerations
Understanding the differences and overlaps between Exhibition and Essay assessments will help students approach each task strategically and make the most of their TOK learning journey. The table below highlights the key aspects of comparison:
4.1 Exhibition vs. Essay
Citations are crucial as they enhance credibility, demonstrate academic integrity, and fulfill IB requirements. Proper citations also prevent plagiarism, ensuring credit is given to original authors, which the IB takes seriously.
Additionally, a clear citation page promotes transparency, enabling readers to verify information or explore sources further. Adhering to a consistent citation style, such as MLA or APA, is essential for meeting the IB’s presentation criteria. By balancing personal insights with external evidence, students validate their arguments and demonstrate thoughtful engagement with diverse perspectives, aligning with the TOK essay’s core objectives.

MLA

The MLA (Modern Language Association) format is commonly used in the humanities (e.g., literature, philosophy) and emphasizes simplicity, with in-text citations including only the author’s last name and page number (if applicable).
3 Step Guide to Structuring a “Works Cited” Page:
1.
Title Your Page "Works Cited"
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The title "Works Cited" should be centered at the top of a new page.
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Do not bold, italicize, or underline it.
2.
Format the Page
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Use 1-inch margins on all sides.
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Double-space all entries (no extra spaces between entries).
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Use a legible 12-point font (like Times New Roman).
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Alphabetize your sources by the first letter of each entry (ignore "A," "An," and "The" at the start of a title).
3.
Basic Format for Each Entry
4.2 Citations