Contents

I
Introduction 1

1 Core 13

Knowledge and the knower 13

2 Optional themes 43

Knowledge and politics 43

Knowledge and technology 71

Knowledge and language 95

Knowledge arid religion 123

Knowledge and indigenous societies 150

3 Assessment - Exhibition 179

4 Areas of knowledge 199

Areas of knowledge 199

Natural sciences 211

Human sciences 244

Mathematics 278

History 311

Arts 348

5 Assessment - Essay 387

Index 408
 Assessment — Essay

Introduction about the essay task

There is something playful about the 10K essay. It is an exercise in thinking, and
thinking itself is playful. When thinking, we try out ideas and compare them; we ask
what if?’ questions and we explore more than one possible way of looking at things.
This is what is expected of a 10K essay. In fact, the word ‘essay’ is linked to the verb
essayer in French, which means ‘to try’, suggesting an exploration, trying out ways of
thinking and comparing them.

Already, this discussion raises a technical issue. In your exploration you will be trying
out different ideas by engaging in multiple lines of thought. But the form of the essay
is a single stream of text. So, the art of the essay, or the challenge, is to transform
the many facets of thinking of your exploration into a linear text. The key to this
—
—

challenge lies in the structure of the essay. One approach is to make the essay modular.
This means constructing the essay out of more or less self-contained parts, each of
which has a particular function. There is a lot to say about modularity in this chapter.

The other key to essay writing in 10K, and many other TOK activities as well, is a
simple rule: concrete abstract concrete. Start with a concrete example. Build the
— —

example into more general abstract arguments. Then illustrate (and possibly challenge
the conclusions of these arguments with concrete examples. In your 10K discussions,
look for concrete examples to get an understanding of an idea or concept. Develop
the example into something like a general statement or argument and then explore
the implications of the generalisation or algument by considering other examples thai
maybe do not fit the conclusion so well.

Using these ideas, this chapter will try first to separate the complex process of
producing the essay into simpler components. Then it will say something about the
sort of essay we might expect to result from this process. There is more than one

I
kind of 10K essay, and there are many ways of responding to a given prescribed titl
(PT). However, there are certain features that all good 10K essays have in common.
There must be:

• logical arguments

• a paragraph showing a clear understanding of the PT and what it demands

• clearly described examples linked to the PT and to areas of knowledge (probably

two of them)

• generalisation based on your examples showing how they are somehow typical
—

the areas of knowledge you have chosen

evaluation of the arguments

a conclusion that answers the question in the PT

• some acknowledgement of the more general implications of the conclusion.

The preparation process and essay structure presented here is intended as a guide to
your own thinking. It is not a straitjacket or a template, but rather one way of meeting
the challenge above. The authors of this book have been marking students’ 10K essa

382
for a long time and one fact that sticks out from this experience is that the same issues
keep recurring. So we offer six major pieces of advice in order of importance.

L Answer the question posed in the PT.

2. Make sense of the PT tell the reader how you understand its key terms in the
—

context of TOK, not what the dictionary says.

3. Use examples to show your understanding of the PT and link these examples to
your argument.

4. Generalise these examples. A single example will not be evidence for a general
claim on its own.

5. Evaluate the different arguments you make in the essay and tell the reader which
one you favour and why.

6. Think about the implications of what you are saying.

The rest of this chapter puts some detail on these points. In doing so, we shall focus on
developing the TOK essay and say little about marking it except for a brief section on
the assessment instrument and academic integrity. The intention is to offer a practical
way in which you can think about the prescribed titles.

following this introduction, are four sections on developing a TOK essay. The first section
is an extended set of practical pointers that cover the development process, from when
you first see the titles to a strcictured brainstorm of a chosen title. The next section offers
a detailed description of a simple modular essay form and includes examples of useful
language for each module. The next section puts together an essay outline based on the
development work already done. The final section discusses the assessment instrument
and academic integrity The conclusion to the chapter includes some more useful
language and an example of an essay that might have come out of the whole process.

Practical steps to develop a TOK essay

While you might want to get the essay out of the way as quickly as possible, you
should try to resist the temptation to write it in one pass. Writing an essay is best
thought of as a process rather than a product. As with preparing food, it is good to
have a plan before you begin the actual writing; take some time to get the ingredients
together and prepare them. Collect your ideas and see how they fit together; see how
they fit the PT and where they conflict.

So where should you start? The TOK essay is an answer to one of six prescribed titles
(PT) these PTs are actually questions, what the 13 calls Knowledge questions.
—

These are the starting point for the essay and you will need to select one of them. Your
teacher will introduce the essay task, most likely through a general class discussion.

In this section we will work through a few practical exercises that can take your
thinking further. The author of this chapter has used these exercises with many
students, who report that they found the process of building an essay from these
beginnings relatively straightforward. Once you have these basic elements the

383
 Assessment — Essay

actual writing of the essay is considerably simplified. The difficult part, as with the
cooking metaphor, is preparing the ingredients. The exercise here follows the general
concrete’— abstract concrete’ form. You will be asked &ie up with c6icre
—

examples that help you understand the PT. from the concrete examples you will
build a more abstract argument. In the essay, the abstract argument will come to a
conclusion that can be applied to other examples. In this unpacking exercise we shall
concentrate on the first two stages only: concrete abstract.
—

Figure 7 The TOK PT, Ike

some types of ijrnnure fleeds
to be unpackeä to make ts
Jr
structure apparent. I

Unpacking the prescribed title

One of the most important parts of the process of producing a TOK essay is what is
called ‘unpacking the title’. One can think of the title as being like flatpack furniture.
When transported from the shop, flatpack furniture is just that: a fiat cardboard
package. Only when the package is opened and different parts identified and put
together does it become a structured three-dimensional object. Similarly, at first sight,
the PT appears fiat and structureless. It is only when you start to apply it to concrete
examples that it comes alive and reveals an interesting structure. With furniture some
of the pieces in the package have major structural functions, such as shelves and doors.
With each PT published by the lB there are keywords or phrases that play important
roles in the question. You wilt need to identify these keywords or phrases and make
sense of them because they will be the link between the abstract PT and your concrete
examples. Arguments in which the keywords appear are the backbone of the essay.
The unpacking process means identifying these keywords or phrases in the question
and then arriving at an understanding of their meaning in the context of the essay
and its examples. In many cases the final score of the essay can be predicted from the
quality’ of this unpacking process. Your essay may contain some brilliant analysis, but
if it is not explicitly linked to the PT it will not score well. The flip side is that with a
good unpacking you are more than half-way to constructing the essay. So, the first job
is to identify the keywords in the title. In the box below are examples of PTs with the
keywords highlighted.

384
 Keywords and key phrases in TOK PTs
• Given that fields of study of academic disciplines can overlap, are there any
problems in adopting interdisciplinary approaches to the production of
knowledge?

• When historians and natural scientists say that they have explained something,
are they using the word ‘explain’ in the same way?

• Are there fewer ethical constraints on the pursuit of knowledge in the arts than
there are in the human sciences?

• ‘We know with confidence only when we know little; with knowledge doubt
increases’ (adapted from JW von Goethe). To what extent does this statement
apply to two areas of knowledge?

• While ‘Suspension of disbelief’ is an essential feature of theatre, is it essential in

other areas of knowledge? Develop your answer with reference to two areas of
knowledge.

• To what extent might robust knowledge require both consensus and

disagreement? Explore this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Since these keywords are to be understood in the context of the TOK essay, it is not
helpful to look up the words in a dictionary. Dictionaries tell us about the general use
of a word rather than its meaning within the specific TOK context. Instead, we sugges
t
that one good way to arrive at an understanding of these keywords and phrases is by
using concrete examples.

Activity 1
L Pick a title from the set of six PTs above.
2. Select two areas of knowledge (AOKs) to which the title seems to apply.
3. find an example from each of these AOKs that seems to fit the title.
4. Ask yourself: what is it in the example that corresponds to each of the
keywords?
5. Write down any doubts you have when trying to fit the example to the
PT.
How well does it fit? (These doubts can be expressed as discussion within
the essay.)
6. Each example will yield a specific understanding of the keywords (step 5).
‘Understanding’ here means an idea regarding how the keywords can be
interpreted in the example. It might be that the two examples provide slightly
different interpretations of the keywords. This is a normal situation in TOK and
is something that can itself be discussed in the essay. The next step is to make a
poster stating your examples and showing how they relate to the keywords in
the PT.

385
 Assessment — Essay

Can there be knowledge without the assumption of the existence

of uniformities?
2AOKs

Natural sciences Arts

(experiment done (Theatre studies)
in class)
4th wall is NEVER
broken

Magnet moving I
next to coil Audience

I 4
current CONVENTION
Figure 2 This is the result of
an unpacking exercise by a I I
group of 10K teachers at a
workshop in Berlin 2019.
I I I, 4 I
Do experiment Goes back to
LAW OF NATURE UNIFORMITY BROKEN
many times Enlightenment
period
1 1 I
Same result Need conventions
= UNlFORMI1
PATtERN in th Arts
Ito make meaningJ
t Need to assume But do we need
to ASSUME it?
nature is UNIFORM
before doing
the series of
experiments Modern Shakespeare
theatre

UNIFORMITY = PATTERN/LAW/CONVENTION

This poster is based on the work of a group of TOK teachers at a workshop. They were
following the instructions in the exercise above. For the purposes of this chapter we
shall treat these teachers as rather good TOK students. Let’s go through each of the
steps above and see how well they did.

Step 1: Choose a FT
Info box The teachers chose the following title which they wrote at the top of their poster:
Prescribed titles
TOK prescribed titles are Can tJ,ere be knc’wJe9e Wittiojtthe accuription of the exctence of
carefully worded. Although
the words they employ are
nformitec? AnSI,4’er tii5 Ouecton With veference to tWo areaç of knoWied9e.
abstract and need to be
interpreted (this is why we are
doing the unpacking activity), Step 2: Highlight the keywords in the FT
they are put together in a
deliberate way. Be particularly At the top of the poster you can see that the teachers identified three keywords in the
careful with ‘if’ statements. ‘If A title that need unpacking: assumption, existence, and uniformities. Note that they did not
then B’ does not mean that A highlight knowledge as requiring a definition. Generally, in a TOK essay there is no need
is true. Rather it speaks of the
consequences if we assume
to define knowledge because the whole essay is, in a sense, a response to the question
that A is true. The same ‘what is knowledge?’ There seems little point in trying to summarise 100 hours of TOK
care should be taken with in a pat definition. If you feel you have to define knowledge in the introduction why
statements involving the words not refer to the map metaphor as a placeholder? This is the idea that knowledge may
all and some.
be like a map giving us information about the landscape without every detail being
in place. But you will need to point out that it is just a metaphor, which is really not the
386
same thing as a definition. Also, be particularly careful with making such bold claims
Info box
as knowledge is justified, true belief, without underan ding its meaning. The advice here
is: let the essay itself tell the reader what knowledge is and how it works. Justified, true belief
More than two millennia
Regarding the wording of the title, it is important that you answer the PT exactly as it ago, Plato suggested that
is stated. There is a danger that by rewording the PT question you change its meaning. knowledge is a species of
belief that is true, and
Examiners are asked to assess your essay against the original title. If you deviate from justified; that is, good
this and answer your own version of the question, they might decide that you haven’t reasons can be given for
answered the question as stated meaning that the essay will not score well.
—
its truth. Epistemologists
(philosophers who study
PTs often make a distinction between producing knowledge and acquiring or using knowledge) do not agree
it. You will need to be alert to the differences between these terms. Production of on whether it is true or
whether the three parts are
knowledge describes the processes by which we arrive at new knowledge through, for jointly sufficient. The truth
example, scientific experiments, medical trials, new theories in the human sciences, requirement suggests that
new works of art or literature (or new interpretations of existing works), and new once something is knowledge
interpretations of history or of mathematics. Acquiring knowledge refers to the way it stays knowledge. While this
is the case in mathematics
in which we relate to existing knowledge. for example, in a school science class you (which was Plato’s model for
might encounter a relationship between two concepts or ideas that you previously all knowledge), it is not the
did not know about, such as between the temperature of a gas and its pressure. This case in the natural or human
relationship has been known for some time so is not new knowledge, but nonetheless sciences. Moreover, such a
definition gives priority to
it is new to you. This counts as knowledge acquisition rather than knowledge
knowing that but demotes
production. How you might use this knowledge to do practical things, such as design knowing how. It suggests
water boiler, raises interesting questions. Is this application of knowledge adding that the knowing how that is
something? Is there new knowledge involved in applying existing knowledge to new possessed by sports people
and musicians, and the
situations? The answer is not obvious and makes an interesting TOK topic itself.
knowing how that allows us to
get around in the world is not
n the title we are considering here: Can there be knowledge without the assumption of the actually knowledge. Another
‘xistencc of unJrmities? Answer this question with reference to two areas of knowledge, there is problem is that the ‘truth’
o reference to either acquisition or production of knowledge. This means that the requirement sets a high bar
;tudent is free to interpret the title either way. Is it about acquisition of knowledge or for knowledge. It would mean
that most of what we take to
tbout producing it in the first place? Or about its use?
be knowledge (even things we
learn at school like Newton’s
;tep 3: find an area of knowledge to which the title seems to apply laws) don’t fit the definition.
Having said this, Plato’s
he teachers group thought that they could find examples to fit the question from approach might have its uses
vithin the natural sciences and the arts. How you choose your areas of knowledge in certain areas; for example,
[epends a bit on the question as well as on your interests. It is a good idea to use religion or mathematics,
xamples with which you are familiar so that you can describe them simply to others. where it might make sense to
talk of unchanging truths.
consider avoiding examples like ‘string theory’, which require a PhD in mathematical
‘hysics to understand and a two-volume book to explain.

tep 4: Find an example for each area ofknowledge that seems to fit the title

‘his is a crucial step and perhaps the most difficult. Remember that the task is to
nd examples that fit the PT question first using an everyday (non-specialised)
nderstanding of the keywords. The example might not fit perfectly the first time
nd you might need to refine it a little. Once we have concrete examples we can start
rorldng out what the keywords mean in context, not in the abstract.

their discussions, the teachers group talked about scientific experiments and how
ey had to be repeated before they were accepted. They felt initially that this repetition
)uld be related somehow to the word un(formities. If an experiment turned out the

387
 Assessment — Essay

same way every time, then the assumption is that repetition tells us something about
nature rather than a freak result due to some experimental error. They then spent
some time discussing which exprinnt to take as their example. Some wanted to use
chemistry while others wanted to talk about elementary particle physics. In the end
they decided that describing those examples to the non-specialist would take up too
much space. They opted for a simpler physics experiment concerning a coil of wire
and a magnet. A circuit is made with the coil and an ammeter (a device for measuring
current) in parallel. Suppose that it is found that moving the magnet near the coil
causes the ammeter to show a deflection. This means that current is flowing through
the wire. Moreover, the experiment can be repeated any number of times and the same
result observed. The faster the magnet moves, the more current is generated, and as
soon as the movement stops the generation of current stops. The teachers argued that
the experiment needed to be performed many times and the same result observed
before they could conclude that this was a law of nature. So, the experiment rests on
the assumption that nature is uniform and that if the same effect is observed every
time then this is a feature of nature.

Once the teachers had settled on the physics example, they found it much easier to find
an example from the arts. They were convinced that the science example supported
a positive answer to the PT, so they were actively looking for an example in the arts
that would give them a different point ofview on the title, or might support a negative
answer. The film and theatre teachers in the group came up with a good example.
There is a rule of thumb in certain types of theatre and film that ‘the fourth wall is never
broken’. if you think of the stage space in a theatre as being roughly box shaped with
three walls, a floor, and a ceiling, then the audience view the action through the ‘fourth
wall’. The fourth wall rule means that the action on stage never acknowledges the
existence of the audience. The same idea applies to the camera in a film; the actors do not
acknowledge its existence. The existence of the ‘fourth wall’ is a convention a rule that is
—

accepted by the actors and the audience in order to give meaning to the whole theatre
experience. But the teachers pointed out that this rule was broken. Not only is there
acknowledgement and even interaction with the audience in modern theatre and film,
and pantomime in the early 18th century, but it can be argued that the Globe Theatre in
London (where many Shakespeare plays were performed in the early 17th century) was
actually built in a circular form with a central stage to break the fourth wall. In certain
parts of the performance, actors would directly address the spectators and respond to
them. In film there are cases where the fourth wall is broken, such as when a character
speaks directly to the camera to elicit sympathy from the unseen audience.

The teachers thought that the fourth wall was a uniformity, but they were not sure
whether it had to be assumed. It was a convention that is broken in some cases. There
was some disagreement about whether a broken convention is still a convention,
and if the convention is broken is it still a uniformity. Eventually they decided that
a convention is still a uniformity even if it is broken, in the same way that rules are
still rules even if they are broken. The teachers realised that this discussion could be
brought into the essay.

Step 5. Ask yourself: what is it in the example that corresponds to each of the
keywords?

Now that the teachers were armed with examples, they could go back to deciding what
the keywords meant. They thought that in the science example you had to assume

388
that nature was uniform, in the sense that it did not matter much where and when you
did the experiment with the moving magnet and the coil. Nature was the same and if
the experiment delivered the same result every time one could say that this was a real
feature of the natural world.

In terms of the arts example, they decided that uniformity meant something like
an artistic convention that gave meaning to artistic activity, such as the fourth wall.
They argued that the arts need conventions but also that it is important that these
conventions are challenged from time to time and new conventions take their place.
They said that there is an assumption of uniformity in producing artistic knowledge as
well, although the details of the uniformity could be challenged.

Note that the idea of uniformity needs to be interpreted in context of the examples
liscussed. Of course, uniformity will look slightly different in the sciences than in the
arts. This is typical of a TOK essay. The important point is that the two interpretations
f the key word in the two contexts have something in common. In this case, something
ike a repeating situation or pattern or rule. Without using a dictionary definition, the
:eachers arrived at the meaning of the terms in their exploration. What’s more, these
xamples would form the backbone of the essay, as you will see in the next sections.

step 6. Write down any doubt you have when trying to fit the example. How
veil does it fit?

Fhis step is important. There are places in the essay where there can be discussions of
ow to understand a doubtful term, or where there is a set of different arguments to
valuate. In these discussions we involve the reader in our thought processes. This is
vhere the essay is true to its French roots; where we are literally playing with different
deas. Discussing doubts attached to ideas or interpretation is an essential activity in
OK and should be showcased in the essay.

fhe teacher group doing the task got stuck on a number of points. On the science side
)f the line they could not decide whether something was still uniform if, for example,
uddenly a new result was found and the previous knowledge was abandoned. When
his occurred, they called ft a paradigm shft. In the end, the consensus was that there is
till an expectation that nature is uniform, even if we change our mind about the details.
)n the arts side there was more argument. They could not decide if uniformities like
onventions were necessary to appreciate art. What if you did not know anything about
he artistic conventions of the indigenous peoples of southern Australia? Can you still
ppreciate their paintings and other artworks in the National Gallery of Victoria? A
‘OK essay should be honest about struggles like these and include them.

his unpacking activity not only gives a better understanding of the key terms in the
ontext of examples, but it has also given us two fine examples which provide the
ackbone for the essay. However, TOK essays cannot present their arguments based
urely on two examples. The essay must show that the examples are somehow typical
f the area of knowledge they represent.

rg U ment
/e have seen how a comprehensive unpacking of the key terms by using concrete
camples provides the basis for further thinking about what to say in the essay. But one
‘ore bit of careful thinking is needed to forge the main components of the essay: the

389
 Assessment — Essay

arguments. The problem is that the prescribed title is a general question, but examples
are specific. So, in order to answer the PT, the examples must be generalised. This means
that you must show, by using an argument, that your examples are somehow typical
of your chosen areas of knowledge. The argument will have to appeal to your thoughts
about how these areas of knowledge operate and what ft is that they do to ensure that
they produce knowledge in contrast to, say, pure speculation.
The question the teachers now needed to address was: what arguments can you give
to show that the examples are typical of your AOK? How do your examples relate to
other examples in the same areas of knowledge? Are there (counter)examples that do
not fit this pattern? figure 3 is what the teachers came up with.

Generalisation from examples

Natural sciences

Experiment looking for repeated patterns Convention as a rule for creating meaning
(UNIFORMITY) (UNIFORMITY)

INDUCING LAWS OF NATURE Examples in music,

painting, BUT
3 Here is the
Figure
argament ceve;opPert L architL
bra’ns:om of the teacher BUT
group. On the eft side is the chemist+psic I
deveopment of tne natural
sciences examD:e and on the
I Does this mean Universal human

right s:de tha development of

the arts example
T_T
Biology does not
that if we do not
know convention
then we do not
aesthetic?

B UT BUT
Role of theory understand artwork?
seem to be about
laws of nature Universal human
more about Newton did not The Big Doubt in the aesthetic =
mechanisms perform arts: Do we need to UNIFORMITY’
repeated ASSUME
•
4 experiments the uniformity or
do we just know the
how does eye convention for not)?
work etc. BUT BUT

STIL.C INVOLVES
(ASSUMP. OF)
UNIFORMITIES!

The teachers decided that looking for repeated patterns based on the assumption
that nature is uniform was somewhat typical in the natural sciences. They identified
this method of generalising from a collection of individual items (inductive reasoning)
as being characteristic of a lot of what goes on in physics and chemistry. Something
like it happens in astronomy and astrophysics as well, even though we can’t literally
do experiments with stars and galaxies; it is possible to make repeated observations
of them, for example. But there was some argument as to whether biologists need
to assume the same uniformities as physicists and chemists, since biologists are not
obviously trying to find uniform laws of nature in the same way. There is a sense in
which biological organisms are individually unique in a way that hydrogen atoms are
not. One teacher suggested that the nature of biology is such that if there are laws,
they are either high level (such as those in population genetics) or low level (to do with
molecules which are really laws of physics and chemistry). Another suggested that there
are uniformities assumed by our systems of classification of organisms: we assume that
390
for something to be a mammal means that it is a different kind of organism from a fish.
Perhaps biology is more concerned with particular systems, such as the respiratory
system or the visual system; that biology is concerned with identifying mechanisms
by which systems make life possible. Another objection stemmed from the fact that a
lot of early physics was deductive from a theory rather than inductive. Newton arrived
at many of his results by reasoning without doing experiments. At the end of the
argument the teachers decided that even in this case an assumption of uniformities is
needed. Biologists make assumptions about certain uniformities in nature and Newton
assumed that the theory held everywhere which is a uniformity.
—

On the arts side, the teachers thought that there were plenty of examples of convention
beyond the iourth wall’ as a type of uniformity giving us artistic knowledge. In order
to understand music, we need to know the conventions of harmony and rhythm we —

might learn these, like a jazz musician (knowing how), by learning how to use them. On
the other hand, they might be learned from a harmony book (knowing that). It may be
difficult to understand music from another tradition where the scales used are different
and sound strange. Similarly, there are conventions in architecture and painting in
various cultures. Within our own culture, these conventions may allow us to identify
different styles, but then an argument broke out about whether someone needed to
know a convention in order to understand or appreciate a work of art of any kind. The
realisation that because humans have a shared sense of what is beautiful, it was possible
to appreciate art without background knowledge, led to the thought that this depended
on human nature itself a uniformity. The question is subtle because it asks about
—

the need to assume the existence of uniformities to make knowledge rather than just
whether they existed. So the question is whether the uniformity of human nature needs
to be assumed to get artistic knowledge off the ground or not? The teacher’s pondered
this for a while and then concluded that if artistic knowledge was knowledge about the
arts then the situation was similar to the sciences, but if artistic knowledge was making
r appreciating art in an aesthetic manner then the answer to the question was not clear.
This kind of disagreement is not a setback; it is useful and can be reported in the essay.

[tis possible to collaborate with your classmates on an exercise like this, especially if
iou are practising essay writing based on old questions. However, it is important that
he essay you write is your own work so at some point you will need to develop your
:houghts on your own. You will need to be able to have discussions like these with
‘ourself. One way of doing this is writing down one side of the argument and then
rying to find problems with it.

Structuring the 10K essay

his section makes some suggestions as to what to put where in the essay and what
)hrases you might want to use to express your ideas. The main purpose of this section
s to help you put your ideas across in the clearest way possible. The examiner is not
joking for clever language or beautiful prose in some cases this can obscure the
—

neaning. Rather, they are looking to understand your ideas. You should be aiming to
nake your ideas crystal clear. This aim has implications for how you structure the essay.

o terms of the large-scale structure, you will need to make your essay modular. This
ieans that it should contain a number of self-contained sections. These are most likely
be paragraphs. It is important that each paragraph deals with a single topic, whether

391
 Assessment — Essay

itbe analysing an example, making an argument, or evaluating arguments already

made in the essay. If a paragraph gets too long, it might need to be split according to
sub-topic. Nonetheless each paragraph should remain a self-contained unit.

You are doubtless familiar from your Group 1 language studies with the words
that are used to knit paragraphs together called transition signals. A transition signal
Topic sentence
(mini thesis) is a statement at the top of the paragraph that indicates what its main function
is. For example, phrases like ‘on the other hand’ bring in a counterargument or
counterexample, while ‘The strengths of this argument are...’ ushers in an evaluation
p section. The introductory paragraph helps to bind these modules together by giving
the reader a roadmap of the structure of the whole; this enables the reader to create a
Supporting
sentences mental map of the whole essay so that they always know where they are going.
easons)
The modular principle also applies to paragraphs themselves. Each paragraph should
start with a statement of its purpose and end with some sort of conclusion. It should
be possible to understand the main arguments of your essay by reading only the first
and last sentence of every paragraph. When you have completed the first draft of your
Concluding
sentence essay, try doing this. If the essay still makes some sense, and you can follow the main
argument, then your essay is well structured.
A Again, it should be emphasised that the proposals made in this chapter are only
Figure 4 The internal suggestions. There is not just one way to write a good TOK essay. While these building
structure of a paragraph
n the TOK essay
blocks are important in a TOK essay, it is conceivable that they appear in a different guise
or are ordered differently. The examiner will be open to different kinds of expression.

Overall structure

It
/7 ‘
F’ ,\ Example 7
fAOK 7)
Lneralisationj
flexampie[

Prescribed
I r- c
title -Key term 2 1-. Evaluation —4 Answer to PT
Exarnpk2

Key term 3

A
Figure 5 A schematc
diagram showing the main
components of one kind ci
TOK essay and thee relatons
This a tsjo.dimensona The diagram in Figure 5 suggests a general flow diagram for the ideas in the essay. This
picture which wilt need to be flow diagram involves parallel streams of development. There are two streams here,
transformed into a meat form representing ideas developed from each of the big examples explored in the unpacking
for the essay. There are many
ways in which this can be
exercise. You need more than one argument to evaluate when you get to the evaluation
done. The suggestons made in section. The essay plan is a structural problem that you must solve. The essay plan that
this chapter are just one way. the teachers group adopted looked something like Figure 6.

392
 Introduction state question
—

Clarify key terms: roadmap

Example 7

Generalise ex 1 = argument 1

Example 2
I Figure 6 mis is one way oí
making a block diagram for a
TOK essay. There are, of
course, other ways 0r
Generalise ex 2 = argument 2 crgansng te essay.
‘I

L Evaluation: which argument is better

and why

Conclusion

Implications: so what?

Introduction
At the beginning of the essay the PT should be clearly stated. Don’t leave it up to the
examiner to decide which question you are answering. Examiners are instructed to
award 0 to an essay that does not seem to be connected to any title in the set, so take no
chances.

The introduction is the most important paragraph in the whole essay, so it is worth
spending some time getting it right. Ideally, the introduction should set out a roadmap
of the whole essay, including giving a foretaste of the conclusion and a preview of the
main arguments.

ft is also a good idea to write the introduction

last after the rest of the essay is drafted.

The introduction should set up the whole essay

so that the reader has a clear idea

about which PT the essay addresses, how

you understand the keywords in the PT

question, how the essay intends to address

this question, and, roughly speaking, what

conclusions it comes to. This amounts to a short version of the unpacking discussed in

393
 Assessment — Essay

the previous section. In figure 5, three key terms were assumed but it is clear that any
PT could involve a different number of key terms.
- roai : tOat

Language to use in the introduction

This essay will argue that...

I shall eventually answer the question in the following way...

Evidence from X andY will be considered.

Alternative approaches such as Z might look attractive for reason A.

Upon evaluation, however, it seems that W supports my thesis.

X could mean... or, more personally...

ByXimean...

Y can be understood as...

First example
After the introduction, the main examples can be set out in detail. It is probably a good
policy to allocate one paragraph to each example. Not only should the examples be
explained in a way that can be understood by the general reader, ft is also important
that the keywords in the PT question are linked to the examples. This is crucial because
the examiner is looking for an explicit link between the question and your treatment
of it. If there is no link made in the essay, then there is a danger that the examiner will
regard the discussion of the example as irrelevant to the PT. The examiner wants to
know what information in the example corresponds to the keywords in the question.
More generally, what does the example tell us about the answer to the question? A
good strategy here is to start with your best example that supports your best argument.

As the diagram in figure 7 shows, examples have to be handled carefully. Obviously,

it is necessary to describe the example to the reader, but the main job of an example
paragraph is to show how the example links to the PT; this is where all the hard work
394
 Introduction

Unpacked
keywords in PT

Description of example

I Figure 7 Each example

should be linked carefully to
Analysis of example showing the roadmap in the
which features correspond introduction and to the
with the keywords in keywords discussed there
the question

I state what
,wedandhow
ructure of

you did earlier in the unpacking pays off. When you link the example to more general
ideas, such as the PT, you are analysing it. Analysis of examples should be at least half
of the text in the paragraph. For this reason, examples should be chosen carefully. It
is best to use examples that can be explained to the average reader in relatively simple
terms. If most of the paragraph is taken up with description, then there is little space
left for analysis. And it is in the analysis that you are doing most of the TOK.

Description of example

rAnalysis of example showing

which features correspond
with the keywords in
I Figure 8 Possible structure
of an example paragraph

the question
4

395
 Assessment — Essay

Analysis and Language that might be used in the discussion of the example
description
• There will be both
This is an example of...
analysis and description
in your TOK essay. The example shows that...
Description: refers
In this example we can understand [keyword] to mean...
tD text that presents
examples and makes
In the light of this example, my position on this is...
factual statements. It is
usually about a specific
example in the world, It
employs the vocabulary
of areas of knowledge First argument
and everyday language The PT invites you to address a general statement about a certain aspect of knowledge.
used to describe how the
But as you know from your TOK course, a single example is weak support for a
world is
general statement. One option is to bring in more examples to support your view.
Analysis: refers to text
that irks the example But how many is sufficient? Moreover, there is a limit to the number of examples you
to more general ideas -
can fit in a 1,600-word essay. A better solution is to use the examples that are already
such as the concepts in the essay and show that they are somehow typical and therefore cover a whole
—

in the PT question It
set of examples. Showing that an example is typical is called generalising. The teachers
employs more general
TOK vocabulary. It is developed the physics example of a coil moving in a magnetic field that produces a
second order in that it is current. \Ve could repeat the experiment many times and, if we get the same result,
about knowledge we could tentatively conclude that the effect is always observed. Nonetheless, there is
always a chance that the next time we do the experiment it will not work. The teachers
needed to show that this situation is typical of the natural sciences and that we
—

cannot be absolutely certain that what comes out of the experimental process is a good
model of the world.

In producing the general argument guided by the example you will need to use
special TOK vocabulary. You will need words like induction, deduction, h’pothesis, model,
objective, subjective, adequate evidence, and so on. Your argument will employ slightly more
abstract vocabulary than that of the specific example. It is also useful to ensure that the
keywords in the PT make an appearance.

Language that might be useful in this section

The example can be generalised in the following way...

These features of the example are typical of this area of knowledge because...

This example makes use of the following methods, which are typical of this area of
knowledge...

The example illustrates [induction, deduction, the correlation-causation distinction] (other

TOK keywords and ideas)

Second example and generalising argument

One example will not be enough for a TOK essay, even if the PT does not explicitly
specify two areas of knowledge. It is important that your essay is balanced, and this
means that you look at the PT from different (and perhaps conflicting) perspectives.
The unpacking task involved finding two contrasting examples that fitted the question.
396
A contrast could be achieved by taking an example from an area of knowledge that is
different in its scope. If your first example is from the natural sciences, then consider
taking a second example from the arts or history. Of course, the example must fit “

the PT and it should be able to show which parts of the example correspond to the
keywords in the question.

When you have introduced your second example you should broaden it, as you did
with the first example, to cover the typical ways in which knowledge is produced in
that area of knowledge.

This second argument should offer something different from the first, and may
conflict with it. This leads some teachers and students to talk about this section as a
counterargument. Indeed, some students like to structure the dialogue between contrasting
examples in the form of ‘claim’ versus ‘counterclaim’. There is a danger in this method
that the counterargument is not carefully worded and therefore the essay contradicts
itself. Remember, the reader has read the first argument and may be convinced by it;
now the essay is arguing against it. A good word to use to avoid this problem is ‘If, on
f
the other hand, we take a different starting point then...’ Because the second argument
takes a different starting point it does not contradict the first. The examiner is looking for
evidence of your ability to look at the question from different perspectives.

In practice, it is unlikely that the second argument is just a negation of the first. The
second argument should develop from a different example and vill probably show a
different way of looking at the question, including a different way of interpreting the
key terms. Perhaps critical thinking is better demonstrated in a TOK essay by showing
that a given argument based on an example supports the question to a certain degree but
not further, rather than a simple comparison of arguments in favour versus arguments
against. Certain examples will fit the question, but others might not. You will need to
say where the border’ is between the two, and why.

finally, there is some freedom in how to present your examples. You could present
the example first and then the argument that flows from it, or you could start with the
argument and present the example as an illustration. This is largely a matter of style.

Language that might be useful in this section

Example X suggests... but analysis of example Y leads to a different perspective on
the question.

On the other hand...

Against this, it can be argued that...

Alternatively,...

However,...

There are objections to this line of thinking such as...

More extreme cases do not seem to fit this pattern though...

If we understand the key terms in this way, the answer to the question looks a little
different.

397
 Assessment — Essay

Eva! uation
So far in the essay you have presented two main strands of argument based on two
ëxamples Of course, there may be more, but within the word liniit it is likely that
there are just two perspectives explored in detail. In this section, your job is to make
a judgement between the strands. Which argument is better, more rigorous, more
general, or based on more secure premises? You will need to examine the merits and
weaknesses of both arguments and decide which is the stronger. This is the part of the
essay where the two perspectives you have introduced can be compared and evaluated
and where you demonstrate your powers of analysis and judgement.

As we saw with the unpacking, the keywords in the question might have slightly
different interpretations in the two examples. You could base your evaluation on which
interpretation seems to be the most plausible, or offers the greatest generality (meaning
it applies to more examples or more areas of knowledge). But your judgement must
be thoroughly supported by an argument. It is not enough to simply pick one of the
arguments and state your choice. It is good general advice in the lB diploma programme
that the way to do well in any subject is to do three things: evaluate, evaluate, and evaluate.

Useful evaluation phrases

On balance it seems that...

While [counterexample] suggests that [thesis] does not hold universally, we can see
that it does hold in [special cases]

The problem with the view that... is that...

Conclusion
Unlike the argument and evaluation sections, the conclusion should be relatively short.
In the evaluation section you have settled on the strongest argument and given reasons
for your judgement. In the conclusion you present an explicit answer to the PT.

Useful conclusion phrases

In conclusion,...

To respond to the prescribed title...

To conclude,...

Therefore,...

The previous analysis suggests that...

Implications
In the description of an essay achieving the highest mark band, the assessment instrument
in the subject guide states: the implications of arguments are considered’. The drawing
of implications can take place throughout the essay but some teachers suggest that they
should have their own short dedicated section at the end. An implication is an answer to
the question so what?’. You have gone to the trouble of writing a whole 10K essay and,
after careful consideration, reached a conclusion that answers the FT. But what does your
398
answer mean? It is useful to write a few lines explaining why your conclusion is significant
and what insight it brings to other situations. The implications section could also hint at
where your essay could have gone if you could have developed it further.

Useful implication phrases

The broader implications are...
This means that...

This conclusion is significant because..

This analysis is relevant to...

These findings raise questions about...

An essay outline
The teacher group brainstormed the unpacking of the prescribed title and have two
contrasting examples that fit it. They completed another brainstorm that generalised these
examples; that is, they developed arguments that supported an answer to the question. They
were then instructed to produce a paragraph-by-paragraph bulleted plan ofthe essay based
on the two brainstorm posters they had drawn. The whole outline should fit on one page.

Essay outline
Without the assumption of the existence of uniformities there can be no
knowledge. Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Introduction
• Uniformity = pattern/law/convention/rule.
• Assumption of uniformity required before knowledge can be produced a —

precondition for getting the knowledge production process off the ground.
• Road map of essay: section on natural sciences seems to suggest that PT is
correct, section on the arts shows that there are uniformities in art convention/or
human aesthetic values possibly but no obvious requirement that these
—

should be assumed before artistic knowledge is sought.

Natural sciences example

• Magnetic induction experiment.
• Needs to be done many times to be sure that the result is due to nature and not
an artefact of the experiment might also mean triangulation getting same
—
—

result through different methods.

• This works if we assume that nature behaves in a uniform way i.e., there are
—

laws of nature.

Generalise natural sciences example

• Claim that this type of experimental method is true in other fields i.e., —

chemistry even in non-experimental fields like astrophysics.

• Biology might be a bit different seems to be more to do with mechanisms and
—

taxonomy.

399
 Assessment — Essay

• But these are still uniformities and still need to be assumed to get the knowledge
process started.

Arts example
• ‘Fourth wall’ in theatre and film = convention that is needed to make sense of
the play/film.
• But: conventions can be broken in the arts fourth wall broken by Laurel and
—

Hardy and modern playwrights but that does not mean that there are no
—

conventions, just that they change.

Generalise arts example

• Examples of convention in music and architecture. Convention necessary for
meaning?
• Does this mean that only ‘those in the know’ can appreciate art?
• Perhaps we all have an aesthetic sense that enables us to appreciate beauty of
different cultures?
• But if this is the case then it is an example of uniformity of human nature.

Evaluation
• The science examples are convincing and support the PT.
• The arts argument seems to suggest that there are uniformities either in
conventions or in human aesthetic capacities BUT does this need to be assumed
to have artistic knowledge?

Conclusion
• Science needs to assume uniformities to get started.
• The arts work through uniformities of human nature or artistic conventions
but it is not clear that these need to be assumed.

Armed with the outline and the brainstorm posters the teachers were in a position
to write the essay. You can see how the teachers’ essay turned out at the end of this
chapter. You will notice how closely they followed the outline.

Assessment and academic integrity

Assessment
The TOK essay assessment instrument is shown opposite. It is used by your teacher to
help produce a predicted grade and by an examiner to grade your essay. After you have
uploaded your essay onto the TB website it will be distributed to one of the TOK examiners.
The essay is anonymous, so the examiner doesn’t know who has written it or from which
school it was submitted. The examiner marks the essay and assigns a score out of 10 based
on the grid. When the examiner has read the essay, they will look at the descriptions in the
columns and will make a judgement as to which description fits your essay best.

While it is not your job to mark TOK essays, it might be useful for you to swap with a
friend and offer constructive criticism of one another’s essays. You might even want to
try marking the essay to gain familiarity with the assessment instrument.
400
Does the student provide a clear, coherent and critical exploration of the essay title?
Good Satisfactory Basic Rudimentary
Excellent
7-8 5-6 3-4 1-2 0
9-10

‘[he discussion is focused on the ‘The discussion is focused on the ‘The discussion is connected to The discussion is weakly connected The discussion does not reach the
The discussion has a sustained
title and is linked effectively to title and is developed with some the title and makes superficial or to the title, standard described hy the other
t&us on the title and is linked
areas of knowledge. links to areas of knowledge. limited links to areas of knowledge. levels or is not a response to one
effectively to areas of knowledge. While there may he links to the areas of the prescribed titles for the
Arguments are clear, coherent and Arguments’’ire offered and are ‘The discussion is largely of knowledge, any relevant points correct assessment session.
Arguments arc clear, coherent and
effectively supported by specific supported by examples. supported by examples. descriptive. t,irnited arguments arc descriptive or consist only of
are offered hut they are unclear unsupported assertions,
examples. The implications of
There is awareness and some There is some awareness of and are not supported by effective
arguments are considered.
evaluation of different points of different points of view, examples.
view.
‘9
‘There is clear awareness and
evaluation of different points of
view,
Pertinent Acceptable Underdeveloped Ineffective
Insightful
Convincing Relevant Mainstream Basic Descriptive
Accomplished Analytical Adeqtiate Superficial Incoherent
Lucid Organised Competent t.imited tormless
 Assessment — Essay

Academic integrity
Your ideas belong to you. In fact, ideas drive our modern world. Given that they are so
important, the ownership of ideas is protected legally and morally, which allows you to
reap their benefit; eventually, even, they can become a source of income. for example,
if you create a musical track, others cannot use it or copy it without your permission.
Similarly if you produce a text, write a piece of computer code, invent a machine, take
a photograph, paint a picture, write a poem, etc., it becomes your property and certain
restrictions come into force regarding who can use or copy it.

In commercial publishing the rules are strict. You cannot reproduce any text or picture
without the permission of the owner of the copyright unless the material falls under a
licence such as the creative commons, which permits sharing. This includes pictures
that are available on the internet. The rules for academic writing are slightly more
lenient. You may quote the work of others in your TOK essay without asking their
permission but only fyou acknowledge the author of the work. This means that you must
use one of the standard citation systems used by academics to reference the work you
are quoting. In academia, the Harvard referencing system is the most common, but
there are others such as APA, Oxford, IEEE, and MLA that are used in various academic
disciplines. Your school probably has a standard referencing system that it uses.

If you do not reference a source that you have drawn on in your essay then, whether
it is intentional or not, it counts as plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting other people’s
words and ideas as your own and is a type of theft. Not only does it break the law, but it
also breaks the moral codes that academics and TB diploma students, along with all TB
representatives, live by.

Clearly, the important question is what counts as presenting other people’s ideas?
Presenting other people’s ideas includes quoting directly from their work. If you do
this, yoti must signal the borrowed text by enclosing it in quotation marks (‘like this’)
and the source shotild be cited according to one of the referencing conventions. This is
called a verbatim quotation. But you are also presenting other people’s ideas even when
you paraphrase or reword them. Here you do not need the quotation marks, but you
still need to reference the source properly.

Basic general knowledge about the world does not need to be referenced. for example,
‘Paris is the capital of France’ is not knowledge that has been produced by a particular
person or organisation so it can be used without a reference. However, if your essay relies
on factual knowledge that you know through another source (such as a textbook/internet/
encyclopedia) then you must provide the source. A good rule is: if in doubt cite it.

If you are found guilty of plagiarism you risk your whole TB diploma, so it is worth
getting it right.

Conclusion
The most important process in the production of the TOK essay is the unpacking of the
title. This means finding examples that fit the PT question (whether agreeing with it or
not). Through this process you can work towards an understanding of the key terms
in the PT that make sense linked to your chosen examples. Once these examples are in
place and you are happy with them, you can try to generalise from them by producing
arguments for why they are typical somehow of the AOK you have selected. In the course
402
of this generalisation, you might encounter questions or doubts. These doubts often make
good discussion points in the essay and should be seen in a positive light. By choosing
examples that are contrasting in the first place, your arguments that generalise them
will also provide different perspectives on the PT. These perspectives need to be brought
together in a central evaluation that provides the basis for the conclusions in the essay.

finally, do not forget the original meaning of the essay that it is a playful exercise in
—

thinking. Use the word fto set up different possible scenarios to explore.

Below you will find the essay written by one of the teachers and a list of helpful phrases
to use in your essay.

Useful words and phrases for the essay

The author of this chapter has learned that sometimes students make over-generalised
claims or black-and-white statements in the essay because they do not have a
vocabulary that can express shades of grey. This may also prevent them making
conditional statements and control degrees of probability in their essay such as certain,
likely, or untikey. Having access to this vocabulary allows students to control their essay
in a more refined way. Here is a list of phrases that you might find useful in the essay.

Language that might be useful for the essay

Degrees of probability
Probably, possibly, it is likely that..., it is unlikely that..., it is possible that...,
perhaps, in all probability, presumably, it could be argued that..., impossible
Logical structure
If... then..., and, or, it is not the case that..., from... we can infer that..., from... it
can be deduced that..., therefore, so, consequently, it follows that, for this reason,
subsequently, only if, if and only if, because, equivalent to, implies, does not imply
Other logical language
Contradiction, tautology, consistent, inconsistent, logical truth, self-contradiction,
oxymoron, analytic statement, analytic truth, necessary condition, sufficient
condition, we are forced to conclude that...
Causality
Cause, effect, A causes B, A produces B, B results from A, necessary condition,
sufficient condition, because
Quantifiers
Some, many, all, none
Generalising
In general, as a rule, often, mostly, on the whole, generally speaking
Comparison
In comparison, byway of comparison, similarly, likewise, at the same time, in a
similar way
403
 Assessment — Essay

Adding another point

-
‘ Also, in addition, further, furtherthore, and, moreover, besides, again,.., not to
mention that...
Adding a contrast
On the other hand, in contrast, yet, nevertheless, in spite ofthis..., instead, but, however
Making a claim
It is true that..., apparently, obviously, as a matter of fact, naturally, of course,
certainly, in fact, it can be asserted that..., it seems reasonable to hold that...
Introducing an example
F or example, for instance, byway of example, an example of this is...
Signaffing order ofpoints
first, second, third, secondly, thirdly, last, lastly, finally, initially, later, soon,
immediately, this time, previously, eventually, subsequently

A TOK essay written by a TOK teacher

Without the assumption of the existence of uniformities there can be no
knowledge. Discuss with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Taking a cue from the ancient Greeks, this essay will understand a unifotrnity as
something that is constant and unchanging like a law of nature, a law of human
nature or indeed a principle in mathematics. One of the remarkable achievements
of the Golden Age (500—300 BCE) was the realisation that the universe contains
regularities that make it understandable to human beings. In this essay, I shall argue
that the quotation in the title is broadly correct that underlying our methods of
—

producing knowledge there is an assumption that the target of our investigation

is subject to some unchanging laws, patterns or regularities. This is clear in the
natural sciences, but I argue that it holds even in the arts that artistic knowledge
—

is based on a set of uniform expectations specific to a particular artform or genre.

Of course, there are differences between the two areas. While the uniformities
assumed in the sciences are descriptive, they are assumed to be true of the universe
we are seeking to understand, those in the arts are prescriptive they regulate our
—

artistic behaviour. By developing and generalising examples in these areas I shall

explore the role of such assumptions and conclude that they are necessary to get the
production of knowledge off the ground; without them there can be no knowledge.
Finally, I argue that the assumption of uniformities in general is different from
assuming that a particular uniformity exists for all time. We find that both the
sciences and the arts update their understanding of uniformities over time. So, the
quote in the PT is broadly correct if uniformities are understood as being rules,
laws, and regularities in general.

The natural sciences are largely constructed from repeated experiment and
observation. In Physics Higher Level we did an experiment in which a coil attached

404
to an ammeter was moved between the poles of a magnet. Every time we moved the
coil thm terbwed a deflection. This effect was robust. It did not matter who
was performing the experiment, or where or when it was performed, the results
would be the same: there was a correlation between the speed at which we moved
the coil and the amount of deflection. It felt that the more we did the experiment
and got the same results the more confidently we could predict the outcome. But as
we shall see, these intuitions only operate because we assume that there are lawlike
uniformities in the world. We assume that if only we can find the factors that are
significant for a given phenomenon, then repeating these conditions will repeat the
phenomenon. Indeed, we assume more than this, we assume that there are a set of
conditions that are both necessary and sufficient for the phenomenon that these
—

conditions are sufficient to cause it and that without them the phenomenon just
doesn’t happen. These are strong assumptions underlying scientific experiment.

How well does this analysis generalise to other areas in the sciences? The assumption
of uniformities in nature was necessary for repeated experiments to lead to
confidence in the result of our induction coil example. In fact, we shall see that the
assumption of uniformities is necessary to justify the method called ‘induction’
in other experiments too. Many experiments in physics and chemistry operate
in the same way. A set of variables thought to be relevant to the phenomenon are
controlled and the experiment repeated. Perhaps one of the variables is changed.
Assuming that nature behaves according to unchanging laws we infer that there
is a connection between these variables and the phenomenon we want to explain.
This is true even for fields like astrophysics where there is less scope for performing
experiments. Here the universe helpfully provides the laboratory. There are many
examples of, say, binary star systems in our galaxy that we can observe. By looking
at large numbers of them and assuming that they behave according to some uniform
laws of nature we can, again tentatively, infer these laws of nature. The description of
laws of nature constitutes one type of scientffic knowledge.

Biology appears to be a bit different in relation to law inferring laws of nature.

While some biological knowledge fits the ‘law of nature’ pattern, such as the laws
of natural selection or the statistical laws that govern mathematical population
genetics, a lot of biology concerns more specific mechanisms that produce a
given phenomenon in a given type of organism that resists the pattern. Biological
explanation is often about the activities of small parts that together produce
the behaviour of a larger whole. Nonetheless, even here there is some sort of
generalisation based on individual cases. Individual organisms are taken to
be models for more general kinds like species. Understanding the physiology
of a particular rat can yield knowledge about rats in general if we assume an
underlying regularity. Individual specimens may be different in certain ways, but
the assumption is that there are deeper uniformities without this assumption we
—

cannot produce biological knowledge.

In both the fields of physics and biology there is a further fact supporting our
confidence in the result of a repeated experiment. It is not just that we observe
correlations between relevant factors and the phenomenon to be explained but we
can also go some of the way towards explaining these regularities in terms of a general
theory. In the physics example we have a theory of electro-magnetism that tells us
that the rate at which the coil cuts the magnetic field lines is related to the current

405
 Assessment — Essay

induced in the coil. The theory is a deeper sort of uniformity in nature. Science is
motivated to look for these deeper theorie&because it assumes that they exist.

So far, the analysis suggests that the statement in the question is correct. But does
it apply to other, non-scientific, areas of knowledge? In the remainder of the essay I
shall examine examples in the area of the arts.

In theatre there is a general rule that the players should not acknowledge that they
are part of a play and are being watched by an audience. This is known in the trade as
the ‘fourth wall’. It is a convention in the sense that it is a generally agreed rule that
governs the production of the performance. ft is understood by players and audience
alike and is a crucial ingredient to understanding the theatre show. The assumption
of the fourth wall is a uniform feature of certain Western theatre traditions.

More generally, conventions in the arts are uniformities assumed to give the
subsequent artwork meaning. In jazz music there are conventions operating at all
levels from, at the lowest level, the sequence of chords played, and their attendant
scales, to the turn-taking involved in soloing. ft is conventional for the audience to
applaud solos mid-song and the jazz audience knows this. The chord sequences
create meaning because they are accompanied by expectations by the players and
the audience and these expectations can be manipulated to produce tension and
relaxation and define the emotional response to the work.

But unlike science, in the arts these uniformities can be broken. The fourth wall
did not exist in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (Tribble, 2005), Brecht broke it in his
epic theatre tradition, and in film Stan Laurel breaks it by talking direct to camera
(Bhaskar, 2009). In jazz, John Coltrane soloed over the ‘wrong’ scale in Love Supreme
and Miles Davis did not respect the turn-taking uniformity in his solos late in his
career. In short, artists have seen convention as being something that can be broken
for strong artistic effect.

The fact that artistic conventions can be broken might weaken their claim to be
uniformities. But when a particular convention is broken, it is invariably replaced
by another. It is not the case that there are no uniformities at all the only doubt
—

is how ‘uniform’ artistic convention really is. That these uniformities are assumed
is implicit in the nature of artistic convention. They are assumed both by the
producers and the consumers of the artwork in the production of meaning.

The same is true of the sciences. It is necessary to assume uniformities in nature

to ground scientific investigation, but this does not imply that our knowledge of
these uniformities stays constant. We must distinguish uniformities in nature
and uniformities in our knowledge of nature. The latter might actually change
over time. Just like artistic convention, scientific regularities and laws do change
over time. In contrast to the arts though, this change is not driven by the whim
of an individual scientist. Neither is it to do with an uncooperative universe that
stubbornly changes its rules of operation from time to time. Human scientific
knowledge is never static and is always subject to modification in the light of new
experimental data and theoretical advancement. Underlying scientific knowledge
is the assumption of uniformity of nature despite changes in our understanding of
these uniformities or the methods used to detect them and the language used to
describe them.

406
 ‘I

To conclude, by understanding uniformities to be regularities in the universe in

the case of the sciences and conventions in the arts, we find that it is necessary to --

assume them to produce knowledge in these areas. Without this assumption, there
can be no knowledge. It is conceivable that these arguments could be modified
to apply to other areas of knowledge although we have no space to examine
the details. This conclusion highlights the importance of being aware of the
assumptions underlying our methods of producing knowledge.

[1594 words]

References

Bhaskar S. (2009/28/August). A fine mess: the enduring appeal of Laurel and Hardy.
The Guardian.

Tribble E. (2005). Distributing cognition in the Globe. Shakespeare Quarterly, 56(2):

135—155.

407