12 TOK CONCEPTS
The TOK Subject Guide specifies a dozen Concepts that “have particular prominence within, and thread throughout” the course. They are recurring themes in recent May and November prescribed essay titles and in the 35 Exhibition prompts.
1. EVIDENCE
Belief without evidence
2. CERTAINTY
Proof
This Statement is False
3. TRUTH
Coherence, correspondence and pragmatic theories of truth
Post-truth
4. INTERPRETATION
Who do you think you are?
Interpretation
Squidgy, pinkish, buttery gloop
5. POWER
Power and truth
Epistemic justice
6. JUSTIFICATION
Justified true belief
7. EXPLANATION
Good and bad explanations
8. OBJECTIVITY
Is there a scientific method?
Imagination with constraints
9. PERSPECTIVE
The map is not the territory
Allegory of the cave
What is it like to be a bat?
Parable of the blind men and the elephant
Figs viewed from multiple perspectives
10. CULTURE
Exorcising cultural relativism
Communities of knowledge
Memes and selection
11. VALUES
Ethical paradigms
Ethics vs. morality
12. RESPONSIBILITIES
Democracy and informed citizenship
Banner image: Student choir performing in Tiananmen Square for the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party, July 1 2020. Kevin Frayer—Getty Images.