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KNOWLEDGE AND THE KNOWER—
WHAT COUNTS AS KNOWLEDGE?
INSTANTIATION—WHERE IS KNOWLEDGE?

RAW DATA AND INFORMATION

Data, information and knowledge can be understood as a strict hierarchy of increasing complexity; or as labels used informally and more or less interchangeably in everyday conversation. As a commonsense entry point, let’s agree for now that:

Information is organized raw data

KNOWLEDGE—SOMETHING TRUE AND USEFUL?

Knowledge itself is a tad more elusive and slippery to define. Lest we forget that entire epistemologically-flavored academic courses (TOK included) have been developed to explore what knowing is.

TOK students were introduced to traditional approaches to knowledge in the Student knowledge claims activity. They explored the difference between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance in the Knowing that and knowing how written assignment. They also grappled with the strengths, and some of the inherent limitations, of the notion of Justified True Belief.

In short—even at this very early stage of the TOK course—students will have developed a sense of what knowledge is and how knowledge is acquired. They recognize the value of relentlessly asking “How do we know that?”

Knowledge is hard to define but we know it when we see it. Rather than wordsmithing the concept of knowledge to oblivion; we will adopt a “Look, don't overthink!” approach. The class activities that follow provide an unsettling, messy-real-world, close encounter with a fundamental question:

What counts as knowledge and where is it located?

CLASS ACTIVITY I:
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BLINK AND A WINK

Begin by projecting this collage of three images in a whole class setting. Get straight to the point by stating that melting ice is unambiguously part of Nature—the physical world. Students learn about states of matter in beginning chemistry and physics classes. Next introduce the thermometer and the thermostat. Invite student comments. The following questions may, or may not, be necessary to jumpstart class discussion:

• What data does the thermometer display and how does it work?

• What does thermostat do?

• Compare and contrast these two products of human technology with melting ice?

It may or may not be necessary to ask

Does the ice know that it is melting? Does the mercury in the thermometer know it is rising? Does the thermostat know when to turn the heating on or off?

HOMEOSTASIS

Next project this simplified model for temperature control in humans and the photo of the Central Arctic Inuit family in the temporary snow house.

Take a less teacher-centered approach this time. Pose the open-ended question:

“What on earth is going on here?”

Only if necessary steer the conversation with:

“How do these two human scenarios compare to the thermostat?”

Finally summarize and consolidate the activity by having a student read the following whimsical poem:

Thank the student reader and without further comment ask:

So… what is the difference between a blink and a wink?

CLASS ACTIVITY II: INSTANTIATION

Prepare in advance a hard copies of the guiding questions and knowledge quote for each student. Print out the knowledge scenario images to make 32 cards.
Here are the images, questions and quote in convenient Google Doc and PDF format. 

Before assigning students into conversation partner pairs. have students read in silence the David Deutsch knowledge quote. Follow this by calling on six students to read in turn, the six sentences of the text. Repeat; and linger on the wording of the final sentence—emphasizing “when it is instantiated it tends to remain so.” 

DAVID DEUTSCH—KNOWLEDGE QUOTE

The way I think of knowledge is as broader than the usual use of the term and yet paradoxically closer to the common-sense use… Knowledge is a kind of information… It’s something that could have been otherwise and is one particular way and… it says something true and useful about the world. …knowledge isn’t dependent on any particular instantiation. On the other hand it does have the property that when it is instantiated it tends to remain so. 

This nuanced entry point to thinking broadly about the nature of knowledge was transcribed from Surviving the Cosmos, Episode 22 of the Sam Harris Making Sense podcast (00: 05: 30). David Deutsch is the founding father of the quantum theory of computation, Visiting Professor of Physics at Oxford University, and author of The Beginning of Infinity.

UNPACKING ASSIGNED KNOWLEDGE SCENARIOS

Shuffle the cards and deal them facing down to the student pairs. At this stage students only see the images and descriptors dealt to them. Inform students that they will attempt to unpack various real-life knowledge scenarios that they have been assigned guided by these questions:

1. What counts as knowledge here?

2. How is knowledge physically represented or encoded here?

3. To what extent is a conscious knowing subject involved here?

4, What is the role of human culture here?

One of the students should take on the role of scribe. After allowing sufficient conversation time students pairs will be called upon to present their encapsulations to the entire class. They should be prepared (literally) to think on their feet as they field questions from the peer audience.

I prefer to organize the presentations in rounds. Each pair presents on a single knowledge scenario of their choice—for a strictly timed maximum of two minutes—each time their turn comes around. Allow extra time for spontaneous audience and teacher questions. A theatrical element of novelty and surprise is maintained if the previously unseen images are projected in darkness or with subdued ambient lighting.

The preparation conversations with the scribe taking bullet point notes, together with all 32 presentations and audience questions, will likely require two full class periods to complete. Do not attempt a summative consolidation at the very end. Simply move on to the “Popper’s Three Worlds of Knowledge” activity. Students are now primed for an encounter with this comprehensive model for thinking about what counts as knowledge.

CLASS ACTIVITY III:
POPPER’S “Three worlds” OF KNOWLEDGE

The 32 knowledge scenarios presentation activity was inspired by Karl Popper’s “three worlds” frame for understanding knowledge. As students grappled with the various real world scenarios they will have constructed for themselves a perspective for what counts as knowledge. It is very likely that there will be some cathartic alignment with Popper’s commonsense view that there are “at least three different but interacting sub-universes” for knowledge. As we shall discover in the activities that follow, the key word here is “interacting.”

Begin with silent and public readings of the Popper quote:

Immediately follow this by dividing students into groups of four and, this time, provide each group with a complete sets of the 32 knowledge scenario cards. As an icebreaker invite students to do the following—confirming that each group has completed each task before moving to the next:

1. Divide the cards into living (biological) vs. non-living physical instantiations of knowledge

2. Select all cards representing products of human culture

3. Identify cards evoking individual subjective knowledge experiences

4. Find cards that are outright rejects—that do not even count as knowledge!

Next students will tackle two more challenging guiding questions that relate directly to the interactions between the Popper’s three worlds. Enter the fray by confirming with the class that it is obvious, for example, that technology is a (world 1) physical product of (world 3) human culture. Then challenge them to wrestle with:

• What is the relationship between (world 2) inner mental experience and world 3?

• To what extent is world 2 part of world 1?

Written asSignment

Our collective minds are the creators of human culture and technology; but what is the relationship between culture and technology and the ongoing development of the individual human knower? Justify your perspective by referring to at least two real world scenarios.

[Maximum word count: 800]