First post

During my first lessons of TOK, I have learnt 3 notions:

The first being about how we know things? How can you be completely be certain of something? Truth is, there is no actual way to knowing if anything around us is real. Human beings tend to put assumptions on the thing around them, and until they are proven wrong, usually they stick with their assumptions. Things could be known through reason, sense of perception, emotion, faith, intuition, imagination, memory and language, and a lot of these ways of knowing can be altered, causing only to imagine whether or not humanity exists.

The second is about maps. Yes maps, if you go to Miss Alex’s classroom you will see them everywhere. Even if from a distance they may be similar, there is actually a large variety of maps. They all differ as it’s authors make them different depending on the culture and the message trying to be send, which leaves the door open for interpretation. It could be a map of the world, an amusement park , a mall, a country, a metro station and the possibilities are limitless . To me, the metaphor of maps is reliable and reveals itself inadequately to describe the placement of a larger place  on a paper with a smaller scale, even if it also inaccurate as it does not show the total truth. This metaphor of map is something very helpful for us in the course because the notion of something so reliable yet inaccurate is something that will be recurrent. This was able to open my mind in the possibility that tools I may rely on a day to day basis are inaccurate. Maps can be differentiated by the time it was made and by it’s author. It was once believed that the earth is flat and the American continent did not exist. Will all the technology in the world and the knowledge in science, mistakes are still made and maps are not up to the right scale. These ideas can be applied to Geography and History classes, even if I only take history. I think that the idea that maps vary through time shows the evolution of populations and mindset. The world cannot be navigated with a completely accurate map, as it is impossible to create it and the perfection will make it challenging if not impossible to navigate. I think that there is always possibility of human mistake and the perfect scale has to be a 1.1 ration, which is impossible to make at some times.

The third concept is certainty which is the one that interested me the most. Is it enough to be certain to live in the truth? Long ago humans did believe that the sun turned around the earth. So is it enough to be certain? Certainty is a feeling and it is not a criteria strong enough because most of the things we are certain of are opinions, they come from the inside, our education, society or media and we accept them without thinking. Certainty can also be seen as an obstacle to find the truth, of the things we dont know and science sadly will be satisfied merely by the certainty which can be an unreliable feeling. Certainty is also a necessary criteria as we cannot ask for proof for everything without condemning ourselves to an intercity of searching for the answer to our hypothesises, there will come moments where we need to stop interrogating ourselves if we want to believe or think about something. Also if we refuse to trust our certainty we will fall in scepticism that will make us fall into the conclusion that nothing is real. I think that the only way to not be blinded by misleading certainty is by cultivating ourselves by interrogating ourselves and considering that nothing is certain. Otherwise, you have to trust your certainties because they are useful and help you construct a train of thought and reacting. We are always right if we are ready to question our certainties