TOK Knowledge Essay

Values such as these do not give answers as to how to handle a particular situation, but provide a useful structure for understanding conflicts. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study violated several of these guidelines in order to continue their research. In the past and especially today this study was an unacceptable form of research that lead to the inhumane treatment of many men. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was extremely unethical and should have been put to a stop much earlier in the process. When the study began there may not have been specific guidelines as to how to conduct a study, but after the

Even though codes of ethics are written down, they are not known as rules, but it is given to set the boundaries of what is and is not an acceptable way to conduct research

| The study of knowledge: What constitutes knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible

This selection of ways of expressing ethical commitments does not seek to invalidate other approaches. The presentation of different ways of conceiving ethics alongside each other in this statement is intended to draw attention to the limitations of relying too heavily on any single ethical approach. Ethical principles are well suited to examining the justification for particular decisions and actions. However, reliance on principles alone may detract from the

A lot of courage is needed to revolt against a dictator and risk one's life, and possibly other's lives for a country. In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, Minerva Mirabal (one of 4 sisters in the story) shows a lot of courage by standing up against her country's leader, Rafael Trujillo, and for what is right, risking her and her family's lives. She performs in front of him, while knowing his secret, that he is a horrible dictator that abuses his power, she slaps him at a party and them leaves, which is illegal, and she protects her sisters with her life. It takes courage, guts, and bravery, to fight for what you believe in, and the events in this story show these traits.

Where do we draw the line? The book, Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, was meant to be warning for what life could be if we lose our morals when it comes to scientific research. The science in the book has surpassed ours and shows that if we keep going the way we are going; we just might end up like them. This is evident due to the diminishing of morals in scientific research, developments in the research for test tube babies, and breakthroughs in science leading to designer babies. Our world used to thrive on hard work, dedication, and a strict moral code which has, more or less, diminished.

Which rhetorical device is used to express something in a neutral or positive manner in

The society has evolved over the decades. Medical advances, greater technologies, better understanding of the world around us, the sky is the limit! The progression of a society is astounding from where it was just twenty years ago. One is able to do things that the forefathers would have never dreamed! Science has discovered ways to travel to the moon and back, reach some of the deepest depths of the oceans and discover new species, and drive hybrid cars. The achievements of today’s society have reached a new high; however, with great achievement comes great questions of ethics.

Making consistently ethical decisions is difficult. Most decisions have to be made in the context of economic, professional and social pressures, which can sometimes challenge our ethical goals and conceal or confuse the moral issues. In addition, making ethical choices is complex because in many situations there are a multitude of competing interests and values. Other times, crucial facts are unknown or ambiguous. Since many actions are likely to benefit some people at the expense of others, the decision maker must prioritize competing moral claims and must be proficient at predicting the likely consequences of various choices. An ethical person often chooses to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

Ethics and law do not always go hand in hand. Not every law is ethical, and even if a law is considered ethical on its surface, it may result in unethical outcomes. "Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.”

When considering ethical issues, we have to consider things in a global prospective, because what may be perfectly right for one nation may be looked in a different way from a different

Knowledge is defined to be facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. There are two categories that fall under knowledge; personal knowledge and shared knowledge. Shared knowledge refers to what “we know because.” It can also be defined as communicated and constructed knowledge; within culture, social norms, and semiotics. Personal knowledge refers to “I know because.” An expanded definition of personal knowledge refers to personal experiences, values, and perceptions. Shared knowledge changes and evolves over time because of methods that are continuously shared. It is assembled by a group of people. Personal knowledge, on the other hand, depends crucially on the experiences of a particular individual. It is gained

Knowledge can be defined as the “facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education”1. It is divided into personal knowledge and shared knowledge. Personal knowledge is what every individual knows from its own personal experience while shared knowledge is a collection of several individuals’ personal knowledge. Without personal knowledge there would be no shared knowledge. A clear example where shared knowledge modifies individuals’ personal knowledge through education is religion, where they have authoritative rule books that tell their followers what moral principles to follow. There are several religions that may differ with each others’ beliefs and traditions; some of them may be in favour of an idea while

“Theory and fact are equally strong and utterly interdependent; one has no meaning without the other. We need theory to organize and interpret facts, even to know what we can or might observe. And we need facts to validate theories and give them substance” said famous American paleontologist, biologist, and historian Stephen J. Gould. A theory may be defined as a set of assumptions, propositions or accepted facts of an idea that is suggested or presented as possibly true, but that is not known or proven to be true. A fact on the other hand may be defined as information that is indisputably the case; used in discussing the significance of something that is the case. However, to what degree of success can the facts that the theories consist of pertain to different areas of knowledge as the theory? For example, can one successfully link facts from the areas of mathematics, ethics, and history to enhance our understanding of a theory pertaining to the human sciences? These questions are the basis for this essay, and in the following paragraphs I will expound how facts and theories are interdependent, no matter what area of knowledge they pertain to; in order to understand the significance of the facts, it is essential that we establish concrete theories that synergistically unite the facts together; enhancing our understanding of some of the greatest theories of all time.

Knowledge can be defined as information gained through sense perception, emotion, language and reason, while it is defined by Plato as “justified true belief.” The claim that knowledge takes the form of a combination of stories and facts is however not accurate in history and biology. First, it brings up the questions of what are stories and what are facts. Stories are accounts of past events from somebody’s perspective, while a fact is the truth. When looking at the two areas of knowledge, they each favour one side of the combination over the other. For example, knowledge from history mostly takes the form of stories, while knowledge from biology mostly takes the form of facts. This distinction between the different types of knowledge leads to the knowledge questions of “How do we obtain knowledge in the different areas of knowing?” and “To what extend is knowledge in certain areas of knowledge subjective or objective?”