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Starting off our in-class discussion with a video about hallucinations, we opened the question of what "insanity" really is, since the people in the video that had these visions thought they were going insane. Even though the psychiatrist in the video clearly have us the explanations of why this phenomenon occurred in his patience and said it was perfectly fine and normal, some of my classmates stayed on the term insane. The official deffiniton says that a person has to be "in a state of mind which prevents normal perception, behavior...; seriously mentally ill." There was an opening question that asked who is really insane and whether there's a difference between a mentally unwell person and an insane person, and my friend said that "insane people are mentally unwell people". I had to strongly disagree and try to raise awareness of the fact that being mentally unwell has different levels, starting off with having anxiety, disorders such as bipolarity,

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Starting off our in-class discussion with a video about hallucinations, we opened the question of what "insanity" really is, since the people in the video that had these visions thought they were going insane.

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First Object

What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge?

My first object for the exhibition will be a basketball trophy. The trophy serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events and in my case is my first basketball trophy that I have received since I have been playing basketball. This is a trophy that I have won at my first tournament in Romania for the best scorer and for me this object is very important because it will always remind me of the beginnings of my basketball career. This is a personal experience that I can relate to knowledge and will always be a great experience for me that will always remind me of the successful things in life. The knowledge I have about basketball will always be based on this first trophy that I won because it helped me to keep going and not give up. This object represents the relationship I have between personal experience and knowledge. My opinion is that if I had not won this trophy, I might have given up basketball and never gained the knowledge and experience I have now. I believe that in the face of challenges, we learn what we are made of, and have to recover quickly from non-successes and what is most accurate for me is that through the challenges and obstacles in life, one can learn the most and gain great knowledge. What happens each day becomes knowledge due to our personal experiences in life. Knowledge gained from experience is perhaps the true knowledge we ought to seek. Sometimes it will be a good experience, sometimes a bad one, but still all those experiences formulate knowledge.

Second object

The second object is Macedonian Spanish Dictionary. When I moved to Spain when I was 14, this was the first thing I took with me. At that time I did not know Spanish and at the beginning I acquired the knowledge through this little book. From childhood to elderly we learn a lot of things that expand our knowledge and shape our personality. This book is one of those things that helped me get through my first months in Spain. Of course I speak better Spanish now than when I first went there, but I learned the language during the three years I was in Spain, through communicating with other people, through studying at school, that is, through my personal experience. It all started with this little book because you always have to know where to start and from what, so I started gaining my personal experience of learning spanish through this dictionary. As human beings we tend to be curious about the unknown. That's how I was interested in something I didn't know. That interest motivated me to learn Spanish and through all experiences that I went through in Spain, including the difficult and happy experiences, the experience of learning the language will remain one of the best things that ever happened to me and the knowledge I now have of the Spanish language will never go away. Maybe this dictionary will only provide basic words, but the experience is what will help you learn how to communicate with the people there, such as Spanish expressions and their idioms. They can be learned only by being in their presence, but in order to understand the words of those expressions for example, this dictionary is more than enough.

Third Object

Ever since we were little, when we went to primary school, geography was a compulsory subject. With that subject, at least in my school, we had to get a National Geographic Atlas and bring it to every geography class. For a student, an atlas is very important as we can study about the different types of continents, oceans and geography of the world. When we are younger and when we are not yet familiar with all the countries and places in the world then it is interesting for us to learn about new places and to find out where they are and what they look like. Learning about all those places, and what they look like in such an atlas, increases our desire and motivation to travel and visit new places in the world. For all the places I have visited in my life, the knowledge of where that place is, how big that place is, I got from this atlas and that is the relationship between my personal experience gained through this atlas during my geography classes, to my current knowledge of different countries, continents, oceans, islands in the world. What made me want to travel the world and explore new places is this atlas because it interested me and motivated me to explore further, not only to know about places in the world through a book, but also to travel to those places and experience everything in real life. From childhood to elderly we learn a lot of things that expand our knowledge and this is such a moment that the knowledge that I have today is created once again through my personal experiences.

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First Object What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge? My first object for the exhibition will be a basketball trophy. The trophy serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events and in my case is my first basketball trophy that I have received since I have been playing basketball.

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I think that your connection with the prompt is clear and coherent. It would also be useful if you could upload the image of the object.

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I think that your personal connection to the object is great, however I believe that you should describe the connection of the object to the prompt in greater detail.

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Simona Mladenovikj- Exhibition (first draft)

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Simona Mladenovikj- Exhibition (first draft)

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The image bellow is a picture of an encyclopedia I was gifted for my 9th birthday, by a close family friend. In middle school I was very curious and interested in the solar system, it amazed me that our planet was just a small piece of something so much larger. She gave me this gift with the goal for me to have a better visual representation of the solar system, and to be able to explore my interests deeper. When I first turned the shiny, plastic pages of the  encyclopedia I was excited for all the knowledge that was stored in a book, but at the same time I felt overwhelmed by all the information that was right before me. I decided to take it one step at a time. I would read the book often, but I decided to read only one page a day, by the end of it the page was full of small colorful papers, containing all my notes and questions I had after reading the lecture. One day I came across a page discussing the “Big Bang Theory”, and certainly that is the only page I focused on since. This theory explored our existence in a way I had never heard before, it startled me. However it was also confusing as it discussed everything in a way that dismissed all my knowledge about my existence and the universe. This encyclopedia as an object addresses the question of whether new knowledge can change already established values and beliefs. The encyclopedia discusses the creation and existence of  the universe and humanity through a scientific perspective, which questions and challenges knowledge that has been present for centuries, and that being the religious values and beliefs. By reading this encyclopedia one starts questioning whether the beliefs portrayed by religion, like God creating the universe and existence of humanity is true. It makes people question their own beliefs. The scientific perspective is factual, meaning that it uses statistics and physics in order to explain the theory. However religion uses beliefs, values and good will to spread knowledge. Thus causing established beliefs and values to be challenged by statistics and proof. As one opens this book and is met with statistical and physics equations that perfectly portray and explain the facts stated in the encyclopedia, it denies and dismisses all the beliefs and values that religion embraces. This particular encyclopedia discusses the creation of human existence through scientific perspective, making a lot of individuals and believers start challenging and changing their already established beliefs and values by their religion.

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TOK Exhibition What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge? My first object for the exhibition will be a basketball trophy. A trophy is a durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are often awarded for sporting events and in my case is my first basketball trophy that I have received since I have been playing basketball. This is a trophy that I have won at my first tournament in Romania for the best scorer and for me this object is very important because it will always remind me of the beginnings of my basketball career. This is a personal experience that I can relate to knowledge and will always be a great experience for me that will always remind me of the successful things in life. The knowledge I have about basketball will always be based on this first trophy that I won because it helped me to keep going and not give up. This object represents the relationship I have between personal experience and

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TOK Exhibition What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge? My first object for the exhibition will be a basketball trophy. A trophy is a durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as a recognition or evidence of merit.

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Welcome everyone and I hope you have a nice stay here - collect as many ideas as possible while on your ToK journey.

Now as a start, I thought I would introduce you all to the current unit we are covering in our ToK class, as well as all of the ideas and narratives that have popped up in our discussions. The unit is called "Knowledge and the Knower". Quite a broad topic indeed. It delves into the way we see ourselves as knowers and the knowledge we possess, the ways in which we gather new knowledge, and the ways in which we share our knowledge with our surroundings. What kind of inherent assumptions about the nature of knowledge we have, and who decides (if anyone?) what is a fact and what is fiction? Or which ideas are valuable and which ideas are less valuable? All of these questions delve into the very core of our societies. Through these questions one can analyse the very principles a society is based upon, the power dynamics within said society, as well as to try and analyse human nature (if such a thing exists?).

So far, our class has considered these questions on the basis of three materials:

- The short story The Mouse Who Ate the Cheese, which delves into the concept of facts and how (if ever) we can be sure we know something, and the difference between knowing and believing.

- The TED talk How language transformed humanity by Mark Pagel, where the speaker offers an analysis on the formation of language and the impact it has had on human societies and how we work together.

- Extracts from the paper The Case for the Personhood of Gorillas by Francine Patterson & Wendy Gordon, where our assumptions about personhood, and our distinction between human and animal was challenged by reading about gorillas which act and think not too dissimilar to ourselves.

In my next post I will write my thoughts on these topics in more detail.

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Welcome everyone and I hope you have a nice stay here - collect as many ideas as possible while on your ToK journey. Now as a start, I thought I would introduce you all to the current unit we are covering in our ToK class, as well as all of the ideas and narratives that have popped up in our discussions.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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https://twitter.com/MarkoKo97272345

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Anastasija Avramovska TOK exhibition first draft

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Anastasija Avramovska TOK exhibition first draft

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The image displays my laptop, that I use for school work and for joining online classes. My parents bought it for me when I got accepted into NOVA High School, because it was brought to their attention that I will need to do homework, such as essays. For my first two years I didn't use it a lot, however, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I turn it on almost everyday. A year into the pandemic, it is probably the most important piece of technology that I own because of how crucial it is to helping me finish my schoolwork in order to commit knowledge to my long term memory and also find articles to help me improve my arguments.

My laptop answers the prompt because with technological advancements it allows me to find other resources for knowledge online to support or contradict my arguments.  It also helps me organize my thoughts, without taking much space, or wasting other valuable materials such as paper.

The laptop is part of Technology as an Area of Knowledge because of the easy access to online resources it enables me to find an enormous amount of articles which have different perspectives on the same topic. Since we live in an technologically advanced era, everything is shared online, hence by doing minimal amounts of research it will be available for me to use, with proper citation.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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https://vsco.co/kt14465

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We made it really, really simple for people to make a blog and put whatever they want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows, links, quips, dumb jokes, smart jokes, Spotify tracks, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff. Tumblr is 507 million different blogs, filled with literally whatever.

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We made it really, really simple for people to make a blog and put whatever they want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows, links, quips, dumb jokes, smart jokes, Spotify tracks, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff. Tumblr is 507 million different blogs, filled with literally whatever.

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Hello everyone and welcome to my TOKative journal, where I hope to share all my ideas and ramblings with you in the months to come.

To start off our year, my class and I have started exploring the ever-so-existential topics of reason, language, and personhood by deeply analyzing the circumstances of our presumed reality that we take for granted, and the ways in which we think about them, through the unit "Knowledge and the Knower".

In the most recent lesson me and my classmates, alongside our instructors Ms. Bela and Ms. Eda had an interesting discussion on the topic of personhood, as we attempted to answer the questions: What makes a person? And why do we, as people, have the right to limit the freedoms of other creatures? Are we really the most conscious species?

Though many of my classmates chose to define personhood in very strict terms (being human, conscious, sentient, being able to reason, etc.) I found that most of there restrictions were based off of the idea that we, as humans, have achieved the highest level of consciousness out of any being on Earth, and as such we get to dictate what constitutes a "person" and whether other creatures get to enjoy the same rights as us due to them being on a lower level of intelligence than us. What we fail to consider though, is that the presumption that we as humans have achieved the highest possible level of consciousness is very egocentric. We can never truly understand what goes on in the minds of other creatures, so we cannot be sure that we are truly mentally superior. Of course, one may say that humans have advanced much more and as such must be more intelligent than other beings, but is what we consider advancement not also completely relative/thought up by us as humans as well?
To be completely honest, I don't know. These ideas seem so far out and complex that we may never get an answer that satisfies us! Or perhaps I am just too sceptical. Either way, I hope that in the following months this class helps me get the answers that I crave, and I hope you are all excited to follow me on this journey and hear my thoughts.
Until next time,
Jana P

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Hello everyone and welcome to my TOKative journal, where I hope to share all my ideas and ramblings with you in the months to come. To start off our year, my class and I have started exploring the ever-so-existential topics of reason, language, and personhood by deeply analyzing the circumstances of our presumed reality that we take for granted, and the ways in which we think about them, through the unit "Knowledge and the Knower".

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TOK Journal Entry #1: A single language future is a very unlikely scenario that we might face. This concept has been tried in the past with a language called Esperanto, which was used for a couple of years. Since this experiment failed i don't see another chance for this format.

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TOK Journal Entry #1: A single language future is a very unlikely scenario that we might face. This concept has been tried in the past with a language called Esperanto, which was used for a couple of years. Since this experiment failed i don't see another chance for this format.

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TOK Journal Entry #1: A single language future is a very unlikely scenario that we might face. This concept has been tried in the past with a language called Esperanto, which was used for a couple of years. Since this experiment failed i don't see another chance for this format.
— Nikola Pavlevski (@np14352) September 20, 2020

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TOK Journal Entry #1: A single language future is a very unlikely scenario that we might face. This concept has been tried in the past with a language called Esperanto, which was used for a couple of years. Since this experiment failed i don't see another chance for this format.

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TOK Journal Entry #1: A single language future is a very unlikely scenario that we might face. This concept has been tried in the past with a language called Esperanto, which was used for a couple of years. Since this experiment failed i don't see another chance for this format.

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TOK Journal Entry #1: A single language future is a very unlikely scenario that we might face. This concept has been tried in the past with a language called Esperanto, which was used for a couple of years. Since this experiment failed i don't see another chance for this format.

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One of the discussions we had in our TOK class was whether language shaped the way we think and how it affects our morality. This type of existentialist question throws me for a loop as I fine myself contemplating many things about life. But as I said in class, I'll say it again. I do think depending on the language I'm speaking in, I do act and think in a different way. For example, in Italian (I'm still a beginner) I'm quite hesitant and shy when speaking and I'm overly conscious about saying something as the chances of me making a mistake and sounding dumb are far larger than in the other two languages I speak. This, however, is not the case with english or my native language. In english I'm more descriptive and quicker on my feet (regarding references and anecdotes) since I've accustomed myself to it in a way that's it's part of my everyday life, sometimes even moreso than macedonian. But lastly, in macedonian I'm more emotional and comfortable when speaking since I'm always reminded of a nostalgic feeling when speaking it.

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One of the discussions we had in our TOK class was whether language shaped the way we think and how it affects our morality. This type of existentialist question throws me for a loop as I fine myself contemplating many things about life. But as I said in class, I'll say it again.

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When i think of knowledge and knowing, I think of learning, adapting and improving. And the first thing that comes to my mind now, when i think of learning and adapting is my arrival at NOVA and adapting to the completely new style of studying, especially with the current circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the classes taking place online. My TOK class has so far done a great deal in my adaptation to the school year opening my eyes to new ways pf thinking and in general how the IB works. We've touched on many different subjects and topics talking from language and how it shapes us and how it effects our morality. We talked about what believing and what knowing is. What we truly know and what we believe we know. We also talked about personhood and what are the criteria to be a person. Do you need to be human by nature?Or is your emotional thinking and self awareness what makes you a person? We looked at an excellent example of the gorilla Koko which on paper has all the ment...

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When i think of knowledge and knowing, I think of learning, adapting and improving. And the first thing that comes to my mind now, when i think of learning and adapting is my arrival at NOVA and adapting to the completely new style of studying, especially with the current circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the classes taking place online.

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One of the primary topics we discussed these past few TOK classes was language, one of the eight ways of knowing discussed in TOK. We watched a TED Talk where biologist Mark Pagel spoke about language and its history, describing it as an immensely powerful tool that has the power to both connect people, but also, simultaneously, keep them apart. During the class, we wrote reflections on the discussion, and upon submitting my reflection, I was posed the question of whether I believe that we are born with or to language.

Since I studied psychology last year and language was a part of the unit on cognitive psychology, I have read a couple of articles on this topic. My belief is that every human is born, not necessarily with language, but the innate ability to acquire language. This theory of innateness is heavily based on the views of linguist Noam Chomsky who believes in the existence of a language acquisition device and universal grammar, namely a set of rules that applies to all human languages. Then, this basic set of rules is developed through language input from the environment to form knowledge of a specific language.

Apart from answering this question, I would also want to reflect on how speaking different languages has shaped the way I think. Although I don't believe that speaking a different language provokes me to approach a situation differently from when I am speaking my native tongue, I do believe that speaking English and, to some extent, German has given me tools which have helped me develop my thought process. For example, speaking foreign languages has helped me approach situations more rationally, perhaps due to the fact that I speak these languages in a more controlled and academic setting. Additionally, speaking English has given me access to information and many resources which have played a crucial role in forming the opinions and values that I have today.

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One of the primary topics we discussed these past few TOK classes was language, one of the eight ways of knowing discussed in TOK. We watched a TED Talk where biologist Mark Pagel spoke about language and its history, describing it as an immensely powerful tool that has the power to both connect people, but also, simultaneously, keep them apart.

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In the past couple of weeks we have explored different ideas such as the effects the languages we speak, how we know the things we know and what it takes to be considered a person. All of this ties into the general topic of identity.

Language is an important factor of self-identification, it shapes the way we see the world and most importantly how we see ourselves. From extensive foreign experiences to short trips globally, our viewpoint is an ever changing system that forms itself throughout our lives. Language shapes our thoughts, and these are crucial in the forming of our opinions. It is a tool that gives us a sense of belonging to a culture or a certain mentality. We read about various experiments that attempted to prove the way a person is raised and brought up shapes their morality, and decision making skills. We also discussed what role language has had in the progression of humanity. Without methods of communication there is no true understanding about the goal of a conversation. This concept dates back to the beginning of the human development that enabled us to differentiate as a species.

Another idea carefully intertwined with identity is our knowledge. The opinions created and the domain that we invest ourselves in studying all shape our knowledge and identification. But more specifically to our class discussions on knowledge, we elaborated on the concepts of believing and knowing. It is important to distinguish the differences between the two in order to truly comprehend them. Believing does not require proof, only the willingness of a person to accept a reality based on an opinion. However, to know something we must have confirming and convincing factual information.

The last idea mentioned was the concept of personhood. This topic is subject to much debate in our society where we question what the criterions are to consider someone as part of the personhood concept. Based on our group discussions, the main criterion is to be a human. While the moral maturity aspect and the mental ability to make decisions about one's life are important factors in personhood, this is subject to a lot of discrimination towards mentally and physically handicapped people, as well as minors. Overall, there is a lot of gray area when creating a strict definition that defines personhood but the general idea of it would be that it consists of utilizing the basic rights such as liberty, equality, freedom of speech, and the ability to form beliefs and opinions.

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In the past couple of weeks we have explored different ideas such as the effects the languages we speak, how we know the things we know and what it takes to be considered a person. All of this ties into the general topic of identity.

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Our last TOK class we were discussing about the topic of "Knowing and Believing". There were many theories and many students had different opinions and viewpoints regarding this topic. Some gave examples about religion, how we don't essentially know that God is real and we have no real evidence, however we still believe that he is real looking back at lets say past experiences or "miracles" that proved that God is real. Some said that knowing is believing, yet others said that knowing is not always believing. I personally do not believe entirely in God, I don't essentially believe that God is a real person because no one has ever seen him, no one has talked to him even though there are people claiming that they have. Those people do believe that God is real and they also know it, based on their experiences or "encounters" with him. I do believe that the universe is in charge of everything happening in our lives, and if we act positively and with gratitude the universe will align our positivity with a positive life and vise versa, when negativity is constantly surrounding us and our mind, our life will not be that great. I believe in this and I believe that this is true. However, I don't entirely know that this is true since there is no exact evidence of the power of the universe, yet because of my own past experiences I do believe that the universe plays a big role in our lives.

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Our last TOK class we were discussing about the topic of "Knowing and Believing". There were many theories and many students had different opinions and viewpoints regarding this topic.

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How does language shape the way we think?
Approximately, half of the world's population is constantly using a second language in their lives. There are some places in the world, such as Morocco and Switzerland, that are bilingual hot spots where nearly everyone speaks two languages. With this comes the ongoing question of whether speaking a second language affects the way one reasons, forms cognitive thoughts and expresses emotions. Many experiments have been conducted in relation to the effects of speaking multiple languages. One such experiment in which randomly picked bilingual individuals' cognitive thinking and behavior were examined, researchers tried to emphasize a certain language by neglecting and eliminating the effects of their second language, by making the participants repeat strings of numbers out loud in one language, in order to bring the influence of the second language to the fore. Surprisingly, the experiment resulted in an inference that speaking a second language c...

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How does language shape the way we think?Approximately, half of the world's population is constantly using a second language in their lives. There are some places in the world, such as Morocco and Switzerland, that are bilingual hot spots where nearly everyone speaks two languages.

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The TOK dwellers, my lovely colleague Eda and I had a solid start to a long journey ahead into trying to put to words what we often see as intuitive practices (I know that I know this, isn't that enough?). We played with a new app - Nearpod - moving into a more engaged learning experience for large cohorts learning online, paving the way for a more structured Socratic Seminar reflection. Interestingly enough, we touched based on all of the "problematic" bits when it comes to ascertaining how we claim to know what we claim to know, and certainly how we distinguish mere observation from clear certainty. While students (all 21st century spirits) were moving through their reasoning, at the back of my mind I could not stop thinking about the role of perception in hindsight - namely, knowing what we now know of how we claimed to know at a movement in time, would we state that our reasoning continues to hold true or would it become historically obsolete? Can reasoning - as a to...

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The TOK dwellers, my lovely colleague Eda and I had a solid start to a long journey ahead into trying to put to words what we often see as intuitive practices (I know that I know this, isn't that enough?).