In the begin of TOK we first looked at challenge knowledge and that we should always consider the information we are given before accepting it as knowledge and true meaning. We used ‘toolkits’ to help us with this as knowledge can be problematic and this is increasing due to the ‘information explosion’ that we have now at our finger tips. We use Wok and Aok to help make sense if the knowledge is clear, coherent and analyse the information. We also discussed the scale of belief and justification of claims through the use of Plato’s ladder.

We also looked at knowledge is mediated by culture, religion, experience and genetics, we use language to help us make choices and to learn the knowledge.

This led us to look deeper into language and we discovered that languages must follow rules ; it must be rule governed, intended, creative and open-minded. We then discovered the theories of meaning, in which had a number of parts to it.

Definition theory; this looks at the definition of words can be more difficult then it seems, with the most clear way to define things are mathematical ones, such as ‘triangle’. When it comes to other words, things get a bit tricky.

Denotation theory; this is the denotation theory what distinguishes a meaningful definition from a meaningless one. However, this doesn’t work for abstract words which do not stand for anything such as ‘freedom’ ‘wisdom’.

Image theory; this is the meaning of a word through a mental image and what it stands for, and that you understand/know the word if you have a appropriate concept in your mind.

We questioned that is it possible to think without language, and that we use language to communicate and share ideas and create new ones and reason with one another. This led us to challenge if language affects people’s view of reality, in that we found that it does have a strong effect on how we view and interpreter different things.