Tok essay titles ~ may 09 exams

Essay Topic 1:
"Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks: but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house" (Henri Poincaré). Discuss in relation to science and at least one other area of knowledge.

Essay Topic 2:
When should we trust our senses to give us truth?

Essay Topic 3:
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of reason as a way of knowing.

Essay Topic 4:
"Seek simplicity, and distrust it" (Alfred North Whitehead). Is this always good advice for a knower?

Essay Topic 5:
"In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance" (Henry Miller). Is this true?

Essay Topic 6:
Compare and contrast our approach to knowledge about the past with our approach to knowledge about the future.

Essay Topic 7:
"Moral wisdom seems to be as little connected to knowledge of ethical theory as playing good tennis is to knowledge of physics" (Emrys Westacott). To what extent should our actions be guided by our theories in ethics and elsewhere?

Essay Topic 8:
To understand something you need to rely on your own experience and culture. Does this mean that it is impossible to have objective knowledge?

Essay Topic 9:
"The knowledge that we value the most is the knowledge for which we can provide the strongest justifications." To what extent would you agree with this claim?

Essay Topic 10:
"There can be no knowledge without emotion....until we have felt the force of the knowledge, it is not ours" (adapted from Arnold Bennett). Discuss this vision of the relationship between knowledge and emotion.

well, it all seems challenging to me! so.. good luck~