What are Knowledge Questions?

1) What the IB has to say

Knowledge Questions are:
i. Questions that directly refer to our understanding of the world, ourselves and others, in
connection with the acquisition, search for, production, shaping and acceptance of
knowledge.
ii. Open-ended and intended to open inquiry into the nature of knowledge.
iii. Uncover possible uncertainties, biases in approach, or limitations related to knowledge,
ways of knowing and methods of verification and justification appropriate in different areas
of knowledge.

2) What we have to say

These are questions we have about knowledge (how we got it, should it be trusted, its
value, how our approach to it may be similar or different from other WoKs/AoKs, etc.)

3) Knowledge questions can begin in many different ways

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How do we know
If a knowledge claim can be trusted?
What is morally right or wrong?
What basis our conclusions rest on?
How does
Language come to be known? Is the capacity to acquire knowledge innate?
Mathematics relate to the world?
The social context of scientific work affect the methods and findings of science?
How
Reliable are our feelings and intuitions?
Does living a moral life matter?
Trustworthy are our senses?
Is
Reason purely objective and universal, or does it vary across cultures?
Historical knowledge open to criticism?
Does
Art have to have meaning?
Truth differ between the human and natural sciences?
To what extent
Can we act individually in creating new knowledge?
Does personal or ideological bias influence our knowledge claims?
Is emotion biological or hard-wired, and hence universal to all human beings? To what
extent is it shaped by culture and hence displayed differently in different societies?
vii. Can
a. Human behavior be predicted?
b. Mathematics be characterized as a universal language?

c. History be unbiased?
d. We know what the meaning of life is?

4) Knowledge questions usually contain ToK language

i) Ways of knowing: reason, language, emotion, sensory perception
ii) Areas of knowledge: mathematics, human sciences, natural sciences, history, arts, ethics
iii) Linking terms: authority, belief, certainty, evidence, experience, explanation, interpretation,
intuition, justification, truth, values

5) Knowledge questions can be related to the ways of knowing

Reason - logic / inductive reasoning / deduction / syllogism
Emotion - feelings / moods
Sensory Perception - the five senses
Language - all forms of structured communication
Imagination - creativity / mental imagery / connecting different ideas
Faith - religious belief (theistic, non-theistic, polytheistic) / trust / non-evidence based
Intuition - immediate cognition / knowledge which precedes evidence or justification
Memory - remembered knowledge
Questions could relate to definition / use / importance / limitations / negative effects in
relation to an area of knowledge
Does some knowledge lie beyond language?
To what extent do our senses give us knowledge of the world as it really is?
Can there be creativity without emotion?
How can we justify logic?

6) Knowledge questions can be questions about areas of knowledge

Is mathematics present in nature?
How reliable is proof in the natural sciences?
Are the human sciences really science?
How useful is knowledge gained in history?

7) Knowledge questions can be related to distinctions & connections

between areas of knowledge
What makes one subject area different from other subjects?
What is scientific about science?
How is a subject defined are there disagreements?
Where are the boundaries of your subject?
What is the relationship between one area of knowledge and another?
Is mathematical proof necessary for the development of scientific understanding?
What can the arts teach us about history?