The IBlogger

Do we really know what goes on in our head? Many people feel like they can control their emotions well as they think that their experiences are sufficient to know about what a good and bad decision is. Throughout our lifetime we experience many different things and the original experience plays a big part in future experiences, and the decisions we make. Many people don't realize this as most of our decisions to this are subconscious until they are obviously shown. The person who wrote this gave a very good example. She had a 'gross foods party' for her daughter's 12th birthday party. She served normal food, and drink such as pizza, and juice except that she smeared cheese with green fruit coloring, giving it a moldy look. The juice was also served in urine sample cups. She even served mashed food onto baby diapers for an extra stimulation. Even though the children were supposed to like pizza, mashed potatoes and juice (as that is the normal reaction). Many kids di...

The somatic marker theory, originally proposed by Antoni Damasio suggests that the way we process emotions and feelings can give us a subconscious bias to change our actions, affecting our social behavior. He was a neuroscientist and based this theory off actual parts of our brain. We all have things called 'somatic markers', which are body signals sent from our brain such as a rapid heartbeat, which allow us to process emotions clearly. 

Try to define as precisely as possible these words: a. triangle, b. love, c. table What is the difference? Which was easiest to define?  A.) A triangle is an area with three sides joined together to form what we call shapes. B.) Love is a mix of different emotional states, which are all experienced with strong, positive responses.  C.)  A table is a piece of furniture with one leg or more, connected to a top.  I think love was the hardest term to define as it is a very subjective term. Many people define love differently. Some people think that love doesn't exist while others think it does. Some people tend to think of it in more of a scientific viewpoint while others don't. Unlike a triangle, and a table there is no one 'right' answer for what love is. Everyone knows the concept of a table, and a rough idea of what a table looks like. We cannot say the same thing for love. In fact, another thing that makes love harder to define is infatuation. Man...

Eyewitnesses: First-order knowledge claims: Over 70 percent of false convictions that have been overturned through DNA testing involved eyewitnesses who falsely chose a suspect, leading to the prosecution of the suspect. Eyewitness misidentification is the single biggest contributor to wrongful convictions. Certain measures can be taken to help make eyewitness accounts more accurate. Larger police departments have an easier time than smaller ones in incorporating many of their proposed reforms. Two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have prohibited life sentences for minors without the possibility of parole. Second-order knowledge claims: If the police reformed their system, then the prosecuting process would be a lot more fair, and would help reduce the number of innocents going to jail due to false eyewitnesses. We can be certain that faulty eyewitness testimonies are very common, and lead to many unfair prosecutions. It is certain that eyewitness testimonies ...

How do we know what we know? Theory of knowledge, otherwise known as TOK is a two year IB course that challenges our thinking of the world around us, and everything we know. To succeed in TOK you will need to analyze multiple profound questions with no right or wrong answer. This means that you will need to think from a variety of different perspectives in-class. This is made easier if your partner isn't someone your familiar with, or is someone who had a different upbringing than you did, making your conversations trying to answer these questions a lot more profound as you will have differing opinions on each question, and discussion. Map 1 Map 2 In fact, one common discussion usually used by TOK teachers is a quote by a famous scholar named Alfred Korzybski, where he says "The map is not the territory". This quote is quite famous and my personal interpretation of this quote is that we put borders on different locations of the worl...