ToK Summer Book and Movie List

Hey ToKers,

Given that we have some additional time to freely explore different perspectives, I am offering this book and film list to enrage, enlighten, and envelope your fragile egg-like minds with ToKness (yes, it’s now a noun)

ToK summer reading and viewing list!

Your first post is due Monday, May 26.

Please answer the following question in a 50-100 word response with at least one specific quote from the book to support your response.

1. Which approach to gaining knowledge is explored in your book? How is “acquiring knowledge” discussed?

p.s. I just read this fascinating article, Eight Pseudo-scientific Climate Claims Debunked by Real Scientists. Fabulous! Great information for anyone living in a republican controlled state, e.g., Texas or Florida.

p.p.s. If you are considering another ToK presentation, I would strongly encourage you to consider Bill Moyers’ website and journalism as fertile ToK ground. He has already planted and grown; it’s up to you to harvest!

39 thoughts on “ToK Summer Book and Movie List

  1. In the novel ‘ In Darkness, death’ Seikei and Judge Ooka are detectives in Japan. The way that knowledge is acquired in the book is through physical evidence as well as relying on Judge Ooka’s intuition. Ooka relies on his intuition because of his experience in his field of work and the numerous cases he has solved. Ooka is generally careful and fairly knowledgeable in other areas on knowledge such as history, mathematics, and other miscellaneous knowledge. Of course not limited to but also extends to Ooka’s physical feats and knowledge in martial arts. Seikei who is learning from Ooka, in hopes of becoming a great detective as well as samurai, does not have as much experience but rather talent. However, Seikei relies on physical evidence and other clues that he can find. Seikei also communicates with locals for clues, turning personal knowledge into shared knowledge.

    • Randy,

      In this case do you see ‘personal knowledge’ as a strength or limitation to how we acquire knowledge?

      Coey

      • I see ‘personal knowledge’as both a strength and limitation. Personal knowledge is important because it is the knowledge of people who are possibly very experienced in their field and that can be strength for a person on a personal level. It is a limitation if that information remains personal and does not become shared knowledge.

  2. In my book “Monkey Town”, gaining knowledge is explored by faith and reasoning. Eloise, Frances’s best friend, said “ If the law is wrong, then so is the Bible.” Eloise is not gaining knowledge much but she is restricting knowledge. Frances on the other hand is beginning to question the Bible with the other perspectives and reasonings. “What if the law is wrong?”- Frances. She is gaining knowledge by exploring different mental maps.

    • MTV,

      What role does reasoning play in advancing the idea of ‘evolution’?

      How might people, as you say, “restrict” their ability to know?

      JCC

  3. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, knowledge is gained by following a set method. By a set method, I meant like a book, a story, or an old saying and one must not go against it. Tom Sawyer asks his gang, “Do you want to go to doing different from what’s in the book, and get things all muddled up?” (12).

    • Dang Sir,

      Are you saying that archetypal plots are a means to gaining knowledge? Are you living in a fairy tale?

      Doesn’t Huck acquire knowledge about African Americans through his experiences with Jim? Yes.

      How might this ‘truth’ about Jim be tested?

      Coey Sir

      • Yes, the characters in the novel are all fiction, in other words, they are “living in a fairy tale.” That’s how the character gain knowledge, through a fixed method and sense of perception. The truth about Jim can be tested by observing Jim’s dialogues, and making assumptions about Jim base on his accent and slang.

        P.S. I would love to live in a fairy tale.

  4. In my novel, the development of the Scientific Revolution, knowledge is acquired through the use of the scientific method or through trial and error. One of the scientists says, “Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.” The ways of knowing that are most important are reasoning, sense perception, and imagination. The scientist within this novel needed imagination to be able to come up with their hypothesis for their experiments. They needed their sense perception to be able to observe what was going on as they were experimenting. To make sense of all the data that was gathered, they needed their reasoning. All of these are fundamental for the scientific method used within this novel.

    • Alejandro G,

      Doesn’t the idea of ‘scientific revolution’ by its very nature suggest that knowledge is temporary to some extent? Is there a way of acquiring knowledge that is more permanent?

      Chris C

      • Yes the idea of “scientific revolution” does suggest that knowledge is temporary. In my opinion, I think there is no way to achieve total certainty because not even the ideas we regard as laws of nature are entirely true. For example, the idea that light is a constant speed has evidence that disproves it. Scientist say it was just an error by their part, but how can we be entirely certain it was.

  5. The approach to gaining knowledge in the novella, The Metamorphosis, is using sense perception, and intuition when Gregor wakes up he uses all his senses to identify what is going on and his family around him uses there intuition in the end causing them to leave Gregor to his death deciding that if the bug was Gregor he would leave because he is not a jerk basically. We as the readers use reason for the novella to decided unofficially that Gregor is a cockroach with his definition of a had plated back and dome shaped belly with multiple of helpless legs we also use reason to discover how large he is because obviously he is not the average size cockroach that roams based off of the context clues in the story.

    • D,

      Do we use our ‘imagination’ to visualize Gregor? Isn’t Gregor just ambiguous enough that we can have differing mental ideas of his physical appearance? Didn’t Kafka intentionally allow for ambiguity? Yes.

      C

  6. In my book The Matrix, Morpheus asks Neo ” How do you know you are in this predicament?” and within the book of Matrix one is able to gain knowledge with the use of sense perception and reason. For example in the book it talks about how Neo was a person who was trapped within his own mind until Morpheus shows up and convinces Neo that the world he lives in is nothing but a fake, a perfect world that is implemented into his head, and to find the real world would be to take the red pill instead of the blue pill

    • Ch,

      Yet, scientists use sense perception (empirical observations) and reasoning as approaches to scientific testing. Doesn’t this story, The Matrix, call into question our basic assumptions about the nature of reality? Yes.

      Ch

  7. In the graphic novel Maus the author acquires knowledge through interviewing his father on his first hand experiences in WWII concentration camps. The ways of knowing that are used to acquire knowledge in the graphic novel are memory, imagination, and language. These are most important to acquiring knowledge in Maus as the author relies on his father’s memory to be able to gather information about WWII concentration camps. And finally imagination and language are important to the author as he needs to be able to imagine how the camps would look like and language also helps him to be able to shape his own imagination about the conditions his father lived in the 1940’s.

    • JV,

      We tend to think of an ‘eyewitness to history’ as a reliable primary source, yet many studies have proven that eyewitness testimony is quite unreliable. How can we account for this discrepancy when studying historic events like the Holocaust?

      CC

      • CC,

        Well in the graphic novel Maus the author mentions that his father at one point in the book said that the stories he heard from other people in the camps could have been true or not, he wasn’t sure. So to a certain extend I do agree that eyewitness testimonies could be unreliable, especially if someone sees the opportunity to bring attention to themselves. But most importantly is that Art the author of Maus checked back and forth between his father’s stories and historical documentaries to justify his father’s stories.

        JV

  8. In “The Whole She Bang” the books talks about acquiring knowledge through comparing different knowledge. In science, mainly cosmology, “cosmologists only have one universe to study” so in order to acquire knowledge, “[the universe] must be compared, not with anything concrete, but with theories and computer models of other universes might be like, or how the real universe might have turned out to be.” (18) Additionally, in the book, it says that in order to gain knowledge, ” we need to first outline how science arrived st its understanding.” It basically means in order to gain knowledge, we need to fully understand the knowledge first. Referring back, the novel says we gain knowledge by comparing he knowledge with other knowledge. Both these ideas go hand in hand when used to explain how we can gain new knowledge.

    • DeVe,

      How does this comparison of knowledge relate to ‘mental maps’ or ‘paradigm shifts’? Check with Alejandro; he’s reading about scientific revolutions.

      Chri

  9. The book that I chose was Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald, a book about a young lady getting sent from her parents to go to America. Her parents expectations is for her to stay and live in America, married to a wealthy Persian guy. In the novel, knowledge is explored by sense perception, emotion, reasoning, and memory. Emotion is gained in the beginning of the book, when she arrives to America and her sister Maryam that’s been living there for 15 years, throws a party welcoming her. When she enters the house, men and women are together in the same room having a party, she panics because of what she saw. In her memory she remembered that “twice, [her] friends and [her] were hauled to the police station and harassed for being with men who were [their] husbands and for not being veiled in their presence” (24). But her sister explained that having this event is okay and that “there’s nothing wrong with [it]” (24). She learned that America can be so open. When her sister and Tami went to go shopping at the mall, she used her sense perception and observed the place and realized that women there can show so much skin and “young girls dont have to be accompanied by a Mahram, no brother or uncle o father to protect them from being fooled by a smooth-talking boy” (35). From her living in Iran she knew that even married couples weren’t even allowed to do these kind of stuff in public. As she meets new people toward the future, she realized that the polite to greet someone was to shake their hands and make eye contact especially with men, but by reasoning she was not comfortable in that position because she knew that in Iran if they were to do that it would be disrespectful. As days go by, shes desperate to find a husband before her visa expires, but as her long journey continues she learns more about the American life and how it takes to be a Persian girl living in America.

    • Lyssa,

      How might this ‘acculturation’ of a young Iranian woman relate to the idea of “the problem of induction”?

      Hris

  10. The novel I read, Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card), is about a genetically engineered boy (future setting) who is crazy smart and goes to military space camp and commands a mock-army of his peers (young children). Without spoiling the story (because you’re going to read it), everything he is told or sees has a purpose. He is *allowed* to see/hear/experience ____ so that he will behave or react in a certain way. Ender, who is kept isolated, gains almost all of his knowledge through language and sense perception around his commanders, but even when he realizes who the real enemy is, this is likely another ploy. He was *allowed* to realize he’s being manipulated in order to do exactly what the higher powers wanted.

    Bottom line: Don’t trust the Man, especially when he says he’s not trustworthy.

  11. In my novel “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking, knowledge is acquired through imagination and technology. In the novel, Hawking explains that through imagination, it drives people to ask questions about the universe and the natural phenomena around them such as why things fall or why there’s a day and night. Another way of acquiring knowledge is through technology In fact, much of today’s innovation and society is based on many technological advances in the past century. Hawking implies that we are only as advanced as our technology, meaning that we cannot further advance if our technology doesn’t advance. It is imagination and technology that spurs the hunt for knowledge and in return rewards us with more knowledge.

    • Ben,

      If you could have Steven Hawking type one response to your question, what would you ask?

      Chris

  12. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu explored the idea of gaining knowledge through deception, which includes: faith, sense perception, imagination, and reason. In a sense, deception creates a pathway in which destination is known or expected and this involves inductive reasoning to anticipate the enemies action. Imagination is used to simulate in your mind how you would act if you were in his situation. In deception, a illusion is created, affecting the enemies’ sense perception. Lastly, you put faith in your choice of illusion and to how they may react. In the book he said, “Know the enemy. Know yourself” which means that one must know the enemy’s and their own capabilities. It also implies that to decieve, one must know the enemies limits to be able to create an illusion according to their need and one must also know their limits to know if the illusion is going to cause the enemy to go in the pathway created by the illusion. Through this, one can figure out or expect the enemies future action which is their personal knowledge.

    • Cheng,

      I have no questions for you, only questions for myself. How does one go about “knowing self”?

      Coey

      • To know oneself, one must be able to see their capabilities and accept the fact that there are limits to their capabilities in their current state.

  13. In my novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albomi, I saw knowledge being gained through faith, sense perception and memory. In my novel, 83 year-old Eddie is caught in a situation where he must give up his life to save another. We see faith early in the novel, because Eddie is religious. When Eddie dies, he goes to heaven. In heaven he asks questions to try and figure out what has happened and where he is. He uses sense perception to look around and try to figure out where he is. Finally, we see memory when he recalls who he is seeing and heaven and when he tries to figure out why he is seeing them. The quote I chose was one of Eddie’s thoughts “Eddie could only picture it at a distance, as if it happened years ago.” He was in heaven looking down and trying to understand why he was feeling the way he was. Eddie is questioning his faith, memory and sense perception, which gives him new knowledge by trying to put everything together in different ways.

    • SA,

      What role does “perspective” play in determining the value of a human life?

      CC

  14. The book American Holocaust by Davis Stannard, that I have chosen, the approach of gaining knowledge that is taken into account is the use of your sense perception to experience new cultures and customs that aren’t normally practiced were we are from. In the book Stannard shows the exploration of the Spanish conquistadors in the new wonder of Tenochtitlan. He creates a direct link from exploration to sense perception involving the quotes he uses for the writings of Hernan Cortez.
    “On any given day as many as 200,000 small boats moved back and forth on the lake of the moon, pursing the interest of commerce, political intrigue, and simple pleasure.”
    This quote explains how knowledge should be acquired by experiencing the interest of others. In the book, Stannard expresses how the explorers of the New World had to stay afar and watch the normal lives of the indigenous people before actually trying to come in contact with them. This approach was taking to create links from their normal activities to show that they came with no harm(yet).

    • So, Jordan, are you suggesting that we use our “imagination” as a means of acquiring knowledge of the past? And how is this made possible? Also, are you suggesting that a cultural anthropologist can “know” by simply observing from a distance? Doesn’t this approach have it limitations, however?

      Coey

  15. According to the book young samurai acquiring knowledge is found through religious point of views as well as reason and belief. in the series young samurai Jack Fletcher is a foreign person trapped in a foreign land (Japan) he has been adopted by a high ranking samurai and not knowing anything about this new world Jack has now learn the way of the samurai. with no way out of this situation Jack now has to learn the language of japan. not only that but he has to acquire the correct etiquette and adopt japanese religion to stay alive. living as a gaijin (basically aanother term for foreigner or barbarian) Jack has to become samurai and this means following a whole different way of living. the knowledge that he is forced to acquire is called bushido which basically means following these ways of living rectitude, malevolence, respect, honesty, honor, loyalty, and character. and by using this way of living Jack will understand the virtues of life and know what it truly means to be a samurai. in the book young samurai one quote that is repetitive throughout the whole story is ‘learn today so that you may live tomorrow’. so as a 13 year old boy it is up to Jack understand and grasp this new way of living life is hard for many reasons, one the main reasons is that since his ethnicity is caucasian and his religion is christianity he and his religion is hated and not wanted which makes life dangerously so. acquiring knowledge is discussed all throughout jacks training in becoming a samurai, and with this knowledge he might be able to complete his mission and return home.

    • So, Tommy, this young samurai must learn to acquire knowledge through the concepts of rectitude, respect, honor, loyalty, and character. The term “malevolence” surprises me; I would expect the term, “benevolence” to be more aligned with the other characteristics. Without these ‘language’ terms, would it even be possible to live as a samurai?

      Coey

  16. Which approach to gaining knowledge is explored in your book? How is “acquiring knowledge” discussed?
    According to the book I’ve chosen, from “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom, acquiring knowledge is through the emotional connections occurring between the readers and the author. At the beginning of the book, it directly introduces what Albom is going to be talking about in his book. He mentions about a person whom we have encountered in life—a person whom we greatly valued, because that person brought value to our life…And I’m sure we all can definitely relate to that. For Mitch Albom, that was Morrie Schwartz. It is also due to reading the introduction of this book that first begins the bond between the reader (me) and the author because of that emotional connection.
    “The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it” (Albom 42).
    Knowledge is gain through the emotional relevancy created within the atmosphere between the reader (me) and the author. In a way, if further explored, through the context of the Human Sciences, we can acquire knowledge through seeing the psychological thoughts of the characters…We can see how Mitch, who lived a life with a great career, envied the life that Morrie lives. Despite Morrie’s critical condition of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—to the point where he’s physically incapable of taking care of himself—he actually doesn’t get discouraged by that, for he continues to smile and make the best of the time he has left. He continues to strive to live his best, where instead he could’ve not cared about anything because he knew he was slowing withering away from the world.
    All the while we are also gaining knowledge about ourselves, where due to the connection and agreement of the quote, psychologically we begin to devise ways to do better. Which in a way does relate to Ethics, where our mindsets and perspective of life are greater shaped, therefore affecting our character, morals, and values.

  17. Which approach to gaining knowledge is explored in your book? How is “acquiring knowledge” discussed?
    According to the book I’ve chosen, from “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom, acquiring knowledge is through the emotional connections occurring between the readers and the author. At the beginning of the book, it directly introduces what Albom is going to be talking about in his book. He mentions about a person whom we have encountered in life—a person whom we greatly valued, because that person brought value to our life…And I’m sure we all can definitely relate to that. For Mitch Albom, that was Morrie Schwartz. It is also due to reading the introduction of this book that first begins the bond between the reader (me) and the author because of that emotional connection.
    “The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it” (Albom 42).
    Knowledge is gain through the emotional relevancy created within the atmosphere between the reader (me) and the author. In a way, if further explored, through the context of the Human Sciences, we can acquire knowledge through seeing the psychological thoughts of the characters…We can see how Mitch, who lived a life with a great career, envied the life that Morrie lives. Despite Morrie’s critical condition of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—to the point where he’s physically incapable of taking care of himself—he actually doesn’t get discouraged by that, for he continues to smile and make the best of the time he has left. He continues to strive to live his best, where instead he could’ve not cared about anything because he knew he was slowing withering away from the world.
    All the while we are also gaining knowledge about ourselves, where due to the connection and agreement of the quote, psychologically we begin to devise ways to do better. Which in a way does relate to Ethics, where our mindsets and perspective of life are greater shaped, therefore affecting our character, morals, and values.

    • Thank, Lucky. That’s a great synopsis and relevant observations. What is the difference between constructing knowledge and shaping knowledge?

      Coey

      • The difference in constructing knowledge and acquiring knowledge is the process and outcome. To construct knowledge, is to build on the knowledge that’s already been given to you. To acquire knowledge, is to receive the knowledge that’s new to one’s learning, therefore bringing more significant impact on one’s perspective.
        For example, we can acquire knowledge firstly through math– 2 + 2 = 4. And the knowledge of knowing how add in this equation can be further applied once this knowledge is constructed, where the equation can be solved in a more variety of ways through methods such as subtraction, multiplication, and division– this in return gives us new perspectives of other ways of receiving the outcome of 4. Therefore, knowledge of addition can be acquired (learned), and then constructed (built/expanded) in order to gain new perspectives.
        The same way can be applied to the book, how Mitch has already acquired and then constructs on that knowledge through his weekly Tuesday classes with Morrie’s, being taught from Morrie’s perspective on life and the culture, which opens to Mitch new perspective of living more positively and appreciatively.