As you enter the room you will be given one emotion from the list below.
Eagerness
Jealousy
Frustration
Love
Guilt
Envy
Pleasure
Passion
Shame
Cynicism
Contentment
Sorrow
Anger
Enthusiasm
Apathy
Attraction
Fear
Happiness
Boredom
Resentment
Firstly decide whether that is a positive or negative emotion, then whether it is a strong or weak one.
The room will be set out like the scale below: the part of the classroom by the board and teacher's desk will be the 'Strong' section and the lockers side will be the 'Weak' half. The window side will be 'Positive' bit and the door wall will be the 'Negative' part.
Go and stand where you think your emotion goes. Be ready to explain your rationale
Debrief - Questions to consider as we discuss where people have stood:
Has anyone stood in an area that is significantly different from where you would have stood? How can we explain this?
Is each emotion we experience personal knowledge or are they something we can say we share?
Can people be wrong about their own emotions?
Do people have, in some sense, exclusive access to their emotions or can others lead them to recognize previously unknown emotions
Are emotions biological or “hard-wired” into our psyches, and therefore universal to all human beings? Or are they shaped by culture and displayed differently in different societies?
Are concepts such as nationalism and racism examples of collective emotions?
2. To what extent is emotion a source of knowledge?
Now take your emotion back to your group and discuss the following questions in relation to the emotions you have in your group:
Think of times when you have experienced these emotions: what knowledge did you acquire from experiencing these emotions?
What part can these emotions play in acquisition of knowledge in your studies at school?
In what ways do the emotions you have interact with the other ways of knowing to give use knowledge?
Does the role of emotion vary across the different Areas of Knowledge?
After 10-15 minutes you will need to feedback to the class
Review: To what extent is emotion a source of knowledge?
On the board I have drawn a continuum in the form of an arrow with the above question within it. How confident would you now be about answering that question?
Stick your emotion sheet (with your name on it) on the continuum.
Put at the beginning if you still have no idea what you might write
Put it at point 2 if you have a couple of things you could state,
Point 3 if you have multiple knowledge issues that you could describe in relation to the question,
Point 4 if you could analyse several knowledge issues related to the question,
Point 5 (the end) if you evaluate 3-4 knowledge issues considering knowledge claims and counter claims
In the following Ted Talk, David Brooks (writer for New York Times) argues that there is no reason without emotion:
4. Different issues related to Emotion:
You are going to work in a small group on one of the tasks below.
1. Explain the following 4 theories about emotion to the class using only the whiteboard and some board pens
2. Find examples of advertising that appeals to our emotion. Present this using the 'Explain Everything' app
What techniques do they use to do this?
What other ways of knowing/areas of knowledge do they touch on (eg do they also appeal to our reason? Do they draw on statistics – ie human sciences/ maths – to state their case? Do they use scientific evidence to support their claims?)
Which way of knowing/area of knowledge do you think advertisers particularly focus on, and why?
3. Read the following article about Emotional intelligence . Design a quiz you could do with the class to find out how emotionally intelligent they are
4. Outline to the class Damasio's theory about emotion and explain how he used the story of Phineas Gage to support it. Design a presentation using HaikuDeck on the iPad. You can only have 6 words a slide
5. You will follow the last group. Explain to the class how the story of Elliot has also been used to support Damasio's theories. You must present yours as a role-play.
6. Outline the main points of this article on economics and emotion from page 169 of the Lagemaat Theory of Knowledge textbook. You must do this only with flip chart paper
“There can be no knowledge without emotion…until we have felt the force of the knowledge, it is not ours.” (adapted from Arnold Bennet) Discuss this vision of the relationship between knowledge and emotion
a. Planning the essay
It is very helpful to turn ‘Big’ essay questions into ‘Little’ questions that can form the basis for the paragraphs. In TOK we call these Knowledge Questions (KQs). Broadly speaking you will explore the justifications upon which the knowledge claim in the quote/ essay question rests and then consider counter claims and/or problems with the justifications.
For the essay title above write down 4-5 KQs that could form the basis of the paragraphs. One example has been done for you:
What types knowledge do we most need to feel the ‘force of the knowledge’ to make it ‘ours’?
b. Writing your introduction
Generally, in an introduction, you should define key words, explain the meaning of a quote by writing it in your own words, outline the knowledge issues (these can be formed from the KQs you have listed) to be discussed and give your thesis statement.
Some ideas for writing an introduction to this question:
Explain what Arnold Bennet is saying in your own words e.g. what does he mean by feeling the 'full force of knowledge' and making it 'ours'?
Give your own definition of knowledge explaining the different types and/or levels
Give an overview of the knowledge issues you will be discussing in the main body of your paragraph.
c. Writing the main body paragraphs
Below is a possible first sentence for a paragraph in this essay. In TOK speak, this sentence is making a 'knowledge claim'.
There are some types of knowledge that are heavily reliant on emotion, and to acquire a deep understanding, or make it 'ours', we need to feel its 'force'.
Complete the rest of the paragraph using real life examples, such as knowledge you have acquired in your IB subjects, to demonstrate when emotion is vital if we are to truly understand something
Now write another paragraph of the essay based around one of your other KQs.
1. Are emotions shared or personal knowledge?
2. To what extent is emotion a source of knowledge?
- Now take your emotion back to your group and discuss the following questions in relation to the emotions you have in your group:
- Think of times when you have experienced these emotions: what knowledge did you acquire from experiencing these emotions?
- What part can these emotions play in acquisition of knowledge in your studies at school?
- In what ways do the emotions you have interact with the other ways of knowing to give use knowledge?
- Does the role of emotion vary across the different Areas of Knowledge?
- After 10-15 minutes you will need to feedback to the class
- Review: To what extent is emotion a source of knowledge?
- On the board I have drawn a continuum in the form of an arrow with the above question within it. How confident would you now be about answering that question?
- Stick your emotion sheet (with your name on it) on the continuum.
- Put at the beginning if you still have no idea what you might write
- Put it at point 2 if you have a couple of things you could state,
- Point 3 if you have multiple knowledge issues that you could describe in relation to the question,
- Point 4 if you could analyse several knowledge issues related to the question,
- Point 5 (the end) if you evaluate 3-4 knowledge issues considering knowledge claims and counter claims
Group 1 ()Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
3. No reason without emotion
4. Different issues related to Emotion:
5. Writing a TOK essay about emotion
a. Planning the essay
- It is very helpful to turn ‘Big’ essay questions into ‘Little’ questions that can form the basis for the paragraphs. In TOK we call these Knowledge Questions (KQs). Broadly speaking you will explore the justifications upon which the knowledge claim in the quote/ essay question rests and then consider counter claims and/or problems with the justifications.
- For the essay title above write down 4-5 KQs that could form the basis of the paragraphs. One example has been done for you:
- What types knowledge do we most need to feel the ‘force of the knowledge’ to make it ‘ours’?
b. Writing your introductionc. Writing the main body paragraphs
- Below is a possible first sentence for a paragraph in this essay. In TOK speak, this sentence is making a 'knowledge claim'.
There are some types of knowledge that are heavily reliant on emotion, and to acquire a deep understanding, or make it 'ours', we need to feel its 'force'.Resources
Emotion knowledge issues and links with other WOKs and AOKs
Videos