The Theory of Knowledge (TOK) module for the International Baccalaureate® (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) challenges students to ‘reflect on the nature of knowledge’ and to think critically on the crucial question of ‘how we know what we claim to know’.

Studies of this kind pursue knowledge and understanding of what’s called epistemology.

Instruction in the TOK component is comprised almost entirely of questions, with one example being the following: How can we distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?

In response to this question, students are tasked with selecting an object of study, and exploring the three categories in relation to that object.

Knowledge

Using dictionary definitions, knowledge contrasts with belief and opinion by being more substantial and factual. Knowledge is defined by the OED as:

facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education;
the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject;
the sum of what is known;
awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation;
(Philosophy) true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.

The last of these classifies knowledge, philosophically, as ‘true’ and justified belief’—a function of ‘certain understanding’.

This concept of knowledge as truth means it is understood to be real in itself, regardless of perspective or relative understanding.

For knowledge in any situation to be real in itself, it must be tied to what the object actually—and provably—is.

Next instalment: Theory of Knowledge (TOK) – Part 2: Types of Knowledge