International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) DP Core: Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Syllabus

What is the difference between denotation and connotation, and why does it matter for knowledge?

Denotation is a word's literal, dictionary meaning; connotation is the emotional/cultural associations it carries. Connotation can frame and bias how knowledge claims are received (e.g., 'freedom fighter' vs 'terrorist').

Define 'ambiguity' and 'vagueness' as problems language poses for knowledge.

Ambiguity is when a term has more than one distinct meaning; vagueness is when a term lacks a precise boundary of application. Both can obscure or distort the communication and justification of knowledge.

How can language be used as a tool of political power over knowledge?

Through framing, euphemism, propaganda, controlling terminology, and 'doublespeak'—shaping what is thinkable, legitimising some claims and delegitimising others (cf. Orwell's Newspeak).

In the Knowledge and Politics theme, what is meant by 'expertise' versus 'populism' as sources of authority?

Expertise grounds knowledge claims in specialised training and disciplinary methods; populism appeals to the 'will of the people' or common sense. Tension arises over who should be trusted to produce/validate political knowledge.

What is 'fake news' / disinformation, and how does it differ from misinformation?

Disinformation is false information spread deliberately to deceive; misinformation is false information spread without intent to deceive. Both threaten reliable shared knowledge in the political sphere.

What distinguishes religious knowledge claims from scientific ones in TOK?

Religious knowledge often rests on faith, revelation, sacred texts, tradition, and personal/communal experience and concerns meaning and value; scientific knowledge rests on empirical observation, testability, and falsifiability. They may use different criteria for justification.

What is the difference between faith and reason as means of justification in religion?

Faith is trust or commitment to belief that may go beyond or precede conclusive evidence; reason justifies beliefs through logic and evidence. TOK examines whether/how the two can be compatible.

What is 'indigenous knowledge' (traditional knowledge) and a key feature of it?

Knowledge developed by indigenous and local communities over generations, often place-based, holistic, orally transmitted, and integrating practical, ecological, social, and spiritual dimensions.

How does indigenous knowledge typically differ from Western academic knowledge in transmission and structure?

It is often transmitted orally and through practice/ritual rather than written texts, is holistic rather than compartmentalised into disciplines, and is embedded in community, land, and lived experience.

What is the 'scientific method' in its idealised steps?

Observation → question → hypothesis → prediction → controlled experiment/observation → analysis of data → conclusion, with results subject to peer review and replication, and theories revised accordingly.

What is falsifiability (Popper) and why is it central to the natural sciences?

Falsifiability is the criterion that a scientific claim must be capable of being proven false by observation/experiment. Popper used it to demarcate science from non-science; unfalsifiable claims aren't scientific.

What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning?

Deductive reasoning derives conclusions that necessarily follow from premises (general → specific); inductive reasoning infers general/probable conclusions from specific observations (specific → general), which can never be fully certain.

What is the 'problem of induction' (Hume)?

The logical problem that we cannot rationally justify inferring future/general regularities from past observations, since doing so assumes the future will resemble the past—an assumption induction itself cannot prove.

What is a paradigm shift (Kuhn)?

A fundamental change in the basic concepts and practices of a scientific discipline ('paradigm') when accumulated anomalies trigger a scientific revolution, replacing the old framework with a new one (e.g., Newtonian to relativistic physics).

What is the difference between correlation and causation, and why does it matter in the human sciences?

Correlation is a statistical association between variables; causation means one variable produces a change in another. Mistaking correlation for causation leads to flawed conclusions, a key risk in the human sciences.

Why is the Hawthorne (observer) effect a methodological problem in the human sciences?

Because people change their behaviour when they know they are being observed/studied, making it difficult to gather data about natural human behaviour and threatening validity.

Distinguish quantitative and qualitative methods in the human sciences.

Quantitative methods collect numerical, measurable data (surveys, experiments, statistics) for generalisation; qualitative methods collect rich descriptive data (interviews, ethnography) for in-depth understanding of meaning and context.

What is reductionism, and why is it contested in the human sciences?

Reductionism explains complex phenomena by reducing them to simpler/lower-level components. In human sciences it's contested because human behaviour may involve meaning, agency, and context that resist reduction to (e.g.) biology or numbers.

How is mathematical knowledge typically justified, and what gives it apparent certainty?

Through deductive proof from axioms and definitions using logical rules. Its certainty comes from internal consistency and necessity (truths follow necessarily), independent of empirical observation.

What is an axiom in mathematics?

A statement assumed to be true without proof, serving as a starting point/foundation from which other theorems are logically derived within a mathematical system.

What is the TOK debate between mathematical Platonism (discovery) and formalism/constructivism (invention)?

Platonism holds mathematical objects exist independently and are discovered; formalism/constructivism holds mathematics is a human-invented system of symbols and rules. The debate concerns whether maths is found or made.

What is Gödel's incompleteness result's significance for mathematical certainty?

Gödel showed any sufficiently powerful, consistent formal system contains true statements that cannot be proved within the system—limiting the dream of a complete, self-justifying foundation for all mathematics.

Why can the same historical events be interpreted differently, and what is this called?

Because historians select, emphasise, and interpret sources through their own perspectives, contexts, and purposes—leading to multiple valid interpretations; this is historical perspectivity/the problem of bias and selection.

Distinguish primary and secondary sources in history.

A primary source is a direct/first-hand record from the time studied (documents, artefacts, eyewitness accounts); a secondary source is a later interpretation or analysis based on primary sources (textbooks, scholarly articles).

What is historical empathy, and why is it methodologically important?

The effort to understand past actors' decisions in terms of their own context, values, and knowledge rather than present-day standards. It guards against anachronism and presentism in interpreting history.

How is knowledge in the arts justified or evaluated differently from the sciences?

The arts often convey knowledge through emotion, imagination, interpretation, and aesthetic experience rather than empirical testing; value/meaning is judged by criteria like expression, originality, and resonance rather than truth/falsity.

What does it mean to say art can convey 'truth' even when it is fiction?

Art can reveal emotional, moral, or universal human truths and new ways of seeing—conveying insight about the human condition—through invented scenarios, despite not being literally/factually true.

What is the TOK Exhibition and its central task?

An internally assessed component where the student selects ONE of 35 provided IA prompts and presents THREE real-world objects (with written commentary) to show how TOK manifests in the world, justifying each object's link to the chosen prompt.

What are the key requirements for objects in the TOK Exhibition?

Three objects (or images of specific real objects, not generic types), each with a specified real-world context, linked explicitly to ONE chosen IA prompt, with justification of how each contributes to the exhibition (commentary ~950 words total).

What is the TOK Essay, and what constrains the choice of title?

An externally assessed essay (max 1,600 words) on ONE of six 'prescribed titles' issued by the IB for that session. The title must be used exactly as given; students typically explore it across two areas of knowledge.

On what overarching basis are the TOK Essay and Exhibition assessed?

Against a single global assessment criterion focused on a clear, coherent, and critical exploration of the prescribed title/IA prompt—evaluating quality of TOK analysis (different perspectives, justified arguments, evaluation of knowledge claims) rather than a checklist.