The library
The twelve TOK concepts
Twelve bearings on one instrument. The four arcs are our grouping and not the IB’s: how a claim is supported, how secure it is, what the knower brings to it, and who controls it. The grouping exists because “certainty” and “culture” are not the same kind of tool.
Grounds of Knowledge
Evidence
What is offered in support of a claim. Evidence is not the same as proof: it raises or lowers how likely a claim is, and its force depends on how it was gathered, what it was gathered for, and what else it is consistent with. Asking what would count as evidence against a claim is usually more revealing than listing evidence for it.
How claims are supported. These concepts ask what has to be in place before a claim earns the right to be believed, and what the difference is between a reason and a rationalisation.
Bearing 000° · 0 prompts
Grounds of Knowledge
Justification
The reasoning that connects evidence to a conclusion. Two knowers can hold the same evidence and be justified in different beliefs if their inferential standards differ. Justification is what separates knowing something from happening to be right about it.
How claims are supported. These concepts ask what has to be in place before a claim earns the right to be believed, and what the difference is between a reason and a rationalisation.
Bearing 030° · 0 prompts
Grounds of Knowledge
Explanation
An account of why something is the case rather than merely that it is. Explanations are judged by more than accuracy: scope, simplicity, fruitfulness and the ability to say what would have happened otherwise all matter, and these criteria can pull against one another.
How claims are supported. These concepts ask what has to be in place before a claim earns the right to be believed, and what the difference is between a reason and a rationalisation.
Bearing 060° · 0 prompts
Status of Knowledge
Truth
The property a claim has when things are as it says they are. Whether truth is correspondence to a world, coherence within a system, or what enquiry would settle on in the long run is itself contested, and different areas of knowledge lean on different answers.
How secure or true a claim is. These concepts ask what we are entitled to say about a claim once it is supported: whether it is settled, whether it could be wrong, and whether its standing depends on who is asking.
Bearing 090° · 0 prompts
Status of Knowledge
Certainty
The degree to which doubt about a claim has been closed off. Certainty is a state of the knower, not of the claim, which is why a claim can be true without anyone being certain of it and why confidence and reliability can come apart badly.
How secure or true a claim is. These concepts ask what we are entitled to say about a claim once it is supported: whether it is settled, whether it could be wrong, and whether its standing depends on who is asking.
Bearing 120° · 0 prompts
Status of Knowledge
Objectivity
Independence from the particular standpoint of any individual knower. Objectivity is better understood as something a method or a community achieves through checks on individual bias than as something a single knower can simply decide to have.
How secure or true a claim is. These concepts ask what we are entitled to say about a claim once it is supported: whether it is settled, whether it could be wrong, and whether its standing depends on who is asking.
Bearing 150° · 0 prompts
The Knower's Lens
Perspective
The position from which a knower encounters something, made up of their history, training, interests and situation. A perspective is not only a limitation: it can make features of a problem visible that no view from nowhere would pick up.
How the knower shapes knowledge. These concepts ask what the knower contributes to what is known, and why two careful people looking at the same thing can arrive somewhere different.
Bearing 180° · 0 prompts
The Knower's Lens
Interpretation
The work of making something mean something. Data, texts, images and events do not announce their own significance; the categories a knower brings determine what is even available to be noticed, which is why disagreements about interpretation are rarely settled by looking harder.
How the knower shapes knowledge. These concepts ask what the knower contributes to what is known, and why two careful people looking at the same thing can arrive somewhere different.
Bearing 210° · 0 prompts
The Knower's Lens
Culture
The shared practices, language and inherited assumptions of a community of knowers. Culture supplies the questions that seem worth asking and the answers that seem obvious, so its influence is hardest to see from inside it.
How the knower shapes knowledge. These concepts ask what the knower contributes to what is known, and why two careful people looking at the same thing can arrive somewhere different.
Bearing 240° · 0 prompts
Knowledge and Society
Power
The capacity to shape what counts as knowledge, who is heard, and what gets funded, published or taught. Power is not only censorship; setting an agenda, controlling a platform or being granted authority all change the knowledge that a community ends up with.
Who controls knowledge and its ethical weight. These concepts ask who decides what counts, who benefits, and what knowing something obliges you to do.
Bearing 270° · 0 prompts
Knowledge and Society
Values
What a knower or a community takes to be worth pursuing, protecting or preferring. Values operate inside knowledge production and not just around it: they select the problems, set the acceptable risk of error, and decide which trade-offs count as costs.
Who controls knowledge and its ethical weight. These concepts ask who decides what counts, who benefits, and what knowing something obliges you to do.
Bearing 300° · 0 prompts
Knowledge and Society
Responsibility
What a knower owes as a result of knowing, or of being in a position to know. It covers obligations in producing knowledge, in passing it on accurately, and in acting or refusing to act on it, including the responsibility taken on by choosing not to look.
Who controls knowledge and its ethical weight. These concepts ask who decides what counts, who benefits, and what knowing something obliges you to do.
Bearing 330° · 0 prompts
Grounds of Knowledge
How claims are supported
- Evidence0 prompts
- Justification0 prompts
- Explanation0 prompts
The Knower's Lens
How the knower shapes knowing
- Perspective0 prompts
- Interpretation0 prompts
- Culture0 prompts