The Beginning! (September 1st, 2016)

Today, we had our second lesson of TOK and were essentially introduced to the fundamentals of "How do you know?" and "Do you even know?" Personally, I find these questions to be rather intriguing but simultaneously also a little daunting. The primary reason for this can be attributed to the undercurrent of constantly questioning minuscule aspects of any and all elements in our life. It is indubitably true that the discussions we had in today's lesson have allowed me to view our society and the world in general from a completely different perspective. Particularly, what appealed to me was the revelation of the fact that in the early 1500's, the world maps were designed to be very Eurocentric. This was honestly a thought that never occurred to me. In fact, whilst the short clip we watched in class focused relatively on the cartography of the world and the several distortions that humanity has blindly accepted and embraced, on the other hand, the clip certainly made me realize that maps are only one of the many things that we are taught to simply accept without questioning. Nonetheless, the core of the TOK lessons emphasize solely on questioning the depths of such elements that never seemed perhaps odd or unconvincing. Accordingly, despite the fact that often times, I myself may not know how to answer a certain question, the incredibly open discussions and debates we have in class give me an insight into the thought process of those around me and ultimately I seem to always find my head nodding in appreciation and awe at the range of ideas that every individual comes up with. So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed the TOK lessons and hope to develop a questioning attitude to widen my horizons and learn how to look at the world from a completely different lens.