TOK Essay 2022 Level A: “Can there be knowledge that is independent of culture?”
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Course
IB Diploma
Institution
IB Diploma
Book
Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma Fourth Edition
This ToK Essay was written for the 2022 examination and revolves around the question: “Can there be knowledge that is independent of culture?” It uses history and mathematics to discuss it.
The student got a grade A for ToK and all 3 extra points at the end of the diploma.
, ever be independent of it. In fact, culture even determines what questions appear in the
knower’s mind, and therefore what type of knowledge has the potential to exist in the first
place. This becomes especially clear when one takes a look at the evolution of English
historiography. In the article “A Point of View: What is history’s role in society?” 2, the
author explains how, in the past, historical research centered exclusively around wars and
political power. However, during his time in college, culture in the country started to shift
towards more inclusive ideals. Accordingly, historians began to wonder: “what exactly were
half the population, or rather those not born royal or married to Henry VIII doing in
history?”3. Historical knowledge is then intrinsically connected to culture to such an extent
that the first evolves along with the latter. By “culture” I mean the elements of the knower’s
context that have the ability to shape what is considered to be the norm (such as the school of
thought used by scholars of the current time period, for example). This is particularly relevant
because then culture doesn’t only determine the concerns and questions of historians; since it
affects our very curiosity, it also has the potential to determine those of any knower, making
it very difficult for any piece of knowledge to be totally independent from culture.
We should be careful not to accept that generalization so quickly, though. The previous
argument only considered an area of knowledge that looks at social phenomenons. In that
sense, it was to be expected that History is highly influenced by culture. Nevertheless, there
are other disciplines, such as mathematics, in which knowledge describes a reality that exists
apart from human existence. While in history there is no way to arrive at an absolute and true
interpretation of the past, in mathematics there is much less room for discussion after one has
come to an answer with the correct reasoning.
2
“A point of view: What is history’s role in society?”, BBC News, BBC, 8 October 2012,
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19844685.
3
BBC, “History’s role in society.”
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