Key thinkers on knowledge

The knowledge issues in your and TOK presentation should be

supported not only by your own ideas and evidence,
but also by those of other people.
 Kierkegaard, Søren (1813 – 1855)
• Danish philosopher, poet,
theologian, and social thinker
• one of the first Existentialist thinkers
• he combined philosophy with
religious faith.
• “Prayer does not change God, but it
changes him who prays.”
• “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”
• “People demand freedom of speech
as a compensation for the freedom
of thought which they seldom use.”
• “Most men pursue pleasure with
such breathless haste that they
hurry past it.”
• “Purity of heart is to will one
thing.”
 Pasteur, Louis (1822 – 1895)
• French chemist and micro-biologist.
• For the purposes of TOK, he is of interest for
what he said about the role of serendipity in
scientific discoveries... only the prepared
mind benefits from it.

Serendipity – sposobnost sretnog slučajnog otkrivanja

• “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity,
and is the torch which illuminates the world”
• “When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness
for what he is, and respect for what he may become”
• “Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.”
• “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.”
 Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844 – 1900)
• German philosopher, cultural critic, poet,
philologist whose work has exerted a
profound influence on Western philosophy
and modern intellectual history
• one of the key figures in the challenge to a
religious-based approach to morality
• ‘perspectivist’ ideas on truth and morality
• “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
• “There are no facts, only interpretations.”
• “Woman was God's second mistake”
• “…And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”
 James, William (1842 – 1910)
• American psychologist and philosopher, and
one of the founding figures of the pragmatic
school of thinking.
• believed that it often takes a long time to
figure out whether something is true or not,
based on whether it works successfully
• “Act as if what you do makes a
difference. It does.”
• “Be not afraid of life. Believe that
life is worth living, and your
belief will help create the fact.”
• “The great use of life is to spend
it for something that will outlast
it.”
• “Human beings, by changing the
inner attitudes of their minds,
can change the outer aspects of
their lives.”
• “The art of being wise is the art
of knowing what to overlook”
 Santayana, George • “Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to
(1863 – 1952) repeat it.”
• “To be interested in the
changing seasons is a happier
state of mind than to be
hopelessly in love with spring.”
• “A child educated only at school
is an uneducated child.”
• “Fanaticism consists of
redoubling your effort when
you have forgotten your aim.”
• Spanish-American pragmatist
philosopher and writer • “The family is one of nature's
masterpieces”
• ... views on history, and the necessity
of learning it.
 Matisse, Henri (1869 – 1954)
• French painter, sculptor, and
printmaker
• is regarded as one of the most
important figures in the arts in the
last 100 years
• “An artist must never be a prisoner.
Prisoner? An artist should never be a
prisoner of himself, prisoner of style,
prisoner of reputation, prisoner of
success, etc.”
• “You study, you learn, but you guard
the original naivete. It has to be
within you, as desire for drink is within
the drunkard or love is within the
lover.”
• “It has bothered me all my life that I
do not paint like everybody else.”
• “What I dream of is an art of balance”
 Russell, Bertrand (1872 – 1970)
• one of the towering figures of 20th century
thought, and wrote on subjects as diverse as
mathematics and the morality of nuclear
weapons. His thoughts scatter the TOK course,
beginning with the nature of knowledge, and the
definition of truth

• “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
• “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was
once eccentric.”
• “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”
• “There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge”
• “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
 Einstein, Albert
• Born in Germany (1879 – 1955)
• the best known
scientist of the last
300 years
• synonymous for
ingeniousness and
creativity
• He believed in the • “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
power of imagination • “No problem can be solved from the same level of
in helping to acquire consciousness that created it.”
knowledge
• “Two things are infinite: the universe and human
• His advice to the US stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
government in 1939
led them to create • “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to
nuclear weapons (!!!) become a man of value.”
• “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
 Picasso, Pablo (1881 – 1973)
• Spanish painter
and sculptor • “Everything you can imagine is
• completely real.”
altered the way in • ”Good artists copy, great artists
which we view steal.”
reality. • “Every child is an artist. The
• was one of the co- problem is how to remain an
founders of the artist once he grows up”
Cubism artistic • “The purpose of art is washing
movement the dust of daily life off our
• one of the most souls.”
important artistic • “Inspiration does exist, but it
thinkers ever to must find you working.”
have lived
 Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1889 – 1951)
• an Austrian philosopher of
mathematics, language, and the
mind
• He believed that philosophical
problems were generally
associated with language...

• “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” …or… “The limits
of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words
for.”
• “If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.”
• “What can be shown, cannot be said.”
• “The human body is the best picture of the human soul.”
 Piaget, Jean (1896 – 1980)

• Swiss philosopher, sociologist,

educational thinker, and psychologist.
• Hi believed that education is a key to
build a successful society

• “Only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether
violent, or gradual.”
• “If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention
that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society.”
• “It is with children that we have the best chance of studying the development of
logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth”
 Popper, Karl (1902 – 1994)
• an Austro-British academic, wrote on just about
every subject there is
• His philosophy of science is particularly relevant, and
one of his central ideas is that our knowledge of
reality is severely limited, and for a theory to be
truly scientific, it should be possible to empirically
falsify it.

• “No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to
adopt a rational attitude.”
• “Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.”
• “Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.”
• “We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than
that only freedom can make security secure.”