Math Blog Post

Math, is a very interesting area of knowledge. It is rather distinct from all the other AOKs, in that it is almost codified logic, and is an absolute, with little to no room for debate in it. Even the natural sciences, subjects whose theories we in society regard as fact most of the time and are perhaps the closest AOK to mathematics, still have debate and conflict over what is true about our world, despite their rigorous testing of the scientific theories involved, and the utilisation of inductive and deductive reasoning. To put it simply, while in physics, there may be debate over ‘how will the universe end’, for instance, in math, no one disputes that 2+2 = 4, for instance. It is as if math is ‘raw’, ‘pure’, logic, the Platonist view suggests that Math is something that fundamentally exists in our world, rather than being a human construction. With science as well, there is an observable change in our thinking, the theories we have, and so on. We know that disease isn’t caused by ‘bad air’ or that the planets orbit the Sun, rather orbiting Earth, as was believed until the renaissance period. However, with math, we have ancient figures, like Pythagoras, who you’d know from math class for his famous Pythagoras theorem, or Eratosthenes, who calculated the circumference of the Earth within 10% of its actual circumference, without even leaving Egypt, where he lived. In real-life, outside the so-called ‘TOK-world’, if you will, math is used in so many diverse situations. Outside of academia, math is not done for the sake of doing math, but rather to aid in other areas of knowledge, such as economics and finance, physics, even art – renaissance art for instance employs mathematics, specifically geometry, in order to have realistic perspectives and proportions in its art. As an area of knowledge, in real life, math is used in conjunction with other areas of knowledge to perhaps the largest extent out of the others. To illustrate this effectively, look at the image below:

These are the major areas of knowledge, and practically all of them could be said to use math. Some people have even attempted to use math as proof of the existence of a higher power, for instance (thus religious knowledge, perhaps). The majority of the time, as said earlier, math is used as a tool for these subjects, either to create models or prove theories or to exercise concepts in the subject. Math by itself does not really factor in to our lives. It is only when used by another AOK, for the reasons described that it becomes truly relevant, but it never forms the main part of a concept, mainly acting as the base of it. Think of a building, while math may be the foundation of it, and the building is dependent on it, the foundation wouldn’t be used without a building to make. It is perhaps a weird metaphor, but think about how math is used when reading it. Math truly is a unique AOK.

RLS: 13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why article: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/13-reasons-why-demonstrates-cultures-power/535518/

Second-order Knowledge Claims:

1.     That people’s thoughts can be accurately known by what they google (the article speculates that the show causes more people to consider suicide due to the rise in searches for ‘how to kill yourself’ for example).

2.     People are inspired and/or influenced in major life decisions (in this case, suicide) by what they observe in media (the suicide scene in 13 Reasons Why).

3.     Graphical depictions of an action affect humans’ psychology more than implied/non-graphical depictions.

Knowledge Question: To what extent is data gathered from search engines on particular keywords an accurate reflection of what people are considering as valid actions?

            Search engines are something we use every day, for the most mundane things, like ‘how many m&ms are in a 250-gram bag of m&ms?’, to the most urgent things, like ‘is my cough actually cancer’. However, how accurate is our search history at determining what kind of person are we? On one hand, we could argue that what we search can be a reflection of our self; revealing the media we consume, our background, our knowledge, etc., by speculating what prompted us to search in the first place. Relating this to 13 Reasons Why, it is possible that a depressed teenager may view the show, and be inspired and start searching up methods of suicide. However, at the same time, another person may simply have a curiosity in the subject (a bit morbid – but not unprecedented). With this real-life situation, both answers to this question can be argued for; the show brought the topic of suicide into discussion, whether that inspires people to take action is another story and question, however, it brings the topic to the viewers mind. But there is another aspect to consider with this RLS: Can it be said, with certainty, that the rise in searches related to suicide were a direct result of 13 Reasons Why? Yes, the study did look at a time period in which they avoided the death of Aaron Hernandez, a famous American-Football player, for example, to try and minimise the variables, but still; can a study be considered accurate using such uncontrolled methodology? There are a lot of interesting ‘TOK concepts’ that this real life situation raises, and is a good one for ‘exploring the TOK world.’