Infinite Ways of Knowing

This week, I invite you on a journey: to India, backward and forward through time, and along the number line. Along the way, you will consider multiple approaches to and embodiments of infinity, encounter a genius so profound we are only beginning to understand him and his work 95 years after his death, redefine the relationships of causal ideas, and examine the possibility of recreating the thoughts of others. Begin with this article about the life and ideas of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Note with special joy the author's reference to ways of knowing. Take the time to understand the mathematics explained. Harken back to our days of logic and discussions of attempts at proof of God's existence. And feel free to delve into the work of Vi Hart (in Links at the right) for clear, entertaining takes on several concepts touched upon in the article. For your post, please extract two KQs--specific and tied to AoKs and WoKs--from the article. Explore and answer them, and consider other moments to which they might be applied.

Eliminating Tone Deafness

This week, please watch and listen as artist Neil Harbisson describes how he listens to color.  In responding (which please do for your local end of Sunday), please consider two questions: to what extent can one sensory way of knowing be substituted for another?  Which of your ways of knowing does this lecture employ or trigger, and how and why? Consider view points in addition to your own, please.

I Favor Active Passivity

Choices, choices, choices. You may think, at first, that the prompt below is a part of my ongoing love affair with science, but this isn't about me. Your task this week is to deconstruct and analyze this prescribed title from the 2015 TOK essays: "'There are only two ways in which humankind can produce knowledge: through passive observation or through active experiment.' To what extent do you agree with this statement?"

Before you post, take the time to parse the pieces of this title. What does each part mean? What are you being asked to do? For your answer to the prompt, choose one Area of Knowledge and identify two Real Life Situations from within that AoK. Derive two KQs from the title and analyze their applications to both RLSs. I look forward to your thoughts, due by Sunday's end.