1. Human Sciences TOK

2. Natural Sciences
Possible headings
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Research methods
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Focus of study
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Applications
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Degrees of certainty
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AOKs sub-headings
Human Sciences
History
What do the Human Sciences, History and the Natural Sciences have in
common? How are they different?

3. How are the Human Sciences related to History and the
Natural Sciences?
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Unlike History the Human Sciences seek to make
generalizations from observing human beings (both as
individuals and in groups)
Human Scientists look to account for trends in social and
economic activity, they look for common and different
patterns across the range of human cultures.
In looking for correlations and causes they are guided by
prominent models and theories (like natural sciences).
Historians try to identify the causes of particular events and
apply this understanding to the present. Human Sciences
approach the world similarly, but are able to repeat their
observations to check ideas and hypotheses.

4. Complexity, challenges and the Natural Sciences?
Some of the challenges and weaknesses of ascertaining certainty and
truth within the natural Sciences
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Societies and individuals change over time and are not static;
Societies and individuals are formed by their environment, culture and
geography (the degree to which this is the case is still up for debate);
The interconnections and causal variables in society are many and
complex - trying to define objective and reliable truths is difficult because
of this;
You can not observe how people think;
People react to being observed and so it is hard to obtain clean data /
empirical truth; read Handout on The Hawthorne Effect and consider the questions
Human Scientists have their own biases, personal history, cultural
backgrounds and schemas which all affect how they see others;
The ethical responsibilities of Human Science researchers.

5. Can you be neutral
like Dr. Xargle?
Dr. Xargle is an alien who
studies human behaviour and
has the ability to be very
objective

6. Can you be neutral
like Dr. Xargle?
Dr. Xargle is an alien who
studies human behaviour and
has the ability to be very
objective

7. Can you be neutral like Dr. Xargle?
From Dr Xargle’s book of
Earthlets - the premise is that
Dr. Xargle has written a book for
alien children on his planet
about “Earthlets”

8. Can you be neutral like
Dr. Xargle?

9. Try to be neutral
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Look at the following photographs
Write a short description of the setting and the people in it.
Try to write using language that is as neutral and as
unbiased as possible.
Then share the description with a partner and see if they can
spot any value judgments or prejudices.
OR
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Look at the picture and describe in a neutral way what is
going on to another person. The other person should identify
any use of language that is biased, prejudiced or shows an
emphasis on a particular perspective.
Is it possible to be objective about these people?

10. Try to be neutral - Macie Dakowicz http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/cardiff-after-dark/

11. Try to be neutral - Macie Dakowicz http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/cardiff-after-dark/

12. Try to be neutral - Macie Dakowicz http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/cardiff-after-dark/

13. Try to be neutral - Macie Dakowicz http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/cardiff-after-dark/

14. Naturalist and Interpretivist approaches
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Naturalists. Some Human Scientists believe it is possible to
apply the same objectivity when studying human behaviour
as is applied in the Natural Sciences. They not only believe
that it is possible to be objective, but also that universal
truths can be reached;
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Interpretivists not only believe it is impossible to be
objective in the Human Scientists, but also think it is best to
be upfront about biases, partiality and prejudices. They seek
meaning and causes not just an objective study of data.
Therefore the process of interpreting the world is central to
the human sciences they would argue.

15. Naturalist and Interpretivist approaches
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Naturalists. Tend to prefer looking at quantitative data. That is
data that is numerical, measured by mathematical means. This
data tends to be hard to argue against. Often though there are
attendant difficulties of language and/or classification.
Consider the proposed HK Poverty Line. In October of this year
the HK government announced that it was going to focus on
poverty in the city. Its premise was that the first step was define
what is meant by being poor and define a poverty line. And then
to ascertain how many live below this line.
See handout and discussion questions / article from Sept 2013
SCMP

16. Poverty Line set for Hong Kong

17. Naturalist and Interpretivist approaches
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Interpretivists not only believe it is impossible to be
objective in the Human Scientists, but also think it is best to
be upfront about biases, partiality and prejudices. They seek
meaning and causes not just an objective study of data.
Therefore the process of interpreting the world is central to
the human sciences they would argue.

18. Key Ideas: CINAC
(Correlation is not a cause)

19. Key Ideas: CINAC
(Correlation is not a cause)

20. Key Ideas: CINAC
(Correlation is not a cause)
One of the key flaws of the
Human Scientific method is to
confuse a correlation with a
causal relationship. In other
words if two events coincide
in time of place, one can
mistakenly think that one
caused the other.

21. Key Ideas: CINAC
(Correlation is not a cause)

22. Key Ideas: CINAC
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(Correlation is not a cause)
Imagine you are watching at a railway station. More and
more people arrive until the platform is crowded, and then —
hey presto — along comes a train. Did the people cause the
train to arrive (A causes B)? Did the train cause the people to
arrive (B causes A)? No, they both depended on a railway
timetable (C caused both A and B)?
Discuss in pairs
From CINAC Correlation is not a cause by Susan Blackmore

23. Key Ideas: CINAC
(Correlation is not a cause)
"Suppose it's been discovered (I don't mean it's true) that
children who eat more tomato ketchup do worse in their exams.
Why could this be?"
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Is this correlation or causation?
If it was causation - what is it about excessive ketchup consumption
that causes academic underperformance?
Are there other reasons for this correlation?
How might a natural scientist test this causal hypothesis?
How might the human scientists approach differ.
From CINAC Correlation is not a cause by Susan Blackmore

24. Key Ideas: CINAC
(Correlation is not a cause)
"Suppose we find that the more often people consult astrologers
or psychics the longer they live."
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Is this correlation or causation?
If it was causation - what is it about astrology or psychic phenomena
that extend human life?
Are there other reasons for this correlation?
How might a natural scientist test this causal hypothesis?
How might the human scientists approach differ.
From CINAC Correlation is not a cause by Susan Blackmore

25. Key Ideas: Path
Dependence
In trying to understand why humans behave as they do, it is a
good idea to understand the concept of Path Dependence.
“Path dependence refers to the fact that often, something
that seems normal or inevitable today began with a choice
that made sense at a particular time in the past, but
survived despite the eclipse of the justification for that
choice, because once established, external factors
discouraged going into reverse to try other alternatives.”
The linguist John Mcwhorter tells us on The Edge website

26. Key Ideas: Path
Dependence
The Qwerty keyboard is a good
way of illustrating the concept of
path dependence.
The layout of leter on the
Qwerty was designed to slow
typists down so that there was
less likelihood of the hammers
on a typewriter jamming. Even
though the reason for the
qwerty keyboard has gone, we
still use it on the latest Macbook
airs!
This is path dependence!

27. Key Ideas: Path
Dependence
See Handout ...
Monkeys, a Stepladder and Water or ....
How Human Behaviour can be Path Dependent
Can you think of any other situations where people act in a
path dependent way?
Discuss in pairs.
What implications does this have for students of various
Human Sciences?
Taken from http://blog.ladders-online.com/2012/06/11/stepladdersmonkeys/

28. Key Ideas: Nature
vs Nurture
The nature versus nurture
debate is one of the oldest
issues in psychology. The
debate centers on the
relative contributions of
genetic inheritance and
environmental factors to
human development.
Taken from http://psychology.about.
"Gendering kids starts immediately
after birth, when we wrap a baby in a
pink blanket or a blue one. Babies have
no idea what they're even wearing. It's
parents who buy into the binary, and
the rest of us who are thoroughly
uncomfortable when they don't."
Are gender specific traits passed on
genetically or are they programmed by
environmental factors?
com/od/nindex/g/nature-nurture.htm
From the Guardian article here / see handout
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/22/punish-kidscross-gender-play-abuse?CMP=fb_us

29. Key Ideas: Free
Will
The Doctrine of Determinism
Determinism is a far-reaching term affecting many areas of concern, that
most widely and radically states that all events in the world are the result of
some previous event, or events. In this view, all of reality is already in a
sense pre-determined or pre-existent and, therefore, nothing new can come
into existence. This closed view of the universe and of our world holds all
events to be simply the effects of other prior effects. This has radical and farreaching implications for morality, science, and religion. If general, radical,
determinism is correct, then all events in the future are unalterable, as are all
events in the past. A major consequence of this is that human freedom is
simply an illusion.
http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/determinismandfreewill.html

30. Key Ideas: Free
Will
If free will exists then how can Human Scientists come up with airtight
theories to explain human behaviours. If the determinists are right - why
should they bother? This is why free will is such a key idea for the Human
Sciences.
Trying to understand social systems forces us to wrestle with the concept of free will. Does free
will make it impossible to build models that reliably predict what human beings will do?
http://necsi.edu/research/overview/freewill.html

31. Key Ideas: Free
Will
If free will does not exist should we punish criminals?
Does an absence of free will mean wrongdoers are not responsible for their
actions?
Read this blogpost and discuss your views

32. Key Ideas: Free
Will
To what extent are we free to
make choices?
Watch this video (12 mins) and
then discuss this question?
Read this article from The
Slate website which discusses
a more positive view of free
will. It says that we do have
free will and argues a theory of
how it evolved. Here is a
counterargument. What do you
think?
Quantum Physics and free will
- how does Science have a
bearing on this debate?

33. Other Resources
Nature vs Nurture Debate - Theory of Knowledge.net
Includes good section on The Milgram Experiment
The Knowledge Framework - Theory of Knowledge.net
Presentation by plangdale on slideshare
Really good on issues in experimentation and the problems inherent in measurement and
interpretation in the Human Sciences