Recent Changes

Thanks everyone for a great TOK class and some interesting discussions. Keep asking those questions, and feel free to use this site and those links as research tools for any future TOK stuff. Good luck!
Thank you so much Mr. Wall!!!!!YOU ROCKED!!!!FROM CLASS OF 2011!!!!!!!
Likewise!!!!!
How do you do this?
Editing pages -- Click on the appropriate page on the left column. Once there, click on the Edit tab on the top right. Type away! Use the panel to adjust font, styles, and to insert links or files. Be sure to Save when you are done!

ASSIGNMENTS:
Thanks everyone for a great TOK class and some interesting discussions. Keep asking those questions, and feel free to use this site and those links as research tools for any future TOK stuff. Good luck!
Thank you so much Mr. Wall!!!!!YOU ROCKED!!!!FROM CLASS OF 2011!!!!!!!
How do you do this?
Editing pages -- Click on the appropriate page on the left column. Once there, click on the Edit tab on the top right. Type away! Use the panel to adjust font, styles, and to insert links or files. Be sure to Save when you are done!

Certain assignments will require you to review content, to add content, make a comment, and/or create a database. You will be evaluated by how well you meet deadlines and how comprehensive/significant you address each task. This wiki will remain available throughout your TOK experience, so if everyone makes the best of it, we can have an awesome resource for all our TOK needs!
ASSIGNMENTS:
Due ASAP -- There are TOO MANY of you who still haven't completed your CAS activities and reflectionsThanks everyone for your Junior year. Use your Naviance or ManageBac accounts. Failure to do so will negatively affect youra great TOK gradeclass and risk your chances for IB completion.
MAY 19, THURSDAY: Post your investigationsome interesting discussions. Keep asking those questions, and summary about the "Source of Morality." Include a section of personal reflection.
MAY 23, MONDAY: Post TWO Helpful Links for ETHICS. Post a review of TWO differentfeel free to use this site and those links that were posted by others.
Suggestions include:
any of the topics/names/investigations from the "Sources of Morality" pages.
Situational Ethics
Utilitarianism
Platonic Virtue
Applied Ethics
ethics in other areas of knowledge, such as Natural Sciences (Biology, animal testing,) Human Sciences (Psychology, Psychoanalysis,) Art (freedoms of expression, rights to privacy, copyright) and etc. etc.research tools for any future TOK stuff. Good luck!
How do you do this?
Editing pages -- Click on the appropriate page on the left column. Once there, click on the Edit tab on the top right. Type away! Use the panel to adjust font, styles, and to insert links or files. Be sure to Save when you are done!

Dynamic Chirpractic, "Morality and Etics: An Introduction" Stephan M. Perle, March 11, 2004 Morality and Ethics: An Introduction
This link is helpful because it clearly states the difference of "morality" and "ethics", which many people get them them confused often times. It also shows different types of ethics, which I personally did nt know that there were several types/categories of ethics. (Albert Takagi)
Baltzly, Dirk, "Stoicism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/stoicism/>.
One of the ethical views, Stoicism is a philosophical ethics from the Hellenistic period. Stoicists believe that emotions and ethics are connected. They believe that destructive emotions, such as fury and fear, are developed by the errors in the judgement, which is basically actions that go against their ethics. If they become a sage or a person with moral perfection, they would not suffer from these emotions. (Taku Kitamura)
"Essentials Of Unification Thought - The Head-Wing Thought." Art and Ethics. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/Euth/Euth07-07.htm>.
This website was very interesting to me because it states that "an artist should also be an ethical person." The reason is that Art is the form of dominion over the creation and to become an ethical person, a person has to have dominion over all things. Art seems to have no relationships with the ethics, but I consider art as the expression of the emotions, which always develop from the ethical views and person's morality; therefore, I agree to the author of this website that they are proportional. (Taku Kitamura)

Werner, Thurau. "Ethics in Physics." (2008): Web. 22 May 2011. http://ezinearticles.com/?Ethics-in-Physics&id=2230566.
I was motivated to search how ethics is applied to one of my 'favorite' subjects, physics. I never thought of any kind of similarities between ethics and physics; since, physics, and most of science subjects are based on logics and facts. Because of the definition of ethics, it seems hard to connect with physics. Since, the ethics is like a code of acceptable social behavior. However, this article shows that how ethics can be thought of in a scientific context when physics reached the point where the subjective reality of physical phenomena is no longer enough to explain the origin of those phenomena. This article seems boring and long, but it's actually full of practical and intelligent contents that will help you to understand how ethics is applied to physics. (Soo Hyung Jung)

Dynamic Chirpractic, "Morality and Etics: An Introduction" Stephan M. Perle, March 11, 2004 Morality and Ethics: An Introduction
This link is helpful because it clearly states the difference of "morality" and "ethics", which many people get them them confused often times. It also shows different types of ethics, which I personally did nt know that there were several types/categories of ethics. (Albert Takagi)

This quote truly denotes the complexity of human nature. Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally.
The questions of what these characteristics are, what causes them and how this causation works, and how fixed human nature is, are amongst the oldest and most important questions in western philosophy. These questions have particularly important implications in ethics, politics and theology. This is partly because human nature can be regarded as both a source of norms of conduct or ways of life, as well as presenting obstacles or constraints on living a good life.
-The Sources of Morality-
1) the object
2) the intention
3) the circumstances
In order to evaluate whether an act is morally good or bad, all three elements must be considered.
The object is the matter of a human act or the action itself. Simply put, it is the "what" we do. The object determines the morality of an act. The human act receives its goodness or malice primarily from the morality of the act itself. For example, adultery is always evil by its object, independently of the purpose of the one who does it.
The intention is the motive for which a person commits a good or evil act. Rooted in an act of the will, the intention is one's purpose or motive for acting. It answers the question 'why' one does a particular act. One's intention can be involved in a series of actions or several motives can be involved in the same act. If an act has both an evil object and an evil intention, then the malice of the act increases.
Circumstances are the factors that occur with the act and that contribute to the morality of the act. They are secondary elements of moral act - the how, who, when, where of the act. They contribute to the goodness or the evil of an act. Circumstances can also lessen or heighten a person's blameworthiness for a particular act. However, they cannot change an evil act into a good one.
In order for an act to be morally good, the object, intention, and circumstances must all be good.
1. An act is morally good if the object of the act itself, the intention, and the circumstances are good.
2. If an act itself is intrinsically evil (evil by its very nature), the act is never morally allowable regardless of intention or circumstances.
3. If the object of the act is itself morally good (or at least neutral), its morality will be judged by the purpose or the circumstances.
4. Circumstances may create, mitigate, or aggravate sin.
5. If all three moral elements (the object of the act itself, the intention, and the circumstances) are good, the act is good. If any one element is evil, the act is evil. If a reservoir is fed by three streams, and one of them is polluted, the reservoir is polluted.

Human Nature - Harry O'Sullivan, Sean Williams, Quentin Perrot
different philosophers.
To
To label human human nature.
Why do we think human nature is "bad"? Although this is a complex question, it is one we could most likely answer. People in a modern society don't stop until their desires are fulfilled selfishly; their need to control a situation until the outcome is favorable to them is what drives "bad" human nature. Humans are also naturally greedy in the same way they are elfish. A need to obtain something rises above all else.
Because our human nature is composed of body and soul, with powers of intellect, will, and feelings, and because it is our nature to love the good but also to be tempted by evil, this is why it is necessary for us to cultivate such virtues as self-control, wisdom, courage, and honesty.Catholic morality follows theclassical Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle inderiving the essential principles of morality from unchanging human nature and its real, objective needs rather than from the changing subjective feelings and desires of individuals. Thus its essential principles are 1) universal (the same for everyone), 2) objective (discovered, not invented; real, not just mental), and 3) unchangeable.
We do not know what our nature permits us to be. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
This quote truly denotes the complexity of human nature. Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally.
The questions of what these characteristics are, what causes them and how this causation works, and how fixed human nature is, are amongst the oldest and most important questions in western philosophy. These questions have particularly important implications in ethics, politics and theology. This is partly because human nature can be regarded as both a source of norms of conduct or ways of life, as well as presenting obstacles or constraints on living a good life.

I found this Ethics Quiz which was actually pretty fun because it had questions that had some pretty real-life problems that I have been through before. At the end though, I had "8 incorrect" ... does that make me "Unethical" ?? (Sean Williams)
I just took this ethics quiz and got six wrong. The questions were basedon our every day life. However, I don't know whether this quiz makes takers become right ethicist. I started to ask myself about what is right and wrong. This amoral feeling kept casting a doubt on my ethical beliefs and views. I don't think this quiz was well designed for us to see whether we are ethical or unethical; since, there are diverse situations and people have own beliefs and views to treat things morally or immorally. (Soo Hyung Jung)
I took the quiz! It was interesting but I thought that some of the questions were irrelevant to ethics. (kento)
"Ethics Guide." Fundraising. BBC, 15 12 2009. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/charity/fundraising.shtml>.
(Sean Williams)
Zimbardo, Philip Zimbardo. "YouTube - Zimbardo Shows How Most Evil Comes from Hierarchy." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. YOUTUBE. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx8nwjFQ>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx8nwjFQ

Kantian Ethics "Kantian Ethics." Philosopher.lander.edu. Philosopher.lander.edu, 28 Sep 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
This website also gives a general good idea of Kantian ethics. He claims that only actions done for the sake of duty is ethically worth it. This means that if my motive of an action was emotional, caused by personal inclination, this has no ethical value. On the other hand, if I help a citizen from fire, I filfilled my duty to save whoever was in danger, so that becomes morally worthy. This is just one example of Kant's ethical theories, and there are far more than this one, so please do find the interesting articles here. (Shawn)
other. (Harry O'SullivanO'Sullivan)
I really dislike the idea that kant proposes as shawn says "that only actions done for the sake of duty is ethically worth it". although it does make sence when posed with situations like the saveing a citizen from a fire, i refute the idea that emotions cant play a role in ethically valueable decisions. i think emotions spurr much of what we consider "duty" and so it goes hand in hand when deciding what an ethical choice or action is. (jp)
Ethical Implications of Cloning McGee, Glenn. "Primer on Ethics and Human Cloning."Action BioScience. American Institute of Biological Sciences, February 2001. Web. 20 May 2011. <http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/mcgee.html>.
This site gives us more insight on the implications of human cloning, and cloning in general, ethically. To think that humans have been elevated to the level of conception raises many questions. The relationship between science and ethics is very conflicted, as the answers are never easy. In the future, cloning may be the answer to increased infertility because of environmental factors, but will we still pursue the belief that only God is responsible for life. Cloning acts as a "remarkable test for human restraint" and as the author puts it, "will in many ways identify the moral features of 21st century biotechnology" (Quentin).

This site talks about the ethics in biology. There are a lot of debate going on with biology and IVF (in-vitro fertilization) is one of the subjects that are being debated. I found the similar site that involves human cloning and I found out that tall these sites talk about the what does it mean to be alive and is it moral to experiment with the sex cells. Some people approach this problem with religious view and all the sex cells are holy and that God gave them right to live. Some people approach this problem with realistic value thinking that sex cells are just same as another cell and it is okay to be experimented. So who is actually ethically right? (Chae Young)
We talked about this in biology, but we could also talk more extensively about the ethical implications of IVF. There are countless pros and cons, and truly deciding whether the procedure is good or bad is very hard. The ethical issue is most probably the overproduction of embryos, followed by their termination. Additionally, the ability of scientists to decide who lives and dies is something that religious parties find difficult to accept. This link opens many doors in connecting ethics and science (Quentin).
I feel that this debate on IVF is one that could keep going on forever. As everyone mentioned, while I was learning about IVF in biology class, I somewhat sympathized with the people in favour of IVF. This is because as I watched the video and seeing some of the emotional distress that the women and men suffered from infertility, I realized something... who are we to Prevent the opportunity of life? Yes embryos may be killed in the process by the ill fate of a doctor, but on the other hand, life is created, and is going to be cared for by a loving and caring couple who surely deserve a child for their hope and courage. (Sean Williams)
Kant's Moral Philosophy"Kant's Moral Philosophy." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, Web. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/>.
This website detailedly explains the concept of Kant's Categorical Imperative, which is a way of evaluating motives of actions taken. "At the heart of Kan'ts moral philosophy is a conception of reason whose reach in practical affairs goes well beyond that of a Human slave to the passions. Moreover, it is the presence of this self-governing reason in each person that Kant thought offered decisive grounds for viewing each as possessed of equal worth and deserving of equal respect." This means that because humans are reasonable being, we should be seen as equally worthy men. Kant refuted the utilitarian views, such as that murder is wrong as it does not maximize people's benefit, because the standard for those views is way too subjective. I recommend not to read every section but just a few of them. (Shawn)
Cloning is another subject of much debate in many circles. as harry stated above, it involves implanting a nucleus in another human cell to allow a clone to be made out of it. This link is very informative on the subject of the ethics involved in the process (Gerard)
Therapeutic cloning is a good topic to discuss about when it comes to ethics, because it both relates to morality and religion. I found this website useful because this site approaches several ethical issues. I also find the website helpful from how it states the percentage of people who agrees to the idea of therapeutic cloning. (Jangho Seo)
I feel that the real problem here involving the topic of ethics is the true definition of "life". Some people say that embryos = life... but some say that embryos are just a "collection of cells". When we talk about killing "life"... people seem to differ on this point where we can say that, yes, "this is life". (Sean Williams)
Ethics as Emotions - An Evolutionary Approach Lucas, Chris. "Ethics as Emotions - An Evolutionary Approach." CALResCO. Complexity & Artificial Life Research, Aug 2007. Web. 21 May 2011. <http://www.calresco.org/ethics.htm>.
The author of this website asserts that humans act before they think, thus ethics is a part of human emotion, much less affected by reason than once thought. Scientists now know that we feel before we think, causing physiological change before the information is entered to the brain. Then here rises a question: "Without emotional values, why should one course of action be preferable to any other, can a set of outcomes have any benefit unless valued?" The author responds, saying that ethics differentiate us from other animals, thus humans should be controlling these. Then the deduction follows, based on these premises, and one deduction I found interesting was "Fifth there is a delay between our actions and their intellectual justification." We've learned in the chapter of perception that people perceive the way they want. Emotion is a strong factor that affects our actions, and we do enchant reasons to those AFTER its been done. (Shawn)