TOK EXHIBITION COMMENTARY - COMPLETE FINAL DRAFT

NAME: Francisco JL

IA PROMPT 2: Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

RESPONSE FOR OBJECT #1 (APPROX 325 WORDS)

For my first object, I selected the circle of fifths, a tool used by musicians and primarily
composers to create compelling chords for scores and use key signatures, among other purposes.
To create a more technically complex musical score, knowledge of chords, chord progressions,
and key signatures is required; all of which the circle of fifths provides.
This object is useful specifically to the community of composers, who are the producers
of musical knowledge and musical works. Without the circle, “it’s difficult - no, it’s almost
impossible for a composer to create advanced music without knowledge of how notes relate to
each other, or how the key does, which the circle of fifth provides. You can cite me for this.
(Really?) Yeah, I’m a professional composer. ” (Eric Foinquinos, 29 May 2024). The argument
that the circle of fifths is the most crucial musical tool for composing is justified, and as such, the
knowledge gleaned from it is more useful than other knowledge in that community of knowers.
For that reason, producers of knowledge in the musical realm need this object, and its value in
terms of knowledge gained is therefore more significant than other knowledge for that
community of knowers.

MY JOURNAL

RESPONSE FOR OBJECT #2 (APPROX 325 WORDS)

For my second object, I selected a journal to analyze how personal knowledge is more
useful. A journal is practical due to its unique ability to produce, acquire, and disseminate
personal knowledge, as a result of it being a tool to record personal experiences and learn from
them.

The journal applies to a personal community of knowers composed of only myself: the
type of knowledge I can glean from the journal is most practical personally, and the degree of use
that I can implement as a result of acquiring knowledge is vastly greater than what someone not
within my community of knowledge. As a result, the knowledge I choose to write into my
journal, or produce, is not useful to someone viewing it outside my community; likewise, the
knowledge someone else may choose to disseminate or produce in their personal journal is
irrelevant to me, and therefore its knowledge is much less useful to me.

The type of knowledge here that trumps others is personal knowledge. The function of
my journal is to produce knowledge for myself and then disseminate it back to recount
knowledge I may have forgotten or knowledge that could allow me to affect my future (learning
from my personal history). It’s therefore clearly more useful than other types of knowledge, but
only for those in my community of knowers, which includes only myself.

FIRST FLINT STONES

RESPONSE FOR OBJECT #2 (APPROX 325 WORDS)

For my third object, I've selected a pair of flintstones, but more specifically the pair that
the cavemen used to create a controlled fire 350,000 years ago. The homo erectus were able to
use fire for some time before, however, it was the production of knowledge for the first time
gained from clicking two flintstones together to make a spark that was the greatest discovery for
their community of knowers.
 To the cavemen, it’s easily arguable that the knowledge gained from creating the first
ever (controlled) fire was crucial to human evolution. It provided them primarily with cooking,
warmth, and light. The knowledge was definitely more useful to that community of knowers: the
past knowledge the cavemen had on eating food, finding shelter and maintaining warm was
revolutionized by the ability to create fire. After the first production of knowledge through
flintstones, the homo erectus no longer had to wait for lightning to strike a tree to be able to take
fire to their shelter and stay warm, or cook food, or have a shelter. They could create fire, and as
a result, the type of knowledge produced from flint stones triumphed over all other knowledge in
their community of knowers, as it expanded and vastly improved upon past knowledge to
revolutionize their lives.

REFERENCES

- “BBC - a History of the World - Object : John Walker’s Friction Light.” Bbc.co.uk, 2014,

www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/hQR9oN5LTeCLcuKfPDMJ9A#:~:text=In%

201826%2C%20John%20Walker%2C%20a,invent%20the%20first%20friction%20match

. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

- Cohen, Jennie. “Human Ancestors Tamed Fire Earlier than Thought.” HISTORY, 2 Apr.

2012, www.history.com/news/human-ancestors-tamed-fire-earlier-than-thought.

Accessed 30 May 2024.

- “Mr. Foinquinos Meeting: Eric Foinquinos, 29 May 2024 at 11:09 AM during a meeting

on the ToK Exhibition”. Accessed 29 May 2024.