Areas of Knowing:

History
By: Caroline, James, Nadya, Rafqa
Areas of The TOK areas of knowledge are how we divide up and

Knowing label the knowledge we possess. The TOK course identifies 8

different areas of knowledge, but although the nature of the
knowledge within them undoubtedly varies, you should be
aware that there is a great deal of overlapping both amongst
themselves, and with the ways of knowing.
 Types of Areas of Knowing
● The arts
● Ethics
● History
● The human Sciences
● Indigenous knowledge
● Mathematics
● The natural Sciences
● Religious Knowledge
Ways of knowing:
History
 History
● history is not “what happens in the past” or even “the
surviving evidence of what happened in the past”
● it means “what historians choose to interpret from the
surviving evidence of the past
● to reduce this to a formula we might say “sources +
historians = history”
● so it is important to consider what the nature of the
surviving evidence is, and how historians then choose
to select and present it
History
History is an area of knowledge that studies the recorded past. It raises
knowledge questions such as whether it is possible to talk meaningfully about a
historical fact and what such a fact might be, or how far we can speak with
certainty about anything in the past. Studying history also deepens our
understanding of human behaviour, as reflecting on the past can help us to
make sense of the present.
What is historical fact?
Historical Fact
A historical fact are historian’s casual description and explanations that
answers questions of “What happened?”. Historians try to discover why
events happened, what circumstances contributed to their cause, what
subsequent effects they had, and how they were interpreted.In an effort to
get at what really happened, historians compare stories from a wide variety
of sources, searching for common elements that corroborate a plausible
account.
 Purpose of History
● Memory of human achievements
● To provide societies with a sense of identity
especially for countries
● A key to understanding human behaviour
especially cultures
 Roles in History

Memory
Many knowledge communities are keen to
remember the past and some people feel
that they need to 'make history' before they
die. History can have an ethical function,
as we may 'learn from mistakes in the
past'.
Language
Language plays a substantial role in the
recording of history and passing on of
collective memory. Some knowledge
communities draw on oral history, whereas
others record data in writing or symbols.
 What do they consist of ?
● Memory of human achievements
● To provide societies with a sense of identity
especially for countries
● A key to understanding human behaviour
especially cultures
 The Historians and Their Sources
● The first way in which we gain knowledge of the
past is through historical evidence (“sources”)
● It has been said that “all history is contemporary
history” and “history tells us more about the
person who wrote it than about the people being
written about”
Same pictures,

but different

editing
 Bias
bias means having and unfair or an unbalanced
opinion based on emotional factors “one sided
opinion”
 how does bias affect the way we know
history
This is a page taken from a book commonly known as Foxe's Book
of Martyrs. The book tells the story of the persecution of
Protestants in England and was first published shortly after
Queen Mary's death. If this was the only source we had and we
knew nothing else about that period of history we would end up
with a very one-sided view as this book is very anti-Catholic.
However, because we have other sources and we know a lot
about Tudor history we can recognise that this source is
biased. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't use this
source - just that we should be careful.
 How can facts be biased ?
● Not all history is fact

● Lack of accurate records since it’s ancient history

● To show a good impression to a certain person

 example of knowledge questions
● what role does personal observation (an eyewitness
account) of a historical event play?
● what advantages and problems do eye witness
accounts offer?
● how is the lack sense of perception of historic
events and advantage or a problem for
understanding these events?
● how do historic films and documentaries help or
hinder the understanding of historic events?
Resources

http://sohowdoweknow.weebly.com/history.html
Thanks!