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First published 2020 2020 年首次出版
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ISBN 9781292326009
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Dedications 献词
To Alec Peterson, a founding father of the IB, its first Director General, a passionate teacher of Theory of Knowledge, and my mentor. He brought out the best in me. 献给国际文凭组织的奠基者、首任总干事亚历克·彼得森——这位充满激情的知识论导师，也是我的引路人。他激发了我最优秀的一面。
Sue Bastian 苏·巴斯蒂安
I dedicate my work for this book to my daughters Sophia and Olivia who have given me so much insight into learning and knowing. Throughout the writing, my wife Harriet has offered me the unstinting support and encouragement I needed during a very busy time. I can say with certainty that her contribution has been essential. 我将本书的创作献给我的女儿索菲娅和奥利维亚，她们让我对学习与认知有了更深刻的理解。在繁忙的写作期间，妻子哈丽特始终给予我无条件的支持与鼓励。可以确定地说，她的付出至关重要。
Julian Kitching 朱利安·基钦
For my parents Sylvia and David Sims. I would like to thank my wife Caroline and my daughters Pashmina and Rebecca for their support during the writing of my part of the book. 献给我的父母西尔维娅和大卫·西姆斯。我要感谢我的妻子卡罗琳以及女儿帕什米娜和丽贝卡，在我撰写本书相关章节期间给予的支持。
Contents 目录
Introduction … 1 引言 … 1
1 Core … 13 1 核心篇 … 13
1.1 Knowledge and the knower … 13 1.1 知识与认知者…13
2 Optional themes … 43 2 选修主题…43
2.1 Knowledge and politics … 43 2.1 知识与政治…43
2.2 Knowledge and technology … 71 2.2 知识与技术…71
2.3 Knowledge and language … 95 2.3 知识与语言… 95
2.4 Knowledge and religion … 123 2.4 知识与宗教… 123
2.5 Knowledge and indigenous societies … 150 2.5 知识与土著社会… 150
3 Assessment - Exhibition … 179 3 评估 - 展览… 179
4 Areas of knowledge … 199 4 知识领域… 199
4.1 Areas of knowledge … 199 4.1 知识领域… 199
4.2 Natural sciences … 211 4.2 自然科学… 211
4.3 Human sciences … 244 4.3 人文科学… 244
4.4 Mathematics … 278 4.4 数学 … 278
4.5 History … 311 4.5 历史 … 311
4.6 Arts … 348 4.6 艺术 … 348
5 Assessment - Essay … 381 5 评估 - 论文 … 381
Index … 408 索引… 408
Introduction 引言
More than 50 years ago a group of visionaries sat around a table talking about the world and how to make it better. It was the 1960s and change was in the air. Woodstock, free love, free speech, women’s liberation. Also, terrible things were going on. Assassinations, riots in the streets, protests and tear gas, world wars still fresh in memories. Where to start? Start with the youth, they said. Start with education for a better world. Start with an international baccalaureate. 五十多年前，一群远见卓识者围坐桌旁，探讨如何让世界变得更美好。那是 1960 年代，变革之风正盛——伍德斯托克音乐节、自由恋爱、言论自由、妇女解放运动。同时，世界也充斥着黑暗：刺杀事件、街头暴动、抗议与催泪瓦斯，世界大战的创伤仍历历在目。从何处着手？他们说：从青年开始，从教育开始，为创造更美好的世界，从国际文凭教育开始。
It should be no surprise that the International Baccalaureate (IB) was born against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s in the Western world. And even though educational debates lack the drama of the other movements of that era, there were radical notions at play in those early meetings. Men and women from only a handful of countries were making plans to shape a world-wide programme of academic rigour with the idealism of shared values - something they only vaguely yet called the International Baccalaureate, an education for a better world. 国际文凭组织（IB）诞生于西方世界动荡的 1960 年代，这并不令人意外。尽管教育辩论缺乏那个时代其他运动的戏剧性，但早期会议中酝酿的理念同样激进。来自少数几个国家的先驱者们，怀着共同价值观的理想主义，正规划着一个兼具学术严谨性与全球视野的教育体系——他们模糊地称之为"国际文凭"，一项为更美好世界而生的教育。
A better world? Think about these words. Not a better country, not a better nation, not a better job - a better world! That’s ambitious! That sounds idealistic! That sounds radical! Those educational pioneers around that table were turning their backs on their own countries’ educational systems, the schooling of their own young people - in favour of what? Sounds great, some said. Sounds like treason, others shouted. This is a history you should know. Big change does not slide in easily. 更美好的世界？请思考这几个字。不是更美好的国家，不是更美好的民族，也不是更美好的工作——而是更美好的世界！这多么雄心勃勃！听起来多么理想主义！多么激进！围坐在那张桌子旁的教育先驱们，背弃了自己国家的教育体系，放弃了本国青少年的学校教育——为了什么？有人说这很棒，也有人高喊这像叛国。这段历史你应该了解。重大变革从来不会轻易到来。
This question - in favour of what? - is also something you might ask yourself as you enter the ranks of the IB, as you learn its precepts and ponder its learner profile, as you aspire to its diploma. What is the IB about? It is astonishing how many people have joined up, have attached its name to their own, but cannot explain to a family memberor to themselves - what is the IB? What is it about? What does it stand for? "为了什么？"这个问题，当你加入 IB 行列时，当你学习其准则并思考其学习者培养目标时，当你渴望获得其文凭时，或许也会自问。IB 究竟是什么？令人惊讶的是，许多人加入了 IB，将自己的名字与之相连，却无法向家人或自己解释——IB 是什么？它关乎什么？它代表什么？
Yet you, your teachers and principals of schools, families even - and all of us who write books to move this endeavour along - should be aware of the values underpinning its international idealism as well as its baccalaureate of academic excellence; two values for a better world folded into a programme of the best kind of teaching and learning. Thus the name, the International Baccalaureate - the IB, as we say. 然而你们——包括你们的老师、学校校长、家长，乃至我们这些为推进教育事业而著书立说的人——都应当认识到这一教育体系所承载的双重价值：既秉持国际理想主义精神，又追求学术卓越的文凭认证。这两种价值完美融合于最优质的教学项目中，共同致力于创造更美好的世界。正因如此，我们将其命名为"国际文凭课程"（International Baccalaureate），简称 IB。
Just two minutes is all it takes to read the brief IB mission statement, but many times longer to understand the profundity of its meaning. A few more minutes and you can run down the list of what makes up the IB learner profile, yet more time still to understand what it means when they say - if this profile is a portrait of you, then you are by that very fact internationally minded. The same goes for your teachers or anyone else for that matter. 阅读简短的 IB 使命宣言仅需两分钟，但要领悟其深刻内涵却需数倍于此的时间。再花几分钟你就能浏览完 IB 学习者培养目标的清单，但若要真正理解其中深意——如果说这份培养目标勾勒出的形象与你相符，那么你本质上就具备了国际视野——则需要更长时间的思考。这个道理同样适用于你的老师或其他任何人。
Can that be true? Even if you have not travelled far from home? Even if your teachers all come from the same place? Even if the students all look alike? 这真的可能吗？即使你从未远行？即使你的老师都来自同一地区？即使所有学生看起来都相似？
Does any of the above sound right to you? Or familiar? How close is it to something you might explain in your college or university admissions interview? Would it even occur to you to say that international mindedness is a perspective, a way of looking at the world, a way of being in the world, not just a head count? 上述内容是否让你觉得正确或熟悉？这与你在大学入学面试中可能阐述的观点有多接近？你是否会想到指出国际视野是一种视角、一种看待世界的方式、一种处世之道，而不仅仅是人数统计？
It is not lost on us that many - if not most - of those signing up for the IB challenge do so, understandably, with the reward of being looked on with favour by those colleges and universities of the highest reputation. How proud we are in the IB to be so recognised. 我们深知，许多（甚至绝大多数）选择 IB 课程挑战的学生，其动机不言而喻——是为了获得那些顶尖大学的青睐。IB 课程能获得如此认可，我们深感自豪。
But as IB students and teachers, we have an additional charge. We are asked to pay as much attention to the International name of our organisation with its implied idealism, as to the Baccalaureate, the academic. Because… 但作为 IB 师生，我们肩负着更深层的使命。我们被要求既要关注"学士学位"（Baccalaureate）的学术价值，也要同等重视组织名称中"国际"二字所蕴含的理想主义精神。因为...
Think about the world’s trajectory while you are reading this paragraph: not just the dominance or decline of the USA or China, or the power or passivity of the UN, or the disappearance of contemporary or indigenous cultures. Think about the vroom of technology - each day a newer, swifter something appears. It doesn’t matter if we like it or not. A lot of people do and a lot of people don’t; but also a lot of people are using it, for better or for worse, to talk across borders where traditional geopolitical identities begin to blur. Where personal identities may be fluid. We better learn how to understand this; we better learn how to feel at home here. It is the special mission of the IB to prepare young people to live within a community of many voices, all possibly chattering at once in every kind of boundary-crossing conversation. You, our students, look to us to get you ready - we are your teachers. You are entitled to be prepared by us to comprehend the great world beyond your street, your neighbourhood, your barrio, your culture, your nation, as a result of the expanded perspectives we arouse and shape in you. Some of this we have tried to do with our chapters in this book. 当你阅读这段文字时，请思考世界的运行轨迹：不仅关乎美国或中国的兴衰，联合国的影响力或无为，当代文明与本土文化的存续。想想科技轰鸣——每天都有更新、更快的事物涌现。无论我们喜欢与否，总有人热衷也有人抗拒；更有无数人正运用这些技术跨越疆界交流，使传统地缘政治身份逐渐模糊，个人身份可能流动不居。我们必须学会理解这种现象，必须学会在此中找到归属感。国际文凭组织的特殊使命，正是让年轻人做好准备，生活在众声喧哗的共同体中——各种跨界对话可能同时嘈杂作响。作为老师，我们深知学生们正期待着我们为其做好准备。通过我们激发并塑造的广阔视野，你们有权利被引导着去理解街道、社区、文化圈乃至国界之外的宏大世界。本书各章节正是我们为此做出的部分尝试。
In a real sense, then, you have the whole world in your hands. The IB knows this and is asking you to think today, tomorrow, and on and on, about how our teaching can be relevant to issues of global significance that you face now, and others that we and you can see only dimly, if at all. You know the list: war, environment, poverty, terror, energy, global warming, disease, and so on. It’s a long list. It touches us all. But it is you who can dispel indifference and ignorance; it is you who can broaden horizons. It is you who can find unity in diversity and hear its message and sound its echo. We teach. We make a difference. You learn. You can make that difference happen. 从真正意义上说，世界就在你们手中。国际文凭组织深知这一点，因此邀请你们持续思考——今天、明天乃至未来——如何让我们的教学与你们当前面临的全球性议题相关联，甚至触及那些我们与你们都只能隐约预见的挑战。你们熟知这些议题：战争、环境、贫困、恐怖主义、能源、全球变暖、疾病等等。这份清单很长，与每个人都息息相关。但唯有你们能驱散冷漠与无知，唯有你们能拓宽视野，唯有你们能在多元中寻求统一，聆听其讯息并传递其回响。我们教书育人，我们创造改变。你们学习成长，你们能让改变发生。
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. 永远不要怀疑，一小群有思想、肯奉献的公民能够改变世界。事实上，这正是唯一曾改变过世界的力量。
Impossible? Not at all. Idealistic? Yes, indeed. But we need our ideals in this young IB organisation whose future is brighter than its history is long. We have to keep saying 不可能吗？绝非如此。理想主义吗？确实如此。但这个年轻的国际文凭组织比其历史更闪耀的正是它的未来，我们需要这样的理想。我们必须不断强调
over and over what we are about - to remind ourselves of our ideals. We need young people who respect the pursuit of knowledge and multiple ways of seeing the world, who can experience the joy of discovery of the right word, the right fact, a good explanation, and the real truth - whatever that turns out to be. 反复重申我们的宗旨——提醒自己坚守理想。我们需要尊重知识追求与多元世界观、能体会发现恰当词汇、正确事实、合理解释和真实真理（无论最终呈现为何种形态）之喜悦的年轻人。
Theory of Knowledge 知识论
Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is not simply another subject, it is different in kind and purpose. It is not intended to teach you new facts, but to enable you to put into perspective, into a framework of renewed understanding - our knowledge framework - what you already know at one level. When successful, the outcome will be better depth and breadth of thinking, both for academic and professional success as well as the imaginative and sympathetic exercise of mind in the future. 知识论（TOK）并非普通学科，其性质与目的都独具特色。它不旨在传授新知识，而是帮助你以全新认知框架——我们的知识体系——重新审视你已掌握的浅层认知。若实施得当，将培养出更具深广度的思维方式，这既助力学术与职业成就，也为未来心智的创造性运用与共情思考奠定基础。
Admissions Director, Universal University: So, Jordan, why the name, Theory of Knowledge? Kind of intimidating, huh? Right up there with Theory of Relativity! 环球大学招生主任：那么乔丹，为什么取名"知识论"呢？听起来挺唬人的对吧？简直和"相对论"一个级别！
Jordan: Well, Sir. The Theory part is taken from the Greek word for theatre theta epsíalpha tau rho o-\theta \varepsilon ́ \alpha \tau \rho o- a place from where something is seen, a way of seeing, so we are looking at knowledge… to put it another way. 乔丹：先生，理论（Theory）一词源自希腊语中的剧场概念 theta epsíalpha tau rho o-\theta \varepsilon ́ \alpha \tau \rho o- ，意指观察事物的场所或视角，因此我们是在审视知识……换句话说。
In most educational circles, much thought is given to the design of curricula for subject expertise, but here TOK stands out as an exception. It takes as its goal not the further cultivation of any particular subject, but an exploration of what we call areas of knowledge (natural sciences, human sciences, mathematics, history and the arts) and themes (knowledge and politics, knowledge and technology, knowledge and language, knowledge and religion, and knowledge and indigenous societies) whose central concepts look beyond the classroom. TOK asks you to pause and reflect on your IB school experience - why history, why art, why mathematics, and even why TOK? - and, more introspectively perhaps, your own knower profile. Nothing else in the IB is designed exclusively around the stimulation of the kinds of questions, which are the point of departure for the TOK journey. 在教育界多数领域，课程设计往往聚焦于学科专业知识的构建，但知识论（TOK）课程却独树一帜。其目标不在于深化任何特定学科，而是探索我们称之为"知识领域"（自然科学、人文科学、数学、历史与艺术）和"知识主题"（知识与政治、知识与技术、知识与语言、知识与宗教、知识与原住民社会）的范畴，这些概念的核心意义远超课堂边界。TOK 要求你暂停脚步，反思 IB 学习经历——为何学习历史？为何学习艺术？为何学习数学？甚至为何要修读 TOK？——或许更需内省的是，反思你作为认知者的个人特质。IB 课程体系中，唯有 TOK 是专门为激发此类问题而设计，而这些思考正是开启知识论之旅的起点。
What does it mean to know anything at all? And more specifically, what is it to know something in mathematics or the sciences, in history or the arts? Are these the same kinds of knowledge? Why or why not? Further, what does it mean to claim knowledge in any strict sense for the value realms of religion, of politics, and of morality. Are there such things as ethical facts? Is it possible to live a good life in a corrupt society? How can a bad man write a good book? Does the strength of science rely on trust? 究竟什么才算真正了解一件事物？更具体地说，在数学或科学领域、历史或艺术领域，认知的本质是什么？这些领域的知识是否属于同种类型？原因何在？更进一步说，在宗教、政治和道德这些价值领域，严格意义上的知识主张意味着什么？是否存在伦理事实这样的概念？在腐败的社会中能否过上良善生活？恶人为何能写出伟大的作品？科学的力量是否依赖于信任？
Can you ever prove that something is beautiful? Why don’t our feelings always count as knowledge? Is it scientific knowledge if only one person knows it? What is a human science? Why did Einstein say that the more mathematics is about reality, the less certain it is? 美的事物能否被客观证明？为何情感体验不能直接等同于知识？若只有一个人掌握的认知还能否称为科学知识？什么是人文科学？为何爱因斯坦说数学越是贴近现实就越不确定？
Questions! Wonderful questions. Questions seldom favoured in the syllabuses of other courses where mastery of content is the model; where the imperatives of coverage contend with those of depth, and there is never enough time. The ‘answers’ to such open questions - what we call knowledge questions, not all of which need be known in every instance by the teacher in advance - provide what can be called a ‘second-order approach’ for understanding the various knowledge communities across subject areas; knowledge that is usually pieced out to students only by departmental division. 问题！绝妙的问题。这些问题在其他课程大纲中鲜少被青睐——那些课程以掌握内容为范式，覆盖广度与探究深度相互角力，而时间永远捉襟见肘。这类开放性问题的"答案"（我们称之为知识性问题，并非所有问题都需要教师提前知晓）提供了一种"二阶方法"，用以理解跨学科领域的各种知识共同体；这些知识通常仅通过院系划分零散地传授给学生。
Areas of knowledge 知识领域
Natural sciences Human sciences Mathematics History The arts 自然科学 人文科学 数学 历史 艺术
Themes 主题
Knowledge and politics Knowledge and technology Knowledge and language Knowledge and religion Knowledge and indigenous societies 知识与政治 知识与技术 知识与语言 知识与宗教 知识与原住民社会
From Alec Peterson, the first Director General of the IB and a teacher of TOK himself: 来自国际文凭组织首任总干事、TOK 课程教师亚历克·彼得森的阐述：
Within the IB, the nature of the TOK course is to encourage reflection upon what the student has learned both inside and outside the classroom. For even a broad and intensive curriculum can be studied as though the subject were in watertight compartments and unrelated to ordinary experience. No matter how good the curriculum is in its parts, we have not done fully right by our students if we deny them the chance to make an integrated sense of their high school life and the virtues and limitations of their learning and to bring it to the critical light. TOK makes a start in this direction. 在 IB 体系中，TOK 课程的本质在于鼓励学生对课堂内外所学进行反思。即便是最广博深入的课程体系，也可能被割裂成互不关联的知识孤岛，与日常生活经验脱节。无论课程各部分设计得多么精妙，若剥夺了学生整合高中生活体验、审视所学知识的优势与局限、并对其进行批判性思考的机会，我们就没有真正尽到教育责任。TOK 课程正是这一教育使命的起点。
It’s one of the more interesting and unusual features of TOK that the teacher need not be an expert in all areas of exploration. In fact, it’s quite possible - sometimes a surprise - that the teacher will need to relinquish the emotional pleasure of the sage on the stage for the equally challenging guide on the side. TOK 课程最引人入胜的特色之一在于：教师无需成为所有探索领域的专家。事实上，教师往往需要放弃"讲台上的圣人"带来的情感满足，转而扮演"侧旁的引导者"这一同样富有挑战性的角色——这种角色转换有时甚至会让教师自己感到惊讶。
Alec Peterson again: 亚历克·彼得森再次强调：
One of my profoundest convictions is that example and passion are crucial when we are trying to stimulate thought in our students about the nature of their own intellectual experience, and the best teachers to do that will be those who are reflecting and puzzling themselves about it and can communicate [that engagement rather than rush to impart their own conclusions and erudition]. 我深信不疑的是：当我们试图激发学生思考其自身智力体验的本质时，榜样示范与热忱投入至关重要。而最擅长此道的教师，往往是那些正在对此进行反思与探索、并能传递[这种沉浸式思考过程而非急于灌输个人结论与学识]的人。
New TOK teacher: I never majored in TOK, I never read philosophy. Thinking about all this is not easy, but, it reminds me why I went into teaching! 新 TOK 教师坦言：我从未主修过知识论课程，也未曾研读哲学。思考这些问题并不轻松，但这恰恰提醒了我投身教育事业的初心！
The question 这个问题
The heart of TOK teaching is made up of knowledge questions. Such higher order questions drive instruction, discussion, and assessment. Take away those questions that manifest the spirit of inquiry, and the subject as it should be virtually disappears. But questions, as we know, perform many functions. They can be complex and loaded. They can be accusatory or disguised assertions. And sometimes, always a challenge for a TOK teacher, the very act of asking a question, especially (How do you know?) can be seen as subversive or rude. Try this tonight. Try asking your parents, ‘How do you know?’ three or four times and see what happens. TOK 教学的核心在于知识性问题。这类高阶问题推动着教学、讨论与评估。若抽离那些体现探究精神的提问，这门学科的本质便几近消失。但众所周知，提问具有多重功能——它们可能复杂而隐含深意，可能暗含指责或伪装成断言。有时（对 TOK 教师而言始终是个挑战），仅仅是提问这个行为本身——尤其是追问"你如何知道？"——就可能被视为挑衅或无礼。今晚不妨试试：连续三四次追问父母"你如何知道？"，看看会发生什么。
Knowledge questions 知识探究问题
But for now, more specifically, in TOK there are five areas of knowledge to explore, each with its own knowledge questions about scope, perspectives, methods, and ethics - our knowledge framework. There are themes to explore, each with its own questions. There is the exhibition assessment of three objects explored through a question that frames their relevance to the world outside the classroom. And finally, there is the essay, the summative assessment of 1600 words. This is a response to a prescribed title, itself a knowledge question. It is an essay whose quality may well depend on the quality of a chain of questions you ask of it, questions that will mirror the ‘answer’. 但目前更具体地说，在知识论（TOK）课程中，有五个知识领域需要探索，每个领域都围绕范围、视角、方法和伦理——即我们的知识框架——提出各自的知识问题。存在若干主题可供探究，每个主题都有其专属问题。还有关于三件物品的展览评估，通过一个将其与课堂外世界关联起来的问题展开探讨。最后是 1600 字的总结性评估论文，需针对给定的命题（其本身就是一个知识问题）进行论述。这篇论文的质量很可能取决于你对其提出的一系列问题的质量，这些问题将折射出"答案"的成色。
Below is an example of a prescribed title for the essay, followed by a sample student analysis of the prescribed title. 以下是一道论文命题示例及学生对该命题的样本分析。
Prescribed title: Why do experts disagree given the same set of facts? 命题：为何专家在相同事实面前仍会产生分歧？
Student analysis: Who would be asking this question? And why? What makes it a knowledge question? What is it getting at? What does it remind me of? Did we talk about this in TOK? Or my other classes? What are the key words here? What does this question have to do with different ways of knowing? What areas of knowledge are relevant here? What examples come to mind? How many different ways of thinking about this are there? What is at stake in the question? What assumptions are folded in? What is my point of view here? What would a different perspective look like? What are the implications? 学生分析：谁会提出这个问题？为什么？它为何属于知识性问题？问题的核心是什么？这让我联想到什么？我们在 TOK 课程或其他课堂讨论过类似内容吗？关键词有哪些？这个问题与哪些认知方式相关？涉及哪些知识领域？能联想到哪些实例？存在多少种不同的思考角度？这个问题的关键点是什么？隐含了哪些假设？我的观点是什么？不同视角会如何看待？可能产生哪些影响？
There is no false refuge in the right answer, because there is no ‘one right answer’. A staggering fact to those who must have an immediate right or wrong signal, but the thrill of the intellectual chase to those who find freedom in their search for meaning and how this attaches to their lives, here now and ongoing. 正确答案并非虚假的避难所，因为根本不存在"唯一正确答案"。这对那些亟需非对即错反馈的人而言或许难以置信，但对于在意义探索中感受自由、并寻求与当下及未来生活联结的人来说，这种智识追寻的过程本身便充满魅力。
So it’s not too far a stretch to generalise from what a student said during a return visit on Alumni Day years after graduation: ‘I was so grateful for your class. It gave me permission to ask questions. It gave me permission to think.’ 因此，当一位毕业多年的校友返校日在谈及感受时说："我特别感谢您的课，它让我学会提问，教会我独立思考"，这样的反馈便具有普遍意义——我们完全能从中提炼出更广泛的启示。
If you’ve read this far, then you’ve seen a variety of questions in the earlier pages that sit easily in the written TOK syllabus, but may not be so easily handled by students or teachers in the real life of the classroom. In fact, ‘the question’ has not become a close friend of students over the school years as elementary grades move into middle school and on into the diploma programme. Yes, young children ask all the ‘Why’ questions - but as their schooling advances, their inquiry nature gives way to memorisation and recitation skills as per the design (understandably) of our schools during these years. 如果你已经读到这里，那么在前面的页面中，你已经看到了各种问题，这些问题在书面的 TOK 教学大纲中很容易出现，但在实际的课堂生活中，学生或教师可能并不那么容易处理。事实上，随着学生从小学升入中学，再到文凭课程，"提问"并没有成为他们学习生涯中的亲密朋友。是的，年幼的孩子会问各种"为什么"的问题——但随着学业的推进，他们的探究天性逐渐让位于记忆和背诵技能，这是这些年我们学校设计的（可以理解的）结果。
Of course there are the managerial questions - when is this due? how many words? - and the text-based questions when something needs clarity. But the wonderment questions, which reflect curiosity, puzzlement, scepticism, or a knowledge-based speculation that advances the dialogue in TOK, are much less in evidence, if at all. 当然，也有一些管理性的问题——什么时候交？字数要求多少？——以及需要澄清某些内容时基于文本的问题。但是那些反映好奇心、困惑、怀疑或基于知识的推测、能够推动 TOK 对话的奇妙问题，即使有，也少得多。
Traditionally we give less prestige to questions. They’re easy; it’s the answers that take the work. By design for years, students learned a prescribed body of knowledge in classes in a tutorial fashion. To the extent that they were good at this, there were rewards in terms of grades, of personal satisfaction, of reputation - smart kids answer questions right and they answer them fast - and these habits are imprinted over the years. Even in homes and some cultures the question is not admired or welcomed. 传统上我们往往轻视提问的价值。提问看似简单，真正需要付出努力的是给出答案。多年来，教育体系刻意设计成让学生以被动接受的方式学习既定知识体系。学生越擅长这种模式，就越能获得成绩、个人满足感和声誉方面的回报——聪明的孩子总能又快又准地回答问题——这种思维模式经年累月已深植人心。甚至在家庭和某些文化环境中，提问行为非但不受赞赏，反而遭到排斥。
Even in a broad swathe of situations the question can be labelled ‘out of line’. Imagine how this social norm can affect the production of knowledge and classroom practice. Who gets to ask? Who gets to answer? 即便在大多数情况下，这类问题都可能被贴上"不合时宜"的标签。试想这种社会规范会对知识生产和课堂实践产生怎样的影响——谁有资格提问？谁有资格作答？
So the question, and its function and value as central to the TOK enterprise, needs to be consciously cultivated as a skill in emulation of the way knowledge is produced in the world. This reverence for the good questions, and what counts as a good response and the risk this may involve, must be recognised by students and teachers as a turning point in their school experience. Also important is the realisation that their TOK class is more like their real world of tomorrow than the certainties of the agricultural exports of Peru or Pythagoras’s Theorem found in their textbooks. 因此，我们必须有意识地培养提问这项核心技能，因为问题本身及其功能价值正是知识论体系的精髓所在，这也模拟了现实世界中知识产生的过程。师生们应当意识到：对优质问题的推崇、对有效回应的界定以及其中蕴含的风险，都将成为他们求学经历的关键转折点。同样重要的是要明白，比起教科书上秘鲁农产品出口数据或毕达哥拉斯定理的确凿结论，知识论课堂更接近他们未来要面对的真实世界。
In life outside the classroom, when the big issues come up people exchange views all the time with questions of many stripes - sometimes calmly, sometimes dramatically - and offer arguments to get their point of view accepted. This is true in any field where people judge competing claims: from scientific propositions to theories of artistic excellence; from the ethics of war to child rearing. Even whether or not to sign up for the IB! Such dialogues are going on right now in every walk of life: in corporations, in government, on campus, in courtrooms, in tribal councils, and, hopefully, in the classroom. Perhaps, also, in your own family. 课堂之外的生活中，每当重大议题出现时，人们总会通过各种形式的问题交流观点——时而平和，时而激烈——并运用论证使自己的见解获得认可。这种现象存在于任何需要评判对立主张的领域：从科学命题到艺术卓越理论，从战争伦理到育儿之道，甚至包括是否选择国际文凭课程（IB）！此刻，这样的对话正在各行各业持续发生：在企业、政府、校园、法庭、部落议会，当然也理应出现在课堂上，或许还包括您的家庭之中。
Some welcome the voices of diversity and celebrate and recognise that, within this context, diversity of thought or person is neither a problem to be solved nor a defect to be tolerated, but an open door to understanding that the world and oneself are increased by pooled cooperative thinking and exchange. That being said, there are many situations where diverse views are not welcome but TOK is not one of those places: 有些人乐于接纳多元声音，并在此背景下认同：思想或个体的差异既非待解的难题，也非需容忍的缺陷，而是一扇通向认知的大门——通过协作思考与交流，世界与自我都能获得丰富。尽管如此，现实中仍有许多排斥异见的场合，但知识论（TOK）课堂绝非此类场所：
People with their differences can also be right. 持不同见解者同样可能是正确的。
(IB mission statement) （国际文凭组织使命宣言）
While underscoring the virtues of open-mindedness and open questions, of diversity and dialogue, care should be taken to avoid the two most prevalent misinterpretations of the course. 在强调开放思维、开放性问题、多样性和对话等优点的同时，也需注意避免对该课程最常见的两种误解。
TOK is not about reeling off ’ ‘isms’ or schools of thought, although extracts from philosophers (and others) are frequently used for discussion. While a philosophical perspective should be taken with second-order questions, TOK is not a course in philosophy in the conventional sense. Anyone who fails to recognise this distinction will mistake the proper channel of inquiry. 知识论课程并非简单罗列各种"主义"或思想流派，尽管哲学家的论述（及其他材料）常被用作讨论素材。虽然二阶问题需要从哲学视角思考，但知识论并非传统意义上的哲学课程。若未能认清这一区别，便可能误入探究歧途。
The second pitfall is the temptation to over-indulge in haphazard rambles to the point at which no one moves beyond the obscurity of Plato’s expression of knowledge as a ‘mysterious union between a knower and the known’. The TOK course was never meant to be a free-wheeling ‘rap session’ on the meaning of life. It has its own identifiable reason for being: to confront the disciplined ways in which our knowledge is organised, disciplines that have standards and experts and limitations, and then to express this understanding with the utmost clarity and precision of reason and language in response to the challenge of our TOK knowledge questions. 第二个陷阱是容易陷入漫无目的的闲谈，以至于无人能超越柏拉图将知识表述为"认知者与被知者之间神秘结合"的晦涩表达。知识论课程从来就不是关于生命意义的自由散漫"闲聊会"。它有其明确的存在意义：直面我们知识组织方式的学科规范——这些学科拥有标准、专家和局限，然后以最清晰的理性思维和语言表达来回应知识论问题的挑战。
