Theory of Knowledge
TOK ESSAY EXAMPLES 10
How do historians and human scientists give knowledge meaning through the telling of stories? Discuss with reference to history and the human sciences.
According to Jean-Paul Sartre, a man is always a teller of tales; he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others; he sees everything that happens to him through them, and he tries to live his life as if he were recounting it. Storytelling therefore can be described as the action of telling an account or a description of a connected series of events or narratives which can be presented through a sequence of written or spoken words still or moving images or any combination of these. Narratives itself can act as a form of redescription; a mode of knowledge. With knowledge being described here as true, justified belief, it can be given meaning in the form of significance, clarity, and relevance through the telly
In the area of knowledge of history, historians face the challenge of limited sources and evidence required to construct knowledge on certain historical events. This is particularly relevant to preliterate societies which have no written records of their history. In such societies, the local community uses oral tradition which is a narrative approach, defined as exclusively consisting of hearsay accounts, that is, testimonies that narrate an event that has not been witnessed and remembered by the informant himself, but which he has learned about through hearsay by historian Jan Vansina (2006). These oral testimonies concerning the past are transmitted from one person to another, one generation to another through word of mouth. There is significant value in oral tradition as a historical source in such societies aiding in the reconstruction of knowledge of their history.
This phenomenon can be observed in the construction of African history. As not many of the continent’s people developed any extensive form of writing, the earliest written accounts of theirs consist of European and Arab traders, travelers, and explorers who wrote about their experiences from their perspective primarily for home audiences or as personal memoirs.
This paucity of written records led to the dismissal of the notion of African history most notoriously in the case of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher who claimed that Africa is an unhistorical, undeveloped spirit. African and African historians have therefore been using oral tradition, the only source that seemed available at the time to prove the existence of their history and have professed the value of oral tradition as a veritable historical source.
Consider another example, In Nigeria, the pioneering works of Kenneth Dike—Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta (1956) have relied mainly on gathered oral traditions and have survived much historiographical scrutiny to remain national historical classics.
IMPLICATIONS
Therefore, in this way, the telling of stories, here oral tradition, has given knowledge relevance as it allows for the generation of knowledge relevant to a particular community that could not have been constructed otherwise.
However, the use of storytelling comes with its own limitations in the context of the production of knowledge. Historians through their methodology of obtaining knowledge have always aspired to exactitude and truth. Oral tradition wholly relies upon collective or tribal memories extending beyond personal experience to represent a shared reality. However, with memory, one must also keep in mind what is forgotten or what is chosen to be forgotten, as memory and forgottenness go hand in hand.
Our TOK Premium content is carefully crafted to be highly helpful, meaningful, and practical — designed to guide you in thinking critically, connecting ideas, and mastering the subject with confidence.
With TOK Premium, you get:
• 35 Exhibition Examples — real-world objects analysed to answer knowledge questions
• 12 Band 7 Essays — strong arguments, clear reasoning, and practical real-life examplesThese exclusive, one-of-a-kind resources give you a complete roadmap to structuring ideas, applying knowledge effectively, and achieving top IB marks.
This content is for TOK Essay and Exhibition Student Membership members only.
Login Join Now
Step into a world of interactive learning where TOK, ATTL, and the IB Learner Profile come alive! Subscribe now for full access to our groundbreaking resources and join a community of educators dedicated to creating a dynamic and engaging learning environment.
