The human race differs from other species on earth. It has developed in a way that makes it able to think independently from other individuals, to control its instincts and urges and to communicate with other human beings. In addition, it has learned to criticise and to ask questions about its existence. Hence, it has also learned how to gain knowledge. But what is knowledge?

In everyday speech, people use the information they gain in order to expand their level of knowledge. In what way this expansion takes place depends on the person who possesses information and what he chooses to do with it. He or she can for example hear about a theory, and decide if he or she wants to adapt it to his or hers knowledge.

This way, facts and theories work as building bricks in a wall of knowledge, and you have to choose on which areas you want to expand this wall. Sometimes, when facts and theories become refuted, a brick disappears in the fundament of a wall and the wall falls down and must be rebuilt with other theories and facts as a point of support.

To have a common sense is closely related to knowledge. It is the starting point of its expansion, and a point for further individual development. Therefore, the common sense is essential to accept on a daily basis, in order to be able to communicate with other people and to expand one’s horizons. The common sense is also a way to define normality, even though there can be no exact definition of what a normal person is, since everyone owns the ability to think for themselves and therefore are different from each other. Still, the common sense can be looked upon as a norm for normality and how people must act to behave in proportion to others in a society, and in order to expand their knowledge.

In conclusion, we can say that everyone has their own knowledge, but that this knowledge is fragile. If a person wants to expand his or hers horizons and knowledge, he or she must be able to accept theories or facts as genuine and use these as a fundament for further development and learning. This leads to the fact that knowledge is fragile, in the way that if the fundamental common sense and knowledge can be disproved and rejected, a whole branch of a person’s knowledge is torn down and must be rebuilt. In the end, it is all a matter of how solid you can build up your wall of knowledge, and what materials you use during the construction.

Well, well, well…

I do not know if I have any regular readers, but if I do I must say that I am so, SO sorry for the way too long break I have been having from updating this website… I must have let you down, if you have been waiting.

I guess that some of the people who read this are currently in the middle of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Well, as I now am starting to look back on the last couple of years I see how much I have been through, how much I have learnt. Also, I see how hard it can be to see the lightt in the end of the tunnel when finishing the first year and knowing that you have one year left… All I can say to you is that when you get to the point that you are starting to hand in your major assignments and tasks and start to revise for exams, time simply flies past and suddenly you are standing at the after-exam party feeling free as a bird.

I am revising now. Meaning that I have to go now

- elgvin

I do not know what I expected from the lessons we were going to have in History ToK. To me history was history, something that could not be changed, great events in the past that would always be remembered, and something to tell your grandchildren. It is first now that I see that this view of history was way too romantic and simplified.

When I was being introduced to questions such as “who decides what is history?” or “what causes events to happen?” I saw how wrong I had been. History is mainly a reference to the past, to what is behind us. This means that when I write the letter “K” on the keyboard in exactly this moment, it is already history, because it belongs to the past. But history is also a subject, something that can be studied. Some people dedicate their lives to study history.

I thought studying history mainly was about finding out what happened during some past event. And I was right, except that I did not think about the fact that they are also looking for causes for why these events took place. I find it intriguing and maybe also a bit frightening that it is the historians who have all the power when it comes to retelling a story or event, and what they tell might not be correct in regard to the actual events.

So creating a credible historical retell of an event is all about collecting sources and draw conclusions out of these. The only problem is that these conclusions might be horribly wrong. This is why many historians debate about what sources tell and try to persuade the public opinion into believing that their account is true based on sources and evidence. The causes of historical events are also debated; some think that the environment and the current situation make events happen, others believe in free will. I personally find it more logical to give the credit of occurrences to free will. Maybe this is because I dislike the idea of destiny, that all we do is already decided and cannot be undone or done otherwise.

- elgvin

Wow, I am very sorry to not having been available. I have been having some troubles with spam and so on recently, making me sick of my own blog. But now I have dealt with the problems, and here is the promised article about happiness.

Nic Marks is in his speech “About Happiness and Climate Change” talking about happiness. In his speech, he is considering economic progress and the way that the gross domestic product is internationally used as a measure for progress. However, what this number does not tell us is how happy the people in the countries really are. For although economy and wealth is important to people, it cannot be compared to the importance of happiness and love in people’s lives.

So what is really happiness? If it is not money, then what is it?

I remember reading about a philosopher once who said that “a man without dreams and ambitions is too miserable to exist”, or something similar. However, the point was that we as people are designed to work, to create and dream. These are things that drive us, that give our lives meaning, that make us happy,  was this philosophers’ ideas and thoughts. So is the recipe of happiness as simple as this? As long as you have things to do in your every-day life and have dreams and yearnings, you can be as happy as the happiest man on earth? Or is there more to it?

How about love? The famous and most well-used theme and emotion in the world. Well, one could almost say that happiness includes love in some way or the other anyway, at least in terms of being in a state of mind that pleases us so much that we cannot believe it as anything else as happiness. But is happiness a long- or a short-term affair? Is being happy for a short period of life the same as happiness? Is having a relationship with someone for a short period of time out of admiration rather then real feelings happiness?

Sorry for all the questions, but there are so many things that can join in when defining happiness. This is why I looked upon Nic Marks’ Happy Planet Index with a critical eye. He says that he can measure happiness. I believe that this is not possible. Point stated.

I think that we all must learn to find our own happiness. To me it would be finding someone that I can be together with for the rest of my life, one that I can love and (very rarely, hopefully) fight with, but that never leaves my side. I want to have a family, and a job that I can be content with. I want a good education, because knowledge interests me. I dream of growing old, and being able to look back on my life saying that life was worthwile.

What is your recipe for hapiness?

- elgvin

Okay, so being an IB-student I must say that I enjoy listening to speeches like this one made by a man called Nic Marks.

However, I have some questions that you could say are very ToK-based. First of all, how can we measure happiness? And how do we measure it?

I will be back with more on this soon, this is just a warm-up and an apologee for not having been very active recently…

- elgvin

After having started on a new topic in my English A2 course, I have read numerous leaflets on the topic of Globalization. From some of these leaflets I figured that I should take notes of the best quotes, and when collected together one get an interesting collection of thoughts and ideas that I wanted to share with you.

In the development of a global village there are many opinions, and paricipants of the debate are often highly critical or very positive to many of the aspects of globalization. I will not express my view on the issue, but simply write here the quotations I took note of in the text “Living in a Global Village” from a textbook in the course.

“In a broader perspecitve, there are many signs that the world in some sense is becoming smaller and smaller” (The essence of globalization)

“[Today], business executives and governmental officials can attend a breakfast meeting in London and a dinner conference in Los Angeles – during the same day” (The development of crossing borders)

“Tourism is in fact one of the fastest-growing industries in the world”

“Furthermore, at the outset of the second millenium we seem to find ourselves in the middle of an electronic revolution centering around the Internet”

“A well-known principle says that ‘Hostility anywhere has the tendency of becoming hostility everywhere’”

“Our understanding of ‘Globalization’ may depend on whether we are talking about its economic, political or cultural aspects, and definitions will also tend to differ depending on whether we see these developments as largely positive or as threatening and destructive”

“Groups and people on the political left tend to see globalization as producing an unfair economic system which allows rich countries to exploit poorer ones” (One of the anti-globalizational economic arguements)

“Some critics argue that through globalization, western ideals are falsely established as universal, and local traditions are left to suffer”

“Supporters of the economic globalization include liberalists on the political right, who argue that encouraging world trade will promote economic growth and increase standards of living all over [the world]” (Pro-globalization arguement)

“The fear of cultural imperialism, combined with resentment of America’s political involvement abroad, may have been at the core of the anti-American sentiments behind the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. on 11 September 2001″

These are the quotes that I took note of, and whether you find them interesting or not is up to you to decide. However, they are at least the essence of the opinions presented in the text and gives a good lecture on globalization. Any comments?

- elgvin

So, I have finally started on the second year of the International Baccalaureate program. From now and on there is a lot of work to be done, and by the end of February we will quit regular teaching and start revising for our exams in May.

But now, this close to the end of the program (and the weeks are flying by quite fast now) I have been thinking a lot about what this course actually has been giving me. One might think that it is only for our own benefit when it comes to getting a good referance that can be used later for applying for universities or whatever, but is that really it?

Before answering this question I decided that it would be smart to look over what the IB stands for again. What values and ideals does the IB system aim to achieve for the students they educate? Well, the impression I have got this far in the programme is that it values independent learning by the students. In contrast to many other school systems, the teachers are on our level, not a superior. They are there to guide us and prepare us for the exam. This gives the class environment a good spirit, and learning becomes easier.

This opens up for motivation and joy with learning new things and gaining more knowledge. I must say that two years in the IB has not taken away my wish for becoming a doctor; on the contrary, I feel more ready for the long study of medicine that is ahead of me.

In addition to having given me motivation, experience and expertise in independent learning it has also been am interesting course when it comes to something I have termed “extended thinking”, particularly through the Theory of Knowledge course. We have learned to become critical thinkers and reflective learners.

I think that this is the most important ability I will take with me from the two years on the IB. It will become useful in the future world as it will be necessary to look what is behind things in our society. Who wrote this article? Why does he write it? What is his background? Can I find another article representing the same issue from another perspective?

All these questions have been given a new meaning and importance. A word that frequently has been used recently in my classes is bias. This is a word with many meanings, although we use it most commonly when we describe something that has been produced from only one point of view in order to persuade us into believing that this is the only point of view. In a world with a decreasing number of media-stations where the stronger and richer companies by the smaller ones, it is very important to be critical towards what we are being told.

In order to come name some of the more materialistic things the IB has given me I can name that I have never been as structured and disciplined in my studies as I have the last months. IB is a perfect choice for those who are looking into further education, for instance through universities.

I can therefore sum up very shortly that this programme has been giving me the abilities of independent learning, critical thinking and reflection over my actions and thoughts. These are all values and abilities that will help me for the rest of my life.

I don’t think that any other course could have made me feel more ready for the future.

elgvin

My Extended Essay is about this topic. I am trying to measure the coastline of Norway by the use of fractals, which is something that is quite similar to what Benoît Mandebrot did in 1967. Mandelbrot then published the research paper “How long is the coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension“, where he explained a method for measuring coastlines, and an example with the coastline of Britain.

In simple steps, what I did was to unfold a giant map of Norway. By using a compass fixed to a certain value and go from point to point along the coastline from south to north (or the other way, if you like) I deduced the length of the coastline.

However, the length differed when differing the compass span!

This is more commonly known as the coastline paradox, and is the reason for why the values for the length of the coastline differ from various sources. I got results that differed from 2500km to 6600km, the latter with a span corresponding to 20 km in real life.

However, by comparing my values with literature accepted values and using a formula that is described in the link, I managed to find a result.

The coastline of Norway is, when using a 1 km measurement scale by the use of Mandelbrot’s formula as described in the wiki-article:

19 157.1 km

Post comments or questions if you like.

elgvin

What is knowledge...?

What is it?

Simply spoken, it is an introduction to critical thinking and selective learning. However, many students find it to be more than this.

After having Theory of Knowledge (ToK) lessons for a year now, I must say that I feel that it is the subject where I have learned the most. However, after the first six months I did not understand a thing of it. This is because of the learning technique that is being used in ToK: first they defragment your mind and everything you have been certain about, and then they start building it up again.

What does this do to you? Why is it good that the course tears everything you thought you know and leaves you naked behind thinking that you can trust anything? Simple. You get a much wider perspective of life and the world. You start to be critical to sources and you identify biases and increase your ability to make your own decisions and opinions about issues and topics.

Believe those who are seeking the truth.  Doubt those who find it.  ~ Andre Gide

This quote is an example of the crazy ideas that are presented for an IB-student. It makes sense to me now,

but believe me; it did not in the beginning!

So do not despair if you are in the middle of your course now. You will get over it.

Elgvin

What is really the IB Diploma Programme?

The school I am currently attending started up with this programme a couple of years ago, and the feedback was so great when I started looking into options after middle school that I wanted to apply. This long I have not regretted my decision.

The Diploma Programme is an educational system that corresponds to High School in the American school system. The education is however built upon a different fundament and other principles than regular schooling. IB focuses more on making the students become independent learners that can finish their upper secondary education with only the help of teachers functioning like supervisors.

The International Baccalaureate has developed a learner profile, that covers ten goals with the programme. They want to make their students:

• inquirers
• knowledgeable
• thinkers
• communicators
• principled
• open-minded
• caring
• risk-takers
• balanced
• reflective

This does of course make this system more demanding than a regular schooling system, and if you are considering doing the IB you must be prepared for a challenging year where you should prioritize your education.

I decided to take the programme because of the major benefits. First of all, you get the chance of studying with other people who are interested in doing good at school. This means that the working motivation and cooperation will be high and you will get a better class environment. Second, you get a good preparation for future studies, for instance at universities. Since the working amount will be bigger, you will get used to study techniques and patterns, which is good if you are looking for higher education. And third, if you are not a native English speaker, you develop new skills in English, as the whole course is thaught in English (except for mother languages).

It is absolutely worth spending two years on completing this course, if you are interested in getting a good education.