(by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) As a PS to my previous post on creativity and ways of knowing, I’d like to add a short (3:44) video clip of scientist Neil de Grasse Tyson speaking of the importance of the arts. In context of defending the arts from funding cuts, his appreciation of creativity and culture, embodied in the arts, gains the energy of argument. The importance of BOTH the sciences AND the arts may be self-evident to those of us teaching TOK — as indeed to most scientists and artists. Yet the faux-competition between these two areas of knowledge is one of those zombie ideas that just….won’t….die!
These ideas are expanded in the following article, with the inset discussion on the sciences, arts, creativity, and the brain — very interesting and potentially useful for exposing students to living — not zombie! — ideas:
Activating TOK 