Tag Archives: butterfly effect

how wolves change rivers: variables and causation

(by Eileen Dombrowski, from TOK OSC blog Feb 22, 2014) This four and a half minute video, with splendid filming of animals in Yellowstone National Park in the USA, could be effective in a TOK class on the topic of the search for cause in the natural and human sciences: Continue reading

TOK and counter-factual history

chessman-300x225(by Theo Dombrowski, OSC TOK blog, May 15, 2015) “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Ho hum? Heard this before? In the first place, this famous “quotation” is apparently a distortion–albeit a slight distortion–from George Santayana’s actual assertion, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ” More to the point, the statement raises important questions about the nature of historical knowledge. Continue reading