It’s all in the name. Homo discens addresses enduring questions about the nature of learning and building understanding.

Homo discens is the companion site to Tokresource.org which chronicles the author’s own Theory of Knowledge classes. TOK is nothing if not generative and relevant. The course encourages young people to ask difficult questions and to think for themselves. It is subversive in the sense that it discourages swallowing piecemeal conventional ideas of the day or the prepackaged opinions of peers or authority figures.


TRANSCENDING DISCIPLINES

An education for the 21st century must address the buzzing confusion caused by the escalating fragmentation and specialization of knowledge. Especially in this digital era, the ability to ask the right questions, recognize good sources and discern worthwhile avenues for further exploration has become an indispensable skill for students both and teachers. Less may be more. To these ends we must to some extent all become generalists, even as we obtain mastery in one or more disciplines.

The Homo discens project takes the position that philosophy, neuroscience and the arts are by no means parallel and incommensurable discourses. A consilience of knowledge seems possible in an interconnected universe, though not in a strictly reductionist, hierarchical sense.