TOK Essay

DP 1 Yang

Ms. Yorke

TOK

“Humans are pattern-seeking animals and we are adept at finding patterns whether they exist or not” (adapted from Michael Shermer). Discuss knowledge questions raised by this idea in two areas of knowledge.

In this essay, I’d like to talk about to what extent math and arts stand on the basis of patterns found in nature. As suggested in the statement, “humans are pattern-seeking animals”, therefore we, either consciously or subconsciously, depict patterns in every work we create. Of all, our pursuit of patterns is most clearly portrayed in fields like mathematics and arts.

First of all, mathematics is a subject where we look at a problem and try to solve it by decoding the hidden patterns. In order to talk about patterns in math, we need to clarify the advent of math in human society first. Some argue that we, humans, invented math whereas others say we discovered it from nature. It’s like the long-debated question that irritated many scholars and researchers, “which came first, the egg or the chicken?” Concerning this dilemmatic question, I’d like to make a remark that we, as humans, made a rule called math to explain those patterns discovered in nature.

I’d always been interested in the beautiful geometric shape of snowflakes whenever I had seen snow as a child. Snowflakes are composed of various different sized geometric shapes, especially hexagons. By the time when I was trying to reveal the truth hidden behind the mysterious shape of snowflakes, I couldn’t come up with a proper answer because I had limited background knowledge to explain why. In the same vein, people back in the days might have not been able to properly explain this phenomenon due to the lack of knowledge. However, as we have broadened our knowledge by developing technologies, now we can demonstrate why almost every snowflake has the same uniform geometric shape and it is form like that using reason and logic. My point here is that math was created by humans who got inspired by patterns found in nature. Math, in that aspect, could not have been used nowadays if humans had not been “pattern-seeking” animals. But, without math, we could not even have been able to apply patterns properly.

I do agree with the statement that humans are pattern-seeking animals because art is another evident representation of our pursuit of patterns. Art has existed since the beginning of human history. Therefore, it is a dispensable matter to all human beings. Through art, we express our feelings and emotions; satisfy our desires; and reflect nature to which we belong. Humans looked at nature and acquire some beautiful natural patterns that would add more aesthetics to their artwork. We can definitely see beautiful, impressive patterns in most artworks. They exist in the canvas either in a form of regularity or of irregularity.

As a child, I liked to analyze objects around me by looking at the hidden patterns or shapes. The habit of analyzing patterns helped me to understand characteristics that one object could possess and because of that I was able to become a better artist. Apart from that, I also liked to fill the whole page with a uniform pattern because the artwork with patterns somehow immediately grabbed my attention and was very overwhelming and different. Without even knowing why, I, as a little child, started being attracted to the charm of patterns.

Artists do depict patterns in their work either consciously or subconsciously because patterns just make everything seem beautiful and exotic. The art world would have been so monotonous and affectless if there were no patterns inspired from nature. The rationale behind this is, perhaps, humans are innate pattern seekers. In this sense, therefore, I do agree with the statement that we humans are pattern-seeking animal especially when it comes to math and art.