TOK Journal #1, Date of Writing: 6/02/10, Topic: Who am I?

How do you define me? By my physical charcteristics, my religous beliefs, my academic ability? My taste in music, the subjects I like, my sporting ability? How about a combination of all of these things?

Saying my name is Justin, I am 16 and attend St Peters School, Cambridge just does not cut the mustard. This is because that information does not tell anyone anything about who i am as a person, does not provide any parameters by which to define me - all it gives them is a name by which to call me and a general profile with which to associate me.

I have been thinking on this topic a fair bit over the last few days, and my mind repeatedly thinks back to the words of a religous studies teacher (whoose name i forget) that my Religous Studies and an older IB class was lectured by last year. He structured an argument that concluded religon was in fact a set of values of some sort that a religous person would uphold. Everyone has values of some sort, a basic morale code to follow which effects our everyday lives and actions, and by my thinking go some distance toward defining who we are. So, am I defined by my values? My morale code?

Who I am, and how I define myself, is something I hope to explore over the next two years of Theory of Knowledge. Maybe I can go some distance towards answering some of the questions I have asked above!