At first blush, holiday movies might seem like an unusual arena for encountering TOK-type questions and issues. However, with just a little bit of reflection, one can see that at the heart of many holiday movies is a consideration of the relationships between the concepts of knowledge, truth, justification, belief, and reality. Think about some of the most famous holiday movies:--The central question of "Miracle on 34th Street" is the veracity of a department store Santa's claim that he is the real Santa Claus.
--At the end of "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge is seen hugging the blankets on his bed and wondering if his visions of the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future were real or not. And there is Scrooge's classic line when Marley's ghost first appears to him, "There's more of gravy than the grave about you, whatever you are!"
--In the final scenes of "It's a Wonderful Life," George Bailey is confronted with two versions of reality, and in the closing scenes, he excitedly and ironically embraces his bloody lip, his crashed car, and the irritating propensity of a finial on the staircase rail to come off as signs that he really was born.
Below, ready for your comments, are a couple of quotes and clips from "The Polar Express" that touch on knowledge, truth, belief, justification, and reality. Connections can also be made to our present consideration of sense perception as a way of knowing. You are also invited to submit quotes and/or clips from another holiday movie, along with your comments or reflection on them, for dual credit (i.e. credit for two journal/blog entries).
Click the play button above twice (with a pause between) to see the film clip for this piece of dialogue.
Hobo: What exactly is...is your persuasion...on the Big Man, since you brought him up?
The Boy: Well...I...I want to believe, but…
Hobo: But you don’t want to be bamboozled. You don’t want to be led down the primrose path! You don’t want to be conned or duped...have the wool pulled over your eyes. Hoodwinked! You don't want to be taken for a ride! Railroaded!...Seeing is believing....Am I right?
Seeing, Believing, and Reality
source: Spike TV
Click the play button above twice (with a pause between) to see the film clip for this piece of dialogue.
The Boy: Wait!...Wait! Wha...Wha...What did he look like? Did ya see him?
The Conductor: No, sir. But sometimes, seeing is believing....And, sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.
