Knowledge Theory: How Can We Know the Truth?

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
When should we trust our senses to give us truth?
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The most difficult thing is getting to know the truth, to know the truth it takes a lot and there is no prescribed procedure getting to know the same. So the question is how exactly can a person know whether his perception of a given thing is true or not? This is a very debatable topic and many a theory has been formed on this. To know the truth on has to be an actor of knowledge. The term WOK which stands for ways of knowing plays a pivotal role in getting to know the truth. This paper is going to deal with how exactly a person can get to know the truth. What are the complexities involved in knowing the truth.

Discussion

Sometimes we get heavily influenced by repetition but in other cases the same does not happen, for instance if a person stands n front of another person claiming to be an alien, the other person is unlikely to believe because it is quite clear from the looks of the person that he/she is not an alien, in this case repetition does not work, on the contrary if someone asks another person what is the capital of the US, he would surely say Washington D.C and this is because the other person might have heard this several times and he remembers it when the time compels. This is a classic example of area of knowledge which is closely connected with theory of knowledge. Another example is that of Hitler, many people believed that he was immortal but this was far from reality, he died a pathetic death and the same goes to show that perception is many a time different from the truth. Earth was believed to be flat and many scientists believed in this theory very firmly but the reality is that the Earth is oval in shape, another example of perception being proved wrong.

The famous Greek philosopher Plato described truth as Justified true belief. Theory of knowledge is a course which basically deals with how a person can get to know the truth. It involves study of various terms like Ways of knowledge and Areas of knowledge. The term Ways of knowledge is further divided into four subheadings, namely perception, emotion, reason and language. The term perception is a psychological term which is a process in which the knowledge of sensory information is obtained. There are many things which make up persons perception, the most important of them all is past experience which the person has had. Another important factor is the culture of that particular person. These two things are the most significant things which make up any persons perception. Perception can be of any types for instance a person can have perception of color or for that matter perception of speech and to add to this there are many more perceptions which any individual develops.

A common mistake which is often committed is the inability to distinguish feelings from emotion. These two terms are different and the same is proved by many researchers. They believe that a person can experience emotions unconsciously too. On the other hand feelings are emotions being experienced by an individual or a group of people. The third most important term which constitutes in the ways of knowledge is Reason. Reason is a very broad term and it is usually justified by logic, for instance an individual has a reason not to trust another individual because of logic and past experience. So a reason is provided to any individual purely because of logic. When an individual comes to a conclusion by logical understanding of a sequence of events thats when it is called a reason. Logic is often the biggest drive which allows an individual to have a reason. Reason an emotions vary immensely. The main focus of reason is to decide what is true and what is best suited in a given situation for an individual. Reason is one of the biggest factors which help in deciding the truth. The last factor which constitutes in the ways of knowledge is Language. Language is nothing but symbols which help in communication. This is mutually exclusive to human beings; it is believed that only human beings are blessed with the ability to communicate effectively. There is no denying that other species do communicate but the communication is not as affective as in human beings. This is important in the study of truth because unless an individual understands the language it is highly improbable that he would arrive at the truth. Hence this is another major factor which helps an individual in figuring out the truth.

When should we trust our senses to give us truth?

It is our sense which goes on to decide what the truth is. Truth is a biological process which involves four most important things, namely development, Ecology, Evolution and Physiology. Our sense has the ability to analyze a given situation or in other words distinguish the valid from invalid. The role of common sense is very important in knowing the truth. Without common sense arriving at the truth is not possible. Each individual decides for himself/herself what truth is. For instance a person eating his/her desired meal is that persons choice but what benefits his/her body is the truth. Many people shy away from truth because they believe their senses, but in reality the perception of their sense is often questionable. A person can trust his/her senses and can be sure that the sense is providing the truth only when that person has a strong understanding of logic and reasoning, a good understanding is a must to know the truth. Logic and reasoning are two most important things which any individual should inculcate to arrive at the truth. Senses often play a secondary role in deciding what the truth is; it is common sense and realization which go on to decide what the truth is. Firstly we must make sure that we are totally aware of our senses, once an individual is aware of his senses completely he/she will surely arrive at the truth. Our senses provide us data and it is our interpretation of that data which leads an individual towards the truth. The conclusion is that a person can never rely totally on the senses to give the truth; one must have common sense above all the factors to decide what the truth is. Our sense merely provides us the data and it is our common sense which decides what exactly the truth is. A classic example is that when a person has cold can he/she still trust his/her sense of smell? The obvious answer is no, so it is basically our common sense and our logical interpretations of events which decide the truth. There is no denying that our sense do play an important role in arriving at the truth but the final thing which decides what the truth is our common sense. So it can never be said that a person can rely on his/her sense alone to give him/her the truth.

Conclusion

It seems then, that the nature of our senses implies that we will never have access to the real world (though as we have seen, real world is a highly problematic phrase). Some people may feel this is a great disappointment, while others may not care, but it is certainly humbling to note that even in this advanced age, for all our scientific expertise and high-tech machines, we will never know reality. (The TOK Essay, 2009).

References

The TOK Essay. In RISM.

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Knowledge Theory: How Can We Know the Truth?

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