Chapter 8 The Ways of Knowing

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Chapter 8 The Ways of Knowing
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Introduction to Ways of Knowing

• Ways of knowing different than the Areas of
  Knowledge
• Areas of knowledge are relatively distinct units
• The ways of knowing are much more interconnected
  with one
• It is virtually impossible to separate the four
  ways when we say we know something
• They do not work independently of one another

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How would we know about the situation in the
picture?

• A. Perception
• B. Reasoning
• C. Language
• D. Emotion
• E. All of the above

Which way of knowing creates your knowledge of
this situation?
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Imperative to remember

• All of the ways of knowing are inseparably
  intertwined with one another and they work
  together to create every persons understanding
  of and knowledge about reality

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Ways of knowing are also important factors in
each of the areas of knowledge

• Rudbecks emotion affected his perception.
• His perception affected his reason
• His reason affected his language
• All of these affected the knowledge claims he
  made in history

This must be the ski track to the lost city of
Atlantis
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This ways of knowing chapter will examine

• How the Ways of Knowing affect one another
• How they are important for knowledge claims in
  the Areas of Knowledge
• How the ways of knowing affect the knowledge we
  claim to have

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Lesson 1 Reason and Ways of Knowing
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Reason is often discussed in essays

• Many times topic questions will ask for a
  discussion of reason and how it works in
  combination with other ways of knowing or other
  areas of knowledge
• Even when the prescribed topic question does not
  ask specifically for a discussion of reason, the
  subject of reason and reasoning often applies
  anyway, and should be discussed

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Positive aspects of reason

• Objectivity
• Rationality
• Deductive and Conclusive
• Pragmatic
• Clarifies relationships

Why do we know we should not get out of the car
to shoo this pesky wild baboon away?
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Negative Aspects of Reason

• Deduction can be problematic
• Subjective nature of reasoning
• Reasoning can prove unreality
• Reason has limited access
• Snobbish-Elitist

Reasoning can prove unreality. Remember the
logical nonsense about the zombies?
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How reason affects the other ways of knowing
You might not want them in your bed at night,
but is there really any reason to fear spiders?
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How reason effects emotion

• It controls emotion
• Puts emotion into a realistic perspective
• Helps differentiate between knowledge and belief

American propaganda poster from WWII
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Reason and Language

• Language is a tool of reason
• At the same time reason is bound by language
• Language is an imperfect medium for relaying
  everything we can experience and think

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Reason and perception

• Reason makes sense of what is perceived
• Reason can change our perception of reality

What do we know about a scream coming from
someone on this ride?
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Concluding thoughts
Since it is reason which shapes and regulates
all other things, it ought not itself to be left
in disorder Discourses Chap. XviiEpictetus

• Reason does not work independently of the other
  ways of knowing
• It is dependent upon them and they are dependent
  upon reason when we acquire knowledge
• Reason has both its strengths and its weaknesses
  when considering the type of knowledge that can
  be gained from it
• Reason presents us with both paradoxes and with
  answers

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Lesson 2 Reason and Areas of Knowledge
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Reason and ethics

• Reason about right and wrong
• Reason about moral relativity and respecting
  other cultures
• Socratic Method to decide if something is a
  correct ethical statement

Will reason tip the ethical scale?
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Reason and history

• Helps make deductive conclusions about events
  when pieces of the puzzle are missing
• Helps uncover hidden bias
• Helps evaluate sources

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Reason and science

• Reasoning is the foundation for scientific method
  
• Reason behind idea of falsification

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Reason and math

• It is based on deduction
• Reason within a set of agreed upon axioms

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Reason and human science

• Reason in the human scientific method
• Reason aids in understanding ones own subjective
  interpretations and biases
• Reason can help us be aware of illegitimate
  statistical claims

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Reason and art

• Reason is used to interpret meaning
• Reason in creating art

El Greco. St. Martin and the Beggar. 1597-1599.
Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC, USA.
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Lesson 3 Emotion and Ways of Knowing
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Emotion as a Way of Knowing

• Emotion is often contrasted with reason as if
  they were two separate entities
• Reason is viewed by many as a way to true
  knowledge, such as mathematical or scientific
  knowledge
• Emotion is often viewed simply as a troublesome
  factor of our lives which has a tendency to cloud
  and skew real knowledge

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However

• It is impossible to separate the thought process
  we call reasoning from the part of our
  personalities we call emotion
• Furthermore it is important to keep in mind the
  strength of foundational knowledge
• Emotional knowledge is foundational knowledge

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Emotion

• Holds to the realm of the subjective
• Creates sound foundational knowledge, but has
  shortcomings when used as a basis for objective
  claims
• Has its strengths and weaknesses as a way of
  knowing something
• Should not be disregarded as useless for the
  creation of knowledge, but at the same time it
  should not be used as a basis for all knowledge
  claims

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Positive aspects of emotion

• Emotion is a subjective experience
• Emotion can be a basis for knowledge and
  understanding among a group or community

Even team logos can wake emotion in fans.
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Positive aspects of emotion (contd.)

• Emotion is easily communicated
• Emotion is knowledge beyond words

Why do we understand mime acting?
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Negative aspects of emotion

• Emotion is subjective
• Emotion can be irrational and brash

It goes a lot quicker to cut in line
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How emotion affects the other Ways of Knowing

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How emotion affects reason

• It can cloud reason and take away the objectivity
  
• Emotion can aid reason through understanding
  emotional states

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How emotion effects perception

• Emotion can skew perception
• Emotion can aid in perception

An old house or an abode for vengeful ghosts?
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How emotion affects language

• Affects the type of language we use and message
  we communicate
• Emotion affects the reception of the message

It is not so much what you say, but how you say
it.
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Lesson 4 Emotion and Areas of Knowledge
Is emotion too complex to fully understand?
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Emotion and ethics

• Emotion can be a decisive factor for ethical
  knowledge
• Emotion as a catalyst to knowledge about right
  and wrong

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Emotion and history

• Emotion can easily lead us to believe one story
  or version over another
• Emotion can affect which history is recorded

The Navy ship Shaw explodes during the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor
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Emotion and Science

• Emotion can even cause scientists to blatantly
  lie or forge results
• Emotion as a driving force behind all scientific
  discoveries

Hwang Woo-Suk resigned in late 2005 after he
admitted to fabricating Stem-cell research.
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Emotion and Math

• Deductive reasoning in mathematics and emotion
• Mathematical knowledge affected by emotion on an
  individual level

Does math make you feel this way?
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Emotion and Human Science

• Emotion and interpretation in Human Science
• Emotion and statistics

Super Fresh is shown to make breath 125
better. Will you dare to go a day without it?
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Emotion and art

• Emotion is often the cause of inspiration
• Emotion is part of experiencing and knowing art

Laocoön and his two sons, 1st century A.D.
Marble, Vatican Museums, Rome.
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Lesson 5 Perception and Ways of Knowing
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Introductory comments about perception

• How much cognitive psychology is really necessary
  in TOK?
• Perception is TOK only needs to focus on the
  important knowledge issues raised by perception
  and how perception affects knowledge
• There is no great need to get into depth about
  perception as it is understood and taught in
  cognitive psychology
• Perception does not need to be treated like a
  course in and of itself

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There are other aspects of perception important
for TOK

• The role of bias
• The way perception interacts with the other Ways
  of Knowing and Areas of Knowledge

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Psychology and Perception

• Everything that we know has come to us through
  our senses
• The only way to gain knowledge about our world is
  by perceiving the world through our senses
• However, we perceive the world from our own
  human, and quite limited, perspective
• Subsequetly, We can only know about an
  exceedingly small portion of all of the things
  which are actually taking place within the
  universe.

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Biological threshold

• A biological thresholds is a biological
  predisposition which limits our perceptive
  abilities to what they are.
• Consequently, our biological thresholds limit our
  knowledge of the world

I have an especially good nose.
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Biological thresholds and the implications for
knowledge

• We can not possibly know the world fully by
  perceiving it yet paradoxically, our perception
  is our only way to know our world
• Perhaps our perceptions are merely imperfect
  approximations of reality which we have
  incorrectly fooled ourselves into believing are
  actually reality
• Since we are aware that we have limited
  perceptive abilities we expand these abilities
  through technology
• We are constantly searching and trying to
  understand the world as it functions beyond our
  five senses

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Biological thresholds and the implications for
knowledge (contd.)

• Since we are not able to perceive everything we
  know about, we must get our knowledge about these
  things from other sources
• Our limited perception also leads to knowledge
  claims based on faith and belief.

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Illusions

• Illusions are a good way to illustrate that
  reality can be different from how we actually
  perceive it
• Perception can fool us into thinking things are
  different than they really are

Is seeing really believing?
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Rules in the perception game

• We can only know what we can perceive
• Anything that affects our perception can affect
  our knowledge of reality
• If we perceive something one way we have no way
  of knowing if our perception is reflective of
  reality or not
• Is it possible that we are all just brains in a
  vat hooked into some sort of perception machine?

How would we know?
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Bias and Perception

• To avoid perceiving situations all too
  subjectively we must understand how bias affects
  our perception
• We must be aware of our biases

Efficiency or treacherous death traps?
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Biological biases

• A biological bias is one which is caused by
  biological factors
• They limit what can be experienced and
  subsequently known
• They cause people to make sense of situations
  differently than they otherwise would

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Social biases

• Social biases all work on the making sense
  level of perception
• They can be likened to a filter through which
  people view the world
• As soon as mental processing takes place, the
  social biases come into effect
• Social biases are ever-present in our perception
  of reality

There is more to percieving this car than only
seeing it
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Social biases (contd.)

• Social biases are biases which we have learned
  through our lives in a social environment
• They make it impossible to perceive objects in
  the environment neutrally
• We cannot escape our subjective understanding of
  reality to see things differently than we can see
  them

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Ways of Knowing and Perception

• Perception affects all ways of knowing
• Biased perception affects reason, language, and
  emotion
• Perception of emotion in language

It is even possible to perceive this neutrally?
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Lesson 6 Perception and Areas of knowledge
The Adoration of the Kings. Jan M. Gossaert.
1500-1515 National Gallery, London.
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The human processing machine

• Always keep in mind the important role bias plays
  in our perception of the world
• Even the most basic of our perceptions (and then
  subsequent reasoning and reaction) are influenced
  by our biased outlook on the world
• Knowledge claims demand processed thought which
  starts with an observation of some sort and ends
  with a response
• Thes processes will be affected by bias

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Perception and ethics

• Right or Wrong whats right and wrong all
  depends on how you see a thing.
• Bias and perception combined create an ethical
  knowledge of reality

Will everyone perceive alcohol the same way?
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Perception and history

• Perceiving claims as lies or truths
• Perceiving connections, seeing patterns and
  possible solutions

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Perception and science

• Science is perception
• Expanding perception via technology
• Perceptual bias can affect interpretation

What is this but an extension of our vision into
smaller realms?
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Perception and math

• Little or no effect
• Perception part of mathematical discoveries

Someone must have perceived the relationship.
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Perception and human science

• Perception a part of human science
• Perceptual bias in human science
• Bias alters the meaning of phenomena as they are
  being perceived
• Bias can also can also predispose a person to
  observing certain types of things which are
  considered to be important within the mental
  construct one has

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Perception and art

• Perception and creation
• Art is made to be perceived
• Biased perception forms creation
• Biased perception predetermines taste

Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in the Lion Hunt.
British Museum. London
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Lesson 7 Language and Ways of Knowing
The limits of my language are the limits of my
world. Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Language and reason

• Language is the means by which reasoning takes
  place
• Language can prove the unreasonable

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The Liars Paradox

• This sentence is false (A)
• First, if (A) is true, then (A) is false
• On the other hand, lets assume (A) is false. But
  because the Liar Sentence is saying precisely
  that it is false, then in all actuality (A) is
  true
• So (A) is true, but it says it is false. So it
  cannot be true if it says it is false. (A) can
  only be true if and only if it is false. But (A)
  can not be both true and false, but (A) is both
  true and false

This sentence is false. Hmm Perhaps he is
also perplexed by the Liars Paradox.
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Language and emotion

• Language can elicit emotion
• Emotionally charged words
• Language conveys emotion

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Language and perception

• Language, emotion, reason, and perception
• Language focuses attention
• Language can alter perception of the past

Language can change perception of the past.
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Lesson 8 Language and Areas of Knowledge
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Language and ethics

• Ethical knowledge through reason and language
• Ethical knowledge through emotion and language

Can language help tip the scales of ethical
knowledge?
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Language and history

• Historical knowledge is largely language based
  knowledge
• All language will reflect cultural and personal
  bias
• The historian must be aware of this when making
  and reading knowledge claims

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Language and science

• Scientific language
• Perhaps language causes one to view the world in
  scientific terms
• Since all of our thoughts are in words and our
  thoughts make up our reality, the question arises
  if people using different words have a different
  reality than people who did not have those words
  in their minds

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Language and math

• The language of mathematics
• There is a mathematical language much like there
  is a scientific language

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Language and human science

• Language a subject of study
• Languages interpretive ability
• Language has the unique ability to make the same
  information mean completely different things

One word will can change everything.
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Language and art

• Language is art in some aspects
• Language allows for artistic interpretation to
  happen, and even if it could be proven that no
  objective knowledge could come from
  interpretation of art, interpretations do lead to
  strong subjective, or foundational knowledge
• Everything is not completely open to
  interpretation
• language also has the ability to relay messages
  or ideas unambiguously