Jamjam2010

“We see and understand things not as they are but as we are” Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing.

The ways of knowing is how knowledge is obtained and therefore how we come to understand and create our individual view of the world, by studying these ways of knowing we will be able to determine if our understanding of the knowledge of the world itself really does come from ourselves the way we developed, our perception, emotion senses, or if does it really come from things as “they are which are” which are going to be common and shared by all humans.

     The first thing we need to think about is if there really an outer reality besides the one we perceive individually? We are only going to understand things as we are because we will never know if things as they are actually exist and even if they do we will never have “access” to them because our knowledge of the world comes from the Ways of knowing which vary according to each individual so it is safe to say there is no “things as they actually are” there are just different views and opinions of the same thing. For example our perception what someone might thing is really beautiful another person might think it is not, but the question is which of these man is perceiving the thing as is it actually is? None it is just two sides of an argument in which each man it’s expressing its own perception of something based on their individuality so we can claim reality is largely individual.
     However this is only true to a certain extent there are some things that are going to be true even if some cannot perceive for example: a man that was born blind will never live the same way as one who did not, he will probably never know the world the way the man who isn’t blind does, he will never know the other man “reality” he can only perceive the world as he is and he can never have proof if you can actually “see the world” however people who can actually see know that we can therefore it proves that some things are part of an outer reality in extreme cases but that mostly reality is very individual.
     Perception It’s how we perceive the world psychologically, perception is defined greatly by an individual’s personality and life experiences each individual perception is going to be different since no one has the exactly the same personality or life experiences. Perception is very important when it comes to our understanding of the world.
     A general example is in ancient times the “white human race” considered itself superior to the “black race” because they perceived them as not being as advanced. 

However although perception is defined by our personality certain things related to perception are common to all humans because we all have the same biological structure that although affected by individuality the fact that it is still common to all of us still plays a role on us meaning all humans are going to perceive some things exactly the same way. For example most man perceives girls are being opposite to them and vice versa because of the differences in their Biological structure.

      Emotions are also very individual they are affected and changed on a daily basis by our mood personality etc. However it is also an area our knowledge because it influences the way we come to understand the world. If we are angry or in a bad mood we tend to think that most people are angry at us it is altering the way we understand the world. Nevertheless Some emotions are still going to be common to every human for example when we fall of a building it is likely that most people would feel fear (although each person might still perceive that fear in different ways ) As already said although an individual’s personality might be different we are all humans we have the same biological structures and although emotion is influenced by an individual self it is also influenced by our genetics therefore we are very similar meaning we are perceiving most of the world as it is
     Language Is also an area of knowledge in which you obtain knowledge but at the same time it your language is a largely going to influence who you are your culture AND your life experiences therefore altering your view of the world. Certain Languages have their uniqueness their way to speak it their style and require different techniques of approach when trying to teach them our language greatly affects how we see and understand the world because it symbolizes our culture in the world 

However we can say Hello in two different languages however they will still mean the same, in the end translation between languages is possible meaning they are similar enough to have the same common meaning or definitions if they are so alike will they really alter the what we are perceiving the world?

Conclusion

     My conclusion is that although the we really do perceive things based on our individual self’s there are always going to be things that are common to all of us because we are both the same species or race we cannot either say we view the world as we are neither that we view it as it is it is simply a combination of both where however individuality plays a bigger role. 

Reference

http://www.google.com.na/ http://tokcommack10.blogspot.com/ http://www.scispirit.com/ways_of_knowing.htm