Monday, November 19, 2007

In Regards to Knowing

Throughout the posted blogs and the during TOK class the subject of analyzing if we really know anything has come to play. I doubt any one person can be absolutely right, but should we not take into consideration the definition for knowing. I do realize that this question has been evaluated on the blog before, but that was at the beginning of the semester and now we have more knowledge to base our opinions.
We now understand that our senses are our only means of knowing and that those senses cannot be trusted.
We understand the need for faith, underlined in every way of knowing, but so far we have not incorporated this new way of thinking into the definition of knowledge.
If we believe that our senses are the only way of knowing the world and that our own unique perception guides our senses then we must also believe that our perception is the only way to know the world.
This perception is the only form of knowing we have. It is as true to you as the ten fingers on your hand (hopefully!).
Although what you perceive maybe radically different from the person sitting next to you in class, it is still your reality and your knowledge of that reality.
You could also have the opinion that what you perceive as reality is not in fact the universal reality, but do we really live in a universal reality were there is only one absolute truth? I don't believe we do (but maybe in your our reality you do). We do exist with other people so we have adjusted to a life by simplifying language, inferring, presuming, and assuming what may not have been said; we do this with the deliberate intention of making life easier, simplifying first and fixing the misunderstanding in communication rather than being specific to the point where one simple sentence can take a minute to say. For example, John walked to the store, can become John at two o'clock in Chicago time on the eleventh of August in 2007 walked on concrete paved at twelve noon in Chicago time on the tenth of September of 2000 at two o'clock in Chicago time on the eleventh of August in 2007 to the store at two o'clock in Chicago time on the eleventh of August in 2007. Was all of that really necessary? Not really, so in most human languages it is unnecessary and rarely ever used.
Anyway, what I really want to get across it that we do know something, not everything, but something and that should always be kept in mind.

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