How to understand the reality and truth around us through our ways of knowing.

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        The given question asks how to understand the reality and truth around us through our ways of knowing. It is possible for numerous persons to view the same problem at a different position with a different reality as illustrated by Amitav Ghosh’s quote: “(when) The rubber tree won’t yield latex: the biologist blames the sapling, the geologist blames the soil, the contractor blames the unskilled laborer and the owner says its fighting back at being controlled.” Thus we see that one’s position in a certain matter can filter his/her reality because of different reasoning. One’s Ethical standpoint also plays a role in his/her view of reality as well. An extremist Muslim can see Ben Laden as a savior, not a terrorist, whereby an American would see him as a terrorist and not a savior. Experience is another “filter” that can affect our knowledge of reality. Children (which generally have less experience) view the world and life in a different way than an adult does. Language is used for communication and thus is a way of knowing- although different sources can be less reliable than other; language is a filters that can either help or harm our perception of reality, as other filters discussed before can as well.

The main way by which our minds communicate with the external world is through our five senses; but even these can prove to be treacherous. Under emotional distress one can see things that are not there; such as a thirsty man in the Sahara can see a mirage portraying an oasis. Yet senses still help us to function correctly and be aware to a certain extent of our environment. The question is do we all experience our senses in the same way? There is no way for us to know; it is impossible to know the exact truth regarding the objectivity of the appearance of anything. This can explain why some people like some music that others don’t, or why some paints are admired by some whereby disliked by others. Yet there still is some coherence and harmony in between all of our own existences which shows that to some extent we share a same reality as well- in which we find the truth.

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Some parts of reality cannot be detected with our mere senses and thus our senses are extended by machines in order to find out truth, as we have seen with radars that give off sonic sound waves to give an image of the bottom of the sea. This extension of the senses is crucial in order to find truth in science areas, such as geology and biology (microscopes). In that sense our filters are made more precise and help us find truth that we never would’ve known existed- for example cells were discovered by use of the microscope.

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