TOK - "There is more to seeing than meets the eye". Discuss in relation to sense perception

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Theory of Knowledge

“There is more to seeing than meets the eye”

Discuss in relation to sense perception and knowledge in general


“Were the eye not attuned to the sun, the sun could never be seen by it”.

Sense Perception is an important concept. The way we interact and perceive the world is through using our five senses: seeing, listening, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. They are our “windows of the world” and are usually held to be the foundation of all our knowledge of the world around us. “Sense perception is the active, selective and interpretive process of recording or becoming conscious of the external world” and helps us claim and acquire knowledge. However distortion and corruption of these senses can lead to false perception of the world as Goethe argues above, “Were the eye not attuned to the sun, the sun could never be seen by it”.

Anatomically there are two perception parts of the brain each having a different function. The primary visual cortex is involved in receiving images directly from the “eye”. The secondary visual cortex, using higher order functioning, makes sense of all visual images. This part is heavily influenced from external factors, which are out of our control, such as societal norms. There are many examples of how pre-held judgements can influence strongly what we “see” and thus showing that “There is more to seeing than meets the eye” – for seeing is an association that the perceiver understands.

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As previously mentioned perception is not just visual perception, it is general perception; auditory perception, sight perception, touch perception, taste perception and smell perception. But there is more to perception than just senses. We live in a society nowadays where we hold prejudices and prejudgments against not only other human beings but as well as our thoughts and imaginations.

Our fives senses are reliant upon sense-organs in our bodies, which are stimulated by varying forms of energy in the world. However for many other animals the situations is drastically varied. For example dogs rely upon smell more ...

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