Is a knower's personal point of view an asset or an obstacle to be overcome in his pursuit of knowledge?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

John

1/03/03

Is a knower’s personal point of view an asset or an obstacle to be overcome in his pursuit of knowledge?

People have positions from which something is observed or considered, which can be influenced by previous experiences and beliefs, culture, and mostly emotion. Our schema is based on this viewpoint and is influenced by the above factors. Reasoning is affected by emotion, one of the most prominent problems of knowledge. An irresponsible knower will take one point of view and dismiss other proof. Emotion can both enhance and undermine reasoning as a way of knowing.

If a knower believed a problem of knowledge to be true, he would spend all his time and effort in proving it. The knower will be so preoccupied in debating his belief and believing that it is true that he won’t consider other proof or the debater’s view. When emotions are involved in beliefs, the beliefs are most likely biased and reasoning is curtailed. Reasoning will be enhanced because of the emotion aspect.

Beliefs affect us in our every day life. They affect our actions, our interactions with people, and even our eating habits. If we believe that it is important to eat well then we are not going to eat cookies for lunch, instead we would try to eat something healthy, such as a sandwich or fruit. If we believe that the ozone layer is deteriorating because of the pollution from cars, we might walk or ride a bicycle to work instead of driving. We know also that people have different ideas about what is important and what should be a top ...

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Beliefs affect us in our every day life. They affect our actions, our interactions with people, and even our eating habits. If we believe that it is important to eat well then we are not going to eat cookies for lunch, instead we would try to eat something healthy, such as a sandwich or fruit. If we believe that the ozone layer is deteriorating because of the pollution from cars, we might walk or ride a bicycle to work instead of driving. We know also that people have different ideas about what is important and what should be a top priority. If someone permits emotions to alter judgment before the reasoning ever occurs, there will be bias and reasoning will be undermined.

A person will be more likely to consider and be persuaded by a claim if the person believes it to be true before the reasoning occurs. They may find it very hard to be persuaded by knowledge if he believes a problem of knowledge is invalid. The person will not want to waste his time in debating the argument through reasoning. He won’t even consider ideas that go again his beliefs. This is another case where the reasoning process is undermined.

Much of emotion is dictated by an individual’s environment and society. If a personal had been raised as a Christian his whole life, it is most likely that he will conform to Christian values. The environment might make it easier to appreciate an opera and harder to understand qualitative mathematical analysis or a U2 concert.

Our beliefs about the world are all different. Some of us believe that the world is a good place, while others believe that it is an evil one; some are convinced that we are not the only living beings in the universe, while others can not fathom that there is any life outside of our planet. The beliefs that we have about the world influence our pursuit of knowledge because our views and beliefs make us who we are. We all have conceived a particular view of the world based on knowledge drawn from our experiences and our emotion. This knowledge greatly influences our pursuit of knowledge. For example, if a person believes in the creation theory, not the evolution theory, he or she is not going to spend their time trying to find missing links and trying to prove the evolution theory, instead, that person is going to devote their time to try to prove the creation theory. Why should any person try to find an answer to a question that, according to their knowledge, does not exist?

In conclusion, problems of knowledge are most often thought by way of emotion and then though reason. A responsible knower doesn’t have bias and takes many views into consideration white an irresponsible one sees things only in their point of view.