When should we trust our senses to give us truth?
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Introduction
When should we trust our senses to give us truth? In this essay I am going to be discussing the topic of 'when should we trust our senses to give us truth' and if it is a relevant statement or not. I will be using knowledge issues to back up this theory and also will be using different ways of knowing and different areas of knowing for this to happen. Humans have initially five main senses but in actual fact there are nine these extra ones include the feeling of heat, balance and acceleration, kinaesthetic sense and pain. For example when you are in a car you can judge the speed you are travelling at by your balance and acceleration but also by vision, so you could be on a simulator and feel as if you are going somewhere so your vision combines with this to give a match to show if it is a certain scenario. ...read more.
Middle
Also you need to combine these to actually be sure that it is what it is. In some cases one bit of prior knowledge is sufficient but in most others it is not. Our senses are a vital and important tool that we use so much all the time without even knowing it. Also our memory can help produce a perception of something to us it as a comparison to a similar smell or taste that has once been tried. This comes under history and is an area of knowing so every time you taste, smell, see, touch something that record is saved in your brain and if anything similar or you come across the same thing again it will register with your brain and this is how we know what we like. ...read more.
Conclusion
Also say if you have more than one area or ways of knowing one could be wrong for example if grenadine is poured into a drink the drink turns red but doesn't affect the taste as it is just a colouring, say if originally it was milk and it went red but tasted the same it would be hard for your brain to register this information. This relates well back to the ways of knowing as you use the language part of this to interpret what is being said and how it is being said. Your senses are the inner being of our souls and that is what needs to be used first and foremost. Trust can be broken and emotions are deceiving. Our senses tell us when something is wrong and if we chose to ignore our senses and trust what someone is telling us we can end up being hurt. ...read more.
This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge section.
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