Compare and Contrast Language and Perception in the Pursuit of knowledge
Compare and Contrast Language and Perception in the pursuit of knowledge
First I will have to define “pursuit of knowledge”. Under the phrase “pursuit of knowledge” I understand seeking to gain knowledge in one way or another, so in this Essay I will look at how Language and Perception work differently in doing so.
Language is a key tool in pursuing knowledge: it incorporates communication, speech and any form of written script. To pursue knowledge research is essential, and all of the above are part of research: communication to talk to witnesses and script to learn from old books etc. for instance. Of course one needs to communicate with people to gain knowledge, and this will be done in a language both share so they can understand – not in gestures or such because speech is what is used in most types of communication.
Perception is used in the pursuit of knowledge at the very beginnings of pursuing knowledge. Pursuing knowledge does not occur where two people talk about doing something, but it starts where one person perceived something happen and decided to investigate – otherwise, where would our ideas come from? Perception is defined as the way of knowing something using our senses, sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Sight is the most common one in pursuing knowledge, for example watching lightning strike a tall pole but not the man standing next to it and thus finding out about the way lightning behaves. Hearing is probably the second most important sense for pursuing knowledge; when you hear an animal call you have never heard before you might pursue that noise to find out what type of animal it is. Touch, smell and taste are less important in my view, but still are essential in pursuing knowledge. The senses can also be combined in pursuing knowledge; for example in sound and how sound travels: You see somebody shooting a shotgun at a rabbit which is in the middle of you and the shooter, and you only hear the bang a second after the shot being fired. If you only had one sense, for instance sight, you would not have been able to stop and think “surely I must hear the bang as soon as I see the shot being fired.”
