How do the 4 WOKS interact to give a picture of a reality?

International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge

HOW DO THE 4 WAYS OF KNOWING INTERACT TO GIVE US A PICTURE OF REALITY?

An apple once reportedly fell on a man’s head, who then drowned into contemplation on seeing an apple falling down from off the tree. This man is the noted physicist, mathematician and philosopher Sir Isaac Newton. The sensory perception, led to reasoning and then a drive in pursuit of the quest for an answer, and the discovery of gravity. This accomplishment would obviously be incomplete without the role of written and spoken language, to both obtain and share the knowledge in the world, through relevant justification.

Thus we see the integration of the four ways of knowing; language, reason, emotion and perception, to attain knowledge. Our experience, sensory perceptions and teachings aid us to discover what the world is all about. The pursuit for reality is ever-lasting. Reality is the truth that exists as it is. It is certainty, a true justified belief. Justification can be attained through the four ways of knowing, and therefore form an important basis to see reality. In fact, through every moment of our lives we are utilizing these ways of knowing to give us a picture of the reality. We use observation and reason not only in areas of science, but also in other AoKs like history and ethics while language is used to note observation and also discuss them with others. We can distinguish an atrocious act such as the raid in a Manglore pub against women with the help of reasoning and perception. Emotion further aggravates disgust against such acts, and language helps communicate through media, and garner awareness. In love, emotion plays a very important role but there is also a reason for this power of emotion. The reason could be blood relations, beauty or compatibility that arouses the passion. For poets and writers, perception is vital. Experiencing a character’s life and feeling their emotions is the ingredient. Language assists them in writing the desired. There is always an interaction between the varied ways of knowing as one performs any function.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Language is the mode of communication, interaction and expression. It may be written, verbal or body language. We think i.e. reason, perceive and emote through language. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests our thoughts are limited by language. I agree. We feel angry, because we know what anger is like. Language forms the base for all the other ways of knowing, for without language communication is impossible, thinking is without linearity and emotions will have no expression. One kisses to express love, this is language used to emote. Thus we can be said to perceive, emote and reason in a language. Though language may be an aid to the WoKs, often it also tarnishes the reality. The sentence ‘The lady cannot bear children’ can mean two things; a) the lady is unable to give birth to offspring and b) the lady hates children. Fallacies in this language can lead to misperception, wrong reasoning and thus does not reveal the truth.

”By doubting we are led to enquire, and by enquiry we perceive the truth.” Peter Abelard. Every major discovery has been made with the help of reasoning. The world would always have been considered to be flat, if it was not for the observation of a ship slowly arising from the horizon with the tip being first, and experimentation to prove the theory wrong. Magellan would not be able to voyage the world if it was not for his determination and strong reason. Thus the other WoKs contribute to the logic and questioning, leading one to the pursuit of justification. Perception often leads to reason. As one enters a scented room, the smell enables one to deduce that some person had just worn perfume. Our perception strongly affects reasoning. Biased perception, may contribute to inadequate reasoning. In history, ‘blacks’ and ‘browns’ were considered to be wild and unintelligent by the fair-skinned population. Thus such a stereotype cropped up by what was perceived by a few colonizers. But the induced reasoning had negative connotations as the world proved to give birth to scholarly ‘blacks’ and ‘browns’ namely Rabindranath Tagore, Aryabhatta who invented the zero, Sir Martin Luther and even the present most powerful man in the world President Barack Obama.

Humans think, feel, love, hate, express, envy. But this is as a result of a particular reason. A kind act by a kith may lead one to express gratitude. Dedication and drive to unearth answers leads to questioning. Historians on seeing ancient coins, reason out the era of their origins through methods like carbon-dating. These coins then go on to reveal economic conditions prevailing in the era as well as their progress, trade and advancement. As a student in a school, I realize that love and interest in a subject is very important to learn what is being taught. To reason the teachings, invariably gives a clear picture to the truth. All this can be done only if one is genuinely interested in the truth. “We think and live in one world; we live and feel in another.” Marcel Proust is not true. Though, at times an overpowering surge of emotion may capitalize the other WoKs, and we may act in moments of impulse reason is an aftermath that often gets us to regret the decision. This is true in cases of underage sex, or unprotected impulsive intercourses. For that matter, even anger is often emotion overpowering of reason, an thus leads to a distortion and in many case misinterpretation of the truth itself.

Different people see and perceive different ideas, objects and items differently, leading to varying beliefs. Perception is basically awareness of things through our five senses; touch, taste, smell, sight and sound. Perception through our sensory organs leads us to the quest of reality. A blind person will never be able to tell the difference between day and night, since he is visually impaired. Thus the visual impairment cannot wholly create a picture of the existing reality for him in spite of others communicating the difference in the time to him. Thus we arrive at the importance of perception to arrive at the reality. Yet one must note that perception is highly subjective. It is affected by culture, religion, family and environment. Thus different people have different perceptions. In fact, my recent visit to an art gallery lead to an argument with my peer about what a painting was conveying. But reality is not subjective like perception. Thus other ways of knowing accompany perception in order to realize the truth. This is often logic, reasoning and communication. Though people may look to be very tiny from a high altitude, we do know that they are not small. Thus our perception and reason helps us to come to a conclusion that people look smaller when seen from a high altitude. Without this view, we probably would never have come to a conclusion. Most importantly observation assists a hypothesis and leads to the final deduction in science as well as in life itself.

Yet one must note that fallacies in language, emotion, reason and perception may give us a wrong picture of reality. At first people believed that the sun revolved around the earth, and the earth was the centre of the universe. Observation and reason supported this argument then. Yet, the irregularities in this stance were later discovered and then we realized that the earth actually revolves around the sun. Similarly, for a number of years through my life I remained oblivious to poverty and malnourishment. Growing up in a financially well-off family, I never witnessed the realities of life like disease, deceit and sickness until I visited hospital, old age homes and read books about the taboos in society.

Logic, sensory perception, revelation, faith, memory, consensus, intuition and self-awareness gives justification for reality. The truth can be tested through coherence, pragmatism, correspondence and consensus. For example, one could show how the binomial theorem works through mathematical symbols. We can question a claim in mathematics, but we will then soon see that the justification for that claim will be a stunningly beautiful rock-solid proof hard to dispute because of the axioms on which it is based. Logic, pragmatism and coherence contribute to prove the binomaial theorem. A baby is largely inhibited to reason. Yet he can express through body language his emotion, crying for hurt or howling for hunger. For a baby the world is according to his sensory perception. Yet as he grows older and more aware, the picture of reality clears.

Thus we can deduce the importance of integration of the 4 ways of knowing in order to get a picture of reality. Just like it is impossible to study certain subjects without making direct reference to others, we cannot know the truth without making a correct co-relation with the other ways of knowing in any area of knowledge. For example it would be impossible to fully discuss economics (human science) graphs and tables, without the use of some basic mathematics. Similarly it is impossible to reason without observation, impossible to learn without concentration and talk without thinking.

JINAL SANGHAVI