When should we trust our senses to give us truth?

International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge

The pursuance of absolute truth is an inexhaustible journey that leads to never-before experienced realms. The end of this road could never be reached and the best a man can hope for is a few steps in the right direction. To determine what the truth is and what it is not, a heavy reliability is placed upon the summation of what we identify from our senses. This is the standard approach that we as humans take but, it is not necessarily the correct one. Many problems exist in establishing the truth based on our senses and thus they can rarely be fully trusted.

Sense is scientifically defined as "a faculty by which outside stimuli are perceived" and by conventional classification human beings have five senses being the sense of hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. However, there are actually more humanly possessed senses that serve us. These include our ability to feel pain, temperature, as well as balance. Our senses tell us what we need in order to survive. Some animals rely on different information to live thus certain species boast different senses such as the capability to echolocate, sense infrared light as well as the ability to sense electric or magnetic fields. Our incomplete array of senses suggests that there are things that exist on the physical dimension that we as humans are not able to sense.

A general way for us to achieve “truth” is to process our data-based perceptions obtained with the aid of our senses and the conclusion results in our belief of truth. This process seems irrefutable so far but, what if our perceptions are false. Socrates, an Ancient Greek philosopher who was one of the key men laying the foundation for modern day philosophy believed that we will never learn the reality and truth of anything if we continue to wholeheartedly rely on our senses.

He would give a simple example to prove his significant point: if you put a straight stick halfway into water, it will look bent. Take it out, it looks straight again. This is a true example that surely proves a point. Of course science easily provides an explanation for this occurrence, this phenomenon is caused purely due to the decrease of the speed that light travels at in water thus misleading our eyes. A problematic discrepancy is experienced between the sciences and our own perception. There is even a problem between two ways of knowing as our perception tells us ...

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People that follow most religions, find a truth without the use of their senses. You cannot sense God but, millions of people hold him to be true thus turning their faith into truth. Myself being Christian, I experienced the process of believing in something even though I received no evidence of this through my senses. Faith is the only direction that I have to lean upon but, that in now way handicaps the validity of the personal truth.

Senses do not necessarily always provide truth although for the most part, they do and without them we would be literally lost. When you see a red light while driving, you stop because through a combination of your sight, reason, and possible past experiences you know that in the interest of personal safety, you must stop. This notion applies to nearly everything we encounter in our daily life such as not touching the hot burners on the stove to not eating food that has been spoiled. In addition, our senses work to reinforce each other. For example, when you see something and touch it, your sense of sight is proven by your sense of touch. Our senses serve us well keeping us safe and alive hence doing their job and a certain level of trust must be demonstrated in them.

Senses allow the classification of experiences which lead to reason and emotion. The senses act as stepping stones on the way to development of the different ways of knowing and “seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” The foundation of reason and language are senses which a child possesses at birth. As the result, the areas of knowledge are also founded on the human senses. It is clear that nearly every single aspect of our lives depends on our senses either directly or indirectly.

One of the main faults in using senses to give us the truth is that they can be very easily distorted and magic shows are a prime example. A famous illusion that David Copperfield performs in front of hundreds of people involves him being cut in half by a gigantic saw and then his legs being totally animate while they are on a trolley several feet beside him. I was fortunate enough to witness this spectacle live in Las Vegas and I simply could not believe my eyes. My reason was telling me that this was just a trick and was impossible. Meanwhile, I saw with my own eyes something that could not be possibly true yet it appeared that it was and in fact, just happened!

Science is one of the many causes of contradiction between our senses and the factual truth. By picking up an everyday object such as this piece of paper, through our senses we are convinced that the sheet is one solid object. Scientists studying quantum mechanics on the other hand, will strongly disagree and present evidence that the paper is actually a probabilistic “cloud” made up of electrons. When your finger comes in contact with the paper, the outer electron clouds of your hand's molecules interact with the outer electron clouds of the paper molecules. The interaction causes repulsion which causes the feel of a solid object. The electrons are diminutive and human sight cannot see them but the paper is entirely made up of these electrons and atoms. This concept is somewhat proven if we look through a microscope revealing that the paper is not a complete solid object. Which piece of paper is truer then? The one we see with our eyes or the one studied under a powerful microscope? Rationally, the one we see magnified through a microscope is truer as it offers an even closer look at the paper under study than our eyes alone. Therefore it can be deducted that a microscope with a further increased magnification will reveal more truth. So if what we see with our eyes is not true and what we see through a microscope is also not true as there is always a possibility of an even stronger magnification then, what is true? The answer is not very easily produced as an unconditional truth is not always possible and thus we have to rely on a combination of our senses and anything else that would contribute to the journey for truth.

All the arguments regarding our senses and if they should be the vehicle used to drive us on the passage for truth revolve around the question: “If I cannot trust my senses, then what do I trust to provide truth?” Our senses are the foundation and basis for everything in our lives. From the moment we develop a brain while in the womb of our mothers to the time when our feeble heart stops beating, we use our multiple senses for everything. They act like a beacon illuminating the dense darkness all around us and guiding us while we are living and breathing.

The exploration for undisputable truth is accented by hopelessness. We cannot fully rely on something as concrete as our own senses. This leaves us without dependable tools that we can implement to support us in this difficult process. As unreliable as our senses are, they should not be the deciding factor of truth. They are fundamentally variable and simply unstable but, they are all that we have. We should however, trust them to allow us to grasp the world around us be it not always true. Obtaining the evasive truth is impossible for us as human beings but, the unfeasible task should nevertheless be undertaken purely for the sake of maybe one day being a step closer.

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Bibliography- All websites accessed on September 28, 2008.