How can the different Ways of Knowing help us to distinguish between Truth and Belief?

Theory Of Knowledge ESSAY

Question:To what extent can Reason and Sense Perception help distinguish between Truth and Belief? Avinash Bharwaney Q12 Mr. Georgiou jan 2014 Word Count: 1512

Year 12 TOK Essay

Avinash Bharwaney

Mr. Georgiou

How can the different Ways of Knowing help us to distinguish between Truth and Belief?

Truth. The subject of all that is real and factual. A description of the laws that occur in our perception of the known reality: our universe. An abstract force so great that it consists of everything and everyone at anytime, yet simultaneously, is non-existent to us as we will never completely understand all truth. A key question currently imposed on society is what is true because the truth can, at times, be considered subjective; while a person may suggest that something is true, another might disagree and suggest something else is true. There is a line that distinguishes between the objective truth and subjective truths, the objective truth being the truth that everyone accepts because it is something society, as a collective, perceives to be true (although there can be exceptions to this rule), whereas subjective truths are beliefs, strong personal beliefs that individuals have, built from nature and developed through nurture. However due to a number of influencing factors such as emotion, faith and false perception of the truth, many do not see the difference between this line, leading to conflicts over what truly is the truth. Sense Perception and Reason are two Ways of Knowing that help bold this line, but nevertheless come with their own limitations that can also hinder the transparency between the two. Before further exploration into the subject at hand, thorough definitions for both truth and belief are required in order to completely analyze their benefits and drawbacks. Famous Greek intellectual Plato defined truth as justified, true belief and his definition is noted, by philosophers and the general public alike, as the definition closest to the true essence of the word. This truth that we adhere to is certainly what Plato defined it as; it is formed by beliefs, then supported with evidence and proof. Belief, on the other hand, refers to relative truth (relativism) and is based upon personal, subjective and opinionated views. There is a very clear difference between the two; objective truth is justified while subjective truth is not. Nevertheless, as a person can have a lot of faith and emotion connected to a (subjective) belief of theirs, they can refer to it as the truth even though it has not been justified yet, solely because their belief is very strong. By using the Ways of Knowing such as Reason and Sense Perception as justification for the truth, individuals can gain a better understanding between the differences of truth (objective) and belief (subjective) and so resolves this controversial issue. Nonetheless, the Ways of Knowing should not be assumed to stand absolutely correct all the time as there will be occasions where they can blur the line. Reason, as a Way of Knowing, provides us with the objective truth rather than subjective opinions as reason relies on logic and rationality when coming to a conclusion. It is used widely in the realms of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences which are two Areas of Knowledge that make use of prior knowledge and observations to formulate
Year 12 TOK Essay Avinash Bharwaney Mr. Georgiou

How can the different Ways of Knowing help us to distinguish between Truth and Belief?

answers. There are two types of reasoning that allow this to occur: inductive reasoning, referring to the use of experience and empirical evidence to form posteriori-based logical conclusions, and deductive reasoning, which relates to the type of reasoning that incorporates prior statements and general knowledge to form priori-based logical conclusions, independent of factual proof. Even though inductive and deductive reasoning share various differences in terms of reaching a logical conclusion, they both provide the objective truth, if, of course, the initial premise used is true. In Mathematics for example, deductive reasoning can be used to derive the answer to simple algebraic equations: If A is equal to B + 1 and A is equal to 5, a justified conclusion can be made in which 5 is equal to B + 1, and thus B is equivalent to 4. This suggests that reason can provide, as a form of justification, the truth in the Areas of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and so helps distinguish the truth from the assumptions and uncertainties. On the contrary, if Reason was used to distinguish between truth and belief in the Area of Knowledge of Art, it would not be able to because Art is opinionated and based on subjective beliefs, not on the objective truth; this is an Area of Knowledge where personal tastes (beliefs) are given value and importance. While one individual can judge a piece of art to be pointless, another can see the same piece, but judge it as a masterpiece. Both individuals perceptions of the work are solid justifications in their own right simply because their opinions are brought about by their feelings; Art relies on Emotion as justification. Reason also has other flaws when determining the truth, namely when fallacies are incorporated into a justification. In the most basic sense of the term, fallacies are the lacking of reason in an argument or justification and can be used both intentionally, when attempting to persuade an audience or unintentionally, making the arguments very weak. Fallacies can also be due to Emotion and personal Faith and belief in an issue which defeats the purpose of having Reason to prove a premise. An example being: Animal experimentation reduces our respect for life. If we dont respect life, we are likely to be more and more tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our society will become a battlefield in which everyone constantly fears for their lives. It will be the end of civilization. To prevent this terrible consequence, we should make animal experimentation illegal right now (Cohen, 2010). The usage of the fallacy slippery slope exaggerates the consequences of the initial premise, however does not necessarily provide
Year 12 TOK Essay Avinash Bharwaney Mr. Georgiou

How can the different Ways of Knowing help us to distinguish between Truth and Belief?

a logical answer as Emotion and the personal, subjective beliefs of the arguer which again relates to the subjective rather than the objective. Intentional fallacies can also, ironically, tend to manipulate people into believing that they are true, further blurring the line between truth and belief. Another Way of Knowing that can be used to further distinguish between truth and belief is Sense Perception. Everyday, we rely on our senses to provide ourselves with information and data. These observations of our surroundings through our senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch allow us to interact with the real world, feeding us with knowledge from the world around us. Therefore, Sense Perception can be considered as reasonable evidence to justify true belief. In other words, our senses alone can be enough to justify a belief. For instance, if an individual sees a box in front of him, he immediately can presume that there is a tangible, physical item in front of him. To further prove that the box exists, the individual can use his sense of touch to feel whether the box exists. But how reliable are our senses when probing for the truth? Being one of our main sources of knowledge and truth, our senses are always assumed to be true, but Sense Perception, unfortunately comes with a number of limitations to them and thus is not always valid for justification of the truth. A study was conducted by a non-profit organization called the Innocence Project, dedicated to releasing wrongfully convicted people (Scheck & Neufeld, 1992) as they believed that witnesses to crimes were not always providing reliable descriptions of their assailants, leading to more than 300 innocent people being wrongfully arrested and taken into custody. The study (Brunetti, 2010) incorporated a group of college students majoring in Criminal Science and Criminal Justice and tested them to see how many details they could remember of an attacker that entered the classroom and threatened the teacher. The majority of them could only provide basic details of the attacker such as race and colour of clothing but when asked about other details, they could not provide detail descriptions, thus providing only beliefs and not the truth as they were not able to differentiate between the two. The stress of the situation is another factor affecting the senses and memory of the individuals undergoing the experiment as people have trouble remembering details when under tense situations. All in all, Sense Perception definitely is one of our strongest Ways of Knowing, one that we rely on everyday to find truth, however we still fall to circumstances, such as the situation used in the study, which blur this line. To conclude, Reason and Sense Perception are both important Ways of Knowing that can be used to derive knowledge and truth through justifiable means and hence can
Year 12 TOK Essay Avinash Bharwaney Mr. Georgiou

How can the different Ways of Knowing help us to distinguish between Truth and Belief?

distinguish between what is objective and what is subjective. As both Reason and Sense Perception justify what is true, we can reasonably assume that whatever is not true or has not been proven by Reason and Sense Perception, is not justified, true belief and therefore neither truth or knowledge. Nonetheless, clear examples have been given to demonstrate the flaws and limitations of both Reason and Sense Perception, leading to the conclusion that the line between truth and belief will always be somewhat blurred if we always assume our justifications are true.

References Brunetti, T. (Writer). (2010). The Eyewitness Test: How do you stack up? [Video]. United States of America: KXLY4. Retrieved January 5, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x6fRH5MLBIU Cohen, C. (2010). Fallacies. The Writing Center. Retrieved January 5, 2014, from http:// writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/fallacies/ Gettier, E. L. (1997, September 13). Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? Retrieved January 5, 2014, from http://www.ditext.com/gettier/ gettier.html Scheck, B. C., & Neufeld, P. J. (1992, Autumn). The Innocence Project. The Innocence Project. Retrieved January 5, 2014, from http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Year 12 TOK Essay

Avinash Bharwaney

Mr. Georgiou