Ways+of+Knowing

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· **__Language:__** · The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. · When I communicate with someone through language he tells me that the car is red, I know the car is red because he told me. If he spoke another language and said red, maybe red may have meant something else. · Language at times is reliable and at times it is not reliable. For example, the person who tells me the car is red may speak Spanish and when he says red he may mean a different meaning to what I know what red is. So language is reliable to some extent, it involves personal and a little bit of impersonal ways of knowing. For example, belief comes into play. If someone told you the car is red and told you in a language you understand, yet, you need to believe him in order to actually understand that the car is red. · **__Perception:__** · The ability to see, here, or become aware of something through the senses. · I sense that a rose is in the room because I sense it and see it therefore I am aware of what is there. · Perception is probably one of the most reliable ways of knowing. Same as language there are different factors that play a role in perception. When you see or smell or basically sense something using your five senses you are tending to believe it and know more about it. This way your knowledge about this certain item has most definitely increased. Perception is based on belief, but belief is varied amongst people, that make perception slightly unreliable. However, perception is something that is unique in each person. · **__Reason:__** · The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic. · I do not steal a car because I know I will go to jail. Reason is relatively reliable. It can be reliable because through judgment and experience I begin to comprehend the thing there is to know. · However, at times it is unreliable or problematic because my understanding maybe wrong. My reason may say that the fire is cold because it is blue since ice is blue, yet I am wrong. This way reasoning is not really trust worthy because of the · **__Emotion:__** · A natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others · I show emotion to my wife therefore I know I love her. · Emotion is not generally reliable because I may have had one bad experience with one person so my emotion to that person is anger and it makes me misjudge him and say he is a bad person. My emotion blinded me from knowing more about that person.
 * __Ways Of Knowing__**

**__Personal ways of knowing:__** · **__Belief__** · An acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists · I believe that the time is relative. Since I believe this then it becomes something I know. · Belief is something that is varied amongst people. People believe different things therefore it may be reliable, however, it is not truly reliable unless you yourself believe it. This is a complicated way of knowing because it is something that you have to accept. If you accept then you believe. · **__Faith__** · Complete trust or confidence in someone or something · I know that if I leave my precious ring with my father it won’t get lost or damaged. I have faith in my father and therefore I know that my ring will be secure. · Faith is reliable separately to each person. This is because faith relates back to belief and therefore it makes it reliable and unreliable according to each person and that’s the problem with faith. It varies among people. · **__Acquaintance__** · A person's knowledge or experience of something. · My friend tells me that the computer is on, since he is my friend I believe him and therefore know that the computer is on. · This source is very problematic because it depends on the person as well as your trust in that person. I do not know him and feel that he will damage my ring if I give it to him, however, I could be totally wrong. · **__Practice__** · The actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method as opposed to theories about such application or use · I do not know how to kick a soccer ball with accuracy, however, with practice and acquiring information from any source, could be guess and check or someone telling me, I will be able to know how to kick a soccer ball with accuracy, by striking the ball with the front of my foot from the mid bridge section to the big toe for power and accuracy. This example shows that practice is reliable. · Practice can also be unreliable. For example, If I were to practice how to kick a soccer ball the wrong way then I have not really practiced what I wanted. This means that not always through practice will you be able to know how to do things because if you practice wrong then you have not really learnt or been able to know how to do the certain thing. So practice is a 50-50 way of knowing how to do something, which makes it somewhat reliable, but remember to always practice right or else you will get it wrong.

· **__Introspection__** · Self-examination, soul-searching, introversion, self-observation; contemplation, meditation, thoughtfulness, thought, pensiveness, reflection, rumination; informal navel-gazing; formal cogitation. · Thinking about how it would feel to lose a friend, or thinking what introspection means. These are examples of introspection. They are self-examination or the search for an answer with one’s self. So in some sense it is reliable because you are reasoning with yourself about something through what you have experienced, so you believe it because it makes sense to you. · Introspection can at times not be reliable this is because it shares some of the same problems as other ways of knowing. Since it is an inner “conversation” with one’s self, it is not looked at differently by people. More so it is what you have experienced and that experience is now applied. Here we can now ask, was your experience accurate and correct? This way what you are introspecting maybe wrong. · **__Empathy__** · The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. · You feel bad that your friend lost a toy, you know how he feels because you have an experience of losing something. In this case it is reliable because you have experienced such a thing. You already felt or sensed this type of grief in which your friend is experiencing right now. You have been put in that situation and therefore are capable of understanding what it is like, you then know. · Yet empathy is not much reliable because it is differed amongst people.

· **__Instinct__** · A natural habit. · The lion at the zoo was put back into the wild, through instinct it knew it had to hunt an animal with flesh and eat it. · At times this source of knowing is not all that reliable. This is because one may have an instinct that will lead to something harmful. For example, my instinct tells me that when I am hungry I should go hunt. So I do g o hunt however, o try and hunt a beast far superior to my powers and get severely injured. My instinct knew that when I am hungry I should go and hunt for food however, it did not tell me that hunting a lion was the right creature to hunt, therefore it led to my injury, my instinct didn’t know not to hunt a lion but knew to hunt a creature to end the hunger felt in my stomach.

· **__Ethics or conscience__** · An inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior · I pass by a by a group of kids bullying a kid, my conscience, based on some ethics, tells me to help the kid out and put an end to this corruption. I do as my inner thought tells me to and through this action that was guided by my inner thought led me to have a friend and allow me to know that helping out is a good thing. · On the other hand, this same conscience can lead me astray. For example, when I see the same group of kids hitting a kid. I go and do the same thing however, I did not know why they were hitting the kid. It turns out that that kid broke another kids arm for no reason. So I was mislead by my conscience, and that led to injustice and I was wrong.

**__Impersonal ways of knowing:__**

· **__Empirical__** · Based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic. · Empirical judgment is a very useful and probably the most reliant source of knowledge, because it is based on many observations and or experience. So it has insight and verification of knowledge through various aspects. For example, through my experience I know that whenever the stove is hot it is red and glowing. And this is true through observation and experience I found that truly when the stove is glowing red it is hot and can burn. · On the other hand, observation and experience can be misleading but it is very unlikely. For example, it can be misleading if not all evidence is put forth. The idea that the Earth is the center of the universe was once accepted, and through observation and even some experience it was incorrect. The observations all stated that this was correct, the sun goes up and down and so does the moon and stars, and however, through more observation it was denied. So overall, empirical is very reliable and yet it is very rare that it is unreliable, but it can be unreliable. · **__Logical:__** · The act of justifying knowledge through assuming things. · When a person gets burnt from touching fire you logically know that the fire is hot and will burn you without actually touching the fire. · Logic at times can be unreliable. For example, if I know that when a stove is red it means that it is hot. Therefore, my I would assume that anything else that is red is also hot. In this case my logic in terms of knowledge is unreliable and questionable. · **__Authority:__** · A figure that has more power than you. · Someone in charge says to not go to that neighborhood, therefore because he is an authority and bigger figure than you, you assume he knows that that neighborhood is dangerous and therefore you know that that neighborhood is dangerous. All because an authority figure said to you do not enter that neighborhood. · Authorities can be misleading at times, for example in war. A general is the authority if his decision is wrong it can lead to a loss. · **__Memory:__** · A remembrance of an experience. · Last time I touched the iron I was burnt therefore from memory I know that I should not touch the stove. · Memory can be misleading when for example, I have had a bad experience with a clown when I was younger. For that reason my memory tells me that clowns are evil, when in fact if I were to have a clown perform for me my thoughts will change. Memory can serve as a problematic source of knowledge occasionally.

**__The Platonists believed that for something to be true:__**
 * __You must believe the statement.__**
 * __Your belief has to be true.__**
 * __Your belief has to be justified.__**
 * __Do you agree?__**

· Yes, because your belief is what makes it true to you and it is your belief that makes this truth justified to you. It’s all true because it is something that you believe.


 * Syllogisms**

If the sun is light And light is bright Then the sun is bright

If water is liquid And water is oil Then oil is liquid

If mercury is a metal And all metals are solids Then all mercury is solid

If all stores sell goods And all stores sell shoes Then all goods are shoes

If all animals have fur And all bears have fur Then all bears are animals

All horses wear horseshoes All horseshoes are gold Then all horses wear gold

All animals have fur All fur is brown Then all animals are brown

The air is everywhere And gases are everywhere Then air is gases

Reasoning:

Reasoning: · Deductive: from general to particular. o When is it most useful? § When you have True premises. § From this, your goal is to use if truth is maintained I the conclusion. o Value § More certain, less informative. · Inductive: from particular to general. o What are some problems associated with it? § They are generalizations that can sometimes be true. § Making //good// generalizations: · Number. · Variety. · Exception to the rule. · Coherence value. · Subject more valid in natural science than in the human science (generalizing in science is easier than generalizing in humans and animals) o Value § More informative, but less certain. · Informal Reasoning: post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore in account of this)… because B follows another thing A, then A must be the cause of B.  o  Ad hominem fallacy: against the man § Begging the question § The argument is simply a reassertion of the point being made. § You are assuming the thing you are supposed to be proving. o Special pleading: § Double standards § Making an exception in a case when it would be generally not accepted for another. § Applies to all “except me” o Equivocation: § When a word is used in two different ways in an argument (use homonyms) § Eg. A hamburger is better than nothing, nothing is better than good health, therefore, a hamburger is better than good health. o Argument ad ignorantium: § You claim something is true on the grounds that there is no evidence to disprove it. § McCathy 1950’s – “there is no evidence in the files to disprove his communist connections” o False analogy: § When in argument you use various analogies to create support for your argument. You assume two things are similar in some respects so they therefore must be similar in other respects. o False dilemma: § Assumes that only two alternatives exist when there is in fact a wide range of options. § Eg. “Do those who want an increase in military spending really want to see our schools and hospitals close?” § See things in an “ethic or” manner. Binary thinking. o Loaded Questions: § A question that has an assumption built into the question. Statements can also contain such assumptions. § Eg. “Do you always cheat on exams?” § Eg. “ The teacher was not drunk today.” o Why? § Ignorance § Laziness § Pride § Prejudice