During the past couple of lessons, we began to discuss what is meant by the different “ways of knowing”, and specifically began to explore one of the ways of knowing which is sense perception. Everything that humans know is based upon the sensory perception. To be more precise, every human is born with five senses, which are sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. As human beings, we are very dependent of these senses and are constantly relying on these to acquire knowledge and develop an understanding of the world around us. In addition, sensory perceptions work together to give us meaning, and without them, there would be no real way that we can get information. All of this falls under a concept known as “empiricism” which is the theory that advocates that all knowledge is derived from sense experiences. I had always been aware of the fact that sense perceptions were important to humans, however, the application of the senses to how humans can “know” things is something that I had never considered in the past.
Even though the sense perceptions work together to give us meanings, and further allow people to acquire knowledge, I still believe that at times, there are certainly some limitations to them, and therefore, it is questionable whether or not we can trust our senses. An example of this is the video entitled “selective attention test”. In this test, the audiences were asked to watch a video consisting of a group of people wearing black or white shirts, and then asked to count how many times the people wearing white shirts pass around the basket ball. After the activity had been done, the final answer to the question was revealed. However, what most people might have not seen in the video was a gorilla walking across the screen. This could possibly be explained because humans have evolved in such way to only concentrate on one thing at a time.
Another example that further supports the limitations of the sense perceptions is when it comes to eyewitnesses. After watching several videos in class, it has come to my attention that the majority of eyewitnesses, typically after a crime scene are not very reliable. This is often due to the visual sense perception as some people might make themselves believe that they had seen something even though they aren’t entirely sure.
In my opinion, the most important sensory perception is the visual perception, as it allows me to interpret and see the world, and environment around me. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to gain much knowledge and understand many things, and the world would just be black because I wouldn’t be able to see anything.
In conclusion, although sensory perceptions have a very significant role in the different “ways of knowing”, I think that one must draw a clear line between the sense perceptions and its usage as a way of knowing.
Ian Barton's Theory of Knowledge 