Perception

Perception

Perception, the most immediate of our senses. The human senses however, are limited compared to those of the animal kingdom. To what extent can we rely on our senses? When discussing perception one is discussing the sensory means of picking up information. This includes sight, smell, hearing and touch. Perception is how we know what is happening around us. We see something for example, and our mind analyses this and categorizes it. Our knowledge is limited by our perception because there are some things that go beyond this, that we are not able to perceive. Our perception of the world is determined by our sensory input—the things we experience.Perception is the active, interpretive, and selective process of becoming conscious of that around you. It is how we understand the world and make conclusions about it. From that what we perceive we must make decisions on what exceeds our perception limits. Because we are unable to know how others experience sensory perception, we must merely rely on our own and perception is therefore individual and subjective. An example for this may be the color green. Green is impossible to describe and someone may perceive green differently than I do. As we are unable to know how others experience their sensory perception, sensory perception is something which every individual might see different. But not only color can be subjective. When we see something, certain people may be to extract more knowledge from it than another. When a child walks by a car, they see a car. When a car mechanic walks by he might know the date it was made, the power of the engine etc..Another example is that I know that I have a Chrysler at home. Someone from a poorer country may just see a random object. Secondly, sensory perception can be misleading. Magic for example, works on this premise. The brain wants to simplify things in order to understand them. So, you may see someone disappearing from stage, however it is an illusion. Also, sensory perception takes place momentarily. Often memory may affect what we recall etc..

Reason

                                                   REASON - A WAY OF KNOWING 

Reason is usually considered the most reliable and clearest way of knowing. When we encounter new situations, we attempt to solve them with the knowledge that we have already accumulated. the safest, clearest and most economic way of knowing things that has already been discovered, and are part of human certain knowledge. Even we encounter new situations and seek to resolve them for the first time resort of our accumulated knowledge and experience for specific insightfulness and wisdom. The idea behind reason remains the same, that a conclusion is formed based off of previous knowledge and logic. While the other ways of knowing are subject to change, such as emotion and language, reason remains rather stable. 
Reasoning is dependent on both truth and validity  These two words are often used as the same thing, but really they are not. Truth refers to what is the case, validity on the other hand, whether the conclusion that is made through reasoning, follows the premises. If it makes logical sense, an argument is valid. However, not all arguments that are valid are true. Logical conclusions are free of emotion and feelings, and are therefore not subjective. However, as we are human, our subjectivity always plays a role and therefore bias can occur still. The ability to reason is considered a definitive human characteristic and it is being discussed wether or not animals have the ability to reason.There are two forms of reasoning that can be applied; deductive and inductive reasoning. 

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning is reasoning that moves from general to particular. This means that one takes information one knows about something general and applies this to a particular thing. 

All dogs are mammals.
Scooter is a dog.
Therefore Scooter is a mammal. 

This claim is considered a syllogism. A syllogism consists of certain parts. Firstly, two premises and a conclusion are necessary. Three terms, each of which occur twice (in this case Scooter, mammals and dog) and lastly a quantifier, which tells us what quantity is being referred to. 
The danger of belief bias becomes limited with the utilization of venn diagrams. This means categorizing groups and placing them in format of a venn diagram. This visualizes the concept. Belief bias is the tendency to believe that an argument is valid, merely because we agree with the conclusion. Belief bias is often related to stereotyping and generalizing. For example. if one says

Democrats are in favor of free speech.
Dictators are not democrats.
Therefore dictators are not in favor of free speech.

Your experience and belief may lead you to assume the conclusion is true, however, the assumption is not valid, because the syllogism is not valid. 



Inductive Reasoning 

Inductive reasoning on the other hand refers to the opposite of this. It goes in the opposite direction, from the particular to the general.The example most relative to this concept is:

All observed human beings have died.
Therefore all human beings die.

This type of reasoning often leads to stereotyping and generalization. Since so much of the world is unobserved, we make conclusions about it, from that which we have observed. This also enables us to make decisions about the future that make logical sense, for example regarding school and work. A phenomenon that we consider confirmation bias is a fallacy that can occur with inductive reasoning. It refers to the tendency to make hasty generalizations as a result of inductive reasoning. This can often occur with religions and culture as we only have contact with a certain amount of people from a larger group and often conclude about the rest. This may lead to racism and ignorance. Henry David Thoreau once stated "All generalizations are false - including this one". He is hereby criticizing 

Deduction                                                              Induction 
Reasoning from general to particular                     Reasoning from particular to general 

More certain, but less informative                          More informative, but less certain

Theories of Emotion and Intuition

Theories of  Emotion

James Lange and Canon Bard Theories

The James Lange and Canon Bard theories both formulate concepts on how we feel emotions and how we express them. They are in a sense the opposites of each other, as the Canon Bard theory refutes James Langes. James Lange states that an emotion is the result of mimicking the physical symptoms that the body displays as a consequence of an external stimuli. This means, that how your body reacts, and the physical symptoms it shows, generate how you will feel, and the corresponding emotion. For example, when you watch a sad movie, you may cry, leading you to think you are experiencing the emotion of sadness. Critics of this theory say that Lange is disregarding the mental aspect of emotion.The Canon Bard theory on the other hand, states that instead of sharing such a strong cause and effect relationship, emotions and bodily changes occur simultaneously. Emotion is more what leads to physical reactions, so when you are sad from the movie, you cry.

Intuition

The word intuition, coming from the Latin word intueri, meaning to look inside or to contemplate, refers to the ability to acquire knowledge without interference or the use of reason. Intuition is what provides us with beliefs that are not related to reason and logic, and we therefore can not easily justify. Intuition to some can be seen as a sort of sixth sense because it is not related to logical processing but is rather something we feel or believe, not as a direct result of the other senses. I can not recall an occasion where I have felt an intution or such that led me to make a decision, so I am skeptical of it. Yet, my classmate Tess'shared a story about her mothers use of intuition and this led me to think about intuition further.

Wanderlust

WANDERLUST 

Wanderlust is a term that I became acquainted with a few years back, reading a book in German class. Back then, I didnt quite understand it, because I had never felt it. I knew the meaning, in the dictionary it is defined as "A strong desire to travel: A man consumed by Wanderlust". The term is originally German, it is a loanword in
English. It is simple to translate the word, as wander means wandering in English and lust is the same word as english too. Lust is a strong desire, or impulse, and in this case it is to travel (wander).
I chose this word because to me it has gained meaning when I came to Brasilia. As my dad is a diplomat, we travel a lot to different countries to live there. But, this does not quite fulfill the needs of someone overcome with Wanderlust. It is rather focused on experiencing the unknown, and venturing out to places you have not been before. It is less temporary than moving somewhere. It has always been my dream to purchase a hot air balloon and travel through the world on this, not remaining put in one place for long. Although this dream can be considered silly and unrealistic, it was driven by Wanderlust, driven by the need to see what the world has to offer. As we are polluting the world, depositing our wastes in all its waters and fields, my dream becomes more and more fragile, for these places that I want to visit, are places of astonishing natural beauty, places that people do not tend to live. Wanderlust is a term that can have many facades, as every human wants to travel to different places, for different reasons. For me, the natural is very inviting, as I am stuck in a city of capitalistic agenda. For someone living in a forest, the city may intrigue that individual. Wanderlust is extremely based on curiosity, but also on the desire not to feel encaged or suffocated by one surrounding. In Brasilia, this feeling can be extremely strong, as the city does not offer a lot of room to breathe, nor a lot of things to do, leading to one getting tired of the surrounding quite fast. Wanderlust represents the result of feeling enclosed and suffocated , and this feeling comes often to me. Wanderlust is the desire to escape from routine, from a dreary life, and experience new places. Wanderlust can mean different things to different people. The picture I chose, are mainly beautiful places in the world, that I have so far been deprived of, and would love to go to and experience. The eye represents the visual and perception, as the feeling of Wanderlust relies on this. As you desire change your surrounding, you desire to change what you perceive and to enable your senses to perceive the unknown and the new.The elephant on the bicycle is from the song Paradise by Coldplay. Paradise conveys the feeling of  wanting to go out and see the world and find this one place where one is unconditionally happy, essentially finding paradise. Although Wanderlust is less focused on finding that paradise, both Paradise and Wanderlust portray dissatisfaction with being in one place and being unhappy there. The waterfall and the walkway with the flowers are stunning. Bora Bora to me represents peace and relaxation, driving me to go there one day. The mountain represents adventure and success, climbing to the top gives a feeling of strength. The girl in the car looking out of the window, shows curiosity and desire, and she is likely to be feeling a form of Wanderlust. 

Color Theory

Plutchniks Color  Theory 

Robert Plutchnik was a psychologist who developed an emotion theory during the 1960s to the 19802. There he assumes that we have eight basic emotions. These have according to him developed through evolution. All other emotions derive from these 8 emotions, as one can see on this picture. 

According to this infliential theory, emotions are classified. What he considers primary emotions are anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust and joy. Plutchik that these 'basic' emotions are biologically primitive, but have evolved as time goes by. This circular model describes the relationships between these emotional concepts. The idea is similar to the ones on a color wheel. The cones vertical dimension is representative of the the intensity of the emotion, emotions get more intense as they move from the outside to the center of the wheel. For example, boredom can intensify to loathing as you move outside the circle. The eight parts are designed to indicate that there are eight primary emotions. Each section has an emotion that is opposing to it, for example the opposite of sadness is happiness. Putchniks theory is one of the most influential classification approaches for general emotional responses. 

Language- Dependent or Independent on other WOK?

To what extent is language an independent "way of knowing"- or is it always used in interaction with one or more of the other "ways of knowing"?

I think language is a very dependent way of knowing because it relies greatly on the other ways of knowing. 

Firstly, language depends on general acceptance. This ties in to the reason as a a way of knowing, for we would not be a able to define words, and understand what they mean without it. Reason leads to the ability to create a general acceptance of a word, and creates the basis for rules such as grammar, etc.

Emotion is also vital when talking about language, because we require emotion to use the proper words to express our feelings and thoughts. Language in a sense, is used to express and communicate emotions as well and to enable us to understand the person we are talking to.

Language lastly is also influenced by perception, because we need perception to observe an object, analyze its characteristics, and lastly define it with a term, depending under what category it falls.Perception provides us with a visual for a word. When we hear a word, we are able to make a visual in our mind, and this is termed Image Theory. Without perception, the word would not bring this sort of vividness to our words. When we see a window, we must employ perception first, to see what it looks like, and then reason, to think if it can be considered a window. This process happens very fast in your usual environment, but it is harder if something is unfamiliar to you. 

Without reason and perception, language could not exist. We could still have terms, but without the other ways of knowing, you would not be able to associate these words to objects.

The 4 Ways of Knowing

THE 4 WAYS OF KNOWING

REASON

PERCEPTION

LANGUAGE

EMOTION

The 4 ways of knowing provide humans with the source and the ability to gain knowledge on the world and what is occurring around them. We use these methods mainly subconsciously and prominently when we are children and only beginning to learn from our surroundings. Firstly, and the most obvious way of knowing, is perception. We observe our surroundings using our senses of hearing, touching, seeing and smelling to analyze our surroundings. This can be flawed for often our sense of perception is pre-conceited and biased and what we perceive and see might not be what is true. Next, there is language as a way of gaining knowledge. This leaves little room for personal bias, and even though language is very subjective, it is at the same time rule governed and therefore the basis for human communication of information. We accept what we are told, and we also excpet the reality that language provides us with, and consider this knowledge. Furthermore, emotion is one of the ways of knowing, and it is the one that we tend to rely on when making decisions, especially ones under pressure. Our emotions give us our intuition and our knowledge on what is right or wrong, and once we learn and adapt our morals from our parents, they often become embodied as part of our emotional knowledge, and we use this to gain even more knowledge. For example, we see a murder happening, and because we learned that murder is wrong through emotional ties, we know to tell someone what happend and condemn that action as immoral. Lastly, almost opposite to emotional knowledge aquiring, is reason. Reasoning is the ability to make conclusions accorfing to what we already know to increase our knowledge.