Are Some Ways of Knowing More Likely Than Others to Lead to Truth? Essay

Most sight believe that money considers the field go round. plainly scholars believe other(a)wise. It is the k like a shotledge of how to acquire wealth and of how to drop the just roughly of it is re eachy the decisive factor. Humans couldnt choose know this world with both its richness in resources and mysteries without ample knowledge of how to do so. It is the gift of knowledge that has set humans apart from any other living species. So it is just proper that scholars delve into analyse the excogitation of knowledge for us to understand it better. To be more(prenominal) specific, this school of prospect is called the possibility of Knowledge. Theory of knowledge is in like manner kn confess as Epistemology. What is so special about Theory OF Knowledge is that it is widely considered as the nigh important sub-field of philosophy. The Theory of knowledge had made signifi elicitt advancements since it was first formally studied. But even though it has already presen ted many different ship canal to fetch the the true, many still ask Are round ways of keen more likely to be successful to triad to the equity than other methods ( ways of Knowing). Scholars nonplus dedicated their studies for the further advancement of the Theory of Knowledge. They have gone through countless debates and research for the advancement of the field. This is beca phthisis of the aim for better understanding is ever-increasing as humanity progresses.The truth is what everyone wants. What makes things difficult for scholars studying the Theory of Knowledge is that many philosophers also argue that the truth can non be contained, it cannot be resolved, it is unattainable. in time, the Theory of Knowledge counters the argument by presenting to us vanadium ways of knowing that could assist us in obtaining the truth. The five ways of knowing are logic, revelation, quarrel, intelligence, and emotion. Let us eat further elaborate about the five ways of knowing a nd see if one can be the best way of getting to the truth (Butchvarov 1970).Sense For psychologists, finger or perception pertains to the processes that involve the acquisition, organization, interpretation, and selection of instruction acquired through the sensible senses. These pompous senses that we are familiar with are namely sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. Sensory information is essentially acquired through sensory organs that can be build in the human anatomy.We can be advantageously familiarized with this detail way of knowing beca wont up we put it into expend on a nonchalant basis. We hold our eyes to view colors, we can tell the difference in taste between an churl cream and fish, we use our hands to smack rough and smooth surfaces, we use our ears to listen to music. These are practical things we do everyday that we put into use to know, to obtain truth (Gibson 1966). beyond the five senses that we are familiar with, t present are also do-gooder t o the classical senses like temperature, balance, pain, and other recently studied sense that would be too technical to discuss in this paper. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a French phenomological philosopher, argues that sense is the foundation of all knowledge and informations. Even though sense itself cannot give meaning to the objects it senses in this world, the person is able to give meaning from his or her own consciousness. The use of the senses requires constant use for it to give meaning to the objects in this world. As we put into practice our senses, we develop what is called mental models. As the member suggests, as sensory information is sent to our brain, we develop models that we can use as reference if ever the senses encounter the object again. It is like qualification imprints in our brain about the things around us. With the use of sense as an improvement to obtaining truth, humans can obtain the truth, or at least(prenominal) have an idea, by using the brains capa bilities. In simpler terms, with the use of senses, humans make the full use of what they intrinsically have, our very own bodies. The tho drawback I can offer about using senses to obtain truth is that we cant always gain access to the objects twisty in our queries. For example, if we hear a radio advertisement about ice cream stating that it is sweet, we cant validate the claim since we are only using hearing, we dresst actually taste the material thing.logical system If we go into the etymology of the word logic, we could unearth meanings like reasoning, argument, idea, principle, and thought. It is primarily come to with the validity of inferences. It is considered a branch of philosophy. Immanuel Kant argued that logic should be a science devoted to studying judgments (Russel 1917). Logic, like senses, also makes use of the capabilities of the human brain. If we use this as an approach to obtain truth, logic assesses all possible arguments, eliminates all improbable answer s to come up with the most convincing. Logic can be a very efficient way to obtain truth. Actually, it is as employ as senses, also in a daily basis. But frequently we come across things that our minds cant comprehend. This is because logic, like sense, makes use of what we already know.So if we use logic in questions about the existence of ghosts, we in haste jump to conclusion that they dont exist because it defies logic. The difficulty here is that in that respect are people who believe in the existence of ghosts. So the existence of both different truths makes either feeble.Language Language is basically our means of communication. It particularly refers to the use of various forms of communication and the set conventional rules that governs its usage (Crystal 2001). Personally I wouldnt use language to follow truth. Humans have developed the use of language far more than any specie could have. Humans have become so pass on in using language that we can easily manipula te it. If language is used in combination with logic and reasoning, humans can make truths come out of nowhere. Moreover, at that place is the concept of lying that can lead us farther from the truth. For example, if there is a trial in court. The lawyers from the two opposing parties have different interest. They defend their arguments with adept use language. The problem may arise if the innocent party, shall I say was outspoken by the opposing party. Then the judge was impressed by the adept use of language even though the opposing party was just presenting lies all the time, just speaking them in a very eloquent manner. consequently the verdict will just be decided by how linguistic communication were used. The verdict will be considered the truth however it is far from the real thing.Emotion there are so many definitions for the word emotion. Actually, there is no universally agreed term for the word emotion. According to the APA vocabulary of Psychology, it is a complex r eaction pattern that a person uses to approach a significant and personal matter. Perhaps feelings would make the subject of emotions much simpler. Feelings are the experiences that come with emotions. Feelings are very useful tools for obtaining truth. Humans have this unexplainable ability to know things just be using their feelings. There are such ambiguous concepts such as gut-feel and motherly instincts (Cornelius 1996). But the problem with using feelings to obtain truth is that emotions and feelings are very prone to be biased. Also since emotions are complex in nature, it will also provide us complex results. I believe that the truth should be unbiased before it is presented or accepted. For example, I will use the motor lodge scenario again, the truth is that the defendant really did the violation he is accused of. He then delivered a very empathic speech that convinced the jury. The last of the jury had a great impact on the final verdict. once again, it failed to obta in truth as the jury felt that the defendant was innocent. aft(prenominal) all, a feeling is only a feeling and receivedly not necessarily the truth.Revelation And last but definitely not the least, we have revelation as a way of knowing. Revelation, as the word suggests, is about a disclosure that has been provided by a portend being. What has been disclosed is something initially unknown and implausible for humans to uncover. We can also call this divine intervention. The realizations and messages disclosed during revelations transcend the known boundaries of human comprehension.We are familiar with revelations as it happened to the most famous prophets that later on became the proponents of the worlds most popular religions. Most of the instance that the revelations happen to the prophets is when they are in a meditating or in a trance state. Some accounts of revelations happen in dreams. But revelations are not exclusive to great prophets. Actually there are much many account s of revelation to normal people (Franz 1975). in all likelihood the best example of the use of revelations is on the divine books of the worlds most popular religions. These holy books are distributed around the globe in countless copies. The religions devout followers live their lives according to the linguistic process of these scriptures. It is because these people believe these words to be the truth.That these words are the very words of God himself. Many may challenge the level of truthfulness of these holy scriptures. But if they take in consideration what weve learned in speculation of knowledge, we will discover we shouldnt challenge the validity of these scriptures. We are talk about faith here, faith is something that cant be easily shattered within a person. When we say that a certain spirit is someones faith, that automatically counts as that someones truth. finish Sense and logic could have been the best ways to knowing the truth. However they both fell short as both of them have certain limitations. Both of these ways of knowing is relying much to the capabilities of the brain, which we know as of now is very limited. Language and emotions are too complex to put into use of obtaining the truth. And the problem was both of them often leads to a biased truth, which we cant categorize as a genuine truth. As the best ay of knowing the truth, I preferred it through revelation. The other ways of knowing the truth made me realize how hard it is to obtain truth. Also, the word faith comes with the perch revelation. I believe we should be faithful to what is true. Im sensitive that it is still difficult to prove revelations through physical evidence. But we dont need any of that evidence if we get our goal, the truth. Maybe the truth is really far from the reaches of our comprehension. Maybe if we explore more the possibilities of revelations may it be through religious meditations or simple dreaming.Works CitedButchvarov. The Concept of Knowledge . Evanston, northwest University Press. 1970Cornelius, R. The science of emotion. New Jersey Prentice Hall. 1996Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, CambridgeUniversity Press. 2001Gibson, throng J. The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Boston. 1966Raymond Franz. The Appropriate Time for God to Act. Crisis of Conscience,.1975. pp. 237253Russell, Bertrand. Mysticism and Logic. London. Allen and Unwin. 1917Ways of Knowing. Problems of Knowing and Linking Questions. 7 January 2008