TOK+Essay

TOK Essay -1-
The Ways of Knowing are Perception, Reasoning, Emotion and Language. It is very hard to compare the ways of knowing simultaneously, in terms of effectiveness. Perception is the awareness of knowledge in the surrounding through the 5 senses; this is usually the first way of knowing used in the short-run and long-run. Reasoning is the pursuit of the justification of knowledge; this is usually most time consuming but is the mostly used and mostly needed as knowledge must be justified if one is to make most use of it. Emotion is the deep personal reaction of feelings towards anything. Language on the other hand is the way of knowing where an individual uses systematic characters, and sounds to send an understandable message to the receiver; this knowledge is usually obtained by other means firstly and then shared through language. In Natural Science, such as Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, Reasoning supported by Perception is very vital when it comes to empirical tests. In an experiment it is important to keep an eye, ear, nose, tongue, and hand if at all possible on the tested material(s), thus any observation percept can be recorded to later on be used rationally in the process of reasoning. For example, if roses are to be tested on how they rot due to weather changes, it could be obvious to checkout how it looks and conclude if it is rotten or not, but, it just maybe that some sort green apples are harder on the outside and so may seem to resist but actually rot on the inside, and so they must be smelt to check its rotten. Anything can be helpful in writing a sufficient conclusion. Nonetheless, rational thinking, the process of reasoning, sums up the conclusion. It is this final process that brought up so many of the different theories and formulae of today, also supported by the other ways of knowing. For in reasoning knowledge is questioned to be true, false, beneficial, logical, or empirical, for there are so many untrue theories that were still beneficial though in the processing of logically proven theories. So we can say that any idea can widen the range of Reasoning. It is very hard though to use Emotion very beneficially in Natural Sciences but it maybe used in the support of reasoning through the feeling of theories or in the use of equations to create art, music, or other sorts of descriptive work. Nonetheless, Language is used very effectively in the use of formulae and equations. It is tremendously efficient as it is extremely systematic and thus easily understandable. Thus Language was used very efficiently in terms of the sharing of knowledge through these simply written equations. In the field of Human Sciences on the other hand, such as Art, Economics, Music, and Psychology, the human behavior is perceived and so is reflected upon to sum up conclusions on how someone may react towards a certain stimulus. Thus it can be reasoned why people are acting in a certain way, this can be very applicable in Economics and Psychology, and probably in Music and Art when views are reimaged in another’s work. Nonetheless, Emotion is very precisely expressed in the Arts and Literature through infinite styles and techniques. For a small change in anything can change the work completely. Not forgetting, Language is the medium used in the Art of Literature and is also a way to express fully and quickly, as it is also like in Natural Sciences systematic. In conclusion, I think that all the need of the Ways of Knowing is very situational and so no one Way of knowing is more beneficial than the other except for in a specific situation where one is more useful. However, it is pretty much clear how Reasoning is used almost all the time and is also very vital at all times, so not neglecting the rest of the Ways of Knowing I personally think Reasoning is most crucial.