We See and Understand Things Not as They Are but as We Are
“We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.” Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing.
The way we attain knowledge will determine how we see and understand things, but no matter how we see and understand them, it will never bring us to the objective truth. We use our perception to “see” things and we use our reasoning to “understand” things. It is common, if not inevitable, for us to manipulate the information received using the ways of knowing into what we want it to be. Our manipulation of the information is influenced by our experience, schemas, emotions and even biological limitations. This is how we see and understand things all the time. This makes the information that we received subjective and that it will be only true for certain conditions. Thus, using our reasoning and perception, personal truth is obtained.
There are two types of truth, the absolute truth and the personal truth. For personal truth, known as the subjective reality, it is the belief where consciousness is primary, and that it will be true for that person only. Whereas for absolute truth, known as the objective reality, it is whatever is always true and everywhere. Using out ways of knowing, we will never get to the absolute truth. This is because we human kinds manipulate the information according to our knowledge needs, as the result, the information after manipulation will only be true for our self, but not as the things itself. For example, through our perception, we see the sun rises every day. However, assuming that the truth is the sun never rises; it is the Earth which rotates around the sun and created this illusions. In this case, our knowledge attained by perception is influenced by our expectation of the sun rises and our biological limitation of not able to receive all information of the truth. The claim in the title can generally applied to all human beings, but raises question because of the ambiguity lies in the question.
The
The way we attain knowledge will determine how we see and understand things, but no matter how we see and understand them, it will never bring us to the objective truth. We use our perception to “see” things and we use our reasoning to “understand” things. It is common, if not inevitable, for us to manipulate the information received using the ways of knowing into what we want it to be. Our manipulation of the information is influenced by our experience, schemas, emotions and even biological limitations. This is how we see and understand things all the time. This makes the information that we received subjective and that it will be only true for certain conditions. Thus, using our reasoning and perception, personal truth is obtained.
There are two types of truth, the absolute truth and the personal truth. For personal truth, known as the subjective reality, it is the belief where consciousness is primary, and that it will be true for that person only. Whereas for absolute truth, known as the objective reality, it is whatever is always true and everywhere. Using out ways of knowing, we will never get to the absolute truth. This is because we human kinds manipulate the information according to our knowledge needs, as the result, the information after manipulation will only be true for our self, but not as the things itself. For example, through our perception, we see the sun rises every day. However, assuming that the truth is the sun never rises; it is the Earth which rotates around the sun and created this illusions. In this case, our knowledge attained by perception is influenced by our expectation of the sun rises and our biological limitation of not able to receive all information of the truth. The claim in the title can generally applied to all human beings, but raises question because of the ambiguity lies in the question.
The