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WAYS OF KNOWING. (Ways of sense making) It is a guide to the main ways we ‘make sense’ of the world and make sense of our reality. Perhaps a better way of calling these four compartments is “Ways of sense making”. Sense perception.
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WAYS OF KNOWING (Ways of sense making) It is a guide to the main ways we ‘make sense’ of the world and make sense of our reality. Perhaps a better way of calling these four compartments is “Ways of sense making”.
Sense perception We perceive the world through our five senses: sense perception is an active, selective and interpretative process of recording or becoming conscious of the external world.
Sensation – provided by the world. • Perception – provided by our minds. TASK: ? If for some reason you had to sacrifice one of your senses, which would you be most willing to lose and which would you be least willing to lose? Give reasons.
Perception: Some problems • Past experience. • Social and cultural conditioning. Our prejudices and assumptions often lead us to false conclusions. • Spatial familiarity – our brain appears to want to see patterns or shapes which we are already familiar. • Biological limitations. Humans can only perceive what their senses and nervous systems allow them to perceive. • Existing learning structures.
Seeing what is not there. Eg. Optical illusions. • Dependence on language – the labels we use for ideas or objects influences the way we think (or don’t think) about them. • Filtering – We receive and accept only that which is understandable or of interest. • Self perception - How we think of ourselves will influence our perception of ourselves in relationship to others.
GROUP TASK ? Describe how it might be seen through the eyes of the following people- • A child dying in poverty – as seen by a doctor, an economist, a social worker, the child’s father. • A sunset – as seen by a religious figure, a physicist, a painter, a farmer. • A tree – as seen by a biologist, a logger, an environmentalist, a native American.
HOMEWORK • Read TOK by Alchin - Pages 147-149 • Answer A, B, C and D on page 149 ? Do you think that perception is a more important source of knowledge in some subjects rather than others? Are there any areas of knowledge in which it plays no role?