Different+Ways+of+Knowing

Ways of Knowing can be identified as **Personal** or **Impersonal**. Personal includes 1. Belief 2. Faith 3. Acquaintance 4. Practice 5. Introspection 6. Empathy 7. Instinct 8. Ethics 9. Conscience. Impersonal includes 1. Empirical 2. Logical 3. Authority 4.Memory. 4 Ways of Knowing: a. Perception b. Emotion c.Reason d. Language After all of our lessons regarding the different ways of knowing and the different sources of knowledge, I have learned many different things not just about the subject but also about the very simple things in life. Like for instance, I have learned that all of us in our class have different ways of knowing how things work. For example, some of my group mates are so sure of their answers that they are forcing others to believe them while others just sit quietly so they are so easy to persuade. I like our lessons because I am now aware that thinking about something is not just a way of solving problems or determining something. It’s more than it meets the eye. Before, I think of things like studying as just as something I do because I need to. I always take it for granted but now as I start Theory of Knowledge classes, I begin to realize that my view of studying is not just to learn. It’s also how to apply what I learn in my daily life. I begin to think of different things into finding a deeper meaning and purpose of it. Before, I just care about more of my family and leave friends behind just like they’re some old toys that I don’t want to play with anymore. Now, I really cherish the moments not with just my family but also my friends because I myself will never want to forget all of the good and dreary times we were together. I learn to really become closer with them because I know all of our experiences together will help me in my future, which is broader and more complex than ever before. I also had a lot of confusion when it comes on how to tackle different sorts of problems but as I go along the class, I learn to put more thought and analysis on each dilemma I face so that I can really prove if what I think of that problem is right or wrong.

As a student of this class, I also learned the phrase “putting more effort into it”. I learned it within the simple activities that we have been made to do. As I have said earlier, I always take studying for granted. Now I am taking studying as a serious thing to deal with. I have become more assertive and more accepting of other’s idea because I know that it will help me in my future studies and can be my basis in my different problems I life. I also learned about the different ways of knowing things like the personal and impersonal ways. I learned that both personal and impersonal ways of knowing have each of their own sides and both are convincing. It not just a simple thing to say that driving your emotions won’t solve anything, it’s saying that logic can have it’s own mistakes too. I must learn how to balance both judgment and logic of things so that I can balance everything in life. I also learned to be confident of my standpoint even if the whole world is against me, as long as I know it is true and right, I must stand up for it. To even understand the different ways of knowing, I still have to learn more about it and to become deeply connected with it so that I can be more productive in the coming activities set for us by the school. I will also be more careful in making final decisions because it will affect the very outcome of any situation I or anyone in it.

__//**PERSONAL WAYS OF KNOWING:**//__
__//**Belief**//__ Belief can be reliable as one source of knowledge for explaining and finding out different things in life. It can be based on day to day experiences or to put it simply, belief is happening everyday in our lives. Like for example, my belief that I will pass or excel in every subject in the school because I have done so in my high school years at the Philippines. It can be reliable because I have never failed any subject. But on the other hand, it can also be unreliable because of the fact that all things can change. It can change because like what our teacher said that people behave on a daily basis. For example, one day you're against abortion, give it time ad you'll change sides unless you have the true meaning of what you are defending and you are sure that it is the absolute right. __**//Faith//**__ Faith is another source of knowledge that affects our daily lives. It is based on how one can determine his steadfastness on believing into something. It is one of the most simplest ways of knowing for me personally because I am a devout Catholic. I place my faith upon a religion where I know that I am devoted into. I know that being a Catholic doesn't mean perfection or anything. It just the mere fact that I have faith in my religion even without practicing the different sacred ceremonies as long as I am faithful, I have faith as a source of knowledge. __**//Acquaintance//**__ Another way of knowing is acquaintance. I personally know that I can gain knowledge in acquaintance because mainly, friends or acquaintances give me different kinds of information everyday. Like yesterday, a classmate of mine at TOK doesn't know that I live around the corner of their street and he had no clue that I lived there but at the same time I didn't exactly knew where he's house at. So when we told each other we're we live, we now gained knowledge of where each of us live because we are acquaintances and we can ask each other for some information but to certain extent. __**//Practice//**__ Another way of knowing is by practicing things. Practice means repetition of what you are doing so if you keep on repeating something you extend your existing knowledge and you gain new knowledge. For example, I knew this old friend of mine that was so good at drawing art stuff and I asked him was he born so talented that if you look every aspect of his drawing skills he's so good. He told me he wasn't a born artist. He just had so much passion for drawing that he kept on practicing drawing simple stuff then he advanced to the more complicated drawings until he became so good at drawing. __**//Introspection//**__ Introspection is another way of knowing. Introspection means to observe one's own or mental and emotional state. It is more likely reflecting but on a more detailed scale. For an example of this way of knowing, I remember the time that our family had a financial crisis so I almost didn't have the chance to attend our class retreat but we managed to pull through the expenses. While I was in the retreat, I had upon myself a great deal of problems to reflect upon especially the ones concerning my family. As we ended our retreat, I stumbled upon new knowledge on how I can help my parents to relieve the crisis in our family. I can have my own lunch instead of buying at the school and by saving the money I receive from different relatives during Christmas, I can contribute a little bit of help to our problem. __**//Empathy//**__ Empathy is another way of gaining knowledge. It is because empathy is to intellectually identify one's attitude by not just mere observation but rather a prolonged observation of one's attitude. For example when I was in high school, I met a lot of girls to say the least, maybe around 50. Okay it maybe small but it's because I study at a boys' exclusive school so we only get to see girls when we go out of school. There was this particularly one time when we had a meeting with students from a exclusive girls' school, I had introduced myself to one of them. The one that I introduced myself to was at first silent so I had to make up a topic to talk about but she would just simply smile and then back to her gloomy face. Then my classmates invited the girls to have a group dinner at a fast food chain. When we got there, there was a nearby arcade center. When I went in to it, the girl who I am with suddenly smiled so happily that I almost didn't recognize it was her because of the way she smiled. Then we got play games together and became really good friends and up until now, we still get to chat each other whenever we both have the time. __**//Instinct//**__ Instinct is man's most basic sense. It is built upon the very genetic structure of a human. We all have our own instincts. I have this story when I was around 8 years old, our family went out to the province to visit our relatives. We stayed around there for 2 weeks so we had a lot of bonding time with our relatives. One night, as we were strolling along the street to go home after a game of hide and seek, a big black dog suddenly comes lunging in. From that time, it was the first big dog I've ever seen. I first thought it was just like any other dog but when I was about to come close to it, it began to charge toward me barking madly. So instinctively, I ran for my life and I had thought to myself that I must loose that dog. So when I found such hiding place, the dog stopped dead on it's tracks. I learned from that day on that not all dogs have the same cute attitude I thought of. With my instincts, I gained new knowledge. __**//Ethics//**__ Another way of knowing is through ethics. Ethics or etiquette as some would call it are simply manners that one does when proper respect to someone else is to be shown. Like in the Church, every time we attend Sunday Mass, we say the mass without having any unnecessary noise being made during the ceremony. Another is that during meal times, we don't watch TV instead we have a healthy discussion of things that happened to us during the day. __**//Conscience//**__ Conscience the last personal way of knowing things. Conscience is the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives. In simple terms, it means to reflect on what is right or what is wrong. A good example of this way of knowing is whenever we do something like answering an exam, we get the thought of copying from others' paper since we don't know the answer. But as our conscience will tell us to choose what is right, we rather not cheat and fail rather than to cheat and pass but get the consequences of it later and in that we gain new knowledge of copying into someone else paper is wrong.

IMPERSONAL WAYS OF KNOWING:
__**//Empirical//**__ Empirical way of knowing or experimenting is one way of knowing something. It is basically a way of knowing by experimenting over things. Like for example, during chemistry classes, we gain new knowledge about how one substance will react if combined with another substance. It is simply gaining new knowledge by doing some experimentation. __**//Logical//**__ Another way of knowing is through logical ways. Logical by definition, is according to or agreeing to the principles of logic or simply put it, reasonable. There are a lot of good examples for this kind of way of knowing. Given the situation of two people having a discussion over something like if the earth is round. When the pros and the cons of the topic agree on certain point of view, a new knowledge is found among them for they have both shared knowledge to each other that each of them have never knew. __**//Authority//**__ Another impersonal way of knowing is through authority. Authority by definition is the power to determine something. I remember one time during my high school years, I was voted as president of the Music Club by electoral process. And as I assumed the position, I learned many things on how to run a club by organizing it, it's financial statements, auditing, club gigs and many more things that I have never learned if I didn't got the chance to be a leader of a certain organization like the Music Club. __**//Memory//**__ The last impersonal way of knowing is through memory. Memory is defined as recalling or recognizing previous experiences. I remember one time when I was asked by a cousin of mine about the Philippine Geography. I may have known that before but the time he asked, I almost didn't have a clue of what is it. So I had to study everything all over again and get to know it so when I memorized it again it all came back to me and the following day, I recited it to my cousin and he was just so impressed that he said, "Nice memory you got in your head." __**//Stemming from this are the 4 Ways of Knowing as listed by the TOK course including: Perception//**__ One of the main ways of knowing is perception which is defined as apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind. There are a lot of incidents where in I acquired knowledge by using perception. I remember every time I pass by the Metro Station, I always get to ride at the same train a man who in first glance looks like a professional musician. My curiosity just got so ticked off that I went directly to him and asked if he really was a professional musician but when he answered he simply said, "Nope man. Why you ask?" And I told him, "Why carry all this electric guitar equipment for?" and he replied, "I bring it to my brother since he uses it for his class." __**//Emotion//**__ Emotion is one of the four main ways of knowing. Emotions is considered as one of the most influential ways of knowledge because in every situation we are in, emotion will always be present. For example, whenever we have debates in class over some topics, the emotion of anger dominates and affects the person itself thus giving of information to others where it may be of value to them or not. __**//Reason//**__ Another main way of knowing is by using reason. Reasoning is defined as using something for a basis of cause. Reason usually comes out as a good source of knowledge to see others' point of view. A fine example of this is when we we're sent out to interview in a hospital for our English project. The first didn't want to take our interview so we asked them why they wouldn't do it. They said that it was a policy to all hospitals to have no interview without the consent of the head of the hospital so we learned we need to get the permission of the head of the hospital so when we went to the second hospital to get the consent of the head and we got our interview by the following day. __**//Language//**__ The last main way of knowing is through language. Language is a very powerful tool of communication. Without it, communication would have never been so advanced. Language can be applied to our everyday school life. When I go to school, I speak two main languages, our native language and English. Whenever I use English, I get to know more about my other classmates and we can talk about the subjects we're going to have. The same applies for our native language where in I can use it to people who can use our native language.

//**In general, all of these different ways of knowing can both be reliable or unreliable. It depends on the situation and how was it applied to find new knowledge or extend an existing knowledge.**//
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_knowledge http://www.yahoo.com http://www.google.com

In this page, attached is the homework regarding to the question, "What role does personal experience play in formation of knowledge clamis.




 * Syllogism

If all men breathe and breathing requires oxygen, therefore all men require oxygen.

If Maan wears rubber shoes and all men wear rubber shoes, therefore Maan is a man.

If Batman is owned by DC Comics, and DC Comics is owned by Marvel Comics, therefore Batman is owned by Marvel Comics.

If Philippines is a communist country, and all Southeast Asian countries are communist countries, therefore Philippines is a Southeast Asian country.

If all men eat prunes, and alligators eat prunes, therefore all men eat alligators.**

Do sense perception, reason, ad emotion, have the same weight in providing good evidence for claims within the different areas of knowledge? (Choose two for comparison)

Reason Human Sciences -Economics -Anthropology -Psychology Natural Sciences -Chemistry -Biology -Physics

(750 Word Essay)