How Knowledge and Beliefs Affects Peoples Sight - Essay Example

How Knowledge and Beliefs Affects People’s Sight In Ways of Seeing, John Berger argues that, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.” As such, it is indicative that it is impossible for an individual to hold a different perception regarding a particular issue other than what is already known by that particular person (Berger 12). Change of opinion regarding a concept will only result after the person is introduced to something new. So by seeing, Berger does not only imply the visual form, but overall notions of knowledge, subjectivity as well as objectivity and belief. The way people see things is significantly affected by the knowledge and beliefs of such people because they lack an understanding from a different perspective. From Berger’s perspective, although a child is born with knowledge the knowledge is inadequate to explain things as they are without seeing and leaning from others. Since a child manages to see before learning how to speak, it enables the child to relate with the surrounding environment. The use of words serves in trying to provide an explanation to the surrounding environment. As such, it is wrong to use words to settle the matter since they are static while the environment keeps changing (Berger 23). There exists a significant gap between the sight seen and the words used as different people may describe different sights differently. Subjectivity and objectivity leads to different in description of the particular things at hand. Knowledge and beliefs serve as the driving factors towards an objective or subjective approach. Apart from the basic knowledge that is inborn, human beings learn about everything else in life and they relate such to everything new they encounter to help in deducing meaning. In support of Baker’s assertion, an examination of other literary works is crucial with specific considerations given to literally works that hold concepts where the way of seeing from respective individuals is affected by what is known to such individuals or their believes. The first secondary material examined relates to “Education as Maturity by H.A Overstreet where the author portrays how psychological discoveries are crucial in human life. Overstreet argues that at birth, a person is ignorant with the only knowledge within the body of a person one resulting from nature. For example, a newborn infant possess adequate knowledge regarding suckling motions that is crucial to enhance in taking in food for survival. Other than that, the infant is totally ignorant in respect to all other matters that not only comprise of reading as well as writing together with other cultural matters that may letter be opened up to the infant in later life, but also to individuals survival need. Overstreet argues that it is impossible for an infant to survive beyond infancy unless the infant manages to establish some sort of knowledge that is linked with the world of the infant. According to Overstreet, the discoveries are responsible for various insights. To arrive at that conclusion, the author disposes concepts of knowledge and ignorance together with bad and good where he eventually replaces them with the values of immaturity and maturity. The respective knowledge that different individuals achieve to become mature differs through the experiences and specialization of respective individuals. Immaturity of a person may only result where a person lacks sufficient knowledge regarding a specific field that the person considers as a specialty. The literary piece serves in support of Berger’s assertion that people see things according to their knowledge and beliefs. “The Point” by Harry Nilsson equally supports Berger’s view of the effects knowledge and beliefs in affecting what people see. The film depicts the story of Oblio, a round-headed boy that is considered as pointless making him wear a pointed hat from his birth so as to serve in concealing his pointless condition from his peers that are pointed. Although Oblio is accepted in the town despite his non-conformity, his win in an un-witty game against the son of an evil count makes his and his fried dog Arrow sent to the Pointless Forest since his friend helped him win the game. In the Pointless Forest, Oblio and his friend experiences different encounters and after spending a night awakes to large stone that has a finger pointing to a certain direction. After following the direction, they eventually find themselves in the Land of Point and receive heroic welcome. As Oblio recounts his experience, the count pulls away Oblio’s hat only to realize that he held a point in his head culminating to everything and everybody else in the Land of Points loses points. The story serves in portraying how a society saw things resulting from a cultural belief that only comes to end when new knowledge is gained and presented to the people by Oblio. “The Blind men and the Elephant” by Anonymous and Harold & Maude is also another piece of work that supports Berger’s notion. The story depicts the life of six blind men that lived together and had curiosity regarding a variety of stories they heard. Of the most curios story regarded an elephant with the story that they heard about an elephant stemming from an elephants ability trample forests, carrying bulky goods as well as the young together with the old through their trumpet calls that were too round. Furthermore, they were aware that the daughter of their King (Rajah) rode an elephant when travelling to the kingdom of her father. That led to the blind me questioning themselves on the possibility of the King allowing his daughter to not only ride, but get closer to such a dangerous animal. In one particular day, the old men engaged in a heated argument where each one of them gave a different version regarding their understanding of what an elephant entails based on their stories. Since neither of the men held a concurring view with the other, the villagers got tired and arranged for them a visit to the King’s palace to touch the elephant. After visiting and touching the elephant, the old blind men resumed their argument relating to the description of the elephant based on what they experienced as they waited for drinking water in a shade. However, they still failed to reach at an agreement prompting King Rajah to intervene and advise them that each of them touched a different part of the large body of an elephant and all their combinations make the elephant. The story serves in supporting the notion that belief and knowledge determines the manner people see and interpret things. “Decentralization 2007: A Special Report” by David Foster Wallace argues that the best approach to gaining information as well as becoming literate in the current world is feeling literate almost every time as well as requesting for help. The author makes the concluding remarks as an indication that there is not a single point in life that knowledge maturity is achieved in life as there is always room to learn new things and different understandings will result from the different knowledge gained. In “The Democratic Thinker” -Leon Weiseltier, argues that the manner of thinking and individual opinions serve as what governs people. For that same reason, a democratic society that is characterized by its openness places intellectual responsibility of extraordinary level to the common men and women. Therefore, the characters within a society are determined by the quality of opinions of people within that society as well as the quality of information that those opinions hold. In drawing a link with Berger’s assertions, it is evident that everything within a society revolves around the knowledge of individuals within that respective society. Characters result from the knowledge and beliefs of people as they affect the thinking of people within a society. In conclusion, Berger asserts that the manner through which a person sees things borrows from the knowledge and beliefs such a person holds. Various literary articles discussed in the paper serves in supporting that notion based on the fact that experiences and definitions of different individuals regarding different or similar situations are limited to the context of knowledge held by respective individuals. It is therefore right to support Berger in that, the way people see things will only change after gaining new knowledge or learning other beliefs as the natural knowledge is inadequate. Work Cited Anonymous and Harold & Maude “The Blind men and the Elephant” Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp, 1972. Print. Foster David. “Decentralization 2007: A Special Repot” Nilsson Harry. “The Point” Overstreet, H.A. “Education as Maturity” Weiseltier Leon. “The Democratic Thinker” Read More