Ways of Knowing and Instinctive Judgment - Essay Example

Ways of Knowing and Instinctive Judgment al Affiliation) Key words: Knowledge, Instinct Introduction Instinctive judgment aids in several ways of knowing. Instincts are stimulus-response mechanisms that have survival advantages. Presently psychologists have come up with a concept that explain how certain behaviours such as conformity, jealousy, parenting ,kin selection, altruism and social appraisal are linked with instincts (Gundersen 2003). This paper discusses three distinctive areas of knowledge that give purpose and meaning to our lives: Religious Knowledge Systems Religions play a key role in promoting the idea that there is a specific design in which the universe was created and executed by a supreme power. It is this belief that gives purpose and meaning to people’s lives. Meaning comes from the belief that human being is composed of flesh and soul. The flesh houses the soul that is to be well nurtured and prepared for after-life. According to most religious beliefs, after-life can be spent in either Satan’s hell or God’s paradise. These religious beliefs influence greatly the moral values and day-to-day lives of individuals. Some of these narratives such as the Ten Commandments have led to born ethical systems. Science and technology If an individual is deeply involved in computer games, after some time they will realize that it will become difficult to distinguish between virtual reality and actual reality. In other circumstances, a dream may be very powerful that when an individual wakes up from it, they feel they are still attached to the dream. In the present world, scientists have advanced reality technologies to facilitate the linking of imaginative engagement with dreams and worlds. Farmers who keep chicken have also applied this technology. They create illusion of chicken wandering happily in an open field while in reality they are locked in a cage. Many people find more purpose and meaning in there simulation than there real lives. For example, Brian a high school teacher feels more of himself as Frankenstein, a character in a computer game he plays than what he actually feels in his real life. Indigenous Knowledge Systems Most of the indigenous tribes give myths about the origin of universe and creation that shape the daily lives of individuals. Many of these narratives show the connection between man, environment, and animals. These narratives draw their meaning from the connection of their stories that link to cycles of life, natural calamities, and death. The purpose of these narratives is drawn from relating some of these rituals to bring harmony and peace in the environment. This type of knowledge is passed from one generation to another through oral traditions facilitated by village elders and schools. In some way, indigenous knowledge and religious knowledge are similar since they set the society in a way of organizing events according to their beliefs. A key challenge to this approach of knowledge is that the minister can use it to suit his or her own interest and as a result abuse it (Lehrer 1990). These broad areas of knowledge are further divide into various specific ways of knowing. These ways of knowledge assist conceptualizing the different areas of knowledge. Some of these ways are: Language Language refers to a mental faculty that facilitates people to learn and use communication systems. It mainly refers to the systems themselves. Language is consisted with signs that have commonly acceptable meanings that are set by specific rules for the purpose of storage of knowledge, formulation of ideas and communication. Examples of signs used in language are images, gestures, sounds, symbols, letters and even objects. Despite the problems faced by language such as translation issues, irony, sarcasm, and ambiguity, it still plays a major role in the daily lives of people. Language communicates knowledge and plays an important role of not only describing the experiences of the universe but also structuring those experiences. From this argument, it is appropriate to view language as part knowledge itself (Brockman 1991). Sense perception Sense perception is the process in which human beings can be able to get knowledge about the outside world. The commonly known senses are the sense of hearing, touch, sight, smell, and taste. Sense perception interprets the world depending on theories, conceptual frameworks, and prior expectations. Emotions Emotions are products of natural body processes that have physiological effects and causes. Emotions are physiological and are therefore widely experienced in all areas across the world. One of the criticisms of emotions is that it is a distortion of reality making it an unreliable way of knowing. Apart from helping in the making of sense of cultural and social behaviours and experiences, emotions are a source of political, ethical and social and knowledge and aids people to understand the world around them. Imagination Imagination is the process of creating a mental representation of something without having a sense experience or stimulus. It is mainly associated with making a mental image of what is in one’s mind. Imagination helps in originality, problem solving, and creativity. It is commonly said that one should trust their instincts though many times they will get disappointed when the outcome is contrary to their expectations. Instincts relate to emotions and impulses, they are rooted in various experiences of the world .It is arguably that the present big, and advanced brains override the primal instincts by means of qualitative reasoning, perception, and language. Though these are more objective in modern times, they are not the pillars of knowledge building. Trusting and believing in instincts remains the subjective and objective principle installed in nature (Cross 2006) .In actual sense we need both the objective approach and the subjective approach. The subjective approach helps in building individual knowledge while objective approach helps in shaping this individual knowledge into shared knowledge through collaborating. Often when individuals face moral dilemmas, there is an exhibition of tension between reason and instincts leading to the need to question of knowledge. It is hard to know whether to follow reason or instincts. The tension that arises due to moral dilemma is explained in the prime directive concept where Captain Picard is engulfed with the ethical dilemma of relocating an indigenous population when it bring rise to massive violence and genocide. When faced with such situations of ethical dilemmas, common solution used is to let nature to take its course. The action might be bad and may justify the reason to intervene. All these arguments centre on the basic principles of logic and reasoning. Given any moral circumstances, time is essential in thinking of a solution. Instinct will take place when making spontaneous judgments that we do not have time to think out. How would citizens of a country react to a terrorist attack? A large number of citizens will make instinctive judgements due to their knowledge of the incident. If this attack happens in a shopping mall, the number of shoppers will fall greatly and may affect the sales of the shopping malls. They believe that there is a possibility of other terrorist attacks occurring. This belief is substantial enough to scare the citizens from visiting the shopping malls. What determines our judgement of right or wrong? Our individual judgment of right or wrong usually depends on shared knowledge especially in cases where morality is concerned (Dokic 2002). This argument supports the idea that intuition influences ethical behaviour and judgment, which determines our knowledge of right or wrong .An example is a situation where child labour is practise. If an individual witnesses child labour taking place in his neighbourhood, they will probably know it is inappropriate. This is mainly due to the vast sensitization against child labour all over the world. This sensitization is a form of shared knowledge that determines individual judgement of right or wrong. How does moral knowledge affect personal judgement? Moral knowledge is personal and subjective in nature. In real life situations, when one sees a tragic car accident that kills ten passengers. The individual probably does not know the cause of the accident but makes justification about the incident on factors such as the condition of the road. Similarly, in a dispute between two countries, their feelings come before the reasons that come up after the fact. Reason should be secondary to emotions and is ought to be a slave of passions. Is instinctive judgements always linked to ways of knowing? In another perspective, argument against instinctive judgments being connected to ways of knowing can be validated on several grounds. Scientific evidence got from scientific experiments usually bases on observation that comes up because of instinctive attention. Intuition is an internal and absolute truth that cannot be disputed. Challenging evidence might be an infinite process that is endless. Common sense is said to be an intuitive knowledge that is superior to analysis and reason. In real life situations, the belief of an inherent right to life changes by reasoned morality and challenged by healthcare spending priorities and war. Scientific discoveries are not accidentally made through serendipity and instinctive judgment but through a rigorous process that mainly involve hypothetical deductive method (Rennie 2008). Some of the examples that are in support of this concept are the invention of the pacemaker by Wilson Greatbatch and the invention of saccharin. This contrasts with clearly structured research that shows that hypothetical deductive method was applied. This would perhaps lead to a discussion of Kuhn’s paradigm shifts. The discussion would rotate around the question of whether paradigm shifts occur because of instinctive judgment or it is due to a discovery set of contrary results caused by rational behaviours. In conclusion, basic psychology of perception tries to elaborate how individuals come to know about the world and everything in it. Perception is direct and is commonly based on a framework that categorizes it. In the recent past, constructive models have come up to support instinctive judgment that is learned from the environment. References Brockman, J., 1991. Ways of knowing. New York: Prentice Hall Press. Top of Form Bottom of Form Cross N., 2006. Designerly ways of knowing. London: Springer. Top of Form Bottom of Form Dokic, J., 2002. Simulation and knowledge of action. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Top of Form Bottom of Form Gundersen, L., 2003. Dispositional theories of knowledge: A defence of aetiological foundationalism. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ash gate. Top of Form Bottom of Form Lehrer, K., 1990. Theory of knowledge. Boulder: Westview Press. Top of Form Bottom of Form Rennie, F., 2008. Bhutan ways of knowing. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub. Read More