To think about it, the dog from the exhibition is associated with terms like ‘helpless’, or even ‘tortured’ that evokes our protective instincts just like how we felt towards children. The homeless dog, on the other hand, gives us the impression of a ‘filthy’ and ‘lazy’ animal, thus unworthy of our pity. The dog is still a dog. However, as our emotions changes, the dog itself also appears as changed. No doubt, the way we perceive similar situations is heavily dependent on our unconscious emotions. Having said so, to what extent do we see and understand the same reality?
After all, we do not see and understand everything the way as we are. This, eventually, comes down to the role of community. A community is commonly referred to as a group of people sharing common interests or beliefs. Understanding of the world is therefore united conceptually within a community since it is based on the same guiding. Cultural beliefs, for example, are part of the community. There was a case in 2003 whereby a Muslim girl was suspended from a school in Oklahoma for refusing to remove her head scarf, called a “hijab” as it would “violate the way she observes her religion”.
[4] While this practice is an obligatory condition among the Muslims, it is unacceptable in other community. In other words, people within the same community tend to ‘see’ and ‘understand’ the same things due to the way their minds are structured. Just like in all communities, scientists are able to “see” the same reality as major breakthrough in science is the result of collaboration and hard work of the scientific community. The main difference is that, scientific findings are openly shared within the scientific communities all across the world to ensure that their work does not exist alone.
Generally, scientific theories are widely accepted by the society on an international basis. Though our conception of the world is a subjectivist’s point of view, it can be beneficial under certain circumstances. After all, don’t we have to come up with a prediction before we can prove’scientists, for instance, work with subjective truth with the assumption of the existence of objective truth. This hypothesis in science is often followed by an experiment which either support or disprove his theory with the data obtained. This objective truth, however, is independent of the human mind.
As opposed to the quotation, Plato claims that truth exists regardless of our ability to grasp it. After all, it is only fair to say that the apple in front of me does not magically disappear when I am not aware of it. In the allegory of the cave, Plato asserts that what we perceive are merely the shadows of reality and that forms, which cannot be known through our sense perception, make up the objective truth. [5] However, it seems as though it is a second nature for us to trust our perception, for what else is left to trust? While science aims to be empirically adequate, it does not necessary give us the objective truth.
Therefore, just as the evolution of mankind, science never settle on a single truth. In fact, older theories are often replaced by the news ones. After all, there is no need for the search if the objective truth does not exist. There is no doubt that perception plays an important role in our understanding of the world. On its own, perception might be an ideal way in search for the objective truth. However, it is hard to isolate perception as an independent way of knowing as it is interconnected with reasoning, emotions and cultural beliefs. Thus, we cannot rely solely on perception.
Instead, we should use perception to collect observations and combine it to give us a common understanding of the world like we did in the sciences. [1,318 words] ________________
List of references: Alchin, N. (2006). Theory of Knowledge. (2nd edition). London: Hodder Murray. CNN, Muslim girl suspended for head scarf. October 11, 2003. Available from: http://edition. cnn. com/2003/EDUCATION/10/11/scarf. reut/index. html [Accessed on 30th of August 2009] Cambridge Dictionaries online – Cambridge University Press. Available from: http://dictionary. cambridge. org/define. asp?
key=15490;dict=CALD [Accessed on 4th September 2009] Objectivity in Philosophy. 2009. Available from: http://www. amerindianarts. us/articles/objectivity_in_philosophy. shtml [Accessed on 12th September 2009] Idealism – Kant’s transcended idealism. 2009. Available from: http://science. jrank. org/pages/9735/Idealism-Kant-s-Transcendental-Idealism. html [Accessed on 1 November 2009] Wikipedia, Guillermo Vargas. 2009. Available from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Guillermo_Vargas [Accessed on 1 November 2009] ________________ [1] Idealism – Kant’s transcended idealism. 2009.
Available from: http://science. jrank. org/pages/9735/Idealism-Kant-s-Transcendental-Idealism. html [Accessed on 1 November 2009] [2] Alchin, N. (2006). Theory of Knowledge. (2nd edition). London: Hodder Murray. [3] Wikipedia, Guillermo Vargas. 2009. Available from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Guillermo_Vargas [Accessed on 1 November 2009] [4] CNN, Muslim girl suspended for head scarf. October 11, 2003. Available from: http://edition. cnn. com/2003/EDUCATION/10/11/scarf. reut/index. html [Accessed on 30th of August 2009] [5] Alchin, N. (2006). Theory of Knowledge. (2nd edition). London: Hodder Murray.
