To what extent do ways of knowing prevent us from deluding ourselves? Justify your answer with reference to at least one area of knowledge

It is often simpler to settle for an understanding of the world and people around us instead of trying to know the truth. Truth has consequences; by knowing too much, one can lose a friend, learn a deadly secret, or become someone they do not want to be. To express his understanding of himself and the world around him, Crake in Oryx and Crake uses quote-bearing fridge magnets. One very important quote is “We understand more than we know”. It is important to recognize the difference between the terms "understand" and "know"; the Oxford English Dictionary defines "to understand" as to perceive the significance, explanation, or cause of, whereas "to know" is to be absolutely certain or sure about something. There is certainly a difference,

Knowledge helps us discover what are facts, opinions, and happiness, what can be challenged, and what we really want. With this judgment, humans can realize their faults and make-up for their

“Thinkers aren't limited by what they know, because they can always increase what they know. Rather they're limited by what puzzles them, because there's no way to become curious about something that doesn't puzzle you. If a thing falls outside the range of people's curiosity, then they simply cannot make inquiries about it. It constitutes a blind spot — a spot of blindness that you can't even know is there until someone draws your attention to it.” Daniel Quinn, My Ishmael

We don’t have to believe all knowledge that we gain. It is through knowledge we develop our understanding of what is true for

Thomas the Apostle once said that seeing is believing, and rightfully so. A person consciously chooses to stand firm in his beliefs until given cold, hard evidence that proves a different reality and opens his eyes. Coming to understand these new facts is a vital part of life that man must face in order to better understand the natural world. However, new knowledge can become a double-edged sword when it attributes to man's disillusionment. An individual's mindset falls into the depths of despair when introduced to a harsh reality that clashes with his previous perceptions of right and wrong.

Another important use of knowledge in daily life is in strengthening oneself. Humans can trick another species or person into being a tool for oneself by teaching them important things. For example, in The Midwich Cuckoos “The Grange was opened up as a kind of school-cum-welfare-cum-centre-cum-social-observatory for them” (Pg. 131) meaning the Children. Britain felt as if they should train their Children to become geniuses to beat Russia because they were informed that Russia had been training their Children to become geniuses. If one understands the thoughts and the actions of others one can use that to one’s own benefit. One is then able to act accordingly to the situation one is in and get the best out of that. One can easily make things go

Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He questioned the very nature of why things were the way they were, while never settling for simple, mundane answers. Socrates would rather die searching for the truth than live accepting what he considered a blatant lie. I like to think of myself the same way. I too would rather examine the wonders of life rather than accept what I am just told. The truth is some can’t handle the truth. I on the other hand welcome it with earnest anticipation and fervent enthusiasm.

These preconceived notions keep us from “the knowledge of the truth” (Descartes 193). In order to access the truth, we must doubt everything. Doubting everything will lead to the distinction between mind and body. Once you recognize that distinction, you will recognize that “neither extension nor shape nor local motion, nor anything of this kind which is attributable to a body, belongs to our nature, but that thought alone belongs to us” (195). This thought that we have produces ideas, and these ideas are given to us by God, they are innate. Since God gave us this “faculty for knowledge […], it can never encompass any object which is not true” (203). For we are able to see the truth clearly and distinctly this way. Descartes argues that God would be a deceiver if what he gave us was able to be distorted and that we can mistake what is false as true. This is not the case, because God is not a deceiver. Some would argue that people do believe things to be true when in fact they are false. This, however, is not the doing of God, it is of our own free will, and it is what Descartes calls “errors.” Errors do not rely on our intellect, but rather on our own will. Ultimately, doubting will lead to deductive reasoning, or a series of logical statements eventually

“We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.” Discuss the claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing.

Not all information is useful to all people. Some information can hinder a person's life. Depending on the person and depending on the information, some knowledge is better left unknown. However, for others, the same information that would have hindered one persons would be helpful to theirs. One example of this information is the knowledge that evil is in the world. For some, knowing about the evil in the world could scare them into not living a normal and happy life. For others knowing about evil could make them aware they need to be alert to keep themselves safe from danger. So, is it always better to know that there is evil or is it better to be oblivious to the evils of the world? In the case of the story “Little Red Cap” by Jacob and

As the great Socrates ones said, that by admiting that you dont know anything, so you can learn something that is how I discover the things that I want to know. The only way of knowing things is the way of becoming conscious of our unknowing, so we can learn. Awareness of the unknowing is the beginning of knowledge. Thus, we can always look for the truth, but the best is if never said that we found it. We may just think of the truth. We may think of what is the truth different in mathematics, the arts and ethics, but let’s never be sure. That is the only way how we are going to become bigger and better people.

A writer named Nalini Singh once said “Emotion without reason lets people walk all over you; reason without emotion is a mask for cruelty”. When looking at the ways of knowing, one can see that they all exist individually. The ways of knowing are what provide us with the necessary understanding in order to develop information in an area of knowledge. The ways of knowing accumulate knowledge by different means and often provide insight into different aspects of knowledge. When one way of knowing is used, this does not mean that another should be used as well. However, to strengthen one's knowledge upon a certain topic they co-exist and correspond together in order for the person to fully understand the topic at hand. For example, both reason and intuition when presented together can show a greater understanding in an area of knowledge rather than just one of the two. The use of multiple ways of knowing is more likely to allow for a deeper understanding of an area of knowledge.

The production of knowledge is a process that occurs through a sequence of related actions, these series of actions allows for the Ways of Knowing to interact in a way that works to develop the knowledge that is being produced. From the prescribed title we can claim that while the Ways of Knowing may appear to be acting in isolation when forming knowledge, they are actually working in a variety of different ways in the construction and formation. In some cases, the Ways of Knowing are interacting so closely together that it is often hard to differentiate between them, for example emotion and reason, or imagination and memory. Given the right circumstances faith can be isolated to a point where it can be acting by itself to produce knowledge. However, this knowledge is often deemed as unreliable, due to faith being seen as one of the more “subjective” ways of knowing. This inability to differentiate the ways of knowing from each other during the production of knowledge, raises the questions “Can any knowledge in any Area of Knowledge be produced by a single Way of Knowing?” and “Is it possible to distinguish between Ways of Knowing if they are working together?”. While reason is used in almost all production of knowledge, it is the other Ways of Knowing used that can determine whether the knowledge is reliable or not, as some Ways of Knowing are more subjective than others. This essay will attempt to

Reason is one of the strongest ways of knowing. One of the strengths of reason as a source of knowledge is that it seems to give

To discuss this statement, we must first understand the concept of knowledge and the difference between confidence and doubt. Knowledge consists of the information and skills acquired through experience or education; it is the belief in things with objective rationale. Confidence can be described as being certain about the truth of something. While it can be helpful in certain situations, it is only successful to a limit. Overconfidence can lead to self-deception and false information. On the other hand, doubt is a feeling of uncertainty about something, which becomes the foundation for unbridled curiosity. It appears, the more we fear inconfidence about something, the more curious we become about its solution. Nowhere is this relationship more clear than in the birth of Enlightenment period of literature - a time in which the arts were directly inspired by the natural sciences.