Field Blog Entry #1 - The Mouse Who Ate the Cheese (TOK)

"The Mouse Who Ate the Cheese"
By Dr Stuart Fowler, Educational Consultant, Penrith, Melbourne, Australia

In this story, the main characters presented are Bill, Alice, Virginia, Adrian and George. First, Bill saw a mouse under the cupboard where he uses sense perception. Bill is absolutely sure and knows about what he saw so Bill is being empirical. Alice believed that there was a mouse by using reasoning and logical conclusion. She is being rational because she is using logic to confirm what she senses. Virginia uses an outside source, Bill, to believe that there was a mouse under the cupboard because she trusts Bill's reliability.  Adrian believes the fact about the mouse with blind trust. George absolutely believes that there is no mouse by using logical evidence and prior knowledge. He is being rational because he doesn't want to accept the fact that there was a mouse in his house. 
From this story, I was able to observe the fact that Bill was the only person who knew and 3 people believe that they saw a mouse by using logic and trust. George denies the fact that there was a mouse because admitting the fact might ruin the reputation of his house. I was able to connect George to many people because a lot of people in the world refuse to admit an empirical fact because it might damage their pride or reputation. This made me wonder how people are able to compromise their thoughts when one is being absolutely certain and the other is being completely doubtful. This story implied that many people are rational and don't have an empirical knowledge about what they believe in. The human brain and knowledge might raise a lot of situations that can be possible by using logic sense and they might be different to what the actual situation was. Many people are rational and their beliefs might be contradicting to the empirical facts so how do those people use dialog or debate to agree on a fact.