Knowers’ Perspective
I was looking for
some inspirational quotes for my Theory of Knowledge personal entry when I came
upon this quote:
“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” ― John Lubbock
I think this quote
really explained the concept of perspective because people look at the same
world but might see something else depending on what they look for. Our
perspectives might be affected through religion, education, culture,
personality, etc.
I related
the importance of perspective into many aspects. First, I was able to connect
perspective with the cognitive miser theory, a concept I learned in IBH
Psychology. Cognitive
miser theory states that people are hesitant at accepting new information so
they use their previous beliefs when making a decision. A perspective is a way of thinking or knowing from one’s
point of view when regarding something or making a decision. The
theory indicates that people tend to rely on their point of view or perspective
in order to make decisions.
The story of the
Blind Men and the Elephant is also an example of the importance of perspective.
The blind men had different descriptions of the elephant because they were
touching different parts. They were placed in front of the same object but they
all saw something else. The story was about the different perspectives of
people and emphasized the importance of seeing the “compete picture” or the
full idea. People experience only a small piece of the world so in order to
gain a more “complete picture” of the world people need to be willing to experience
and share knowledge with others.
Consider an important question related to perspective: How do we account for the multiplicity
of perspectives in the world?
Good points here. We talked about this concept in class, too: confirmation bias.
ReplyDeleteWith the population we have, it's almost impossible to account all the perspectives in the world! I like how you incorporated aspects covered in TOK and from other classes . (;
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